Made How / Volume 4 / Topographic Map

Topographic Map

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Background
A topographic map is a two-dimensional
representation of a three-dimensional land surface.
Topographic maps are differentiated from other
maps in that they show both the horizontal and
vertical positions of the terrain. Through a
combination of contour lines, colors, symbols,
labels, and other graphical representations,
topographic maps portray the shapes and
locations of mountains, forests, rivers, lakes, cities,
roads, bridges, and many other natural and man-
made features. They also contain valuable
reference information for surveyors and map
makers, including bench marks, base lines and
meridians, and magnetic declinations. Topographic
maps are used by civil engineers, environmental
managers, and urban planners, as well as by
outdoor enthusiasts, emergency services agencies,
and historians.

History
Some of the earliest known maps were made in
Mesopotamnia, in the area now known as Iraq,
where a series of maps showing property
boundaries were drawn in about 2400 B.C. for the
purpose of land taxation. A Roman map dating
from about 335-366 A.D. showed such
topographical features as roads, cities, rivers, and
mountains. The word topography is derived from
the Greek words topos, meaning a place, and
graphien, meaning to write. Thus, topography is
the written, or drawn, description of a place.

Although the basics of land surveying were known

as early as 1200 B.C. , and perhaps even earlier,
the use of surveying techniques in preparing maps
was limited to cities and other small-scale areas.
Larger-scale maps were prepared from sketches or
journals kept by explorers and sometimes reflected
more imagination than observation. As a result, the
exact positions of points on a map were often
grossly in error.

In 1539, the Dutch mathematician and geographer

Reiner Gemma Frisius described a method for
surveying an area by dividing it into triangles. This
concept of triangulation became one of the basic
techniques of field surveying and is still used
today. One of the first large-scale mapping projects
using triangulation was started in the 1670s by
Giovanni Domenico Cassini, who had been
persuaded to make a detailed map of France. After
Cassini's death, his children and grandchildren
continued to labor on the project. The final result,
called the Carte de Cassini, was published in 1793
and was the first accurate topographic map of an
entire country. Its only shortcoming was the
general lack of elevation measurements, other than
a few spot elevations determined by measuring the
variation in air pressure with altitude using a
barometer. The concept of contour lines to show
different elevations on a map was developed by
the French engineer J.L. Dupain-Triel in 1791.
Although this method allowed the accurate
depiction of land contours and elevations on a flat,
two-dimensional map, it was not widely used until
the mid-1800s.

In the United States, the federal government

recognized the importance of accurate
topographic maps in a rapidly growing country. In
1807, President Thomas Jefferson established the
Survey of the Coast to map the Atlantic coastline
as an aid to travel and commerce. In 1836, this
organization was renamed the U.S. Coast Survey,
and in 1878 the name changed to the U.S. Coast
and Geodetic Survey. In the meantime, mapping of
the interior of the country fell to a variety of
individuals and organizations, including the Lewis
and Clark expedition in 1804-1806, who mapped
their route from St. Louis, Missouri, to the Pacific
Northwest. During the period from 1838 until the
outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, the Army's Corps
of Topographical Engineers made major
contributions in mapping the western United
States, including a detailed map published in 1848
based on John Fremont's explorations. By the
1870s, so many different groups were conducting
surveys that their work began to overlap. To
consolidate this effort, the U.S. Geological Survey
(USGS) was established in 1879.

Most of the early map making was done by

laborious field surveys. Starting in the 1930s, the
USGS began using aerial photography techniques
to produce and update maps. In the 1980s the use
of computers to scan and redraw existing maps
significantly reduced the time required to update
maps in areas of rapid growth.

Today, the USGS has more than 56,000

topographic maps of the United States in various
scales, plus maps of the moon and planets. They
also publish specialty maps including geologic,
hydrologic, and photoimage maps for a variety of
uses.

Map Scales, Symbols,

and Colors
In order to be useful, topographic maps must show
sufficient information on a map size that is
convenient to use. This is accomplished by
selecting a map scale that is neither too large nor
too small and by enhancing the map details
through the use of symbols and colors.

The most common USGS topographic map scale

is 1:24,000. In this scale 1 inch on the map
represents 24,000 in, or 2,000 ft. (1 cm represents
240 m) on the ground. These maps are called 7.5
minute quadrangle maps because each map
covers a four-sided area on the surface of Earth
that is 7.5 minutes of longitude wide and 7.5
minutes of latitude high, where 60 minutes equals
one degree of angle. Because the distance
between longitude lines gets narrower as you
move from the equator towards the poles, the
widths of the maps also vary. For maps of the
United States, the maps measure about 23 in (58.4
cm) wide by 27 in (68.6 cm) high for locations
below a latitude of 31 degrees and about 22 in
(55.9 cm) wide by 27 in (68.6 cm high) for locations
above that latitude. Other common USGS map
scales are 1:63,360, 1:100,000, and 1:250,000.
These scales cover larger areas than the 1:24,000
maps, but with less detail.

In order to make the topographic maps easier to

interpret, symbols and colors are used to represent
various natural and man-made features. Some
symbols are designed to look like the feature when
viewed from overhead. For example, buildings are
shown as solid objects in the shape of the building
outline. Other symbols are universally recognized
representations such as a long line with small cross
marks to represent a railroad. Colors play an even
more important role. Rivers, lakes, and other
bodies of water are shown in blue. Forests and
heavily vegetated areas are shown in green. Minor
roads and highways are shown in black, while
major highways are shown in red. Contour lines,
which represent the shape of the ground itself, are
shown in brown. Recent revisions to the map are
shown in purple.

The Manufacturing
Process
The production of an accurate topographic map is
a long and complex process that may take as
much as five years from start to finish. It takes a
skilled team of surveyors, engravers, fact checkers,
printers, and others to produce a good map. Here
is a typical sequence of operations used by the
U.S. Geological Survey to produce a 7.5 minute
quadrangle topographic map.

Photographing the area

1 The area to be mapped must first be
photographed from the air. Each section of
ground is photographed from two different
angles to provide a stereoscopic three-
dimensional image that can be converted into
contour lines. The sky must be clear, and the
sun must be at the proper angle for the type
of terrain being photographed. Seasonal

Each section of ground is photographed from two

different angles to provide a stereoscopic three-
dimensional image that can be converted into
contour lines.

factors must also be taken into consideration.

For example, in areas where there are
deciduous trees, the photos are usually taken
between late fall and early spring when the
trees are bare and the underlying ground
features are more visible.
2 The aircraft is flown over the area at a
constant altitude in a north-south direction
along carefully determined flight paths while
special cameras take 10 precisely positioned
photographs of each quadrangle. Each
camera can cost $250,000 or more.

Surveying the control points

3 To ensure the accuracy of a map, the exact
location of various control points must be
established by field surveys. Typical control
points may be the intersection of two roads
or other prominent features within the map
area. Horizontal control points are surveyed
to determine the longitude and latitude, while
vertical control points are surveyed
separately to determine elevations. The
location and elevation of these control points
help the map makers correctly position the
aerial photo images and assign values to the
contour lines.
4 While the surveyors are in the field, they
also look for features, which may require
further checking, such as roads or streams
hidden beneath overhanging foliage, or
buildings that may have been constructed or
demolished since the aerial photographs
were taken.

Verifying the map features

5 Some map features may require additional
verification. For example, some streams may
run only intermittently, in which case they
would be represented on the map by a dash-
dot or lighter-weight instead of a solid line.
Certain roads may turn out to be private
roads, rather than public roads, and these
must be marked. Field checkers go into the
area and verify these features by talking with
local residents or consulting local property
records. Any questionable features noted by
the survey crews must also be verified. The
correct spelling of place names must be
determined.

Compiling the map manuscript

6 After the area has been surveyed and all
the features have been checked, the pairs of
overlapping aerial photographs are placed in
a stereoscopic projector. One image is
projected to the operator's left eye and the
other image to his right eye. The result is a
three-dimensional view of the terrain. Two
small beams of light are connected to a
pointer and are adjusted to intersect in a tiny
white dot corresponding to a given elevation
on the three-dimensional terrain image. By

To ensure the accuracy of a map, the exact

location of various control points must be
established by field surveys. A separate
scribecoat is made for each color used.

moving the pointer while keeping the two

beams focused in a dot, the operator traces
each contour line of the ground and the
location of various features. The pointer is
connected to a pen on the tracing table that
draws the contour or feature being traced. All
contours and features are drawn in black at
this point. This process is called compiling
the map manuscript.
7 When the tracing is completed, the finished
map manuscript is photographed, and a
map-sized film negative is made. This
negative is photochemically reproduced onto
several thin plastic sheets coated with a soft,
translucent coating called a scribecoat.

Scribing and editing the map

8 The plastic sheets are taken one at a time
and placed on a light table, where a soft light
shines up through a white plastic surface.
This illumination from below makes the lines
of the map manuscript visible through the
scribecoat. An engraver carefully cuts away
the scribecoat along the lines and areas that
are to be a certain color on the finished map.
For example, one sheet will have all the lines
for rivers, lakes, and other bodies of water
that are to be blue. This process is repeated
for each color.
9 Separate sheets for the lettering are
prepared by placing a clear plastic sheet over
each scribed sheet and carefully aligning the
lettering with the features to be labeled. Type
sizes, styles, and fonts are selected
according to standards, which assure
consistency and legibility from one map to
another. A film negative is then made of each
finished type sheet.
10 After the scribed sheets are reviewed and
edited several times, a color proof sheet is
made by exposing each sheet under different
color light to produce a color print that looks
very much like the finished map. After further
review and editing, the map is ready to be
printed.

Printing the map

11 A press plate is prepared for each map
color by exposing the scribed sheets and the
lettering negatives. Paper is loaded into a
lithographic printing press, and the first color
is printed. The press plate and ink are
changed and the paper is run through the
press a second time to print the second
color. This process is repeated until all the
colors have been printed. Some of the largest
presses can print up to five colors in
sequence without changing plates or
reloading the paper.

Quality Control
The USGS uses the National Map Accuracy
Standards set up in 1947. Starting in 1958, the
USGS began testing the accuracy of their maps by
field checking 20 or more well defined points on
about 10% of the maps being produced each year.

For a 7.5 minute map at 1:24,000 scale, the

horizontal accuracy standard requires that the
locations shown on the map for at least 90% of the
points checked must be accurate to within 40 ft
(12.2 m) of the actual locations on the ground. The
vertical accuracy standard requires that the
elevations shown on the map for at least 90% of
the points checked must be accurate to within one
half of the contour interval on the ground. For a
map with 10 ft (3 m) contour intervals, this means
the elevations shown on the map must be accurate
to within 5 ft (1.5 m) of the actual elevations on the
ground. To give you an idea of what these
standards mean to map makers, the horizontal
accuracy standard requires that the location of at
least 90% of the check points on the map must be
drawn to within 0.02 in (0.05 cm) of the correct
position.

The Future
Most of the topographic maps currently in use
were produced manually. For mapmakers,
however, the future is here today. A well-
established network of navigational satellites form
the basis of the Global Positioning System (GPS).
This system allows field surveyors to accurately
determine horizontal positions within a few feet,
even in the most remote terrain where conventional
surveying techniques are impossible.

Other satellites carrying a variety of sensors may

soon replace the aerial photography method of
making maps. The first of a series of Landsat
satellites was launched in 1972, and by 1984 they
could detect objects on the surface of Earth about
100 ft (30 m) in size. In 1998, an American
company was preparing to launch a satellite that
could detect objects as small as 3 ft (1 m), which
would produce images with as much detail as
current USGS 7.5 minute maps. More importantly,
these images would be captured and transmitted
as digital data, which could then be processed and
printed by computers. This would significantly
reduce the time required to produce or update
maps and would improve the overall accuracy as
well.

Where to Learn More

Books
Thompson, Morris M. Maps for America, 3rd
edition. U.S. Department of the Interior, Geological
Survey National Center, 1987.

Periodicals
Pike, Richard J. and Gail P. Thelin. "Building a
Better Map." Earth (January 1992): 44-51.

Wilford, John Noble. "Revolutions in Mapping."

National Geographic (February 1998): 6-39.

Other
"Map Accuracy Standards." U.S. Department of
the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, July 1996.

"Map Scales." U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S.

Geological Survey, October 1993.

"Topographic Mapping." U.S. Department of the

Interior, U.S. Geological Survey.

"Topographic Map Symbols." U.S. Department of

the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey.

U.S. Geological Survey. http://www.usgs.gov .

—Chris Cavette

Leading Earth Observation

High-res Earth Observation
Satellogic offers Earth Observation
imagery for wide-ranging applications.

satellogic.com

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Other articles you might like:

Also read article about Topographic

Map from Wikipedia

User Contributions:

1
Al Mosher Sep 2, 2013 @ 7:19 pm

Puzzled by the paragraph on Quality Control,

seems inconsistent. It talks of horizontal
accuracy to 40 feet but the end they say
2/100ths of an INCH.??!?

"To give you an idea of what these standards

mean to map makers, the horizontal accuracy
standard requires that the location of at least
90% of the check points on the map must be
drawn to within 0.02 in (0.05 cm) of the
correct position."

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