With the help of topographic signs, it is customary to conventionally designate terrain objects on topographic plans or maps. Knowing how to recognize them, one can determine the type of terrain, its relief features, the qualitative characteristics of objects and their location.
Instructions
Step 1
On maps and plans, it is customary to designate the terrain using conventional signs. Topographic signs can be contour, scale, or explanatory. Conditional contour signs indicate objects on the ground on a map scale. It can be a forest, a vegetable garden, a road. Their outlines are depicted using shapes that are similar in outline. If the conventional topographic sign does not coincide with another on the ground, then it is drawn with a dotted line. Neither the size of an object (for example, the thickness of a tree), nor its location on the ground (a tree in a forest), such a sign does not indicate by itself.
Step 2
Smaller objects are depicted with large-scale cartographic conventional signs. They are called so because their number and size depends on the scale of the map or topographic plan. The smaller the scale of the latter, the smaller the signs themselves. Sometimes there are objects indicated by such signs on any maps, regardless of scale. These are wells, detached trees, kilometer posts, etc. And vice versa - there are signs, the type of which can be changed depending on the scale of the map. So settlements on large-scale maps are depicted using contour symbols in detail. As you zoom out on a map or plan, the amount of detail decreases.
Step 3
Symbols indicate the exact location of objects. Oil wells, mounds, mills can be indicated by circles, stars or squares. For example, the location of a yurt or an elevator is determined by the middle of the base of the sign. The place of the road sign or tree will be the top. Elongated objects (roads, rivers, ditches) on the topographic plan are depicted using one or more lines. Such objects are determined by the axis of the sign. Scale marks do not indicate the size of the item. Therefore, such maps cannot be used to measure, for example, the length of a road.
Step 4
All other designations necessary for additional characteristics of objects or clarification of their location are called explanatory. They are never used by themselves. Their drawing on a map or plan is possible only in addition to large-scale or contour ones. To clarify the type of forest (deciduous or coniferous), the corresponding sign must be added to the outline sign in the form of circles denoting the forest itself.
Step 5
Numbers and signatures can be used as conventional topographic symbols. With the help of signatures, the names of rivers, settlements or the type of production of an object are indicated. There is a list of abbreviated signatures for the design of topographic maps and plans. A good knowledge of conventional signs of maps of different scales ensures their correct reading.
