Mapping Software

I remember that I was fascinated by the Great Geographic Discoveries when I first started to learn about the world's geography. I loved Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama, Magellan and Marco Polo. I stayed in my bed at night and I imagined that I was one of the brave people who had the courage to explore lands that have never been explored before, countries that were thought to be situated "at the end of the world". I saw some maps of the antique world and I was surprised to see blank spots on them: people did not know what was there, what kind of relief and people were there. It was unknown territory. Well, all these "blank spots" have been explored and mapped thanked to very brave and courageous men who had the power to go where nobody has gone before them and to put everything on paper in order to help the future generations. I think it is a great honour to be the first to map a piece of land with everything on it: woods, houses, places, roads, etc. All these maps were used first by navigators and merchants and then by the people who wanted to conquer those places. But little by little all the places on Earth have been mapped and all the maps and knowledge have been put together so that we can learn today about the geography and location of different countries of the world.

The first maps were not even very accurate, as they were made using only the hands and eyes of the observer, without any precise measuring instruments. In time these developed and the more accurate maps appeared. You can rely on them even today, though a big part of the old places have changed.

With the development of technology mapping science, that is called cartography , was helped by more performing instruments and nowadays it is assisted by the computer. Now all the mapping work is done by the computer. All you have to do is find the right software and install it. Then the computer does all the measurements and mapping job. Quite convenient when we come to think of Columbus for instance.

The fact that all the Earth has been mapped and the altitudes and everything noted down was of big help in different fields of activity and they continue to do so : navigation, road construction, building construction, weather forecast and many others. Now all the people working in these fields of activity are computer assisted and the mapping software is their best friend.

Then there is the GPS that assists you when driving a car or even you take a trip to the mountains and do not want to get lost, so you take a GPS device with you. Its software is based on mapping software and contains many features you can use when organizing a trip or avoiding to get lost by simply following directions or finding your exact location on the map. There are certain specialized web sites that use a mapping software to help you create an itinerary before you go on a trip and this way assist you, so that you know exactly which way to go, how many kilometres you have to go in one way or another and according to this you can even aproximate the gas consumption and hence, the cost of your trip. You also have the possibility to extract certain points of interest in that area, restaurants, hotels, gas stations or other useful information. It is a lot better to have all this information than taking a guess and then wandering in the dark until you find somebody to ask directions. It is frustrating to lose your track, especially at night, in a remote area, where nobody ever comes and to drive in circles because you simply do not know which way to go. Thank God this time is long gone. Now you can use the GPS and the mapping software to print the exact route to follow, route which will appear in red on the map, with the starting and ending points also on the map.



The GPS, with the help of the mapping software does more than that. It guides you permanently how to get from one point to another and you can constantly see where you are in rapport to the coordinates offered by the satellite. You can even print multiple itineraries in order to help you sort out the best solution, considering posibilities of accomodation, camping possibilities, the difficulty of the terrain and so on. It is very easy to be organized and to stick woth the plan when you have all the information available. Nowadays, thanks to such very good quality mapping software like Google Earth and MSN Earth, you can get a very high resolution detail of the road or town where you are situated and there is no chance that you might get lost. This software is useful not only when you travel by car, but also when you go camping in the mountains, hiking, fishing or even jogging in a foreign area.



But there are some other applications of mapping software. I am talking about the maps and software used in presentations. One of the areas interested in it is the weather forecast. I bet you watch the weather forecast every day in order to decide what to wear and what plans to do for the day. The perfect relief that you can see there is also edited by using this mapping software. You can see the map of your country, then the region of your country that you belong to, then the city and what kind of weather will be there. All the weather symbols float above these areas allowing you to see what exactly will happen with the weather in the next days or hours.

But it is not only the weather forecast that uses maps to make presentations. There are certain fields of activity that need to illustrate exactly the dynamics of a certain process within a certain area. Let's take for example a report of the Ministry of Health concerning the number of overweight people according to geographical areas. The software you use will draw graphics and charts, will colour the map in different shades and colours in order to illustrate the data they present. This method is also used in teaching and has a very good feedback, as it is really useful and the audience, that is the students have the representations presented in a realistic manner in front of their eyes.

Anyway, this is really useful software that has already been used to map other planets besides Earth.