Nearly Every USGS Topo Map Ever Made (2014)
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Nearly Every USGS Topo Map Ever Made (2014)
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Re: Nearly Every USGS Topo Map Ever Made (2014)
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Re: Nearly Every USGS Topo Map Ever Made (2014)
#3The amount of map data available for free these days is amazing. I remember saving up to buy those maps in high school.
Re: Nearly Every USGS Topo Map Ever Made (2014)
#4I have mixed feelings about USGS topo maps these days. On the positive side, they are producing revisions much more frequently than in the past and they have made available high quality digital images of these maps for free.
The availability of high resolution image files is really nice if you have a big screen and a powerful computer handy, but not so nice if you are scouting for berries on logging roads in a pickup and need something that you can stuff in your pocket. The USGS stopped doing big lithographic print runs of their maps, and the new inkjet prints are garbage in comparison. Whenever I find a lithographic print of a quadrangle I am interested in, I buy two or three because I know I may not be able to find them in the future.
Also, the newer revisions (the ones including satellite images) seem like they get much less individual attention from the cartographers. Labels and symbols are less intuitively laid out. The difference between the new and old map styles is similar to the difference between musical scores generated by a computer and lightly edited by a copyist, and scores created by a master plate engraver.
I vastly prefer the maps from the 80's and early 90's.
Re: Nearly Every USGS Topo Map Ever Made (2014)
#5The National Library of Scotland has a great online collection of old maps as well: http://maps.nls.uk/ - going back to 1500, with slippy maps, side by side views, all sorts. It's not just Scotland, but the whole of the UK. A lot of them are georeferenced so you can easily flip through time and see how your local area changed.
Licensing isn't as simple as USGS's though.
Re: Nearly Every USGS Topo Map Ever Made (2014)
#6I have mixed feelings about USGS topo maps these days. On the positive side, they are producing revisions much more frequently than in the past and they have made available high quality digital images of these maps for free. The availability of high resolution image files is really nice if you have a big screen and a powerful computer handy, but not so nice if you are scouting for berries on logging roads in a pickup…
> Whenever I find a lithographic print of a quadrangle I am interested in, I buy two or three because I know I may not be able to find them in the future.
An opportunity for someone?
Re: Nearly Every USGS Topo Map Ever Made (2014)
#7I have mixed feelings about USGS topo maps these days. On the positive side, they are producing revisions much more frequently than in the past and they have made available high quality digital images of these maps for free. The availability of high resolution image files is really nice if you have a big screen and a powerful computer handy, but not so nice if you are scouting for berries on logging roads in a pickup…
I worked for the USGS for a few years and learned a lot about this.
The old topo maps were compiled, drawn, and edited by hand, from primary sources. Look at an old topo and notice the different symbols for barns and houses, outline vs filled squares. They were able to mark those because a usgs employee went out in the field and checked each building. The result of this process were extremely accurate and detailed maps but it was very expensive. It took hundreds of person-hours for each map.
The new topos are produced from remote sensing data, mainly imagery and lidar, and are highly automated. They are worse in most ways(but quickly improving!) than the old maps but take much, much less person time, less than 10 minutes per map. This time is mostly spent verifying/cleaning the source data.
Re: Nearly Every USGS Topo Map Ever Made (2014)
#8I have mixed feelings about USGS topo maps these days. On the positive side, they are producing revisions much more frequently than in the past and they have made available high quality digital images of these maps for free. The availability of high resolution image files is really nice if you have a big screen and a powerful computer handy, but not so nice if you are scouting for berries on logging roads in a pickup…
> Whenever I find a lithographic print of a quadrangle I am interested in, I buy two or three because I know I may not be able to find them in the future. An opportunity for someone?
Everything the USGS produces in the public domain. Have fun :)
Re: Nearly Every USGS Topo Map Ever Made (2014)
#9As a history buff (mostly civil engineering based, roads, bridges, tunnels, railroads, etc.) I find these historic maps extremely useful.
Re: Nearly Every USGS Topo Map Ever Made (2014)
#10As a history buff (mostly civil engineering based, roads, bridges, tunnels, railroads, etc.) I find these historic maps extremely useful.