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Key symbols:--•M' -
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·16iy: symbols on a . ----- - ---------------· National Fre . • eway, National Route

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"1:S0 ooo topographic map -- • -- • • -- - -- • ---- ---···Arterial Route
---------------------· Main Road
------------------ - --· Secondary Road; Bench Mark
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," • • -- • - -- • • • - • • - • - --- -· Other Road; Bridge
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------------ ---------------------· Track and Hiking Trail

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N M ---------------------· Railway; Station or Siding
·----------- - --------· Other Railway; Tunnel
.........
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-.......- -- -------------------· Embankment; Cutting
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. . - -- • • - • -- • - - • - -- • - • - • · Power Line

-
·--------------------· Built-up Area (High, Low Density)

p • •
P.S
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w
---------------------· Buildings; Ruin
- - -- - -- - -- -- - -- - -- --·-• Post-Office; Police Station; Store
• •
s
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H
K ---------------------· Place of Worship; School; Hotel
• • •
---------------------· Fence; Wall
i ---------------------· Windpump; Monument
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R - - - -- - -- - - -- - - -- - -- --· Communication Tower
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:::.,, I,,::;:- 0 ----------.-----------· Mine Dump; Excavation

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D.. -~:·,::.~- ------- ---------·
- Trigonometrical Station; Marine Beacon
--------------------- · Lightho_use and Marine light
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t t t t * t - - ------------------- · Cemetery; Grave

- ---------------------· International Boundary and Beacon

----------· ---------------------· Provincial Boundary

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - -· Protected Area
------------- - -------· Perennial River

ci ---------------------· PerennialWater
- --- -- -- ------ --------------------- · Non-perennial River
- - ,,.- '
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---------------------· Non-perennial Water
' - - , - - --
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- •• - - --- - - • -- ------- -· Dry Water Course
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-- - - - - - - - - -- -- -- - - - - -· Dry Pan

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.;.Q. .Q. .,,;:-. Q. --------------- -- ----· Marsh and Vlei
-------------- - ------ · Pipeline (above ground)
------------- - -------· Water Tower; Reservoir; Water Point
• WT •R •F

... ...
- - -- --- - - - -- --- - - - --- · Coastal Rocks
---------------------· Prominent Rock Outcrop
\; 111 ::- 1,\ , \l'.:::: 111 =Ill:: \\\ ~
---------------------· Erosion; Sand

-·
---------------------· Woodland

I I - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - · Cultivated Land
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -· Orchard or Vineyard
~--·· ········
·· ····· ·········· ···1
····· ···· ·•
---------------------· Recreation Ground

••••••••• ---------------------· Row of Trees

Indications of height on a map
-Trig beacons
-spot heights

Trig beacons: shown as a triangle

The height above sea level is next to the triangle
The number is on top of the triangle
Light lines-20m
Dark lines-100m

Contour lines
A contour line is a line on a map that joins all the points of
the same height above sea level

Characteristics of contour lines:

-imaginary lines
-can never cross one another
-contour lines never split
-represented as a brown line on a topographical map
-are continuous and closed lines
-landscape—steep= close together
-landscape—gentle= far apart
-slope—uniform= evenly spread
-vertical cliff= single contour line
-contour intervals indicate the difference in height between
successive contour lines
Contour patterns
Contour patterns on a map show us what the land looks like

Gentle slopes:
-contour lines are far apart
-this even spacing is maintained in both up and down slopes

Steep slopes:
-contour lines are close together
-this even spacing is maintained in both up and down slopes

Concave slopes:
-when the contour lines are close together at the top of the
hill and gentle at the bottom
-a slope that becomes progressively steeper uphill
-on a map, the contour lines will be spaced closer with an
increase in height above sea level

Convex slopes:
-when the contour lines are gentle at the top of the hill and
close together at the bottom
-a slope which becomes progressively deeper downhill
-on the map, the contour lines will be spaced closer together
with a decline in height above sea level
Landforms
• The way in which contour lines are arranged, allows us to
identify certain landforms and features in the terrain.
• Using the basic principles of slope, shape and altitude,
It is possible to identify a wide range of physical
landforms on maps.

River valleys:
-a valley is formed due to flowing water and results into a
V-shaped landform
-the V-shape points towards the higher ground
(Bigger contour interval)
-in case of a river valley, the greatest height is to the outer
side and the land sinks down towards the inner side, where
the riverbed is

Hill:
-a point or small area of high ground
-when you are on a hilltop, the ground slopes down in all
directions

Ridge:
-a line of high ground with height variations along its crest
-it is not simply a line of hills; all points of the ridge crest are
higher than the ground on both sides of the ridge

Koppie/Hill:
-a koppie is a low, free standing hill
-in the most basic form, a koppie will be represented by
concentric rings of contour lines
Butte:
-a hill that has a very steep section just before the crest,
and a relatively flat top

Mesa (Spanish word for tabletop) :

-a mesa is an elongated version of the Butte
-it’s length is generally greater than its height

Plateau:
-a very big size flat topped part of a hill or mountain

Dry valley:
-a valley without a river

Saddle:
-a low lying area between two peaks
-resembles a typical riding saddle (hence the name)

Spur:
-the spur is the higher lying ground adjacent to the valley
-it is a long, gently sloping strip of ground that runs down
from a hill to lower ground
-a spur is formed between 2 river valleys
-the greatest height is to the inner side and the land sinks
down towards the outer side of the spur
• Spurs are identified as
-the rounded “V-shaped” contours pointing towards the
lower ground
-spurs will not have rivers present
Word Bank
• Natural features: something that exists in nature
E.g. rivers, hills, valleys, forests, grasslands

• Constructed features: things that people built/planted

E.g. roads, buildings, harbours, fences, orchards

• Orchards: areas of land where fruit trees grow

• Contour intervals:the difference between any two contours

next to each other

• Wedge: something in the shape of a triangle tapering to a

narrow end

• Perennial river: permanent river; flows throughout the year

Indicated by continuous lines
• Non-perennial river: seasonal river; flows during rain season
Indicated by broken lines

• Scale: method used to work our the real distance as it

would be on Earth from a map

• Line scale: a line on the bottom of a map that shows km

• Word scale: words are used to tell you how to work out
distance on a map

• Large-scale map: shows a small area (town, farming area)

• Small-scale map: shows a large area (continent, country)
Topographical maps- 1:50 000
-1 cm on the map represents 50 000 cm on the ground
-maps that are drawn from an aerial photograph
-maps are made from different layers (data layering)
E.g. land use zones, water resources, contour lines etc.
-scale is smaller than an orthophoto map (less detail)
-features on the map are represented with symbols

Orthophoto maps- 1:10 000

Made up of aerial photographs
1 cm on the map represents 10 000 cm on the ground

Types of Aerial photograph:

1.Vertical aerial photographs
-photo is taken from an aeroplane flying directly above the
landscape
-photo is taken at a 90 degree angle
-shows the top view of the landscape
- has a bigger scale
-usually printed in black and white to save costs
-helps to map large and inaccessible areas

2.Oblique aerial photographs

-photo is taken from high above the ground at an angle
that is not vertical to the ground
-there are two types of oblique aerial photographs:
High oblique photo
Low oblique photo
 #
High oblique photo Low oblique photo
Horizon is visible Horizon is not visible
Shows a big area Shows a specific image of
an area
Images are distorted Images are clear

How orthophoto maps are made

-map information (street names, dams etc.) are added
-contour lines are superimposed on the photo to provide
height of the area or landscape
-orthophoto maps are a combination of a photo and a map
-Digital mapping cameras are used wherein the camera is
flown over an area and the images are recorded and
corrected according to scale

Calculating distance for m and km

Topographical map Orthophoto map

- >

Answer in m X500 X100

Answer in km X0,5 X0,1

MAP DISTANCE= DISTANCE X SCALE

Step 1: Measure the distance between the two points in cm

Step 2: Note the unit the answer must be in
Make use of the above table and formula
Types of scales

Line scale:

Word scale:
1 centimetre on the map represents 250 metres

Ratio Scale:
1:50 000

Types of rivers and the direction it flows

1.Contour lines
-going down hills—rivers always flow downhill
-contour lines form a V shape, where the closed end of the
V points upstream

2.Direction of the tributary

-flows into the river

3.Dam wall
-dam wall is downstream—water flows toward the dam
wall
-water always flows downhill; from the highest to the
lowest point

4.Height at spot heights and trig beacons

-from highest to lowest