Conventional signs and symbols
Also called: Map symbols, Conventional signs · Topic: Topographical Maps: Relief Representation and Interpretation · NCERT: Class 6, Ch 1 "Locating Places on the Earth"; Class 11, Ch 5 "Topographical Maps"
Meaning
Conventional signs and symbols are the standard signs, symbols and colours used on topographical maps. They show features such as international and state boundaries, metalled and unmetalled roads, cart tracks, railway lines, villages, places of worship, post offices, bench marks and spot heights. They are internationally accepted, so anyone can read a map even without knowing the local language. Colours help too: brown for contours, blue for water, green for forests, yellow for cultivated land, red for roads and settlements, and black for railways and boundaries.
Example
On a Survey of India sheet of the Ganga plain near Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, the Ganga is shown in blue and fields are shaded yellow. Railway lines are drawn as black lines. A reader in another country can follow the same map using these shared signs.
Don't confuse with
- Marginal information: this is the written detail in the margins of the sheet, such as the sheet number, scale and districts. Conventional signs are the symbols drawn on the map itself.