Relief Representation

Relief is the physical landscape; the actual configuration of the earth’s surface. It can also
be defined as the earth’s third dimension (3D). Relief portrays the elevations or the
inequalities of the earth’s surface considered collectively. R e l i e f a l s o r e f e r r e d t o a s
Terrain is an essential aspect of physical geography, and as such its portrayal
presents a central problem in cartography, and more recently GIS and 3D Visualization.

Purpose of showing relief

In all kinds of human activities, relief plays a very important role. Information on relief is
required forthe following

i)All kinds of construction work such as roads, building, dams, etc.

ii)Military operations – artillery fire, calculation of infantry fire etc

iii)Air Navigation

iv)Tourism

v)Scientific purposes.

Methods of showing relief

The most obvious way to depict relief is to imitate it at scale, as in molded or sculpted
solid terrain models and molded-plastic raised-relief maps. Because of the disparity
between the horizontal and vertical scales of maps, raised relief is highly exaggerated.
Relief can be portrayed qualitatively or quantitatively. Qualitative portrayal is where height
values are not used to show the inequalities of the earth’s surface e.g. by use of hill
shading rock drawing and micro-relief. Quantitative portrayal is by including the
elevation values, e.g by use of contour lines and spot-heights.

On flat paper maps, terrain can be depicted in a variety of ways, outlined below

:i)Hill profiles

ii)Hachures

iii)Contour lines

iv)Layer tinting

v)Hill shading
vi)Rock drawing

vii)Micro relief

Methods of Representing Relief Features

The important methods of representing relief features are hachures, contours, form lines, spot heights, bench marks,
trigonometrical points, hill shading, layer-colouring, and so on. Each method has its own merits and demerits in
depicting the relief of the land.

Hachures are small lines drawn to represent slopes. The lines are drawn thicker to represent steeper slopes and
thinner for gentle slope. The slopes above 45° is depicted completely in black colour.

Contours are imaginary lines connecting places having same elevation above mean sea level. They are drawn in
brown colour.

Form lines are like contours representing features that are not actually surveyed. They are shown by broken lines.

Spot heights are heights of places surveyed and they denote the actual height above mean sea level. They are shown
in maps as dots with their respective values written beside it.
Bench marks represent the actual height of a tall structure like a tall building, pillar, bridges or any other object of
permanent nature. They are marked with the letters BM with the respective height.

Trigonometrical Stations are points included in the triangulation survey and are marked in the map with a triangle
with the actual height of the place.
Hill Shading (levels of gray) is a method of representing relief on a map by depicting the shadows that would be
cast by elevated areas if light wre shining from a certain direction.
Layer Colouring is a method showing relief in layers and each layer is given a different colour. Physical maps in
atlas and wall maps use this method to show relief features. Ocean depth is also shown in various shades of blue.
There is an international recognition for colours used in these maps. Accordingly blue represents water bodies, green
for plains, various shades of brown for highlands and white for snow covered peaks.
Contours

Contour is universal method to show the relief. The unit of measurement of contour is generally metres above the
mean sea level. Contour has an advantage that it does not hide the other features drawn on the toposheet. Reading
contours is a skill that helps us to understand the actual landscape. The skill can be obtained by understanding the
salient features of contours. They are as follows:

• Contours are drawn at regular intervals in brown colour. Generally 20m interval is followed in 1:50,000 and
100m interval in 1:250,000 toposheet.

• Every fifth contour is a dark line to enhance map reading.

• The value of contour is printed by breaking the contour line andalso given at the edge of the toposheet.

• Generally contours never cut or cross each other. In case of water fall and cliffs contours almost ouch a
same point or a line. In over hanging cliff the contours cut each other.

Figure 10.10 gives the general features shown by contours.

The following figure shows the way two adjacent hills are shown by contours.

a) Two adjacent hills shown by contour

Drawing cross section of the contours allows one to know the exact landform depicted in the topo sheet.

Drawing cross section involves selecting a section within the portion of the contour, marking the intersections of
these selected contours on suitable vertical scale and joining these points to identify the land form. Generally closely
spaced contours indicate that the slope is steep, and widely spaced contours indicate that the slope is gentle. The
following pictures show contours and cross sections of a hill and a depression.
Steps to be followed to draw contours and the cross section:

a. Draw the contours in brown colour.

b. Draw a line AB for which the cross section has to be drawn.

c. Below the contour draw required number of horizontal lines of equal distance and interval (2mm) to
represent all the contour values given in the diagram

d. Write the value of all the contours in such a way that the lowest value of the contour forms the base line and
the values increase according to the contour interval given in the diagram.

e. Draw vertical lines from each intersection point on the line AB with the contours to the horizontal line
representing its value.

f. Join all these points to identify the feature shown.

g. Shade the feature in black to complete the cross section.

• A hill is shown by circular contours with height less than 1,000 m.

• A plateau is an elevated land represented by innermost contour roughly rectangular in shape and closer
outer contours. The height may generally vary from 300m to 600 metres. If a plateau is enclosed by mountains, it is
called intermountain plateau and when it is formed in the foot hills it is called piedmont plateau.

• A ridge is an elongated and steep sloped high mountain with two or more peaks shown by elliptical contour
lines. A narrow low depression between two peaks is called Col. Saddle is similar to a col but higher, broader and
gently sloping from peaks of a ridge.
• A valley is a long depression with steep slope formed by the vertical erosion of the river within the stretch
of upland. The contours bend sharply across the river in a ‘V’ shape with the apex pointing towards higher
elevations.

• Spurs are projection of land from higher to lower ground. Contours bend smoothly with the apex of the ‘V’
pointing towards lower ground.

• A waterfall occurs when there is a sudden difference in height of the river valley.A waterfall is a place
where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops in the course of a stream or river.
It is represented by contours meeting at a same point on the hill slope. The difference between the value of the
highest and the lowest contour touching the same point gives the height of the waterfall.

• A cliff is a steep sloped exposure of a valley or coast. If it is near sea we call it sea cliff.

• Gorge is a very steep valley at higher elevations formed by river erosion. It can be identified by closely
converging contours in the river course.

• A volcano is represented by closed contours with the innermost contours having lesser values than the
surrounding, denoting the crater depression.

Exercise 1

Match the following

Contour diagram and cross section are drawn for selected features of the earth. In a continuous landscape one may
be interested to visualize the general sky line for an area along a selected path. Profile or a section is a method which
helps to visualize the relief feature for a larger area drawn along a selected base line.

Types of Profiles

Profiles drawn for three or four selected individual base line are called Serial profiles. When profile sections of
all serial profiles are drawn on a same vertical baseline it is named as superimposed profile. When one of the serial
profile is kept as a base and the elevated portions of successive profiles are drawn it is known as projected profile.
The line joining the topmost elevated portions of all the serial profiles drawn on a same base line gives the sky line
or summit line for that region.

This is termed as composite profile.

Steps to Draw Profiles

Trace the contours in the toposheet for a size of 10 cm by 10 cm with the contour height.
Select four base lines at a distance of 2.5 cm each. Name them as AB, CD and EF.

Draw the horizontal lines to represent contour with suitable vertical exaggeration.

On this vertically exaggerated figure carefully draw cross sections separately for all the selected lines (AB, CD and
EF) as described in the previous section. They are named as serial profile. Draw each section in different colour for
better visualisation.

For super imposed profile draw the sections of each line on one vertically exaggerated line with the same colours
used as before.

Draw a common vertically exaggerated base line. First draw the cross section of AB line. Next while drawing the
cross section of CD line draw only those parts which are the higher than AB line. Next draw the cross section of line
EF which lies above the CD line.
Draw these cross sections with the respective colours drawn in serial profiles for better understanding and
visualization. This figure gives the projected profile of the selected region.

Composite profile gives the topmost portion of each line joined as one line on the same vertically exaggerated base
line.

This gives the effect of the landscape seen from a distance.

Exercise 2
Draw serial profile, superimposed profile, projected and composite profile for the given contour diagram.