Reading a landscape from an OS map: relief, settlement, land use and tourism

Four hundred new homes, three fields and one map. Which field would you build on? The fields sit near Marksby, in the fictional land of Owlobia. Field A lies on a flat floodplain, the low land beside a river that floods when it overflows, at fifteen metres. Field B is a hilltop at one hundred and eighty metres, three kilometres from the nearest road. Field C is a gentle slope at forty metres, beside a main road and a railway station. Nobody has visited any of them, yet the map already says which field makes sense, and why. Hold on to your guess, because the map is about to test it.

Physical geography on a map means two things, relief and drainage. If your course asks you to describe relief and drainage, or to spot tourism on a map, the first parts of this video are yours. If it asks for site, situation and shape, the last part is. Relief is the height and shape of the land. You describe the height range, where the high and low ground lies by compass direction, where slopes are steep or gentle, and any landforms such as valleys or ridges. Each point is backed by a figure from the map, such as a spot height, a contour value or a grid reference. Drainage is the water on the land and the way it flows. It covers the rivers and streams, the tributaries that join them, and any lakes, marsh or springs. Rivers flow downhill, so the contour values beside a river give its direction of flow. A channel that looks ruled straight has usually been straightened by people, while a natural one winds. Now three sentences from three answers about the physical geography of one map. Sentence A says there is a church at the centre of the village. Sentence B says a river flows south-east in a steep-sided valley. Sentence C says a minor road runs through the area. Which sentence belongs in a physical geography answer? It's sentence B, the river in its steep-sided valley, which is drainage and relief together. A different question now: why does the road in C not count? A road is human. It only helps if it points at something physical, such as a road following the flat valley floor. One examiner's report describes a small number of students who simply listed every feature on the map, human ones included. It says this approach "rarely gains credit unless there is some implied reference to the physical features identified." The fix is to keep every sentence on relief or drainage, with a figure from the map. Now a four kilometre square of a one to twenty-five thousand map. The land rises from forty metres in the south-east to a summit of four hundred and ten metres in the north-west. Contours are close together in the north-west and widely spaced in the south-east, where below fifty metres there are almost none. A river rises near three hundred and eighty metres in the north-west. It runs south-east in a narrow valley where the contours form sharp Vs, and three streams join it from the west. In the south-east it winds across flat land with marsh beside it. A small lake lies at two hundred and thirty metres in the north. Write two sentences on relief and two on drainage, using figures and directions from those lines. What would your description of this area's physical geography say? Relief first. The land is highest in the north-west, reaching four hundred and ten metres, and falls to about forty metres in the south-east. Slopes are steep in the north-west, where the contours are close together, and the south-east is almost flat, below fifty metres. Then drainage. The main river flows from the north-west to the south-east in a steep-sided V-shaped valley in the uplands, fed by three tributaries from the west. It then meanders, winding in loops across the flat land in the south-east, where there is marsh. There is also a small lake at two hundred and thirty metres in the north. That same report also describes the strongest answers. About one student in five did this very effectively, often "using contour patterns or spot heights as evidence". It also saw a significant improvement on the previous time this kind of question was set, when results were very poor. Write it the way the model answer did, with a figure, a direction or a contour in every sentence.

People show up on the map too, in what they use the land for. Land use is what people use the land for, from farms and forests to quarries, housing and places for recreation. To infer is to reason out what the map suggests from its evidence. Every inference is tied to a symbol and a grid reference. A railway on a map runs along a valley floor, winding round the hills instead of crossing them. Why would the railway follow the valley? Trains cannot climb steep slopes, and level ground is cheaper to build on. Roads and railways tend to follow valleys and flat land for the same reason. Tourism shows in the blue tourist symbols, such as car parks, visitor centres, campsites, caravan sites, viewpoints and picnic sites. Footpaths and long-distance trails add to them. A cluster of those symbols marks a honeypot site, a place that draws large numbers of visitors, the way a honeypot draws bees. On a one to fifty thousand map, a lake lies beside the village of Featherby. There is a visitor centre at four seven three, two eight six, and a campsite at four six eight, two nine oh. A car park sits by the lake at four seven one, two eight four. A viewpoint sits on the hill above at four seven eight, two nine five, and footpaths lead up the hill from the car park. What three pieces of map evidence show tourists use the area? First, the visitor centre at four seven three, two eight six. Second, the campsite at four six eight, two nine oh, for people staying overnight. Third, the car park by the lake at four seven one, two eight four, with footpaths leading from it up to the viewpoint. Together they suggest a honeypot site around the lake. An answer like there is a lake nearby, which is nice, is too vague to count as evidence of tourists. Each piece of evidence needs a symbol and its grid reference. One examiner's report, on choosing a site for a science park, says "Too many students tended to name anything they saw on the map without any consideration of why this would be a good site". The habit is to ask so what for every feature you name, and keep only the ones that answer the question. Another report notes that students who leaned mainly on the text boxes in a question gained only a limited number of the skills marks, and their points were often not well developed. Instead, take the map evidence from the map itself, as measured lengths and grid references. If your course studies coasts, rivers or glaciated uplands, the map also shows what people have done to them, such as sea walls, embankments and straightened channels. Each landscape has its own video for that. In a town or city, the map shows land use as well: a dense centre with stations, rows of housing, large sheds for industry and shops, and parks. The video on a UK city puts that to work.

Every settlement has a site, a situation and a shape, and they answer three different questions. Site is the land the settlement was first built on. A good site might offer a water supply, a dry point above floods, flat land, a bridging point, a defensive hill, or shelter. Situation is where the settlement sits in relation to the places, routes and features around it. It might be at a road junction, thirty kilometres north of a city, or at the mouth of a valley. Site is the ground under the first houses, and situation is the setting around the whole settlement. It is like the plot a house stands on, against the street and town around it. Take an example. The first houses of a village stood inside a tight loop of a river, with water on three sides to protect them. Is that loop of the river part of the site or the situation? Site, because it is the land the first buildings stood on, chosen for defence. Shape is the outline the buildings make. Linear means strung along a road, river or valley. Nucleated means clustered round a centre or crossroads. Dispersed means scattered farms and houses. Try one. A village's houses line both sides of one long main street, with fields behind them. Which shape is that village? It is linear, a single line of buildings. Now the market town of Talonford. Its oldest streets and its church sit on a small hill at forty-five metres, inside a tight bend of the River Tawny. A bridge crosses the river beside the old centre, and the flat floodplain around the bend is below twenty metres. Today a bypass and a railway run along the valley past the town, thirty kilometres north of Owlton, the capital. Option A says the town grew there because the bypass and the railway run past it. Option B says it was built on a small hill above the floodplain, beside the river. Option C says its church in the old centre drew people to it. Which option gives a reason for the town's original site? It's B, the small hill beside the river, a feature of the land itself. Developed, it reads like this. The town was first built on a small hill at forty-five metres, a dry point above the floodplain below twenty metres, so homes stayed safe from floods, while the river close by supplied water. Option A describes today's situation, the modern routes. One examiner's report on an original-site question records what happened: "The vast majority of candidates concerned themselves with where the settlement was located in relation to surrounding features, namely communications." The fix is to underline original site in the question, then write only about the land the first buildings stood on. Option C names a building. A site factor is a feature of the land itself, such as water, height, flat ground or a bridging point. Now a different task on the same town, with the site set aside. How would you describe Talonford's situation in one sentence? It lies in a river valley about thirty kilometres north of Owlton, where a bridge crosses the River Tawny, with the bypass and railway running past along the valley. And its shape, in a line: the old centre is nucleated, clustered round the bridge. Back to the three fields near Marksby, and the developer's choice. Which field makes sense for four hundred homes, and why? Field C. At forty metres it sits above the floodplain, a good site, and it joins a main road and a station, a good situation. Field A is on the floodplain, so it floods. Field B is cut off, three kilometres from a road.

Back through the chapter's last lesson, and this time you lead.

Physical geography on a map means which two things?

Relief and drainage, each backed by figures from the map.

Now: ten kilometres east of the motorway. Is that site or situation?

Situation, because it places the settlement among the routes around it.

Another: farms scattered across a valley with no centre. What shape?

Dispersed, the buildings spread out with no centre to cluster round.

Now one more: a viewpoint, picnic site and car park by a waterfall suggest what?

A honeypot site, drawing large numbers of visitors to the waterfall.

And that is how the developer near Marksby could pick field C without a visit: the land under it and the routes around it, read from one map. That wraps up the chapter on reading OS maps.

If you can read a whole map like that now, a thumbs-up says you own this one. If it hasn't settled, save it and come back to it later in the week.

The next chapter is World maps, GIS and online data. Hopefully that's next in your feed, but if not, search for ScholaFly G E oh three, oh oh.

Every other video is on scholafly.com too, easy to search by video code or by keyword. Whatever you're revising, go there and have a look, or, watch the next video.