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Map Legend

Started by MountainWoods, June 05, 2013, 02:58:38 PM

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MountainWoods

Some things, such as spg for a spring, are obvious.  But there are some other abbreviations on the topos that aren't so obvious, such as gs (seems to be an island or something?).  Is there a legend somewhere?  Perhaps if these are typical topo abbreviations there might be a web site with them?
Thanks.

Boyd

I suspect that each author here would need to make his own legend, since that data comes from a variety of sources and is presented in different styles. It also sounds like you talking about abbreviations used in the names of objects on the map. That isn't the kind of thing you would usually see in a map "legend" in my experience. The legend usually shows standard symbols that are used for POI's and standard line types used for roads, streams, etc.

Here is what Garmin considers their "Map Legend". It is really out of date and probably won't help much.  ;) http://www8.garmin.com/cartography/mapSource/mapLegend.html

And here are the symbols used on USGS topo maps: http://egsc.usgs.gov/isb/pubs/booklets/symbols/

MountainWoods

I had found both of those with a web search and they are helpful, as far as graphic symbols.
What I was really wondering about isn't so much a legend as a list of abbreviations.
Like I say, spg is pretty obvious; well it is to me in the Ozarks because we have so many springs and the continual spg POIs happen right where the springs are, so voila!
But there are other abbreviations, such as gs, that I can't seem to figure out what they are.  There isn't a lot of them, but they piqued my natural curiosity.  :)
I guess I'll have to treat them like Waymarks and go see what they are!

maps4gps

#3
What is in the name field?

MountainWoods

I'm finding gs near various waterways in the motopo11 map set.  Seems to always be connected with waterways.
N36°37.422' W093° 25.239'
N36°35.802' W093° 18.758'

There are some other abbreviations I've seen, but I can't remember what they are just now.   Thanks.

maps4gps

Gaging Station - from the USGS National Hydrography Dataset point files.

Boyd

Good one!  8) I was trying to think of what that could be but was coming up blank. I have visited many of those on the little streans in my own area and the state has a website where you can access the realtime data.

MountainWoods

Ah!  That makes sense.  Except I never got my rotund posterior over to one of them to figure it out that way.  :D  :D

Anyway, now you know what I mean.  There are just a handful of abbreviations like that, some of which are obvious by context (especially if one is familiar with the context), and others that aren't.  I didn't know if there was an abbreviation list somewhere for those.

Thanks!