Map Symbols For Physical Geography Features - Raisz's Physiography
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Erwin Raisz developed a system of respresenting physiography. Physiography is a sub-field of geography that focuses on the natural environment. Raisz's designed his symbols to capture the landscape and reflect the patterns and processes of physical geography.
They are beautiful and his hand-drawn maps are true works of physical geography art.
His maps are successful because they depict topographic features the way people see the landscape. He basically lays the features on their side so that viewers see everything in profile. Most viewers will connect and understand his symbols than a topographic map that requires spatial abilities to transform the map into 3 dimensions.
The interesting thing is that any person can recreate his effect with a digital map software program called Natural Scene Designer 5.0.
Here are some symbols from his book Principles of Cartography...
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