Cartography as a symbolic operator: the Covid-19 pandemic in Lombardy

By anchoring itself to cartographic semiosis, the contribution intends to highlight the importance that cartography acquires within the media communication system, with particular attention to its use in the current health emergency. Indeed, cartography is conceived as a symbolic operator capable of actively acting to create knowledge and provide operational requirements in the Coronavirus emergency. Thanks to cartographic semiosis, it is possible to investigates the construction and communication mechanisms relating to the representation of the territory and the implementation of a cybercartography. This kind of cartography, if it is correctly constructed from a semiotic point of view, is an effective tool, through which it is possible to restore the social complexity of the areas most affected by the pandemic. This contribution will be exemplified on the multi-scale mapping of Lombardy produced within the CST-DiathesisLab of the University of Bergamo.