show “what there is” i.e. natural features such as rivers, lakes, woods and cultural features such as roads, railways and buildings.
show the geographical distribution of a particular theme i.e. soil type, vegetation and land use.
Ordnance Survey have produced a map reading resources to get you started.
Exeter subscribes to a wide range of online specialist map resources. These include topographical maps and thematic maps. Key resources are highlighted in the adjacent tabs. Go to the A-Z database list. Filter the database type field to Maps to see the full list.
These collections provides extensive online access to contemporary, historical, topographic, thematic maps and more.
Explore the collections to find the material required:
This resource offers geologic maps covering a wide spectrum of geologic disciplines, particularly on the oil and gas industry and mining. It contains multiple overlays on the map content offering secondary literature on the resource. Online tutorials are available here.
This resource brings together manuscript, printed and visual primary source materials for the study of global commodities in world history. It provides access to a range of historical world maps and interactive maps on world trade routes.
Our subscription to Digimap provides online access to a range of map services including Ordnance Survey data. There are a number of different collections covering historic, marine, geology, environment and Ariel maps.
Registration is required under the terms of the licence for the data that is available through Digimap. It is an automated two-step process:
More help is available here.
Digimap allows you to annotate maps, and also provides raw data download facilities for use in CAD, GIS or other systems to create visual representations of your research or illustrate plans.
Find out more at the EDINA Digimap Resource Centre (available after log in) and on their YouTube channel.
If you download data and need help with the wording for the copyright statement look here.