Symbols on the map for the construction of summer cottages. Conventional signs and designations on geographical maps. Classification of conventional signs

Declassified topographic maps of the General Staff of the USSR are freely circulating on the Internet. We all love to download them, look at them, and often print them on sheets of paper for further use for their intended purpose - i.e. go hiking with them.

Topographic maps of the General Staff are the most accurate and best. Any other purchased maps printed in modern times will not carry as much accuracy and specificity. The symbols and symbols on the topographic maps of the General Staff are much more complex than any other symbols on maps purchased in the store. We all remember them from geography lessons at school.

As an experienced user of such maps, I would like to describe at the beginning of this article the most important, in my opinion, designations. If the rest are more or less understandable, since they are almost all identical to other types of cards (not the General Staff), then these are something new and still incomprehensible. Actually, I will start with the symbols of rivers, fords, forests and roads.

Rivers and water resources

Speed ​​and direction of river flow (0.6 m/s)
Characteristics of rivers and canals: 30 - Width (m), 0,8 - Depth (m), TO- Soil type ( TO - rocky, P - sand, T - solid, IN - viscous)
Water line mark, shore height above sea level (393m)
Brody: 0,3 - depth, 10 - length, TO- rocky soil, 1,0 - speed (m/sec)
The swamp is passable
The swamp is impassable
Characteristics of bridges: D- construction material ( D - wood, TO - stone, reinforced concrete - reinforced concrete), 43 - length of the bridge, 4 - width of the roadway (m), 10 - load capacity in tons

Forest clearing and width in meters (2m)
Field and forest roads
Winter road, a functioning road only in the winter season, during the cold period. Can go through swamps.
Dirt road, 6 - width of the roadway in meters
Gat - a road with a wooden surface, a flooring made of logs, 3 - width of the roadway
Go away
Railway track
Gas pipeline
Power lines (PTL)
Dismantled railway
Single track railway, narrow gauge. Also railway bridge
Highway: 6 —width of the covered part, 8 — the width of the entire road from ditch to ditch in meters; SCH- coating material ( B - cobblestone, G - gravel, TO - crushed stone, Shl - slag, SCH - crushed stone)

Relief

Steep river banks, rocky outcrops, Parma
Relief contours with relative height designation (260 m)
Mountainous area without vegetation cover, covered with kurum stones and rock outcrops
Mountainous area with vegetation cover and sparse trees, the forest border is visible
Outlier rocks with a height in meters
Glaciers
Rocks and rocky cliffs
Elevation mark (479.2 m)
Steppe region. Near the edge of the forest
Sands, deserts

Photos of some geographical objects

The main winter road laid through the taiga forest. In summer there are thickets here (Yakutia)

Forest dirt road (Ivdel district, Northern Urals)

Gat - road with wooden covering (Lobnensky forest park, Moscow region)

Rock outcrop, Parma (Stone "Giant", Middle Urals)

Remnant rocks (Old Stone rock, Middle Urals)

It should be understood that all available topographic maps of the USSR General Staff have long been outdated. The information contained on them can date back to the 70-80s of the last century. If you are interested in the details of walking along certain trails, roads, the presence of settlements and geographical objects, then you should check in advance the reliability of the information from other sources. There may no longer be any paths or roads at all. Small settlements can be abandoned and look like wastelands, often already overgrown with young growth.

But, in any case, the maps of the General Staff still provide more accurate information, and using them you can more productively calculate your route and distance. In this article, I did not bother your heads with unnecessary symbols and symbols of topographic maps. I have posted only the most important and significant for the mountain-taiga and steppe region. Those interested in details can take a look.

Maps of the USSR General Staff were made using the Soviet system of layout and nomenclature of topographic maps. This system is still used in the Russian Federation and some former Soviet republics. There are newer maps, the state of the terrain on which is approximately 60-80s of the last century, and older maps, the so-called General Staff of the Red Army, made by geodetic reconnaissance of the pre-war period. “The maps are compiled in a conformal transverse cylindrical Gauss-Kruger projection, calculated using the parameters of the Krasovsky ellipsoid for a six-degree zone,” - and if you don’t understand, it doesn’t matter! The main thing is to remember (or write down, save this article) the points that I cited above. Knowing them, you can skillfully use maps and plan your route without using GPS.

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 by 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.

Thus, ancient medieval maps were characterized by an artistic representation of the area with the widespread use of drawings as symbols. Geography at that time was just beginning to develop as a scientific discipline, therefore, 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 geographic maps.

Geography: and topographic maps

Topographic maps and terrain plans are distinguished by fairly large scales (from 1:100,000 or more). They are 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 memorization, many of these signs resemble the real appearance of 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 size.

The boundaries of area 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, for example, a windmill, a sculptural monument, a rock outcrop, a spring or a 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 they are used to designate linearly extended objects on plans and maps - roads, boundaries of administrative units, railways, fords, etc. An interesting feature of linear designations: their length always corresponds to the scale of the map, but the 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 a railroad symbol corresponds to the number of tracks.

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 large cities are also marked on them (in the form of dots). By and large, a contour map is a “silent” map, which is precisely intended to fill its surface with certain conventional symbols.

Thematic maps are most often found in geography atlases. The symbols of such cards are extremely diverse. 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.

Symbols of topographic maps provide complete information about the area. They are generally accepted and used for topographic maps and plans. Topographic maps are important material not only for tourists, but also for geodetic organizations, for authorities who are involved in area planning and transfer of site boundaries.

Knowledge about conventional signs helps not only to read the map correctly, but also to draw up detailed plans of the area, taking into account new objects that have appeared.

Topographic maps are a type of geographic map. They carry detailed information about the layout of the area, indicating the location of various technical and natural objects relative to each other.

Topographic maps vary in scope. All of them carry less or more detailed information about the area.

The map scale is indicated on the side or bottom of the map. It shows the ratio of sizes: indicated on the map to natural. Thus, the larger the denominator, the less detailed the material. Let's say a 1:10,000 map will have 100 meters in 1 centimeter. To find out the distance in meters between objects, use a ruler to measure the segment between two points and multiply by the second indicator.

1. The most detailed is the topographic plan of the area, its scale is 1:5,000 inclusive. It is not considered a map and is not as accurate, since it does not take into account the assumption that the earth is round. This somewhat distorts its information content, however, the plan is indispensable when depicting cultural, everyday and economic objects. In addition, the plan can also show micro-objects that are difficult to find on the map (for example, vegetation and soil, the contours of which are too small to be depicted in other materials).
2. Topographic maps at scales of 1:10,000 and 1:25,000 are considered the most detailed among maps. They are used for household needs. They depict populated areas, industrial and agricultural facilities, roads, hydrographic networks, swamps, fences, boundaries, etc. Such maps are most often used to obtain information about objects in areas that do not have significant forest cover. They depict business objects most reliably.
3. Maps with scales of 1:50,000 and 1:100,000 are less detailed. They schematically depict the contours of forests and other large objects, the image of which does not require much detail. Such maps are convenient to use for air navigation, drawing up road routes and so on.
4. Less detailed maps are used for military purposes to carry out assigned tasks for planning various operations.
5. Maps with a scale of up to 1:1,000,000 allow you to correctly assess the overall picture of the area.

Having decided on the task at hand, choosing a material seems absolutely not a difficult task. Depending on how detailed information about the area is needed, the required map scale is selected.

Working with a topographic map requires a clear knowledge of the schematic designation of the depicted objects.

• areal (scale) - for large objects (forest, meadow, lake), their sizes can be easily measured on a map, correlated with scale and obtained the necessary information about depth, length, area;
• linear - for extended geographical objects, the width of which cannot be indicated, they are drawn in the form of a line corresponding to the scale in order to correctly display the length of the object (road, power strip);
• off-scale - they are used to designate strategically important objects, without which the map will be incomplete, but in a rather conventional size (bridge, well, individual tree);
• explanatory - characterizing an object, for example, the depth of a river, the height of a slope, a tree that indicates the type of forest;
• depicting landscape components: relief, rocks and stones, hydrographic objects, vegetation, artificial structures;
• special - applied to maps for individual sectors of the economy (meteorological, military signs).

• the main information conveyed by the image of a populated area is the density of buildings and the location of the boundaries of the object; for this it is not necessary to mark every building, you can limit yourself to the main streets, intersections and important buildings;
• the symbols of a group of homogeneous objects allow the depiction of only the outermost of them;
• when drawing a line of roads, it is necessary to indicate their middle, which must correspond to the situation on the ground, and the width of the message object itself should not be displayed;
• strategically important objects such as factories and factories are designated at the site where the main building or factory chimney is located.

By correctly placing signs on the map, you can get a detailed idea of ​​the relative position of objects on the ground, the distance between them, their heights, depths and other important information.

The map must be objective and this requirement includes the following provisions:

• correctly selected standard symbols; if this is a special map, then the symbols should also be generally known in a certain area;
• correct representation of line elements;
• one card must be drawn in one image style;
• micro-objects must also be marked exactly; if there is a certain number of such objects of the same size in the area, they must all be marked with the same sign on the map;
• the color indicators of the elements of the relief forms must be maintained correctly - heights and lowlands are often depicted with paints, next to the map there should be a scale that shows what height on the terrain a particular color corresponds to.

Symbols of topographic maps and plans are drawn in accordance with uniform rules.

1. Object sizes are displayed in millimeters. These signatures are usually located to the left of the symbols. For one object, two numerical indicators are given, indicating height and width. If these parameters match, one signature is allowed. For round objects their diameter is indicated, for star-shaped signs - the diameter of the circumscribed circle. For an equilateral triangle, the parameter for its height is given.
2. The thickness of the lines should correspond to the scale of the map. The main objects of plans and detailed maps (factories, mills, bridges, locks) are marked with lines of 0.2–0.25 mm, the same designations on small-scale maps from 1:50,000 - with lines of 0.2 mm. The lines indicating secondary characters have a thickness of 0.08–0.1 mm. On plans and large-scale maps, signs may be enlarged by one third.
3. The symbols of topographic maps must be clear and readable, the spaces between inscriptions must be at least 0.2–0.3 mm. Strategically important objects can be slightly increased in size.

Separate requirements are put forward for the color scheme.

• green - designations of glaciers, eternal snow, swamps, salt marshes, intersections of coordinate lines and hydrography;
• brown – landforms;
• blue – water bodies;
• pink – highway interline clearances;
• red or brown - some signs of vegetation;
• black – shading and all signs.

1. Objects indicated by off-scale symbols on topographic maps and plans must correspond to their location on the ground. To do this, they need to be placed according to certain rules.

• the center of the sign of objects of regular shape (round, square, triangular) on the plan;
• the middle of the base of the symbol - for perspective displays of objects (lighthouses, rocks);
• vertices of the designation angle - for icons with an element of right angles (tree, pillar);
• the middle of the bottom line of the sign is for designations in the form of a combination of figures (towers, chapels, towers).

Knowledge of the correct placement and application of signs will help you correctly draw up a topographic map or site plan, making it understandable to other users.

The designation of groups of objects by symbols must occur in accordance with the rules below.

1. Geodetic points. These objects should be indicated in as much detail as possible. Marking the centers of points is applied exactly to the centimeter. If the point is located on an elevated area, it is necessary to note the height of the mound or mound. When drawing the boundaries of land surveys, which are marked on the ground with pillars and numbered, the numbering must also be displayed on the map.
2. Buildings and their parts. The outlines of buildings must be mapped in accordance with the structure's layout and dimensions. Multi-storey and historically important buildings are depicted in most detail. The number of floors is indicated starting from two floors. If a building has an orientation tower, it must also be displayed on the map.

Small buildings, such as pavilions, cellars, building elements, are displayed at the request of the customer and only on detailed maps. The numbering of buildings is reproduced only on large maps. Additionally, letters can indicate the materials from which the building is constructed, its purpose, and fire resistance.

Conventional signs usually identify buildings under construction or dilapidated, cultural and religious buildings. Objects on the map must be placed exactly as in reality.

In general, the detail and detail of the description of the characteristics depends on the purpose of drawing up the map and is negotiated by the customer and the contractor.

1. Industrial facilities. The number of floors in buildings does not matter. More important objects are administrative buildings and pipes. For pipes over 50 meters, it is necessary to indicate their actual height.

At enterprises that have mines and extract minerals, it is customary to designate objects located on the surface. Mapping of underground routes is carried out in agreement with the customer, indicating working and non-working branches. For quarries, a numerical designation of their depth is required.

1. Railways are shown with their gauge. Inactive roads must also be marked on maps. For electrified roads and tram tracks, a power line must be displayed nearby.

The map shows the designation of road slopes, embankments and their heights, slopes, tunnels and their characteristics. Dead ends, turning circles and road ends must be marked.

Highways are marked with a certain sign, which depends on the surface. The roadway must be marked with a line.

1. Hydrographic objects are usually divided into three groups:

• permanent;
• indefinite - existing all the time, but whose outlines often change;
• unstable - changing depending on the season, but with a pronounced source and direction of the channel.

Permanent bodies of water are depicted by solid lines, the rest - by dash-dotted lines.

1. Relief. When depicting the terrain, horizontal lines or contour lines are used indicating the heights of individual ledges. Moreover, lowlands and elevations are depicted in a similar way, using strokes: if they go outward, then an elevation is depicted, if inward, it is a depression, beam or lowland. In addition, if the contour lines are close to each other, the slope is considered steep; if it is far away, it is gentle.

A good topographic map should be extremely accurate, objective, complete, reliable and clearly indicate the contours of objects. When drawing up a map, it is necessary to take into account the customer's requirements.

Depending on the purposes for which the topographic map is intended, some simplifications or minor distortions of minor objects are allowed, but the general requirements must be met.