4 research outputs found
The State of the Art in Cartograms
Cartograms combine statistical and geographical information in thematic maps,
where areas of geographical regions (e.g., countries, states) are scaled in
proportion to some statistic (e.g., population, income). Cartograms make it
possible to gain insight into patterns and trends in the world around us and
have been very popular visualizations for geo-referenced data for over a
century. This work surveys cartogram research in visualization, cartography and
geometry, covering a broad spectrum of different cartogram types: from the
traditional rectangular and table cartograms, to Dorling and diffusion
cartograms. A particular focus is the study of the major cartogram dimensions:
statistical accuracy, geographical accuracy, and topological accuracy. We
review the history of cartograms, describe the algorithms for generating them,
and consider task taxonomies. We also review quantitative and qualitative
evaluations, and we use these to arrive at design guidelines and research
challenges