Digital topographic map and its requirements

Types of digital topographic maps

Digital topographic map is a vector or a raster topo map, formed on a machine carrier (e.g. on a mirror disk) with the help of the software and hardware tools in the adopted cartographic projection, in the frame of reference and altitude, in the conventional signs, carrying required content, and destined for analysis and modeling representation and solving informative and calculated problems together with special (statistic) information.

Digitized topographic map is a digital topo model of the surface, formed according to the laws of cartographic generalization in the adopted map projection, frame of reference and altitude.

Various types of cartographic products are widely used in day-to-day industrial, transport and agricultural management, social analysis, in planning how to use material and natural resources, searching minerals, environmental quality monitoring, in taking decisions in emergency. These cartographic resources contribute to receiving new information about the surface, locality, characteristic of its components and objects (e.g. density of population, density of road and river network, quantity of certain objects, data on distance and square).

In essence various topographic maps (cartographic modals) are graphic signed, mathematically definite, generalized reflection of actual three-dimensional locality. Representation of the dynamics of current events, attached to the topo map or to any other cartographic model have the 4th dimension - time. In that way the main advantage of topographic maps, mainly digital one is that it hand over information in real-time operation mode.

Digital topographic map's requirements

Digital or digitized topographic map's requirements arise from the list of current tasks that are solved in it. Cartographic system supplying is formed as one informational base for the whole territory or some regions of the country. Included in this supplying information about current object's and event's changes to a greater degree enlarges system possibilities: it becomes spatio-temporal (several-dimensional).

One of the main requirements is to supply a system with cartographic information for exploring country and its regions. Cartographic information is to characterize the most important objects. Full and accurate cartographic information is to be transmitted in simple and demonstrative way. The volume of cartographic information, circulated in the system, is formed by the character of the solved tasks. Since locality in present conditions is studied mainly with the help of various cartographic productions, all this means of cartographic supplying must have demonstrative, intelligible and generalized representation of locality at the least period of time to make out some information and its standing. Cartographic way of transmitting information about locality should provide not only research of the country and its regions, but carry out calculations and modeling of the situation.

Cartographic projections, used in map formation, should provide entire (without breaches) mapping of some regions and vast territories, and also maximum possible part of the surface for displaying on the flat with minimum angle, line and square distortion.

All scaled types of topographic maps should provide display of locality, working out in detail and accurateness, enough for solving problems by all users. According to the scale, maps should for certain and fully reflect present locality condition, its typical features and characteristics, and provide mapping of the present information elements and spotting objects. It should graphically mark out main objects and elements admit quick locality and its properties retrieval. To simplify information exchange among users, unify means of transmitting information, a map system should be as much as possible co-coordinated by content and unified by mathematical basis, conventional signs and size of the lists.

According to the epistemology, a digital topographic map is regarded as dimensional, mathematically-defined and generalized signed model of reality. Being a model it should be a mean of learning the structure of the depicted phenomena and processes on it, its reciprocal connection, time and area dynamics.