Maps for people without the need for roads

2007/05/07 Roa Zubia, Guillermo - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Garraioak
• Ekologia

The route of roads is not essential for the realization of a road map, but must take into account the ecological impact of the roads. Some Colorado geologists have done so to form a map of the United States, dividing the territory into squares of thirty meters of side and giving volume to the squares according to the distance to the nearest road. Thus, the presence of a mountain at a point on the map indicates that this point is far from a road. According to them, they have represented a volume without roads. In short, the map is a representation of the ecological impact.Geologists have also analyzed the evolution of this impact. The following figure is an example: With data from 1937 (left) and 1997 (right) you can see the city of Denver and the surrounding territory. Combining local data and population, geologists have developed other types of maps, such as volume without road per capita. In this map, for example, it is clear that a inhabitant of the western United States corresponds to a larger area without roads than to an eastern one. USGS