Contour maps make a valuable tool for understanding the elevation of your land and surrounding terrain. Contour lines are lines drawn on a map connecting points of equal elevation, meaning if you physically walked along the contour line, your height above sea level would remain constant.
In order to keep things simple, topographic maps show lines for certain elevations only. These lines are evenly spaced apart. We call this spacing the contour interval. For example, the map below uses a 10m contour interval, you will see contour lines for every 10 meters of elevation. Different maps use different intervals, depending on the topography and how precise the mapping needs to be.
In order to keep things simple, topographic maps show lines for certain elevations only. These lines are evenly spaced apart. We call this spacing the contour interval. For example, the map below uses a 10m contour interval, you will see contour lines for every 10 meters of elevation. Different maps use different intervals, depending on the topography and how precise the mapping needs to be.
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| How a topographic map represents the terrain. |
To make topographic maps easier to read, every fifth contour line is an index contour. Because it's impractical to mark the elevation of every contour line on the map, the index contour lines are the only ones labeled. The index contours are a darker or wider brown line in comparison to the regular contour lines. You'll see the elevations marked on the index contour lines only.
To determine elevations, pay attention to the amount of space in between lines. If the contours are close together, you're looking at a steep slope. If the contours have wide spaces in between -- or aren't there at all - the terrain is relatively flat.
OpenStreetMap provides contour mapping for the world with 10m contour intervals i.e each contour line is 10m apart from each other. It's a great way to read the slope of the land, can help tremendously when planning rainwater harvesting land works, and allows a view of your surrounding watershed.
Regenerative Landscape Design - Online Interactive Course
Want to learn how to design, build and manage regenerative landscapes? Join us for our Regenerative Landscape Design - Online Interactive Course from May 1st to Sep 13th, 2023.
We're super excited about running the course and look forward to providing you with the confidence, inspiration, and opportunity to design, build and manage regenerative landscapes, gardens, and farms that produce food and other resources for humans while enhancing biodiversity.
Regenerative Landscape Design Online Course
You can find out all about the course here and right now we have a 20% discount on the full enrollment fees. Just use the promo code RLD2023 in the section of the registration form to receive your discount.
We are looking forward to providing you with this unique online learning experience - as far as we know, the very first of its kind. If you are thinking of reasons why you should do this course and whether this course is suitable for you, take a look here where we lay it all out. Looking forward to it!
We're super excited about running the course and look forward to providing you with the confidence, inspiration, and opportunity to design, build and manage regenerative landscapes, gardens, and farms that produce food and other resources for humans while enhancing biodiversity.
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| Regenerative Landscape Design Online Course |
You can find out all about the course here and right now we have a 20% discount on the full enrollment fees. Just use the promo code RLD2023 in the section of the registration form to receive your discount.
We are looking forward to providing you with this unique online learning experience - as far as we know, the very first of its kind. If you are thinking of reasons why you should do this course and whether this course is suitable for you, take a look here where we lay it all out. Looking forward to it!
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If you appreciate the work we are doing you can show your support in several ways.
- Make a purchase of plants or seeds from our Bionursery or Online Store
- Consider joining us for one of our Courses or Online Courses
- Comment, like, and share our content on social media.
- Donate directly via PayPal to balkanecologyproject@gmail.com or via FTX Pay