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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS2002

The National Map: Topographic Maps for the 21st Century

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is committed to meeting the Nation's needs for current base geographic data and maps. Our vision is that, by working with partners, we will provide the Nation with access to current, accurate, and nationally consistent digital data and topographic maps derived from those data. This synthesis of information, products, and capabilities, The National Map, will be a seamless, continuously maintained set of geographic base information that will serve as a foundation for integrating, sharing, and using other data easily and consistently.

Fact Sheet↗
USGS2006

The National Map: Topographic Maps for the 21st Century

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is committed to meeting the Nation's needs for current base geographic data and maps. Our vision is that, by working with partners, we will provide the Nation with access to current, accurate, and nationally consistent digital data and topographic maps derived from those data. This synthesis of information, products, and capabilities, The National Map, will be a seamless, continuously maintained set of geographic base information that will serve as a foundation for integrating, sharing, and using other data easily and consistently.

Fact Sheet↗
USGS1978

Mars synthetic topographic mapping

Topographic contour maps of Mars are compiled by the synthesis of data acquired from various scientific experiments of the Mariner 9 mission, including S-band radio-occulation, the ultraviolet spectrometer (UVS), the infrared radiometer (IRR), the infrared interferometer spectrometer (IRIS) and television imagery, as well as Earth-based radar information collected at Goldstone, Haystack, and Arecibo Observatories. The entire planet is mapped at scales of 1:25,000,000 and 1:25,000,000 using Mercator, Lambert, and polar stereographic map projections. For the computation of map projections, a biaxial spheroid figure is adopted. The semimajor and semiminor axes are 3393.4 and 3375.7 km, respectively, with a polar flattening of 0.0052. For the computation of elevations, a topographic datum is defined by a gravity field described in terms of spherical harmonics of fourth order and fourth degree combined with a 6.1-mbar occulation pressure surface. This areoid can be approximated by a triaxial ellipsoid with semimajor axes of A = 3394.6 km and B = 3393.3 km and a semiminor axis of C = 3376.3 km. The semimajor axis A intersects the Martian surface at longitude 105°W. The dynamic flattening of Mars is 0.00525. The contour intercal of the maps is 1 km. For some prominent features where overlapping pictures from Mariner 9 are available, local contour maps at relatively larger scales were also compiled by photogrammetric methods on stereo plotters.

Icarus↗
USGS1975

Topographic maps

A topographic map is a graphic representation of selected manmade and natural features of a part of the earth's surface plotted to a definite scale. The distinguishing characteristic of a topographic map is the portrayal of the shape and elevation of the terrain.

General Information Product↗
USGS1978

Topographic maps

A topographic map is a line-and-symbol representation of natural and selected man-made features of a part of the Earth's surface plotted to a definite scale. A distinguishing characteristic of a topographic map is the portrayal of the shape and elevation of the terrain by contour lines.

General Information Product↗
USGS1986

Topographic maps

A topographic map is a line-and-symbol representation of natural and selected man-made features of a part of the Earth's surface plotted to a definite scale. A distinguishing characteristic of a topographic map is the portrayal of the shape and elevation of the terrain by contour lines.

Monograph↗
USGS2019

Topographic mapping evolution: From field and photogrammetric data collection to GIS production and Linked Open Data

Whither the topographic map? Topographic mapping historically has been approached as a map factory operation through the period 1879-1990. During this time, data were field and photogrammetrically collected; cartographically verified and annotated creating a compilation manuscript; further edited, generalized, symbolized, and produced as a graphic output product using lithography, or more recently, through digital means. Adoption of geographic information systems (GIS) as the primary production process for topographic maps, including digital database preparation (1975-2000) and product generation operations (2001-present), has led to faster and more standardized production in a semi-automated process. However, the topographic product has remained the same static graphic. Global Navigation Systems (GNS) began in the post 1990s, led to publicly and commercially produced location-based information traditionally provided by surveyors for topographic maps. Advances in GIS technology, computer processing, memory, and storage devices, along with GNS spawned new location systems and led to ubiquitous, consumer-based cartography through commercial entities on the World Wide Web (Web). This global availability of cartography has provided consumer access and the ability to produce topographic types of map products previously supplied only by traditional National Mapping Agencies (NMAs). Information provided by location-based services made available through connected databases has led to completely new business models based on cartography and geospatial data. A new form of topographic map as an interactive, linked knowledge base is now being created. The appearance of the Semantic Web and Linked Open Data allows the map to become an interactive knowledge base. In this current theory and implementation of topographic mapping, the map is a graphics-based interface to a triplestore knowledge base which includes a topographic feature ontology, semantics and relations, and instance data with geometry and topology available. The topographic map graphic becomes an interactive link to the knowledge base and additional linked data through the Linked Open Data cloud.

Cartographic Journal↗
USGS1973

Can satellite photography contribute to topographic mapping?

Photographs taken on early space missions, in the Gemini-Apollo series, demonstrated the usefulness of the long view for cartography despite acknowledged shortcomings. Later developments, such as ERTS and Skylab, will provide far more data about Earth, but mostly in planimetric form. The third dimension, height, which makes the map representation topographic, is not easy to measure at orbital altitudes. The capability of current and near-future systems is not likely to do much for topographic mapping at scales larger than 1:250,000, but the benefits in planimetric mapping may be better than even the optimists hoped for.

Journal of Research of the U.S. Geological Survey↗
USGS2008

Topographic mapping

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) produced its first topographic map in 1879, the same year it was established. Today, more than 100 years and millions of map copies later, topographic mapping is still a central activity for the USGS. The topographic map remains an indispensable tool for government, science, industry, and leisure. Much has changed since early topographers traveled the unsettled West and carefully plotted the first USGS maps by hand. Advances in survey techniques, instrumentation, and design and printing technologies, as well as the use of aerial photography and satellite data, have dramatically improved mapping coverage, accuracy, and efficiency. Yet cartography, the art and science of mapping, may never before have undergone change more profound than today.

General Information Product↗
USGS1992

Topographic mapping

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) produced its first topographic map in 1879, the same year it was established. Today, more than 100 years and millions of map copies later, topographic mapping is still a central activity for the USGS. The topographic map remains an indispensable tool for government, science, industry, and leisure.

General Information Product↗
USGS2017

Historical Topographic Map Collection bookmark

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Geospatial Program is scanning published USGS 1:250,000-scale and larger topographic maps printed between 1884, the inception of the topographic mapping program, and 2006. The goal of this project, which began publishing the historical scanned maps in 2011, is to provide a digital repository of USGS topographic maps, available to the public at no cost. For more than 125 years, USGS topographic maps have accurately portrayed the complex geography of the Nation. The USGS is the Nation’s largest producer of printed topographic maps, and prior to 2006, USGS topographic maps were created using traditional cartographic methods and printed using a lithographic printing process. As the USGS continues the release of a new generation of topographic maps (US Topo) in electronic form, the topographic map remains an indispensable tool for government, science, industry, land management planning, and leisure.

General Information Product↗
USGS2014

Specification for the U.S. Geological Survey Historical Topographic Map Collection

This document provides the detailed requirements for producing, archiving, and disseminating a comprehensive digital collection of topographic maps for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Historical Topographic Map Collection (HTMC). The HTMC is a digital archive of about 190,000 printed topographic maps published by the USGS from the inception of the topographic mapping program in 1884 until the last paper topographic map using lithographic printing technology was published in 2006. The HTMC provides a comprehensive digital repository of all scales and all editions of USGS printed topographic maps that is easily discovered, browsed, and downloaded by the public at no cost. The HTMC provides ready access to maps that are no longer available for distribution in print. A digital file representing the original paper historical topographic map is produced for each historical map in the HTMC in georeferenced PDF (GeoPDF) format (a portable document format [PDF] with a geospatial extension).

Techniques and Methods↗
USGS2014

Standard for the U.S. Geological Survey Historical Topographic Map Collection

This document defines the digital map product of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Historical Topographic Map Collection (HTMC). The HTMC is a digital archive of about 190,000 printed topographic quadrangle maps published by the USGS from the inception of the topographic mapping program in 1884 until the last paper topographic map using lithographic printing technology was published in 2006. The HTMC provides a comprehensive digital repository of all scales and all editions of USGS printed topographic maps that is easily discovered, browsed, and downloaded by the public at no cost. Each printed topographic map is scanned “as is” and captures the content and condition of each map. The HTMC provides ready access to maps that are no longer available for distribution in print. A new generation of topographic maps called “US Topo” was defined in 2009. US Topo maps, though modeled on the legacy 7.5-minute topographic maps, conform to different standards. For more information on the HTMC, see the project Web site at: http://nationalmap.gov/historical/ .

Techniques and Methods↗
USGS2022

Deep learning detection and recognition of spot elevations on historic topographic maps

Some information contained in historical topographic maps has yet to be captured digitally, which limits the ability to automatically query such data. For example, U.S. Geological Survey’s historical topographic map collection (HTMC) displays millions of spot elevations at locations that were carefully chosen to best represent the terrain at the time. Although research has attempted to reproduce these data points, it has proven inadequate to automatically detect and recognize spot elevations in the HTMC. We propose a deep learning workflow pretrained using large benchmark text datasets. To these datasets we add manually crafted training image/label pairs, and test how many are required to improve prediction accuracy. We find that the initial model, pretrained solely with benchmark data, fails to predict any HTMC spot elevations correctly, whereas the addition of just 50 custom image/label pairs increases the predictive ability by ~50%, and the inclusion of 350 data pairs increased performance by ~80%. Data augmentation in the form of rotation, scaling and translation (offset) expanded the size and diversity of the training dataset and vastly improved recognition accuracy up to ~95%. Visualization methods, such as heat map generation and salient feature detection are recommended to better understand why some predictions fail.

Frontiers in Environmental Science↗
USGS1980

Topographic maps: Tools for planning

Topographic maps are a detailed record of a land area, giving geographic positions and elevations for both natural and man-made features. They show the shape of the land the mountains, valleys, and plains by means of brown contour lines (lines of equal elevation above sea level). In steep mountainous areas, contours are closely spaced; in flatter areas, they are far apart. The elevation of any point on the map can be estimated by referring to the elevations of the contour lines above and below it.

General Information Product↗
USGS2002

Cooperative Topographic Mapping Program

The mission of the Cooperative Topographic Mapping (CTM) Program of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is to provide the Nation with access to current, accurate, and consistent base geographic data and derivative products, including topographic maps. The CTM Program has the lead responsibility to develop, maintain, and make available The National Map.

Fact Sheet↗