Victoria Rautenbach|Serena Coetzee|Arzu Çöltekin
Development and evaluation of a specialized task taxonomy for spatial planning – A map literacy experiment with topographic maps
University of Pretoria|University of Pretoria|University of Zurich
topographic maps among commonly used map types however complex informationrich designs depicting natural humanmade cultural features make difficult read regardless complexity spatial planners make extensive use topographic maps work hand various studies suggest map literacy among development planning professionals south africa high widespread use topographic maps combined low levels map literacy presents challenges effective development planning paper address challenges developing specialized task taxonomy based systematically assessed map literacy levels conducting empirical experiment topographic maps evaluate task taxonomy empirical studies nonrealistic tasks used results map literacy tests may skewed furthermore experience familiarity studied map type play role map literacy thus need develop map literacy tests aimed planners specifically developed taxonomy realistic map reading tasks typically executed planning process taxonomy defines six levels tasks increasing difficulty complexity ranging recognising symbols extracting knowledge hypothesized competence first four levels indicates functional map literacy paper present results empirical experiment 49 map literate participants solving subset tasks first four levels taxonomy topographic map findings suggest proposed taxonomy good reference evaluating topographic map literacy participants solved tasks four levels expected therefore conclude experiment based first four levels taxonomy successfully determined functional map literacy participants plan continue study remaining levels repeat experiments group map illiterate participants confirm taxonomy also used determine map illiteracy