Editing Topographic map (section)

==History==
{{see also|Topography#Etymology}} {{see also|Cartography#History}}

Topographic maps are based on topographical surveys. Performed at large scales, these surveys are called topographical in the old sense of [[Topography as the study of place|topography]], showing a variety of elevations and landforms.<ref>The range of information is indicated by the title of a map produced in 1766: ''A Topographical Map of Hartfordshire from an Actual Survey in which is Express'd all the Roads, Lanes, Churches, Noblemen and Gentlemen's Seats, and every Thing remarkable in the County'', by Andrew Dury and John Andrews, reprinted by Hertfordshire Publications in 1980. This showed the relief by using [[hachures]].</ref> This is in contrast to older [[cadastral survey]]s, which primarily show property and governmental boundaries. The first multi-sheet topographic map series of an entire country, the ''Carte géométrique de la France'', was completed in 1789.<ref>Library of Congress, [https://www.loc.gov/rr/geogmap/guide/gmillgen.html Geography and Maps: General Collections] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170916032347/http://www.loc.gov/rr/geogmap/guide/gmillgen.html |date=16 September 2017 }}</ref> The [[Great Trigonometric Survey]] of India, started by the [[East India Company]] in 1802, then taken over by the [[British Raj]] after 1857 was notable as a successful effort on a larger scale and for accurately determining heights of Himalayan peaks from viewpoints over one hundred miles distant.<ref>{{Cite journal
| last = Dickey
| first = Parke A
| title = Who discovered Mount Everest?
| journal = Eos
| volume = 66
| issue = 41
| date = October 1985
| pages = 54–59
| doi = 10.1029/EO066i041p00697
| bibcode = 1985EOSTr..66..697D
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=VnLjkpL4CyoC
| access-date = 26 June 2011}}
</ref>
[[File:Soviet topographic map codes.svg|thumb|upright=1.3|left|Global indexing system first developed for ''International Map of the World'']]

Topographic surveys were prepared by the military to assist in planning for battle and for defensive emplacements (thus the name and history of the [[United Kingdom]]'s [[Ordnance Survey]]). As such, elevation information was of vital importance.<ref>Peter Barber, ''The Map Book'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2005, {{ISBN|0-297-84372-9}}, pp. 232, 250.</ref>

As they evolved, topographic map series became a national resource in modern nations in planning infrastructure and resource exploitation. In the United States, the national map-making function which had been shared by both the [[United States Army Corps of Engineers|Army Corps of Engineers]] and the [[United States Department of the Interior|Department of the Interior]] migrated to the newly created [[United States Geological Survey]] in 1879, where it has remained since.<ref>
{{cite web |url=http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/c1050/organize.htm |title=Organizing the U.S. Geological Survey |access-date=19 June 2007 |date=10 April 2000 |work=The United States Geological Survey: 1879–1989 |publisher=U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Department of the Interior |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070702030549/http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/c1050/organize.htm |archive-date=2 July 2007}}</ref><ref>
{{cite web |url=http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/c1050/surveys.htm |title=The Four Great Surveys of the West |access-date=19 June 2007 |date=10 April 2000 |work=The United States Geological Survey: 1879–1989 |publisher=U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Department of the Interior |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070610033043/http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/c1050/surveys.htm |archive-date=10 June 2007}}</ref>

1913 saw the beginning of the [[International Map of the World]] initiative, which set out to map all of Earth's significant land areas at a scale of 1:1 million, on about one thousand sheets, each covering four degrees latitude by six or more degrees longitude. Excluding borders, each sheet was 44&nbsp;cm high and (depending on latitude) up to 66&nbsp;cm wide. Although the project eventually foundered, it left an [[International Map of the World#Map Indexing System|indexing system]] that remains in use.

By the 1980s, centralized printing of standardized topographic maps began to be superseded by databases of coordinates that could be used on computers by moderately skilled end users to view or print maps with arbitrary contents, coverage and scale. For example, the [[federal government of the United States]]' ''[[TIGER]]'' initiative compiled interlinked databases of federal, state and local political [[border]]s and [[Census tract|census enumeration areas]], and of roadways, railroads, and water features with support for locating street addresses within street segments. TIGER was developed in the 1980s and used in the 1990 and subsequent [[United States Census|decennial censuses]]. [[Digital elevation model]]s (''DEM'') were also compiled, initially from topographic maps and stereographic interpretation of aerial photographs and then from [[remote sensing|satellite photography and radar data]]. Since all these were government projects funded with taxes and not classified for national security reasons, the datasets were in the [[public domain]] and freely usable without fees or licensing.

TIGER and DEM datasets greatly facilitated [[geographic information system]]s and made the [[Global Positioning System]] much more useful by providing context around locations given by the technology as coordinates.  Initial applications were mostly professionalized forms such as innovative [[Surveying#Equipment|surveying instruments]] and agency-level GIS systems tended by experts. By the mid-1990s, increasingly [[usability|user-friendly]] resources such as [[Web mapping|online mapping]] in two and three dimensions, integration of GPS with [[mobile phone]]s and [[automotive navigation system]]s appeared. As of 2011, the future of standardized, centrally printed topographical maps is left somewhat in doubt.<ref>
{{Cite web
 |url         = http://www.cfm.ohio-state.edu/people/personal/Documents/Maps%20for%20the%20Future-A%20Discussion.pdf
 |last        = Ramirez
 |first       = J. Raul
 |title       = Maps for the Future: A Discussion
 |access-date  = 1 July 2011
|url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20111122231944/http://www.cfm.ohio-state.edu/people/personal/Documents/Maps%20for%20the%20Future-A%20Discussion.pdf
 |archive-date = 22 November 2011
}}</ref><ref>{{Citation
 |last              = Hurst
 |first             = Paul
 |date = 1 September 2010
 |title             = Will we be lost without paper maps in the digital age?
 |type              = M.S. thesis
 |publisher         = University of Sheffield
 |location = U.K.
 |pages             = 1–18
 |url               = http://dagda.shef.ac.uk/dissertations/2009-10/External/PHurst_090125672_Hurst_Dissertation.pdf
 |access-date        = 1 July 2011
|url-status           = dead
 |archive-url        = https://web.archive.org/web/20111002235623/http://dagda.shef.ac.uk/dissertations/2009-10/External/PHurst_090125672_Hurst_Dissertation.pdf
 |archive-date       = 2 October 2011
}}</ref>