![]() ![]() These stain marks are essentially contour lines-lines forming closed loops running along a fixed elevation. Now, imagine the waters receding each few days, leaving stain marks periodically at each new lower water level around the increasingly-exposed hill. Imagine a hilltop completely covered in flood waters. Actually, you might call these lines "contour circles" because each such line is simply a closed loop that runs along a fixed elevation. Contour LinesĬontour lines depict elevation and relief on a map. Alternatively a map key can be produced associating the contours with their values.Announcement: My online Land Navigation course includes four hours of video instruction, and two downloadable PDF books, all for about the same price as a typical paperback book. The direction of these text labels is often used to indicate the direction of the slope. This can be done by placing numbers along some of the contour lines, typically using interpolation for intervening lines. Numerical marking is the manner of denoting the arithmetical the values of contour lines. Dotted or dashed lines are often used when the underlying base map conveys very important (or difficult to read) information. Line type refers to whether the basic contour line is solid, dashed, dotted or broken in some other pattern to create the desired effect. Sometimes a sheen or gloss is used as well as color to set the contour lines apart from the base map. Line color is the choice of any number of pigments that suit the display. For example, in the topgraphic map above, the even hundred foot elevations are shown in a different weight from the twenty foot intervals. Also, for many forms of contours such as topographic maps, it is common to vary the line weight and/or color, so that a different line characteristic occurs for certain numerical values. If there is little or no content on the base map, the contour lines may be drawn with relatively heavy thickness. This choice is made based upon the least intrusive form of contours that enable the reader to decipher the background information in the map itself. Line weight is simply the darkness or thickness of the line used. To maximize readability of contour maps, there are several design choices available to the map creator, principally line weight, line color, line type and method of numerical marking. "Iso" can be replaced with "isallo" to specify a contour line connecting points where a variable has changed at the same rate during a given time period. transport costs from the source of a raw material: isotim. ![]() presence of linguistic feature: isogloss.magnetic declination annual change: isopor.ice formation location each winter: isopectic.elevation: contour lines on a topographic map or isohypse.depth of water with equal temperature: isobathytherm.biological events occurring with coincidence such as plants flowering: isophene.Various types of contour lines are given different names according to the nature of the variable being mapped: In the latter case, the method of interpolation affects the reliability of individual isolines and their portrayal of slopes, pits and peaks (see Davis, 1986, Statistics and data analysis in geology).Ī two-dimensional contour graph of the three-dimensional surface in the above picture Contour lines may be either traced on a visible three-dimensional model of the surface, as when a photogrammetrist viewing a stereo-model plots elevation contours, or interpolated form estimated surface elevations, as when a computer program threads contours through a network of observation points ot area centroids. The configuration of these contours allows map readers to infer relative gradient of a parameter and estimate that parameter at specific places. However if contour lines rotate through three or more widths, or if the lines are numerically labelled, then the direction of the gradient can also be determined from the contour lines.Ĭontour lines are curved or straight lines on a map describing the intersection of a real or hypothetical surface with one or more horizontal planes. If adjacent contour lines are of the same line width, the direction of the gradient cannot be determined from the contour lines alone. When the lines are close together the length of the gradient is large: the variation is steep. The gradient of the function is always perpendicular to the contour lines. The prefix iso-, the Greek prefix for "equal", refers to maps with lines that join points of equal value. A contour map is a map illustrated with contour lines. The curve at the top represents the values along that straight lineĪ contour line (also level set, isopleth, isoline, isogram or isarithm) for a function of two variables is a curve connecting points where the function has a same particular value. The bottom part of the diagram shows some contour lines with a straight line running through the location of the maximum value. ![]()
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