Aesthetics of the CORINE land cover maps

Abstract

After 1985, when works on the CORINE land cover started, maps that represented land cover at scales 1:100 000, 1:250 000, 1:500 000 and smaller in several European countries were produced. The subject of this paper is the comparison of the appearance and partially functionality of these maps i.e. mediation of information to user, for instance about size and land cover class frequency. Aesthetics of land cover maps issued in several West European countries (such as Belgium, France, Ireland, Luxembourg or Spain) is based on the principal mean of expression (the graphic variable) that is to say colour and its hues, number of which is rather elevated (in some cases more than 40). On the other side, aesthetics of maps issued in Slovakia is based on a smaller number of colours and a higher number of colour patterns. Both groups of maps though, boast similar artistic/aesthetic qualities, as the comparison of their fragments with those of Pierre Auguste Renoire’s painting suggests. Authors believe that the artistic and technical elements and aspects of a map should be in harmony in order to sup-port and enrich its practical functions.