Land Use Maps

LEARNING INTENTION

By the end of the lesson, you should be able to:

construct a basic land use map and explain why they are used.

In geography, land use maps and precis maps serve different purposes and convey different types of information. Here's a comparison:

Land Use Map:

Purpose: Shows how land is being used in a particular area.
Types of Information: Depicts various categories of land use such as residential, commercial, agricultural, industrial, recreational, and conservation areas.
Examples: A land use map of a city may show where housing, schools, parks, factories, and farms are located.
Applications: Useful for urban planning, zoning, environmental management, and assessing land development.

Precis Map:

Purpose: Provides a simplified, generalised representation of an area, focusing on key geographic features or data, often with less detail than other maps.
Types of Information: Often includes main roads, rivers, settlements, and notable landmarks, but omits finer details for clarity.
Examples: A precis map of a country may show only major cities, rivers, and mountain ranges without showing every road or minor feature.
Applications: Ideal for broad understanding or teaching, where detail is less important than giving a general sense of a region’s layout.

Key Differences:

Detail: Land use maps are often more detailed in terms of human activities, while precis maps are simplified.
Focus: Land use maps emphasise how land is utilised by humans, while precis maps focus on basic geographic outlines and features.

What is a land use map?

A land use map may be drawn from a topographic map, an aerial photograph or a plan, or during fieldwork. A land use map shows simplified information about the uses made of an area of land (FIGURE 1). In a built environment, a land use map may show a shopping centre, a local shopping strip or the types of houses in a street. In a rural environment, a land use map may show vegetation types or agricultural activities.

Why are land use maps useful?

Basic sketch maps are used to show the key elements of an area, so other more detailed characteristics are not shown.

They are also useful for:

displaying historic features of tourist towns
outlining transport routes
determining crop plantings
helping pedestrians to access shops.

A good land use map:

has been drawn in pencil
is coloured
incorporates a key/legend
includes BOLTSS.

Activity

Complete a land use map of your local area by walking along a street and mapping the land uses. (You could also do this for your school campus.) First, create a base map by identifying the main features of the environment, such as major roads, waterways, vacant land and parks. Colour the various land uses on your base map and add those colours to the key. Complete the task according to the steps above. Use the checklist to ensure you cover all aspects of the task.
Apply your skills to answer the following questions.
1. With which land use is most of the map taken up?
2. Which of the land uses on your map have been built by people?
3. What proportion of your land use map is natural environment?
4. Suggest why there are trees in the built environment.
5. Suggest how the environment might change over time.

Checklist

I have:

drawn in pencil
included labelled features as necessary
used colour with a key/legend
included BOLTSS.

Google Sites

Report abuse