THE CARTOGRAPHIC CONCEPT OF THE IMAGE MAP

Abstract. Image maps have become very popular and frequently produced cartographical outputs during recent years. However, the unambiguous terminology, definitions, content and appearance specification have not been widely researched. The paper deals with the new definition of image map, its components delineation, and basic classification. The authors understand the image map as a special map portraying geographic space in a particular cartographical projection and map scale, where its content consists of two basic components – image and symbol components. Image component is represented by remote sensing image(s), while symbol component is represented by cartographical symbols. An image map has to have three essential attributes: cartographical projection, map scale and symbol component by means of map language. The authors also present aspects of topographic and thematic image maps.