How To Read A Topographic Map
When learning how to read a topographic map it s important to be aware of the scale of your map. A topographic map can be easy to read once you know the details.
Reading A Topographic Map
Another example is that roads trails power lines railroads and property boundaries are all black lines on topo maps but they only vary slightly.
How to read a topographic map
. To read the contour lines on a map first note the direction your map faces. The scale on any topographic map will tell you how many miles or fractions of a mile one inch represents. If you re holding the map in front of you and the letters and numbers are right side up then the direction of true north is located at the top of the map. Houses are small black squares.The first number on any scale legend is one. Some lines will have the recorded elevation written in the line. To read topographic maps you can assess the contour lines as well as the colors and symbols on the map. Topographic maps use green to denote vegetation such as woods while blue is used to denote water features like lakes swamps rivers and drainage.
You can then orient yourself using the map so you do not get lost or turned around. They have a lot going on with different colors lines and labels all over the place. First look for the map s scale which will let you know how much detail the map contains. Reading and interpreting contour lines may seem intimidating at first but it s actually quite simple and is a valuable skill for learning to how to read a topographic map.
Topographic maps are oriented to true north. Most maps are oriented with north at the top of the map. The first step in learning how to read a topographic map is to understand how to interpret the lines colors and symbols. The land survey information is a good example.
On these maps you ll see large expanses of green for vegetation blue for water and gray or red for densely built up areas. The feature that makes this possible is contour lines. Obviously there are no life sized maps. The smaller the scale the more detail the map has.
Topographic maps are complicated to say the least. While most topo map users aren t trying to read the township range and section information it is still on the maps. To read a topographic map you need to understand the representations of the many circles and lines scrawled all over the terrain. In each of these cases contour lines are also drawn in blue.
These lines connect points of equal elevation. Topographic maps go further giving you the power to visualize three dimensional terrain from a flat piece of paper. Contour lines indicate the steepness of terrain. Instead to represent a large area cartographers make maps on a ratio scale.
The second number on the scale is the. At higher elevations mountains may be snow capped year around or the terrain may actually be a glacier. Method 1 assessing the contour lines. How to read topographic maps.
This is your map s unit of measurement in the united states it is generally an inch. This means that one unit of measurement on the map correlates with a larger unit in the real world. Note the contour lines on the map.
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