Q&A: What are some types of maps? How are they used?
Reinhart Previano Koentjoro (@reinhart)
Published on Q&A
By default, Google Maps show streets and places. This is commonly called as city maps and tourist maps, and they are used for travelling daily.
Traffic layer is a feature to show recent traffic conditions. On some areas this feature may be unavailable.
Public Transit maps are used to find bus routes, train stations, Subway/Metro/Underground/MRT stations, monorail and others.
Satellite maps shows the Earth image from satellites. In Google maps, the image is “static”, which mean the image is updated less frequently. Live satellite maps are commonly used in governments, where there is a need to control a country from criminal actions and other activities.
Terrain maps provide less detail on transport and roads, since the map is special for activities such as trekking, mountain climbing and some geological analysis.
Weather maps are used for weather and climate analysis. There are types of weather maps, such as a map to show the wind direction, cloud, precipitation (rain), temperature and so on. For normal users, they are likely to get information from websites and apps instead of these weather maps.
Special purpose maps are maps which shows parts of an area, such as water pipes, drainage, electric cables, gas pipes and so on. This is commonly used for technical purposes and this may be used inside a company.
Evacuation maps are generally maps which shows emergency routes for incidents such as tsunami, earthquake, volcanic activities, and so on. For general uses, this information may be replaced with signs in a place.
