What are merits and demerits of shading method?

Merits of Shading Method:

1. This is a simple method which gives comparative distribution at a glance.

2. This method is very useful for representing relative data, e.g., density of population, sex-ratio, percentatge increase in population, proportion of urban or rural population to total population, percentage of cultivated land to total land, percentage area under wheat to total cultivated areas, etc.

3. Shading method is especially suited to those elements in which there is abrupt change, for example density of population.

Demerits of Shading Method:

1. In this method, we have to follow the administrative divisions whereas most of geographical elements change according to natural divisions. This leads to misunderstanding.

2. There seems to be abrupt change in the density or intensity when we move from one shade to the other whereas, in nature, these changes are slow and gradual.

3. The extreme value of class-interval are shown by the same shade which is misleading.

4. The other details are hidden by the shades and are not shown separately.