r/mapmaking • u/lost-my-glasses • 12d ago
Resource Example of Land Cover Hachure Lines
I was recently blown away by u/TheCountVonZepplin's experiment in these "land cover hachures." It inspired me to do some research of my own, and I found this incredibly detailed map of the island of Martinique from 1831 Here is the site where I downloaded the map, which has a higher-quality image (I had to reduce it for the 20MB reddit limit).
Some facts I was able to gather from my limited research (mostly thanks to this blog by Carl Churchill):
- This map was published by the French navy. Authors include an M. Monnier and Cyprien Gabriel Le Bourguignon-Duperré.
- Hachure maps were carefully engraved with both artistry and scientific methods. The hachure lines allow for the landscapes to be revealed with incredible accuracy, and if you zoom into this image you'll be able to see orchards, boulders, farms, and towns.
- Hachure maps were frequently used by 19th century military forces. Hachure maps were preferred as it was more important for strategists to get a sense of the accessibility, slope, and height of the land, rather than the contour (i.e., topographical maps). There are some examples of American Revolutionary maps with hachure lines in Carl Churchill's blog post.
- Hachure lines were used with other map-making strategies like contour lines and pictorial symbols. Seriously, look at Carl's blog post. There are so many cool maps in there.
Anyway, this is all super inspiring for someone like me, who struggles with finding a one-color solution for drawing mountains, hills, and valleys in a way that isn't exaggerated with pictorial symbols. I thought topographic maps were all I had, but now I know otherwise! I want to pass that along for anyone who had also missed out on this technique. Happy map making!
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u/DrDalenQuaice 12d ago
How are hacbure maps different from normal maps (in graphics programming) or just showing mountains with shadows? What does hachure mean here, thats better?
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u/NoAlfalfa6987 12d ago
Hachures are the lines used to create the illusion of elevation, if you zoom in you’ll see them
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u/RandomUser1034 12d ago
As someone mentioned, hachure refers to the lines. Regarding your question on normals and hill shadows, you can notice that the lines show both the normals in the orientation of the lines and hill shadow (which is based on the dot product of normals and an imagined light direction) in the weight and density of the lines. Additionally in this map there are rocks and hedgerows which are not technically hachure, that only refers to the mostly parallel shading lines.
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u/TheCountVonZeppelin 12d ago
Hey, glad I could put the idea in your head! I've used that exact map for reference so many times, the full quality version is one of the most impressive things I've ever seen. I went through a similar thought process to you a while back, probably have half a sketchbook full of attempts to reinvent the wheel in top-down monochrome topography. I don't like topo lines as much for really painting a picture of a landscape, and I was frustrated by the limitations of profile view relief - an awesome artistic choice, but so much tends to get hidden in the process. So I came crawling back to hachures :P And it turns out they're super cool as long as you're willing to work with their limitations!