Tag: maps
Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
GIS operates on many levels and over the past decade has become an essential tool for most urban and resource planning and management organizations. On the most basic level, GIS can be used for simple digital cartography, to create various types of maps.
Geomatics – Cartography
Cartography or Map Design is the practice of creating maps or visual representations of a surface, as you would see it from above it. Traditionally maps have always been created using pen and paper, but since the introduction and wide spread use of geographic information systems (GIS) and computers, cartography practices have evolved more into the digital world. Most maps today are now generated using map software that falls into one of three main types; GIS, CAD, and specialized map graphic design software.
Digital Terrain Modeling – Aspect models
In digital terrain modeling the Aspect of a surface refers to the azimuth to which a slope is orientated. The aspect or orientation of a slope can produce very significant influences on it, so it is important to know the aspect of the plane as well as the slope.Together the slope combined with the aspect of the surface can virtually define the surface plane completely in digital terrain modeling
Example of an Aspect Map
This image is an Aspect Model that I derived from a digital elevation model (DEM) of Lismore, Nova Scotia. The aspect values of the slopes of the DEM are represented in the model by a 0-255 grey scale color ramp. Click here to learn a little more about Aspect Models and how the image below was created.
Slope
The slope or the gradient of a straight line within a Cartesian coordinate system is known as the measure of how steep a line is relative to the horizontal axis. In terrain modeling we generally model an entire surface and not just one line so we need to calculate the slope of a best fit surface plane (which is made of lines). Together the slope combined with the aspect of the surface can virtually define the surface plane completely.
Example of a Slope Map
The image here is a Slope Model that I derived from a digital elevation model (DEM) of Lismore, Nova Scotia.
