| Abstract [eng] |
According to Lithuanian national river monitoring results, a significant number of Lithuanian rivers do not meet the good ecological or chemical condition standards. These problems are caused by multitude of factors, pollution may occur because of various elements or river morphological structure, there are specific spatial distribution tendencies. The main directive, which regulates the use of Lithuanian river water resources – river basin districts management plans, states that proper regulation depends on the informed public and that it is critical to incite its participation in decision making process. In this thesis, it is suggested, that cartographic media is suitable in efficiently communicating complex river quality information to the public and it can be beneficial to the specialists of environmental studies. Lastly, at this time there are no interactive maps in Lithuania, which can efficiently communicate a variety of river water quality aspects in one project. This thesis describes the main concepts of cartographic communication, the use of maps in informing the public. The existing literature, studies and regulations in the topic of river quality mapping are analyzed. The main aspects of water quality assessment, which are important for the creation of interactive maps, are described. Based on existing theory and by logically generalizing, 10 criteria for evaluating the efficiency of cartographic communications in river quality maps are derived. Considering the criteria, the cartographic communication efficiency of 18 river water quality maps is assessed. The main drawbacks are described – limited functionality, insufficient thematic information, lack of contextual data, visual overload and unsuitable sign association. In order to solve these problems, the cartographic communication project of Lithuanian river water quality 2016–2021 is created. This project provides contextual data, thematic information, interactive maps visualize national river quality monitoring and river basin districts management plan data. The functionality to analyze the information in a multitude of dimensions is provided. |
