<p><strong>Map elements and signatures</strong></p>

<ul>
<li>Every signature used in the map (except of elevation contour lines) has to be explained in the legend. For example, the dashed line is not explained.</li>
<li>Your map needs a scale bar or at least a numeric scale.</li>
<li>Look for better signatures for the street/path and choose one for the river.</li>
<li>To complete it, a topographic map is always better with a coordinate grid resp. coordinate information in labels at the map frame.</li>
<li>You <em>could</em> add a north arrow.</li>
<li>To be completely correct, the map would need an information about the used projection and geodesic datum.</li>
<li>If the map is created to be stand-alone later, don't forget to give it a title, date and information about author and cartographic survey or data source.</li>
<li>The labels of the contour lines are normally orientated parallel to the lines. The direction is chosed so that you'd be able to read the labels naturally while walking uphill.</li>
<li>Think about using an area signature for the swamp instead of symbols representing points.</li>
<li>Optionally think about different area colours for either the water surface or the land surface; this makes it easier to differentiate between them.</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>"Worldbuilding" issues</strong> <em>(if the map's content is fictional)</em></p>

<ul>
<li>Guessing the scale with the help of the houses: The most southern houses and maybe even the northern ones are very, very close to the coast. Normally, you'll have a beach or cliffs or an anthropogenic shoreline leaving at least some space to the coast.</li>
<li>Related to this, your elevation contour lines needs to be modified, once around the island's shore.</li>
<li>Nearly all houses have the same size. </li>
<li>Imagine the solar radiation: The houses in the north do all have the same orientation and stand, seen from south to north, at the same elevation. Therefore, they would experience much less solar radiation.</li>
<li>Unless the marked houses aren't big community houses, there might be too many schools for the number of inhabitants.</li>
<li>There is no transport infrastructure like a harbor or at least a landing stage for boats.</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-02-29T10:19:41.897Z
2016-04-12T22:11:57.477Z
2016-04-12T22:11:57.477Z
Arne
<p>Some hints to get you thinking.</p>

<p>Remember contours are lines joining points of the same elevation.</p>

<p>Let's say the island is in the ocean - what is the elevation of the shore-line around the island? If it is in a lake above sea level, would the elevation of the shore be different in different places?</p>

<p>So could a contour line run into the shore the way you have drawn them?</p>

<p>You have closed the contours around the hills - good. But what happens in low lying areas like the swamp? Wouldn't the land rise up on either side of the swamp? Would that mean that the contours mostly go around it? The contours might not close completely around the low-land the way they would around a hill-top unless you have a closed basin but they will spread out at flat areas. Think about working up from the shore as well as working down from the hills. </p>

<p>You have a River labeled but not drawn in. Maybe draw in where you think the river flows (hint rivers usually run in valleys and water flows downhill). This is kind of hard to visualise, but if you have a river valley running down a slope, the contour line will 'deflect' upstream where it crosses the river. Similarly a contour line will deflect away from the peak of a hill when it crosses a ridgeline. Try looking at a contour map of an area you know and see how it works.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-03-04T03:32:56.770Z
2016-03-04T03:32:56.770Z
haresfur
<p>I have a question about a project I have for school. I have to make a topographic map of a made up island. I was wondering if the placement of the contour lines and the index lines are correct. Also if there are any mistake, can u point it out? I am not using the answers to the advantage of getting the project done, I am using to learn because we just started this in school. Thank you guys very much<img src="https://i.sstatic.net/IyCr1.jpg" alt="![Image of map so far">]<a href="https://i.sstatic.net/IyCr1.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer">1</a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-02-05T17:00:04.307Z
Please do not deface your posts. If you want to remove the post, delete it instead of editing it into nonsense. I have reverted your self-vandalism and restored the original version.
casey
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-02-05T18:19:57.127Z
No, they aren't correct. Some things are wrong, others just unlikely. Check the value of all the index lines. Imagine walking from east to west, crossing these contours.
Matt Hall
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-02-05T18:54:20.293Z
For a map showing the whole of an island, all the contours must be closed loops.  Think starting at the shore, where the 0 contour is the shoreline.
jamesqf
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-02-06T00:57:35.300Z
Generally, it would be expected that contours of an island would form closed loops. My interpretation of your map is the area around Tan Hill looks plausible. The rest looks odd. From Swan River there appears to be a gently rising slope to the left of the river until it reaches an elevation of 100. There is a plateau at elevation 100, with a localized high of Small Hill, to the north of the plateau. From the plateau there is another rising slope, to the west, which peaks at elevation 200. The high elevation of 200 appears to be a knife ridge followed by a steep down slope to elevation 175
Fred
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-02-08T00:31:28.347Z
Island contours don't have to be closed loops; large parts of the island could be bound by cliffs. Maybe not likely, or safe, but reasonable.
Matt Hall
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-02-29T18:52:43.720Z
@kwinkunks: Even if there are cliffs, the contour lines would still run along them, perhaps with several lines drawn on top of each other.  See any real countour map of an area with cliffs.
jamesqf
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-02-29T19:28:36.400Z
@jamesq How they are drawn is a design decision. I agree that, conceptually, all the contour lines are there, but they most certainly do not have to be drawn that way, eg see [this example](http://www.andrewswalks.co.uk/Bempton2-OS.jpg) by the Ordnance Survey. Few would draw them if the cliff is overhanging.
Matt Hall
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-03-01T05:45:35.127Z
Qkwinkunks: I can't see the contours on most of the coast, due to the heavy red line.  But looking at the left side, it does appear that the contour lines are drawn (nearly) on top of each other, though hard to tell from a bitmapped image.  As for overhanging cliffs... well, I've never seen a topo map of such, and I don't really think it applies to what the OP is trying to do.
jamesqf
<geography><topography><mapping>
Topographic Maps
Dan
# Topographic Maps

(Asked by: username_0 on 2016-02-05)

I have a question about a project I have for school. I have to make a topographic map of a made up island. I was wondering if the placement of the contour lines and the index lines are correct. Also if there are any mistake, can u point it out? I am not using the answers to the advantage of getting the project done, I am using to learn because we just started this in school. Thank you guys very much![![Image of map so far](https://i.sstatic.net/IyCr1.jpg)][1](https://i.sstatic.net/IyCr1.jpg)

**Tags:** geography, topography, mapping

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Please do not deface your posts. If you want to remove the post, delete it instead of editing it into nonsense. I have reverted your self-vandalism and restored the original version.  
> **username_2**: No, they aren't correct. Some things are wrong, others just unlikely. Check the value of all the index lines. Imagine walking from east to west, crossing these contours.  
> **username_3**: For a map showing the whole of an island, all the contours must be closed loops.  Think starting at the shore, where the 0 contour is the shoreline.  
> **username_4**: Generally, it would be expected that contours of an island would form closed loops. My interpretation of your map is the area around Tan Hill looks plausible. The rest looks odd. From Swan River there appears to be a gently rising slope to the left of the river until it reaches an elevation of 100. There is a plateau at elevation 100, with a localized high of Small Hill, to the north of the plateau. From the plateau there is another rising slope, to the west, which peaks at elevation 200. The high elevation of 200 appears to be a knife ridge followed by a steep down slope to elevation 175  
> **username_2**: Island contours don't have to be closed loops; large parts of the island could be bound by cliffs. Maybe not likely, or safe, but reasonable.  
> **username_3**: @kwinkunks: Even if there are cliffs, the contour lines would still run along them, perhaps with several lines drawn on top of each other.  See any real countour map of an area with cliffs.  
> **username_2**: @jamesq How they are drawn is a design decision. I agree that, conceptually, all the contour lines are there, but they most certainly do not have to be drawn that way, eg see [this example](http://www.andrewswalks.co.uk/Bempton2-OS.jpg) by the Ordnance Survey. Few would draw them if the cliff is overhanging.  
> **username_3**: Qkwinkunks: I can't see the contours on most of the coast, due to the heavy red line.  But looking at the left side, it does appear that the contour lines are drawn (nearly) on top of each other, though hard to tell from a bitmapped image.  As for overhanging cliffs... well, I've never seen a topo map of such, and I don't really think it applies to what the OP is trying to do.  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_5 on 2016-02-29. Score: 5

**Map elements and signatures**

* Every signature used in the map (except of elevation contour lines) has to be explained in the legend. For example, the dashed line is not explained.
* Your map needs a scale bar or at least a numeric scale.
* Look for better signatures for the street/path and choose one for the river.
* To complete it, a topographic map is always better with a coordinate grid resp. coordinate information in labels at the map frame.
* You *could* add a north arrow.
* To be completely correct, the map would need an information about the used projection and geodesic datum.
* If the map is created to be stand-alone later, don't forget to give it a title, date and information about author and cartographic survey or data source.
* The labels of the contour lines are normally orientated parallel to the lines. The direction is chosed so that you'd be able to read the labels naturally while walking uphill.
* Think about using an area signature for the swamp instead of symbols representing points.
* Optionally think about different area colours for either the water surface or the land surface; this makes it easier to differentiate between them.

**"Worldbuilding" issues** *(if the map's content is fictional)*

* Guessing the scale with the help of the houses: The most southern houses and maybe even the northern ones are very, very close to the coast. Normally, you'll have a beach or cliffs or an anthropogenic shoreline leaving at least some space to the coast.
* Related to this, your elevation contour lines needs to be modified, once around the island's shore.
* Nearly all houses have the same size.
* Imagine the solar radiation: The houses in the north do all have the same orientation and stand, seen from south to north, at the same elevation. Therefore, they would experience much less solar radiation.
* Unless the marked houses aren't big community houses, there might be too many schools for the number of inhabitants.
* There is no transport infrastructure like a harbor or at least a landing stage for boats.


---

### Answer by username_6 on 2016-03-04. Score: 2

Some hints to get you thinking.

Remember contours are lines joining points of the same elevation.

Let's say the island is in the ocean - what is the elevation of the shore-line around the island? If it is in a lake above sea level, would the elevation of the shore be different in different places?

So could a contour line run into the shore the way you have drawn them?

You have closed the contours around the hills - good. But what happens in low lying areas like the swamp? Wouldn't the land rise up on either side of the swamp? Would that mean that the contours mostly go around it? The contours might not close completely around the low-land the way they would around a hill-top unless you have a closed basin but they will spread out at flat areas. Think about working up from the shore as well as working down from the hills.

You have a River labeled but not drawn in. Maybe draw in where you think the river flows (hint rivers usually run in valleys and water flows downhill). This is kind of hard to visualise, but if you have a river valley running down a slope, the contour line will 'deflect' upstream where it crosses the river. Similarly a contour line will deflect away from the peak of a hill when it crosses a ridgeline. Try looking at a contour map of an area you know and see how it works.


---

