Topography : What is it? Types and Examples

Topography, whose name comes from the Greek word, refers to the composition of the terrain, is one of the disciplines whose application is very present in the totality of the needs of the human being that require the knowledge of the surface of the land where this activity will be developed.

In the construction of civil works, aqueducts, canals, roads, reservoirs, etc., in the development of urban planning, in the cadastre, in the military field, as well as in archaeology, and in different other fields, are examples of topography that denote a great fundamental element.

It is assumed that topography had a very good start from the moment in which the human species stopped being nomadic and became sedentary. The need to establish precise and time-invariant boundaries between properties undoubtedly gave rise to the first elementary surveying methods and instruments.

The first written mentions of the use of surveying are found in the time of the Egyptian empire, around 1,400 B.C., where it was used to determine the boundaries between properties in the fertile Nile valleys.

Different types of instruments and methods used by the Egyptians in surveying were accepted by the Romans, during their occupation of Egypt, and were complemented by trigonometry, done by the Greeks. The Romans used this discipline extensively in their civil works, such as aqueducts and roads.

A Roman engineer and topographer, Sextus Julius Frontinus, wrote among other works the first treatise on topography, of which some copies of its parts have been preserved, since the original was lost.

The updating of topography began in the early 17th century with the development of the astronomical telescope, created by the German astronomer Johannes Kepler, and the chain elaborated by the English mathematician Edmund Gunter, which established the first standard in the measurement of distances.

Throughout the history of surveying, collaborations in surveying methods, numerical calculations and instruments have been constant, reaching perfection in the early 19th century. In the 20th century, topography was enriched with the contribution of Photogrammetry, for the survey of large surfaces, as well as with instruments such as the computer, the electronic distance meter and laser levels, in addition to the Global Positioning System.