At first glance, printed maps of the area have lost their relevance and been replaced by smartphone applications and GPS navigators. Electronic options are convenient, help you quickly determine your own location on the ground, but they have a number of significant disadvantages, one of which is unreliability. The ability to recognize symbols on a topographic map is necessary for navigating in unfamiliar areas without electronic devices. Whatever modern model of navigator you own, it will need regular connection to the mains or portable chargers to maintain stable performance. Also, navigation programs do not always correctly determine the location, which lengthens the route and complicates the process of reaching the destination. Paper diagrams do not need such careful care and will always come to the rescue in survival conditions. In the life of every person, situations arise when knowledge is needed about how symbols on a topographic map are deciphered. Thanks to the ability to identify them, you can easily go through any route, having only a printed diagram with you. In survival conditions or if you get lost, having a map of the area in your backpack helps you quickly navigate and significantly save time. In the article we will look at what topographic maps are, their classification, symbols and correct decoding.

Symbols on a topographic map

First, let's look at what a large-scale topographic plan of the area is (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Example of a topographic plan

By default, this is a universal scheme that provides the maximum possible amount of information about a particular area and familiarizes the user with all the important details of the landscape: from the classification of plants and soil types to gas stations and railroad crossings. The versatility lies in the fact that such a plan can be used for completely different purposes by travelers, motorists, surveyors, military personnel, engineers, agents of construction companies, foresters, hunters, fishermen and many others without restrictions.

Certain prohibitions are imposed exclusively on objects of military significance.

Schemes are created in the same way as online applications: By using pictures taken with aircraft(photos taken by space orbiting satellites have recently become popular), after which they are translated into a plane and simplified. This allows you to create the most accurate scaled-down landscape plan, on which the designations of the most important objects are subsequently applied. There are two main criteria by which the map topography and symbols should be created.

Criteria for creating a map:

1. Visibility. Since the topographic plan conveys all the details of the area visually, it should be as clear as possible for perception. The features of the relief, the presence of flora (less often fauna), railway and transport junctions, reservoirs, large structures, settlements are clearly displayed;
2. Measurability. Since any terrain diagram has a scale, all symbols can be measured with a ruler and a simple mathematical calculation can be made, which can be used to calculate the length, for example, of a building or a forest belt.

Figure 2. Example of generalization

How are symbols selected? topographic maps? This process is called generalization and involves selectively placing icons that are of greatest importance to the reader (Figure 2). Unimportant buildings are not displayed in any way to save free space.

Meanings of symbols

Terrain maps reached the peak of popularity in the USSR; almost every resident of the country had maps of one or another area. But even today, the book of symbols of topographic maps is in great demand. This is due to the fact that there are more than seven main groups of symbols, each of which includes dozens and even hundreds of different icons. All of them are considered the so-called legend (Figure 3) of any map (from a diagram in a subway car to highly specialized military or engineering copies). A detailed explanation of each symbol is placed in separate fields, which greatly simplifies the reading process. In cartography, there are no standards regarding the drawing of icons, so their design may vary in each copy, while maintaining an overall similarity and mandatory explanation in the margins.

Figure 3. Legend example different cards

Common signs on a topographic map and their meanings

Conventional symbols are intended to display on the landscape plan all phenomena and objects, their main characteristics.

Divided into three groups according to scale criteria:

Strongholds and settlements

Conventional signs of the military topographic map “strong and residential points (Figure 5)” help to initially orientate yourself:

Industrial and agricultural facilities

Symbols of topographic maps indicating industrial (Figure 6) and utility buildings can also serve as a guide.

Guide to industrial and agricultural facilities:

• The pipe dot symbol is used to show businesses with pipes that stand out from the surrounding landscape. Next to it, the main direction of the plant, factory or workshop is indicated. However, it is worth remembering that information about the activities of the enterprise may be out of date. It is for this reason that it is recommended to use modern maps that indicate the exact activities of production;
• Agricultural buildings are also indicated with out-of-scale symbols if they are of medium size. For small sizes, they are indicated by an abbreviated inscription (for example, a poultry farm is designated “birds.”), and for large ones, it has clear scaled contours.

A distinctive feature of drawing all industrial and rural buildings on the plan is the accuracy of the location of the midpoint.

Figure 6. Example of designation of industrial facilities

Socio-cultural objects

The landscape plan includes cultural monuments and social facilities that are located on the outskirts, outside the city limits and serve as landmarks. However, in tourist copies special attention is paid to monuments and important social buildings. These may include cathedrals, fortresses, ruins, estates, museums, exhibition centers, as well as sanatoriums, hospitals, tourist centers, resorts, selected according to the criterion of their importance. Next to the out-of-scale icon, the main definition is indicated in small, oblique font: monasteries “monast.”, monument “memory.”, sanatorium “sanat.”, mineral resort “min.kurt” (Figure 7).

Figure 7. Example of social objects

Railroads, highways and dirt roads

Conventional symbols of topographic maps, such as road and railway junctions (Figure 8), are present on any diagrams. The road junction plays the most important role for the reader and helps to get out both on foot and by car. vehicle. Indicated by linear symbols, the scale of which is accurately measured only in length.

All diagrams indicate:

Rivers, lakes, canals, etc.

Water symbols on a topographic map are divided into linear and scale.

Rivers, springs, springs and water channels that have a clear length are designated as linear.

Large-scale refers to lakes, seas, and reservoirs that can be measured both in length and width. Clarification for reservoirs is written in small italics (for a river “river” or lake “lake”). All reservoirs are painted in blue or blue color(Figure 9), on some maps depth is indicated by darker shades of blue.
Figure 9. Example of designation of rivers and lakes

Terrain

Since all terrain plans are presented in a two-dimensional plane, contrary to the original shape of the ellipsoid of planet Earth, volume and relief are depicted using isohypses. Isohypses are lines that allow you to display the volume of relief in two-dimensional space. The relief is represented not only by land and hills, but also by reservoirs and depressions. Depending on the convexity or concavity, the landscape is indicated by different colors. Consists of the elements: base, slope, top or bottom, height or depth of an object (Figure 10).

Any card has its own special language - special symbols. Geography studies all these designations, classifies them, and also develops new symbols to designate certain objects, phenomena and processes. Having a general understanding of conventional cartographic signs is useful for absolutely everyone. Such knowledge is not only interesting in itself, but will certainly be useful to you in real life.

This article is devoted to conventional signs in geography, which are used in the preparation of topographic, contour, thematic maps and large-scale terrain plans.

ABC cards

Just as our speech consists of letters, words and sentences, so any map includes a set of specific symbols. With their help, topographers transfer this or that terrain onto paper. Conventional signs in geography are a system of special graphic symbols used to designate specific objects, their properties and characteristics. This is a kind of “language” of the map, created artificially.

It is quite difficult to say exactly when the very first geographical maps appeared. On all continents of the planet, archaeologists find ancient primitive drawings on stones, bones or wood, created primitive people. This is how they depicted the area in which they had to live, hunt and defend themselves from enemies.

Modern symbols on geographic maps display all the most important elements of the area: landforms, rivers and lakes, fields and forests, settlements, communication routes, country borders, etc. The larger the image scale, the more objects can be plotted on the map . For example, on a detailed plan of the area, as a rule, all wells and sources of drinking water are marked. At the same time, marking such objects on a map of a region or country would be stupid and impractical.

A little history or how the symbols of geographical maps changed

Geography is a science that is unusually closely related to history. Let's delve into it to find out what cartographic images looked like many centuries ago.

Yes, for the old ones medieval maps It was characterized by an artistic rendering of the area with the widespread use of drawings as symbols. Geography at that time was just beginning to develop as a scientific discipline, so when compiling cartographic images The scale and outlines (borders) of area objects were often distorted.

On the other hand, all the drawings on the old drawings and portolans were individual and completely understandable. But these days you have to use your memory to learn what certain symbols on geographical maps mean.

From about the second half of the 18th century, there was a tendency in European cartography towards a gradual transition from individual perspective drawings to more specific plan symbols. In parallel with this, a need arose for a more accurate display of distances and areas on geographical maps Oh.

Geography: and topographic maps

Topographic maps and terrain plans are distinguished by fairly large scales (from 1:100,000 or more). They are the ones most often used in industry, agriculture, geological exploration, urban planning and tourism. Accordingly, the terrain on such maps should be displayed in as much detail and detail as possible.

For this purpose, a special system of graphic symbols was developed. In geography, it is also often called the “map legend.” For ease of reading and ease of remembering, many of these signs resemble real appearance the terrain objects they depict (from above or from the side). This system of cartographic symbols is standardized and mandatory for all enterprises that produce large-scale topographic maps.

The topic “Conventional signs” is studied in the school geography course in the 6th grade. To check the level of mastery of a given topic, students are often asked to write a short topographical story. Each of you probably wrote a similar “essay” at school. Sentences with symbols on geography look something like the photo below:

All symbols in cartography are usually divided into four groups:

• scale (area or contour);
• off-scale;
• linear;
• explanatory.

Let's take a closer look at each of these groups of signs.

Scale signs and their examples

In cartography, scale signs are those that are used to fill in any area objects. It could be a field, a forest or an orchard. Using these symbols on the map, you can determine not only the type and location of a particular object, but also its actual sizes.

The boundaries of areal objects on topographic maps and site plans can be depicted as solid lines (black, blue, brown or pink), dotted or simple dotted lines. Examples of large-scale cartographic symbols are presented below in the figure:

Off-scale signs

If a terrain feature cannot be depicted on the real scale of a plan or map, then non-scale symbols are used. We are talking about too small things, maybe, for example, windmill, sculptural monument, rock outcrop, spring or well.

The exact location of such an object on the ground is determined by the main point of the symbol. For symmetrical signs this point is located in the center of the figure, for signs with a wide base - in the middle of the base, and for signs based on a right angle - at the apex of such an angle.

It is worth noting that objects expressed on maps by out-of-scale symbols serve as excellent landmarks on the ground. Examples of off-scale cartographic symbols are presented in the figure below:

Linear signs

Sometimes the so-called linear cartographic signs are included in a separate group. It is not difficult to guess that with their help linearly extended objects are indicated on plans and maps - roads, boundaries of administrative units, railways, fords, etc. Interesting feature linear symbols: their length always corresponds to the map scale, but their width is significantly exaggerated.

Examples of linear cartographic symbols are presented in the figure below.

Explanatory signs

Perhaps the most informative is the group of explanatory symbols. With their help, additional characteristics of the depicted terrain objects are indicated. For example, a blue arrow in a river bed indicates the direction of its flow, and the number of transverse strokes on the symbol railway corresponds to the number of paths.

As a rule, maps and plans are labeled with the names of cities, towns, villages, mountain peaks, rivers and other geographical features. Explanatory symbols can be numeric or alphabetic. Letter designations are most often given in abbreviated form (for example, a ferry crossing is indicated as the abbreviation “par.”).

Symbols of contour and thematic maps

A contour map is a special type of geographic map intended for educational purposes. It contains only a coordinate grid and some elements of a geographical basis.

The set of symbols for contour maps in geography is not very wide. The very name of these maps is quite eloquent: to compile them, only contour marks of the boundaries of certain objects - countries, regions and regions - are used. Sometimes rivers and major cities(in the form of dots). By and large, contour map is a “silent” map, which is precisely intended to fill its surface with certain conventional signs.

Thematic maps are most often found in geography atlases. The symbols of such cards are extremely varied. They can be depicted as a color background, areas or so-called isolines. Diagrams and cartograms are often used. In general, each type of thematic map has its own set of specific symbols.

The symbols on a map or plan are a kind of their alphabet, by which they can be read, find out the nature of the area, the presence of certain objects, and evaluate the landscape. As a rule, symbols on a map convey common features with geographical objects that exist in reality. The ability to decipher cartographic symbols is indispensable when making tourist trips, especially to distant and unfamiliar areas.

All objects indicated on the plan can be measured on a map scale to represent their actual size. Thus, the symbols on a topographic map are its “legend”, their decoding for the purpose of further orientation on the terrain. Homogeneous objects are indicated by the same color or stroke.

All outlines of objects located on the map, according to the method of graphic representation, are divided into several types:

• Area
• Linear
• Spot

The first type consists of objects that occupy a large area on a topographic map, which are expressed by areas enclosed within boundaries in accordance with the scale of the map. These are objects such as lakes, forests, swamps, fields.

Line symbols are outlines in the form of lines and can be seen on a map scale along the length of an object. These are rivers, railways or roads, power lines, clearings, streams, etc.

Dotted outlines (out-of-scale) indicate small objects that cannot be expressed on the map scale. These can be either individual cities or trees, wells, pipes and other small individual objects.

Symbols are applied in order to have as complete an idea as possible about the specified area, but this does not mean that absolutely all the smallest details of a real individual area or city have been identified. The plan indicates only those objects that are of great importance for the national economy, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, and military personnel.

Types of symbols on maps

Conventions used on military maps

To recognize map signs, you need to be able to decipher them. Conventional symbols are divided into scale, non-scale and explanatory.

• Scale symbols indicate local objects that can be expressed in size on the scale of a topographic map. Their graphic designation appears in the form of a small dotted line or thin line. The area inside the border is filled with conventional icons that correspond to the presence of real objects in this area. Using scale marks on a map or plan, you can measure the area and dimensions of a real topographical object, as well as its outline.
• Off-scale symbols indicate objects that cannot be displayed on a plan scale, the size of which cannot be judged. These are some separate buildings, wells, towers, pipes, kilometer posts, etc. Out-of-scale symbols do not indicate the dimensions of an object located on the plan, so it is difficult to determine the actual width or length of a pipe, elevator or free-standing tree. The purpose of off-scale symbols is to accurately indicate a specific object, which is always important when orienting yourself while traveling in an unfamiliar area. The exact location of the indicated objects is carried out by the main point of the symbol: this can be the center or lower middle point of the figure, the vertex of a right angle, the lower center of the figure, the axis of the symbol.
• Explanatory signs serve to disclose information about scale and non-scale designations. They give additional characteristics to objects located on a plan or map, for example, indicating the direction of river flow with arrows, designating the forest type with special signs, the load capacity of the bridge, the nature of the road surface, the thickness and height of the trees in the forest.

Besides this, topographic plans place on themselves other designations that serve as additional characteristics for some of the specified objects:

• Signatures

Some signatures are used in full, others in abbreviated form. The names of settlements, rivers and lakes are fully deciphered. Abbreviated labels are used to indicate more detailed characteristics of certain objects.

• Digital legend

They are used to indicate the width and length of rivers, roads and railways, transmission lines, the height of points above sea level, the depth of fords, etc. The standard map scale designation is always the same and depends only on the size of this scale (for example, 1:1000, 1:100, 1:25000, etc.).

In order to make it as easy as possible to navigate a map or plan, symbols are indicated in different colors. More than twenty different shades are used to distinguish even the smallest objects, from intensely colored areas to less vibrant ones. To make the map easy to read, there is a table at the bottom with a breakdown of the color codes. So, usually water bodies are indicated by blue, cyan, turquoise; forest objects in green; terrain – brown; city ​​blocks and small settlements – gray-olive; highways and highways - orange; state borders– purple, neutral area – black. Moreover, neighborhoods with fire-resistant buildings and structures are indicated in orange, and neighborhoods with non-fire-resistant structures and improved dirt roads are indicated in yellow.

The unified system of symbols for maps and site plans is based on the following provisions:

• Each graphic sign always corresponds to a specific type or phenomenon.
• Each sign has its own clear pattern.
• If the map and plan differ in scale, objects will not differ in their designation. The only difference will be in their sizes.
• Drawings of real terrain objects usually indicate an associative connection with it, and therefore reproduce the profile or appearance of these objects.

To establish an associative connection between a sign and an object, there are 10 types of composition formation:

MUNICIPAL BUDGETARY INSTITUTION OF ADDITIONAL EDUCATION

"CENTER FOR CHILDREN AND YOUTH TOURISM

AND EXCURSIONS" BRYANSK

LESSON SUMMARY ON THE TOPIC:

DEVELOPED: teacher d/o

Stasishina N.V.

Bryansk - 2014

Plan - outline

classes on the topic

"Conventional signs of topographic maps."

Purpose of the lesson: Give an idea of ​​the symbols of topographic maps.

Lesson objectives:

To familiarize students with the concept of conventional signs and its varieties;

Involve circle members in systematic sports activities;

Develop skills in teamwork and joint search for solutions;

Continue to promote development logical thinking, memory and

students' attention;

Equipment: 1. posters with symbols.

2. cards with test tasks.

Type of classes: Learning new material.

Literature: 1. Aleshin V.M. “Tourist topography” - Profizdat, 1987

2. Aleshin V.M., Serebrenikov A.V., “Tourist topography” - Profizdat, 1985

3. Vlasov A, Ngorny A. - “Tourism” ( teaching aid), M., Higher

school, 1977

4. Voronov A. - “Tourist’s Guide to Topography” - Krasnodar., Publishing House, 1973

6. Kuprin A., “Topography for everyone” - M., Nedra, 1976.

Lesson plan

Preparatory part. (3)

New topic explained: (45)

Presentation of new information.

3. Consolidation of the studied material. (8)

4. Summing up the lesson. (2)

5. Organizational moment. (2)

Progress of the lesson.

1. Preparatory part:

Students take their places at their desks and prepare writing materials.

The teacher announces the topic, goals and objectives of the lesson, explains the requirements and lesson plan, and checks those present.

Pay attention

to be ready for

occupation, uniform

clothes for those involved.

2. Explanation of a new topic:

Statement of new information:

Today in class we will look at new topic:

"Conventional signs of topographic maps."

The map has many names printed in ordinary words, numbers, lines and many icons of different colors, sizes and shapes. This topographical symbols, which indicate local objects on the map.

What are conventional signs?

Conventional signs are symbols with the help of which the actual terrain is depicted on the map.

Topographers came up with special symbols so that they would be as similar as possible to the local objects themselves, and would correspond in size to them on the map scale. So, for example, a forest on topographic maps is depicted in green (after all, it is actually green); houses and other buildings are depicted as rectangles, since when viewed from above, they really almost always have the shape of rectangles; rivers, streams, lakes are depicted in blue, since water, reflecting the sky, also appears blue to us. But it is not always possible to accurately depict every local object on the map in terms of shape, color and size. Let's take, for example, a highway whose width is 20 m. On a hundred thousandth map (1 mm 100 m) such a road would have to be depicted with a line one-fifth of a millimeter thick, and on a map of scale 1:200000 this line would have to be drawn even further thinner - 0.1 mm. Small but important local objects are depicted on topographic maps with special out-of-scale signs, that is, such signs that do not correspond to the actual sizes of local objects, reduced according to the scale of a particular map. For example, a small spring on the river bank is depicted on the map as a blue circle with a diameter of a whole millimeter; In addition, highways and other major roads are colored on maps so that they, as they say, are striking to everyone who picks up a topographic map. For example, an asphalt highway is depicted on a map with a bright red line.

The symbols used in drawing up sports maps for orienteering competitions are somewhat different from topographical ones. Their main purpose is to give the athlete the information about the terrain that he needs when choosing a path of movement. These are signs showing the passability of forests, swamps, paths, etc. So, for ease of reading while running, on a sports map, unlike a topographic map, it is not the forest that is painted over, but the open space - fields, meadows, clearings in the forest. All topographical symbols can be divided into four types:

1) linear- these are roads, communication lines, power lines, streams, rivers, etc. That is, these are signs of such local objects that themselves have the form of long lines;

Write the topic on the board.

Students write down a new topic in their notebook.

2) curly- these are signs of towers, bridges, churches, ferries, power plants, individual buildings, etc.;

3) area - these are signs of forests, swamps, settlements, arable lands, meadows - that is, local objects that occupy significant areas of the earth's surface. Area signs consist of two

elements: contour and sign filling the contour;

4) explanatory- these are signs characterizing the forest, names of settlements, railway stations, rivers, lakes, mountains, etc.,

this is the width of the highway, the length, width and load-carrying capacity of bridges, the depth of fords on rivers, and the like.

Almost all linear and figured signs are non-scale, and area signs, as a rule, exactly correspond to the true sizes of local objects. It is easier to study and remember signs by getting to know them in groups, which are formed according to the type of local objects:

group No. 1 - roads and road structures;

group No. 2 - settlements, buildings;

group No. 3 - hydraulic network (that is, water on the ground);

group No. 4 - vegetation;

group No. 5 - relief;

Group No. 6 - explanatory and special tourist signs.

Group No. 1. Roads and road structures

This group includes eleven most important topographical signs.

All roads can be divided into three main types: railways for train traffic, highways and unpaved roads.

Highway are called roads that have hard artificialcovering - stone (cobblestones, paving stones), asphalt or concrete. The highway sign is out-of-scale. Every SCO signseine road an additional sign is given on the map- alphabetic digital characteristic consisting of three elements: numbers, one more number in brackets and a letter. The first number indicates the width of the highway surface in meters (that is, paved, pavednirovanny or stone-covered part of the highway), and in bracketsa figure is given indicating the width of the entire highway surface in meters, that is, together with the roadsides. The letter denotes the material with which the highway is covered: if it is asphalt, then the letter “A” is put, if concrete is the letter “B”, and if the highway is covered with buskier or paving stones (i.e. stone), then the letter “K”.

The next type of highways is ground, earthen roads without artificial surface. All dirt roads are divided into three types: simple dirt roads (they are also called field or forest roads), country roads, and so on.

called improved dirt roads (abbreviated as UGD). An improved dirt road is also an earthen road, but has a slightly convex shape for better water flow, ditches along the sides and a gravel or crushed stone fill compacted with a roller.

Nobody specially lays paths; they arise spontaneously.fight from the constant walking of people. In densely populated areasRarely can an entire network go in the same direction at oncepaths that then close, then again diverge. So manyIt is impossible to depict the number of paths on the map, so the groupthe trail is shown by one conditional trail in the corresponding directionlenition. Only long enough and permanently existing (sometimes called “centuries old”) trails are markedon large scale maps. The trail sign is almost like thisthe same as a simple dirt road - a thin black intermittentdashed line, but every strokehas a shorter length.

Railways previously iso flogged with two thin blackparallel lines, clearance between which was filled inalternating black and white shanecks. Now signis a continuousthick black line. Two koRotkikh stroke across the signa railway means that it ishas two tracks. If there is only one track, then one line is added. If the cross stroke has anothera small stroke parallel to the railway sign, then I know that Read that the road is electrified.

At the sign railway station a black rectangle inside a white rectangle is placed on the side of the railway where the station building (station building) is located.

Bridges. On simple dirt roads, as a rule, wooden bridges are built; on highways, improved dirt roads and on important country roads, bridges are most often made of concrete (stone). On railways, large bridges over large rivers are always metal, and over small rivers - concrete. Topographic signs of bridges are shaped and non-scale signs.
Where a bridge sign is placed on the map, the road and river signs are broken (Fig. 37). An explanatory sign for bridges is the alphanumeric characteristics of the bridge. For example: DZ =
(24 - 5)/10. Here the letter “D” denotes the material from which the bridge is built - wood (if the bridge is concrete, the letter is written

"TO"). Coefficient 3 is the height of the bridge above the surface of the water in the river. In the numerator of the fraction, the first digit, 24, is the length of the bridge in meters, the second digit, 5, is its width in meters. In the denominator, the number 10 shows the load capacity of the bridge in tons, that is, what is the maximum weight of the machine the bridge is designed for design.

Bridges are often also made on hiking trails, but very small ones - only for pedestrians. Such bridges (residents often call them either treasures or lavas) are sometimes simply two logs laid over a river from bank to bank. The topographic sign for a pedestrian bridge is very simple.

Very often the roads intersect with small dry

ravines, hollows through which streams flow only in the spring, when the snow melts. When building a road, an embankment is made across the ravine, under which a concrete pipe is laid for

Students write down in their notebooks.

Symbols are sketched in a notebook

highway

Simple dirt road

Country road

Improved dirt road

Railway

Bridge

Footbridge

water flow. Such pipes have their own topographic sign.

Group No. 2. Settlements, individual buildings

This group contains fifteen most important topographical signs. The settlements themselves - villages, auls, hamlets, towns, cities - are complex formations, consisting of various buildings and structures. Therefore, there is no simple topographic sign of a populated area - it consists of topographic signs of various local objects that make up what is called a populated area.

Separate residential and non-residential buildings are depicted by an out-of-scale black rectangle. If the structure is very large in area, and the map is large-scale, then the structure is depicted as a black figure, similar in shape and size (on the map scale) to the structure itself. That is, this is already a large-scale sign. Often, at some distance from a village or town, there is a residential building with its own vegetable garden, orchard, and outbuildings.

For such a separate yard, or farm, there is a special topographic sign.

In populated areas, there are neighborhoods with a predominance of wooden (non-fire-resistant) and stone (fire-resistant) buildings. Topographic sign quarter of the village limited to thin black lines. Inside it, a background is either yellow (if wooden buildings predominate in the block) or orange (if fire-resistant stone buildings predominate in the block). On the background there are black rectangles - out-of-scale signs of individual houses, buildings or large-scale signs of individual large buildings. Next to the signs of some buildings their characteristics are given. For example: "SHK." - school, “SICK.” - hospital, “EL-ST.” - power plant, "SAN" - sanatorium.

The topographic fence sign is the thinnest black line on the map. This sign is often found on maps in the form of a broken closed line, which indicates some kind of fenced area.

If an industrial enterprise is depicted on a small-scale map, then it is necessary to use an out-of-scale sign of a plant (factory) with a pipe (meaning a tall pipe that can serve as a landmark visible at a fairly large distance) or without a pipe. Next to the sign is an abbreviated explanatory sign characterizing the type of product manufactured by the enterprise. For example: “brick” - brick factory, "torment." - flour mill, “boom.” - paper mill, "sah." - sugar factory, etc.

If an industrial enterprise occupies a large area, then the usual large-scale signs are used, showing all or almost all buildings and structures on its territory: a fence, a factory building, workshops, warehouses, etc., while a half-blackened one is also placed here.

diagonally, an out-of-scale plant sign.

pipe under the road

Separate buildings

Khutor

Urban development

Plants and factories

Inside a populated area there may bechurch, monument or a monument cemetery . A cemetery can be small or large, with or without trees. PoeTherefore, to depict a cemetery, both large-scale andand an off-scale sign. On hikes and travels you can findeven in a deep forest there is a separate yard where he lives

forester and his family. Forester's house has its own topographic sign - an ordinary non-scale sign of a separate building with the inscription “forest.”

Important landmarks can be the various buildings basheared type- water towers, fire towers, silos. They are indicated by one out-of-scale sign, next to which an explanation is often given of what kind of tower it is.

Good landmarks are also high wooden towers, most often standing on the tops of hills, with an observation platform at the very top, where a ladder leads. These are the so-called triangulation points(they are called trigopunks for short). Next to the trigopoint sign on the map there is always some number that indicates the height of the base of the tower above the level of the Baltic Sea in meters and centimeters.

A sign resembling bricks stacked on top of each other - peat mining, that is, the place where peat is mined.

And the last of this group are very important local items, topographic signs which you need to know are communication lines and power transmission lines (PTL).

Communication lines are indicated on all maps, regardless of the nature of the connection, by a thin black line with black dots on it. The communication line sign is drawn on the map as the communication line itself goes on the ground.

Power lines(power lines) are on wooden poles or on metal and concrete supports. The power line sign consists of a thin black line on which dots or dashes with arrows are located at intervals of one centimeter.

If the power line is laid on wooden poles, then dots are placed, if on metal or concrete supports - short, thick lines.

Group No. 3. Hydrography

There are 8 basic signs in this group that you need to know.

While traveling on foot, tourists constantly “communicate” with the surface waters of the earth - they set up camp on the banks of rivers and lakes, lay routes along rivers, ford them, overcome swamps, ditches, and use springs to cook food over fires.

One of the main topographical signs of this group is river sign- can be both large-scale and non-scale (across the width of the river). The sign of a wide, large river consists of two elements - the outline of the coastlines of the river (as well as the coastline of the islands, if any), which is drawn with a thin blue line, and the fill sign - a blue background depicting the surface of the river, that is, the space occupied by water.

Church

monument

forester's house

tower

trig point

peat mining

Link

Power lines

big river

Out-of-scale sign small river or stream is a simple thin blue line, which, however, gradually thickens from source to mouth.

There are streams that “live” only in spring and early summer, and then the water in them disappears. This peresflowing streams and rivers. The sign of such streams and rivers is a thin blue, but not solid, but broken line

Information about where the river flows and what the speed of the flow is will also be provided by a topographic map with an explanatory sign of hydrography - a black arrow showing the direction of the river flow, and numbers placed in the middle of the arrow and showing the flow speed in meters per second.

Sea, lake, pond are depicted in the same way: the contours of the banks are shown with a thin blue line, and the water mirror is shown with a blue background.

In densely populated areas, wells located in populated areas are shown only on very large-scale maps (terrain plans). Sign well- a blue circle with a blue dot in the center.

Water sources(springs, springs) are also shown on topographic maps only when they do not dry up and have a significant amount of water. The sign of the source (spring) is a blue circle. If a constant stream flows from a spring, it is shown with the appropriate sign. If the water soon goes back into the ground, the stream sign is not shown.

Swamps There are two types: passable and difficult to pass (or even completely impassable), through which it is dangerous to move and it is better to avoid it. Accordingly, there are two signs of swamps: short blue horizontal strokes, grouped in the shape of irregular rhombuses - this is a passable swamp, but solid horizontal blue strokes - an impassable swamp. The boundaries of the swamps are outlined by a black dotted line.

And the last sign of this group is ditches, the signs of which are thin blue lines. This sign is similar to the sign of an ordinary stream, but its shape is sharply different from it: the line of the stream is always smoothly winding, while the lines of ditches are broken with long, smooth sections without bends.

Group No. 4. Vegetation

This group includes 15 topographical signs, most of which are area and, therefore, large-scale signs.

The first sign is land boundaries, that is, areas occupied by one or another natural or artificial vegetation. Every forest has an edge, and every field, meadow, and swamp has an edge. These are their boundaries, which are shown on topographic maps with a small dotted black line. But the boundaries of the land are not always shown with a dotted line: if there is a road right along the edge of the forest or along the edge of the arable land, meadow, then the sign of this road replaces the boundary sign, that is, the road itself already delimits the forest from the field, the field from the meadow, the meadow from the swamp, etc. d. If a garden or cemetery is surrounded by a fence, then the fence is the boundary.

When carried out land boundaries with a dotted line (or some other sign) - that is, their contours are given, on both sides of the border a filling sign is given - a background and other icons that show what exactly the contour is occupied with, what kind of vegetation is in it.

Sign forests- green background. If the forest is old (as they say - ripe), then the background is made dark green, and if the forest is young (forest growth) - lightlo green. The same is depictedparks in populated areas.
It is important to know not only that this is a forest, but also what it is like - what kind of things are in itthe types of trees that grow, how densely they grow.
There are special explanatory signs for this
- characteristics tree stand. These signs representare images of small trees,signatures and numbers next to them. If in this forest(or parts of the forest) are dominated by coniferous trees,small Christmas trees are drawn on a green background, and if deciduous trees predominate - small birch trees, whose right sidethe crowns are made blackened. If the forest is mixed, both a Christmas tree andbirch tree Abbreviated signature on the leftsigns indicate what types of needlesTrees and deciduous trees predominate here.

The fraction to the right of these icons means the following: the numerator of the fraction is the average height of the trees in this forest in meters, the denominator is the average thickness of the trunks at the level of a person’s head in meters, and the coefficient behind the fraction is the average distance between the trees (that is, the density forests).

Found in forests clearings- long forest corridors. Such clearings are cut (cut) specifically so that the forest is better ventilated and illuminated by the sun. Most often, the clearings are made mutually perpendicular: some run from north to south, others cross them from west to east. Clearings come in different widths: from 2-3 to 10-12 m, and sometimes they are very wide - up to 50 meters or more. Such large clearings are made to lay gas pipelines, oil pipelines, highways, railways, and high-voltage power lines through forests.

Clearings divide the forest into blocks, and each forest block has its own number. At the intersections of the clearings there are quarter poles, on the edges of which these numbers are written in paint. Not every clearing has a road; there are very overgrown clearings, which are even more difficult to navigate than straight through the forest. But the topographic sign of the clearing exactly corresponds to the sign of a simple dirt road - a thin black dashed line. A number indicating its width in meters is also placed here.

For young growth forests, in addition to the light green background, an additional fill sign is used: small black circles go in rows along the background, but their rows are located at 45° to the map frames .

Orchards are also depicted with a green background with rows of small black circles, but here their rows go at 90° to the frames of the card.

Forest deforestation shown on a white background. The mark that fills the contour of the cutting is black vertical strokes arranged in a checkerboard pattern with a short black horizontal stroke at the lower end.

Sign woodlands also, as a rule, located on a white background in the form of black circles with a tail at the bottom, which is always directed to the east.

Large-scale topographic maps show separate groupsbushes in the form of a black circle with three thickened black dots along the outer edge. This is a non-scale sign. If the bushes occupy significant areas of the area, they are already shown as a contour (dotted line), which is filled inside with a light green background, and circles with three dots are scattered across the background in a random order.

Narrow strips of forest are depicted on maps without a green background as a chain of black circles. This is an out-of-scale forest belt sign. If the forest strip is wide enough for a given map scale, then it is depicted with a regular forest sign. There are also narrow strips of bushes (hedges). They are represented by an off-scale sign - a chain of small black circles alternating with thickened dots.

Along the roads there are often specially planted trees, forming a kind of green corridor along the road (alley). These are linings that are shown on maps as small black circles on the sides of the road.

Freestanding trees(not in the forest, but in the field), if they are large and have the significance of landmarks (that is, clearly visible from all sides at a sufficiently large distance), they are also indicated on topographic maps by their off-scale sign .

Meadows have their own sign: small black quotation marks are placed in a checkerboard pattern inside the contour delimiting the meadow. Meadows can occupy very large spaces and can stretch in narrow ribbons in the floodplains of rivers. Small clearings in the forest are also meadows. The sign of a passable swamp is almost always combined with the sign of a meadow, because such a swamp is always covered with grass.

Along the edges of the villages there are vegetable gardens The vegetable garden sign has undergone a major change in the recent past: the old sign was obliquely hatched with solid and dashed lines in black, going in one direction or the other. New vegetable garden sign - gray background.

The last sign of this group, sign arable land,

This is a white background with a black dotted outline.

Group No. 5. Relief

The surface of our planet is very rarely flat. On any plain there are always at least small elevations and depressions: hills , mounds, depressions, ravines, pits, cliffs along river banks. All this taken together represents the topography of the area. Relief is a set of irregularities on the earth's surface. All irregularities can be easily divided into two types - convexity and concavity. Convexities are considered to be positive landforms, and concavities are considered negative landforms. Positive forms of relief include: mountain, hill (hillock), ridge, hill, mound, dune, sandy moving hill); to negative - basin, lowland, valley, gorge, ravine, beam, ravine, hole. Forms: reliefs always alternate in space: every positive form smoothly or abruptly turns into a negative one, and a negative one sharply or smoothly turns into a neighboring positive one.

It is customary to divide flat terrain according to the nature of the relief by three type:lightly crossed, moderately crossed and strongly crossed terrain. The degree of ruggedness depends both on the frequency of alternation of convexities and concavities (ascents and descents), and on their height and steepness: where the “ruggedness” of the relief is stronger, that is, where ravines, hills, basins, gullies are more common, and where they are especially high (deep) and their slopes are steeper, the terrain is considered very rugged.

Each relief form has three parts (elements): the top or gold (for positive forms), the bottom (for negative forms), the bottom (for positive ones), the edge or edge (for negative ones) and the slopes or walls for both.

Slopes- a common element of both negative and positive relief forms. They are steep, steep (sharp) and gentle (smooth). Depending on the predominant slopes of the hills and lowlands in a given area, we say: there is a soft and smooth relief here, or there is a sharp, hard relief here.

There are two main ways to convey relief forms on maps: smooth, soft forms are depicted by so-called horizontal lines - thin brown lines, and sharp, hard forms - by a special line with jagged edges. These teeth, like any triangles, have a base and vertices. Where the tops of the teeth are directed, the slope descends there - it goes down almost a vertical cliff. To make it easy to distinguish a steep slope of natural origin from artificial cliffs on the map, jagged lines of cliffs are made in two colors - brown (natural cliffs along river valleys, ravines, etc.) and black (artificial embankments, dams, quarry slopes, etc. .). Next to the cliff signs there is a number indicating the length of the cliff in meters.

Pits and mounds can be naturalmi and artificial. They may bevery deep (high), but small in area, and then they have todepict out-of-scale on mapssigns. If they are significantny dimensions in area, then showing them indicated by scale marks (Fig. 74). The number next to the sign of the mound and pit also indicates their depth and height.

Embankments and excavations along the road are also depicted on maps as a jagged line, but in black, since they are artificial structures. Where the teeth are directed with their sharp ends away from the railway or highway bed, the road goes along the embankment, and where they are directed on the contrary, towards the road bed, along the excavation. The numbers indicate the highest heights of these slopes.

At the sign career, As a rule, an abbreviated caption is given on the maps, clarifying what exactly is being mined in this quarry.

More complex rigid forms of relief are ravines, which are formed in loose sedimentary rocks under the influence of soil erosion by streams of rainwater and during snowmelt. Ravines are a “living” phenomenon; they are born, grow and gradually die. While the ravine is “young” (it is called ravine), its slopes are very steep, but gradually they crumble - they flatten out, become overgrown with turf, bushes, the ravine stops growing and turns into beam (logs)well, a hollow). A ravine has a top, bottom and mouth. From one ravine to the sides can have side ravines with their tops - their called screwdrivers ravine But screwdrivers, in turn, canmultiply, forming intricate branching.

Small River

Drying river

Sea, lake

well

spring, key

clearings

Orchard

felling open forest

bushes

Casing

Meadows

Hard landforms

Pits and mounds

Embankments and excavations

Career

Two typical representatives of soft landforms - antipodes hill(tubercle) and basin(depression). You cannot show them with a jagged line on the map, since their slopes are gentle and smooth.

If you horizontally “cut”, dissect the figure of a hill into even “slices”, then the entire slope of the hill will be surrounded by several closed lines of “cuts” - horizontals. And if you then draw these lines on paper, you will get a figure that gives an idea of ​​​​the relief (Fig. 78). You just need to use short strokes on the horizontal lines to show in which direction the slopes go down, since exactly the same figure will be obtained if you cut through the basin with horizontal planes. Such strokes, showing the direction down from the horizontal, are called berg strokes or slope indicators (in German, “berg” means mountain).

This method of depicting soft landforms on maps andIt's called the method of contours. Beyond the beginning of the secants of the relief horizonThe plane of the Baltic Sea level is adopted for the tal planes.The next cutting plane is drawn, for example, 10 m higherlevel of the Baltic Sea, after another 10 m in height there is a second cutting plane, then, 10 m above it, a third (already at a height30 m above sea level), etc. This distance (h) between planes cutting the relief is called the height of the relief section and can be different: 2.5 m, 5 m, 10 m, 20 m, etc.

Each cutting plane will give on the map its own closed relief section line - a horizontal, and all together they will give a complete drawing of contours - a general picture of the terrain. But since there will be a lot of contour lines on the map, in order not to get confused in them, to make it easier to distinguish and trace them, we decided to highlight some of the contour lines a little - to make every fifth one thicker. Then the contour lines on the map, as they say, are better readable. Thus, with a section height of, for example, 5 m, the thickened horizontal will be the horizontal located 25 m above the level of the Baltic Sea; the next thickened one is 50 m above sea level, etc.

In addition, on some horizontal lines, in convenient places, numbers are written in brown, which indicate the height of this horizontal line in meters above sea level, or, as is customary in topography to call this value, the horizontal mark. The very number of the mark of one or another horizontal line, in addition to the berg strokes, helps to understand in which direction the slope goes down: where this number has a bottom, that’s where the slope goes down, and where there’s a top, that’s where the slope goes up. In addition, marks are placed on the tops of mountains and hills. The side of the hill, which is steeper, will be depicted on the map as contours located close to each other, and the other, flat side of the hill, on the contrary, will be depicted as sparse contours.

Between the tops of two neighboring hills that have a common base, there is always a depression. This depression is called a saddle. And under the saddle on
On the slopes of hills, gullies and ravines most often appear - hard forms of relief are always difficult to combine with
soft.

Group No. 6. Special signs

They try to place the labels of names on maps so that they do not cover important objects, and at the same time, they still have to make, for example, a gap in the signs of the road network where the signature of a settlement or the name of some other place is superimposed on the road sign local subject.

Signatures of the names of settlements are always made horizontally (direction west - east) in different fonts - in some places the letters of the inscription are thicker and taller, in others they are thinner and have a slight slope. Through such a difference in font, certain information is communicated to the map reader: approximate
number of inhabitants in locality. Where there are more residents, there is a larger signature. Under each name of a settlement there are numbers that indicate the number of buildings (yards) in this village or town. Next to these numbers there are letters in some places

“SS”, indicating that in this locality there is a village council, that is, a local government authority.

On their homemade maps and diagrams, tourists often enter special symbols showing the route traveled by the tourist group and its direction, travel routes, places of overnight and day stays, places of daytime stops for lunch, and places of interest along the route.

3. Consolidation of the studied material.

1. What are symbols?

2. How many groups can topographic symbols be divided into?

3. List these groups?

4. List what is considered linear?

5. List what applies to areal types?

6. How many groups are topographic signs divided into?

4. Summing up the lesson.

The teacher draws conclusions, evaluates the activities of the students, and gives instructions for the next lesson.

5. Organizational moment.

The teacher tells future plans for the coming week.

on a topographic map.

You have come across a map that is little known to anyone from the secret archives of a district or region. And there, long-vanished farmsteads, villages, and villages and many more incomprehensible signs, lines and dots. What do the icons on a topographic map mean? How to understand and determine where is an active settlement, where is a disappeared one, where is a cemetery, and where is a living spring with crystal clear drinking water, which can be useful to you in hot summer weather during a dig. Someone will say that you should have studied geography, and that’s right, but you won’t remember everything.

And for us, treasure hunters and amateur archaeologists, it is important to be able to correctly read a topographic map for correct and quick orientation on the ground. It’s okay when you search for antiquities in familiar areas. What if this is a foreign area or region? Old-timers in treasure hunting advise digging together, in a group. This way, you may be able to protect yourself from attacks from local residents and government officials. You will have fun in the company of like-minded people, and if anything unexpected happens, they will definitely help you. But if not one of you knows the decoding of the symbols on the topographic map, you are worthless. Running from side to side, frantically searching around at random for places to excavate - stupid, provocative, excessive fuss attracts negative attention.

And so, let's begin a detailed study of the symbols on your secret treasure map.

1. Multiple buildings.
2. Destroyed buildings.
3. Single building.
4. Destroyed building.
5. Working mines.
6. Closed mines.
7. Industrial enterprise(plant, factory).
8. Factory pipe.
9. Power plant.
10. Warehouse of fuels and lubricants.
11. The tower is either stone or metal.
12. Lightweight tower (from the corners).
13. Television and radio towers.
14. Distribution transformer.
15. Television or radio broadcasting center.
16. Airstrip for airplanes (airfield).
17. Forester's housing.
18. Geodetic point.
19. Railway.
20. Stone or brick fence (fence).
21. Spring.
22. Well of water (crane).
23. Wind well.
24. Ordinary well, log house.
25. Muslim cemetery.
26. Main locations of tents and yurts.
27. Electrical wires on wooden poles.
28. Electrical wires on concrete poles.
29. Engines powered by wind (power plants).
30. Windmills.
31. Peat extraction is large-scale.
32. Water mill.
33. Gas station.
34. Meteorological point.
35. Chapel.
36. Church (temple, cathedral).
37. Large cemetery.
38. Small cemetery.
39. Monuments, obelisks, memorials and monuments.
40. Beekeeping apiary.

41. Forest. The numbers in the numerators are the height, the denominators are the girth of the trunk, the number next to them is the distance between the trees. In front of the fractions, they can write what kind of forest: birch, maple, oak, or mixed.
42. Coniferous forest.
43. Forest cut down.
44. Rare forest.
45. Overgrown bushes.
46. ​​Salt marshes are impassable.
47. Passable salt marshes.
48. Impenetrable swamps with vegetation. If there are three lines (as in the picture) - moss. If there are two lines - grass. A bush represents reeds or reeds.
49. Fruit garden.
50. Dry or burnt forest.
51. Reed or reed.
52. Forest felled by a storm (hurricane, tornado).
53. Tall grass stand.
54. Meadow vegetation, less than one meter in height.
55. Young trees.

56. Gullies and pits.

57. Mounds.

58. Absolute altitude.

59. Stones.

60. Cave.

61. Indication of a ford on the river. The first digit in the denominator is the depth, the second is the length. In the numerator, the first is the type of soil (T - hard), the second is the speed of the river flow.

62. Terricons.

63. Lime burning.