Interpreting the landscape: contours, symbols, photos & patterns
Learn to read a topographic map like a geographer. In this AS skills lesson we turn brown contour lines and tiny symbols into a real picture of the land — reading slope from contour spacing, recognising the patterns for hills, valleys and spurs, and drawing a cross-section straight from the contours. We read the conventional symbols and the key, interpret horizontal and oblique photographs, and classify drainage patterns (dendritic, radial, trellis) and settlement patterns (nucleated, dispersed, linear). We finish with the Paper-2 skill examiners reward most: describing a whole landscape using map evidence — relief, drainage, settlement, communications and land use — and going beyond describing to interpreting why the human landscape sits where it does. Namibian map extracts and landscapes ground every skill.
By the end you should be able to (NSSCAS Geography (AS) 4.1b):
- identify landforms on maps using contours and symbols
- describe human activities in relation to the features on a map
- recognise and interpret horizontal/oblique photographs (landforms, natural vegetation, land-use and settlement)
- demonstrate skills of analysis and interpretation as well as basic map reading skills
- analyse and interpret the physical and human landscape by referring to map evidence such as patterns of relief, drainage, settlement, communications and land use