TOPOGRAPHY

WHAT IS A MAP?

 Our Earth has varied man-made features like roads, railways, settlements, canals, power lines
etc and on the other hand, it has physical features also like mountains, plains, plateaus, lakes
and tanks on it surface.
 Thus, due to its large size, we cannot see all the features in one go and hence, we use a map for
this.
 Map is a representation of the earth on a flat surface.
 It helps us to view a portion of the earth or the entire world in a glance.
Maps can be divided into 2 categories -
 Based on scale – Large scale and Small scale
 Based on content – Political, Physical, Thematic and Topographic Maps

WHAT IS TOPOGRAPHY?
 A topographic map is a detailed and accurate illustration of man-made and natural features on
the ground such as roads, railways, power transmission lines, contours, elevations, rivers, lakes
and geographical names.
 The topographic map is a two-dimensional representation of the Earth's three-dimensional
landscape.
 Topography – Greek word - ‘Topos’ – place, ‘Graphia’ – writing or representation.
 This is done to study a particular area in greater detail.
 They are large scale maps to give us detailed information about a particular area.
 These maps are helpful for military purposes, civil engineers and surveyors who are constructing
buildings, roads etc.
 To show the natural and man-made features on the map, certain signs and symbols are used.
Some signs are internationally recognized and accepted by all. These are called Conventional
signs and symbols.
 Different colours are used while drawing these signs and symbols as every colour represents a
distinct feature.

WHAT IS A TOPOGRAPHIC MAP USED FOR?

 Topographic maps are detailed, accurate graphic representations of features that appear on
the Earth's surface.
 These features include - cultural: roads, buildings, urban development, railways, airports,
names of places and geographic features, administrative boundaries, state and international
borders, reserves.
 Topographic maps have many multiple uses in the present day: any geographic planning or
large-scale architecture; earth sciences and many other geographic disciplines; mining and
other earth-based endeavors; civil engineering and recreational uses such as hiking and
orienteering.
 It is also used to show the structure of the terrains and the occupations of people living in a
particular area.
 USES OF COLOUR, SIGNS AND SYMBOLS

 Play an important role in identifying the different features on any map.

 They make it easier to understand and interpret.
 The signs and symbols which are used widely are called Conventional signs and symbols.

CONTOUR LINES
 A contour line is a line drawn on a topographic map to indicate ground elevation or
 depression.
 They are imaginary lines used to join points of equal altitude.
 The contour lines are an important way of showing the rise and fall of the land on a map.
Contour lines show all the places that are the same height above sea level. They also tell us
about the slope of the land. On a steep slope, the lines are close together.
 The contour lines can be curved or straight.
 No two contour lines can ever intersect each other.
 As these lines cannot intersect each other, they are situated at an interval. This interval is called
contour interval.
 It is normally measured in meters.
 They also help us in analyzing the occupation of the people, which can be farming, transport
and communication and
 administrative facilities.

GRID REFERENCE
 A grid is an arrangement of horizontal and vertical lines used to find the location of any place
on earth.
 The horizontal lines are the latitudes (east to west) and the vertical lines are longitudes (north-
south).
 On a small-scale maps, it is easier to locate places with latitudes and longitudes.
 But it’s not the case in topographic maps as they are large scale maps.
 We need a grid reference system to find a place on the map.
 Grid reference system is a square grid comprising of several grid lines that intersect at right
angles and are numbered. These numbers are horizontal and vertical lines and are called
coordinates. It helps us to pinpoint the location of any place using horizontal and vertical lines.

PRINCIPLES OF GRID REFERENCE SYSTEM

 The northings and eastings are numbered chronologically, starting from the southwest corner
of the map.

 The value of the eastings increases as we go towards the east. The value of the northings
increases as go towards the north.

 Eastings and northings are always written in two digits only. For eg – 00,01,02…. The number 0
is also refereed to as 00.

 When stating the grid reference, the eastings are always stated first, followed by the northings.
 Eastings and northings on a map drawn to scale 1:50000 are always 2cm apart. They represent
a total area of 1km on the ground. Thus, a grid of 2cmx2cm on a map represents
 1kmx1km on the ground.
 The grid reference system is in four and six figure grid reference. In the six figure, there is an
another grid in the main grid to find the place more accurately.

FOUR FIGURE GRID REFERENCE

 It is used to detect the location of a place within a particular grid square.
 To write the four figure, we have to write the eastings followed by the northings.
 It helps to find out the specific location of features that occupy some space on the map. For eg
– lakes, settlements, streams, administrative places etc.
 But its doesn’t help to find the precise location of any place.

MAP SCALE
 A scale is the ratio of the distance between any two places on a map to the actual distance
between the same two places on land.
 They are of three types –
 Statement scale or Verbal scale – it is represented by using words. It says that 2cms on the
surface means 1km on the ground actually. They are just statement made while explaining
 on a map.
 Linear scale or Graphical scale – it is expressed as a
 straight line divided into lengths showing a given land distance. It
 is there on the lower side of the map. This scale is widely used
 to measure the indirect distance between any two places on the
 map.
 Representative Fraction scale – This scale gives us the distance in ratio between two places on
the map and the exact two places on land.
 1 shows the distance between two places on map and 100,000 shows the distance between
two places on land.
 Both have to be in the same representation – either in cms, inches, yards, meters etc. It can be
expressed in fractions also like 1/100,000.

MEASURING DISTANCE
 The distance in the maps has to be measured accurately. This can be done by two methods –
 Measuring distance along a straight line – For this we can use a ruler to measure the direct
distance
 between two places on the map. After that, the map scale is used to calculate the distance
between those places on land.

 Measuring distance along the curved lines – On a map, we have rivers, roads, railway lines
which are
 curved and to measure these features, we need to use a twine. The twine is placed at one
corner and the
 other is followed along the curves to measure the route. After we reach the end, the
twine distance is measured using a map scale to convert it into an actual
representation.