Although I have (over the years) run on more maps than I can
count - with countless names written in the bottom corner as to who made those
maps - I had never really considered the amount of work that goes into making a
map so that I can use it. That is, until
I tried my hand at making one myself!
These past two years, I have been going to school at UWC Atlantic
College, an international 6th form school in south Wales (UK) boasting
over 100 languages, 90 countries and a myriad of ruins, formal gardens and beautiful
13th century buildings, but not one up-to-date orienteering
map. The most recent (and only) map I
could find of the school grounds was from 1975, and featured 25 foot (or 7.6m)
contours! It was also hopelessly out of
date for while the castle had changed very little, the grounds were very
different and there were a number of new buildings. The mapping standard for sprint maps has also
changed considerably in the last couple decades.
The first thing which I did was acquire LiDAR data, which is
invaluably useful as it gives you very precise contours. Luckily, because I was making an orienteering
map, I was able to get the data for free!
There are two kinds of LiDAR data: Digital Surface Modelling, which
shows the underlying contours of the land, and Digital Terrain Modelling, which
shows the land, as well as all the buildings, stone walls and big trees as very
steep contours! See if you can match up
the map above with the DTM below!
Next came the task of actually drawing the map! I first made a rough sketch of the map using
the LiDAR and the old map, and then proceeded to walk all over campus,
drawing in missing walls, staircases, trees and more. Then it was back to the computer to add those
bits in before heading out into the field again. Bit by bit, the whole thing started to come
together.
Things I learnt while mapping:
- Forests are best mapped when there is no foliage at all, as otherwise you can barely see 10m in front of you
- Areas where there are staircases, overpasses, fences and walls all on top of each other are almost impossible to get right
- Inevitably you are going to forget something and will realise just as you are getting ready to be finished (for the 10th time…)
- Someone will inevitably find said omission the second they pick up the map and look up
- It is completely worth it the second you see others enjoying themselves on your map
The next step was to run an orienteering activity using the
map I had just made. I decided to run it
once a week focusing on a different aspect of orienteering each week.
One week, when it was very rainy, we played with play dough
in an attempt to better understand contours.
I brought a number of my old maps in, and instructed my fellow students to choose
a hill from the map and build it from play dough. Then it was up to everyone else to guess
which hill they had made!
Can you guess the hill? |
How would you get from 48-32? |
Of course, every training needs to include a race, and so as
the last training we ran a course to see how much we had learnt. All in all, it was (I hope) a great learning
experience for my fellow students and it was most definitely a great learning
experience for me.
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