At WildLandscapes, maps are an integral part of our everyday work. When pursuing land conservation initiatives, we need to be able to visually represent the area and resources in a way that is clear and easy to understand. This isn’t always as straightforward as it sounds! Mapmaking is time-intensive and involves a lot of trial and error. 

Know Your Audience

The first consideration when making a map should always be the viewer. We are constantly thinking about who might be looking at our maps and what information might be useful to those people. Not everyone in our audience is familiar with the areas that we are mapping, so providing context is key. Consideration of the audience is the underlying thread that ties all the components of mapmaking together.

Scale and Surroundings

A basic question for any mapmaker is how much of an area should be shown in a single map. Zooming in close provides the opportunity to see more detailed features of an area, but it also reduces the ability to provide contextual information about the landscape as a whole. Much of our work at WildLandscapes involves private lands that are surrounded by or adjacent to existing protected areas. Just showing the private lands on a map would likely not do justice to the scope of the project. Representing the context of connecting multiple protected areas helps the audience better understand how the project would benefit wildlife and communities. 

Hierarchy of Importance

A landscape scale map is likely to include many different types of features, such as protected areas, bodies of water, and landforms. Many of these features will need to be labeled, but not all labels are created equally. Larger and darker text draws the eye first, so creating a hierarchical labeling system is helpful. Key features should draw more attention on a map than peripheral features, while balancing readability and clarity for all labels. This helps the audience understand the most important points that you want them to take away from your map. 

Creative Colors

The colors used on a map can provide an abundance of information before the viewer even starts to read any text. There are universal norms about the way our brains process colors and shading, and taking advantage of these allows us to be better mapmakers. A common example is that blue on a map intuitively represents water to most people. Labeling land parcels in shades of blue might be confusing or require the viewer to spend longer processing the information. When a color gradient is used, darker shades tend to symbolize a higher concentration of a resource, whereas lighter shades tend to symbolize less of a resource. Reversing the gradient can make your map more difficult to interpret.

Colors should always be easy to differentiate from one another, and it’s important to be aware of the potential for color blindness in your audience. The most common type of color blindness makes it difficult to distinguish between green and red, so it’s best to avoid using these colors together on a map. There are even websites where you can upload your maps to have them digitally assessed for how readable they are to someone with color blindness or color deficiency.

How Much is Too Much?

One important consideration is how much information we can put on a single map before it becomes overwhelming. We are often mapping many different patterns, land uses, and resources for a particular project. For example, when working on our projects in south Florida, we might be mapping ecosystem type, Florida panther habitat use, land ownership, mineral rights, and watersheds. Including all that information on one map would be much too confusing! In these cases, it makes the most sense to divide the information across multiple maps to make it easier to interpret.  

Maps as Storytellers

Above all else, we use our maps to tell a story. Maps can provide more information than words alone ever could. Like the illustrations for any story, we need our maps to be visually appealing, engaging, and easy to understand. At WildLandscapes, we work hard to make sure our maps allow you to follow along with our journey to conserve wild places for wild things.  

Sam Baraoidan is a Project Associate with WildLandscapes. Sam is a wildlife biologist who has worked with mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, and plants. A Florida native transplanted to Mississippi, she is passionate about community-based conservation that improves the world for both humans and wildlife.