FLOOD01751

• County: Fremont
• Community: Canon City
• Stream Name: Arkansas River
• Title: Canon City Community File
• Date: 1/1/2001
• Prepared For: CWCB
• Prepared By: CWCB
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Community File

16

PRIICTICAL INTERPRETATION OF MAP ACCURACY SPECInC^nOl~S

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llOll-QU;'l;nTATIVE ERRORS

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Now 1 think it is appropriate to m~ntion
another facet of ~ap nceuracy~ ~hich 1$ of para-
mount ,importance to many 1Mp \l,Sers but 'WhIch is
not even mentioned 1n the standard specifications.
This 15 -:."e IaGct at .1aL\..ual~ """,,,ner than quanti-
tative, accuracy. To illustrate the point. here
is a quotat~on fro~ a let fer received recently
by a leading map~king organization (and I ~on't
~ention the name of the organization. because I
know very veIl that every simi.lar organization .
receives simllar letters)~ .~ faith in accura~y
received a jolt vh." I noted that on the map the
borough vater reservoir-is shown as a sewage
disp05~1. plant.... It.

It 1s iikely that this particular map user
v~uld neVer have noticed it if ~he vater works
had been plotted lCO feet out oE pO$ition~ ~nd
if he had noticed it.-he probably ~ould not ~ave
be~n greatly disturbed. But to' have his home-
town water works labeled as-a sewage tr~atment
plant: This .is not only gross inaccuracy bu~ an
. insult to his community_ The map c.ould test out
lOCk geometrically, but as far as this man is
concerned ir is still gravely ~n error and un-
acceptable.

. .Here Is 'a. list of som~ fictional, but typical
complaints from ~~p users concerning factual er~ors:

Co,

'Your Aap shOW's the: roads on my propa-rty but does -
not label them '"Private road," and consequently
vc are overrun by tourl~ts.

Your map' SllOW8 a passable rond up Skunk Hollow,
and I_tried to follow It and broke an axle.

Your IlI3p shows 1'1ekerel Lake. "hlch sounded like'.
. good fithing spot, So 1 drove 17 miles up a
vindin& road and when I got there a fanner
vas plowing on it and he told me the lake \las
drained in 1911.

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Your ~p designates our local pond as Polson Lake. ,
Everybody around here knows that the.origiual
Cajun settlers named it !ILac des Poissons"
because there Yere so many fish in it. Your
-...a.-p wLth that -'Poison" label is ruining my ba.lt
. business.. .

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CONCLUSION

. We can conclude from this discussion that
the ~valuation of map accuracy embraces certain
elem@nts of exact sclenc~, but that there are
certain aspects of the subject that arc'not re-
ducible to quantification. We should continue
our efforts to extend tbe application of scientific
pr~neiples to this subject as much as possible;
ho~ever, the elements of judgment and intcrprcta~
tion wilt always p~ay'a part.. .

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