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=                             Topography                             =
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                             Introduction
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Topography is the study of the shape and features of land surfaces.
The topography of an area could refer to the surface shapes and
features themselves, or a description (especially their depiction in
maps).

Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary science and is
concerned with local detail in general, including not only relief but
also natural and artificial features, and even local history and
culture. This meaning is less common in the United States, where
topographic maps with elevation contours have made "topography"
synonymous with relief.

Topography in a narrow sense involves the recording of relief or
terrain, the three-dimensional quality of the surface, and the
identification of specific landforms. This is also known as
geomorphometry. In modern usage, this involves generation of elevation
data in digital form (DEM). It is often considered to include the
graphic representation of the landform on a map by a variety of
techniques, including contour lines, hypsometric tints, and relief
shading.


                              Etymology
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The term 'topography' originated in ancient Greece and continued in
ancient Rome, as the detailed description of a place. The word comes
from the Greek   ('topos',  "place") and  ('-graphia', "writing"). In
classical literature this refers to writing about a place or places,
what is now largely called 'local history'. In Britain and in Europe
in general, the word topography is still sometimes used in its
original sense.

Detailed military surveys in Britain (beginning in the late eighteenth
century) were called Ordnance Surveys, and this term was used into the
20th century as generic for topographic surveys and maps. The earliest
scientific surveys in France were called the Cassini maps after the
family who produced them over four generations. The term "topographic
surveys" appears to be American in origin. The earliest detailed