Topographic Cartography Course
This course teaches topographic cartography skills for trail and shelter planning. Participants learn to source and prepare DEMs, perform terrain analysis, create contours and hillshades, and design accurate, professional maps for geography and geology experts. It emphasizes reproducible workflows with strong quality control for reliable deliverables in real-world applications.

from 4 to 360h flexible workload
valid certificate in your country
What will I learn?
In this Topographic Cartography Course, you will discover how to locate and assess DEMs and basemap data, ready and reproject layers, and refine elevation models for precise analysis. Generate contours, hillshades, and terrain visuals; craft user-friendly maps for hikers and technicians; plan trails and shelters; and document full, reproducible processes with rigorous quality checks and pro-level outputs.
Elevify advantages
Develop skills
- DEM sourcing and preparation: quickly locate, clean, and combine elevation data for mapping projects.
- Terrain analysis for planning: calculate slope, aspect, hazards, and ideal shelter locations efficiently.
- Contour and hillshade generation: produce precise elevation visuals using GIS software.
- Topographic map design: create legible, print-ready maps suitable for hikers and field technicians.
- Cartography quality assurance and metadata: record workflows, check accuracy, and reference data sources properly.
Suggested summary
Before starting, you can change the chapters and the workload. Choose which chapter to start with. Add or remove chapters. Increase or decrease the course workload.What our students say
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