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( Topographic)
Topography (topo-, "place", and graphia, "writing") is the study of Earth's surface features or those of planets, moons, and asteroids. In a broader sense, topography is concerned with local detail in general, including not only relief but also vegetative and human-made features, and even local history and culture. This meaning is less common in America, where topographic maps with elevation contours have made "topography" synonymous with relief. The older sense of topography as the study of place still has currency in Europe. For the purposes of this article, topography specifically involves the recording of relief or terrain, the three-dimensional quality of the surface, and the identification of specific landforms. This is also known as geomorphometry. In modern usage, this involves generation of elevation data in electronic form. It is often considered to include the graphic representation of the landform on a map by a variety of techniques, including contour lines, Hypsometric tints, and relief shading.[1][2][3] The term topography originated in ancient Greece and continued in ancient Rome, as the detailed description of a place. The word comes from the Greek words t?p?? (topos, place) and ??af?a (graphia, writing).[4] In classical literature this refers to writing about a place or places, what is now largely called 'local history'. In Britain and in Europe in general, the word topography is still sometimes used in its original sense[5].
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Topographic Subcategories
Topographic Articles
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