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Examining the Google Contour Maps

Written by Chad on April 3rd, 2008

Since everyone seems so excited that Google Maps has contour lines now, thought I would take a look, using my home town as a base point since we have a mountain 200 yards away from my front porch.

Does not look too bad, the shading is nice.. but details are missing, or really hard to see/identify.  One thing that is missing.. where is the water?  There should be two creeks going by the town.  Now while this is a “that is pretty to look at” feature, this is not good for any serious use.  It is missing a lot of details and landmarks for hiking and biking.  I would not use this beyond a basic reference.

Now lets compare it to Topo Contour maps, huge difference in details.  I can see water and landmarks and greater detail in the contour elevations.  This is a map that a hiker wants to have on them.

Now, I am not saying the Google Contour maps are useless, but they are very basic in details.  But it is a huge plus that they are global contour maps as WorldWind only has the US.  I would like to see them get greater detail shown such as dirt roads and trails.. and water.  And readability needs to be improved, I looked at the Alps and could just barely read the text.

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3 Comments so far ↓

  1. Apr
    3
    10:47
    PM
    James Fee

    My problem with the USGS Quad maps is that they are so out of date. Out here in Arizona, you might as well not use them as they don’t reflect much of the changes that have happened to even the most remote areas with all the growth.

    The power of the Topo maps is when you can set the transparency on the layer in 3D globes and overlay them on aerials or road maps.

  2. Apr
    4
    6:45
    AM
    Chad

    Ok, there is that. Western US topo maps average about 20 years old.. The newest ones are from the 90’s and most of those maps are East coast.

  3. Apr
    4
    8:32
    AM
    KoS

    Agree with James here. Topos can be way out of date. They are still a good reference, but people have to keep in mind the age of the information. People shouldn’t be too surprised to find “things” not matching time to time.

    I’ve found most of the changes involved with topos are near or in urban areas. Generally, rural areas, even if the topo is 20 years old, is still pretty accurate.

    I guess, in the end, something is better than nothing. :)

    KoS