Thematic Cartography Of Touirsm Planning: Symbol Construction And Expression Study

The thematic map of tourism planning is on the edge of the spatialplanning and cartography both in theory and practice. It lacks asystematic summary and study. So this paper reveals the task ofthematic map studies and summarizes the theories of cartography. Italso redefined the mean, cleared the function and classification ofthematic maps. The main task of this paper is to study about the symbolconstruction and expression of thematic maps. Analysising aboutcommon types of tourism planning maps are work as an empiricalstudy.First, though the background of tourism planning, there are somespecific issues in the tourism planning cartography. For example, lack ofprofessional knowledge, neglect on visual communication and forms ofexpression. On this basis, combined with the mapping theory of tourismplanning and cartography, tourism planning and thematic maps hadbeen redefined and summarized the main tasks and characteristics, aswell as the function and classification.Second，this paper defines a ternary property of thematic symbolsplanning maps， and summarizes “semantic modalities” that aredescribed by a series of “key-catchy-phrases”， which areconcentrated as core concepts from various spatial structures andrelations and embedded into the geometric expressions of point，lineand area symbols.Based on these，we establish a semiology-basedhierarchies model of thematic symbolization in spatial planning maps， and a“semantic-primitives”based methodology for thematic symbolsconstruction. Then we find graphic primitives and their arrangementprinciples as more as we could from a large amount of case maps, inorder to show some commonness. Finally we build a symbolizationprocess which consists of steps of “spatial structures andconcepts”-“semantic modalities”-“primitives and arrangingprinciples”-“visual variables”.We also analyzed the relationship of theelements in this process. While connecting the spatial patterns andspatial forms through these semantic modalities, this paper also extendthe primary visual variables with special ones such as shadow orshading, solid or perspective viewpoint, high gloss, and so on.Third, we express the map content from point, line, area which arethe three most common ways to present information. It also shows thatcoordination of the relationship between the symbols of visualexpression and user awareness is very important and necessary. Pointinformation can be express by “designated point symbol method” and“designated point chart method”. Line information can be express by“designated line symbol method” and “moving line method”. Areainformation can be express by “designated area symbolmethod”,“extension method” and” hierarchical charts method”. Eachmethod is together with the relevant maps to illustrate.Finally, we select and analysis eight kinds of tourism planningthematic maps in order to improve the method and modal we builtbefore.In a word, it is important to admit the regional differences of spatialplanning cartography in different countries, to set the spatial structuresand relations as key objects of planning mapping, as well as to considerthe users cognitive communication as bases. This paper want to shapeattentions on the topic of tourism planning cartography and to enrichthe theories of thematic cartography and their application.