QUANTITATIVE PHYSIOGRAPHIC METHOD OF LANDFORM PORTRAYAL

Abstract

A new cartographic technique, superimposing planimetrically adjusted contours on Mock diagrams prepared by the physiographic method, permits more quantitative use of three-dimensional drawings of landforms than heretofore possible. The framework of adjusted contours provides the easiest means of three dimensionally positioning a landform. The physiographic diagram is frequently the most satisfactory method of representing a landform because the landform is represented as it looks in nature. Comparisons, using a landform model, show this new technique to be considerably more effective than conventional methods of illustrating landforms because it combines on the same diagram useful features of the qualitative physiographic method with the quantitative aspects of the contour map. The new technique has been used effectively in the preparation of diagrams of various ocean floor and borderland regions.