IOF Sprint Map Seminar
Riga, 11th/12th March 2016
Sprint Clinic Riga
Day 1
18:00 - 18:30
Introduction
Thomas Gloor
18:30- 19:15
Presentation - how to draw maps?
Thomas Gloor
19:15 – 21:00
Correct usage of ISSOM 2007 symbols
(discussion + presentation)
Thomas Gloor
21:00 – 21:30
Discussion
Thomas Gloor
2
Sprint Clinic Riga
Day 2
8:30 – 10:00
Analyzing Latvia sprint maps/
WOC experience
Thomas Gloor
10:00 – 11:00
Coffee Break
Thomas Gloor
10:15 – 11:00
Preparing for practical work
Thomas Gloor
11:00 – 13:30
Practical work outside
Thomas Gloor
13:30 – 14:15
Lunch
14:15 – 16:00
Analysis of drawn material
Thomas Gloor
16:00 – 17:00
Discussion and closing of seminar
Thomas Gloor
3
Introduction
Riga, 11th/12th March 2016
Background Thomas Gloor
• Draftsman in Surveying
• Several O-Map Projects in USA and Switzerland as mapper
• Assistant at the Institute of Cartography ETH Zürich 19982002
• Member of Swiss Orienteering Map Commission since 1995
(Mapping Adviser)
• Member of IOF Map Commission since 2000
• Project leader for ISSOM (2002 to 2007)
• Map Adviser for WOC 2010 (France) and WOC 2011
(Switzerland) and several Word Cup Finals (Sprint Maps)
What is sprint orienteering?
Sprint orienteering is a fast, visible, easy-to-understand format,
allowing orienteering to be staged within areas of significant
population. The sprint profile is high speed. Sprint is built on very high
speed running in very runnable parks, streets or forests. The winning
time, for both women and men, shall be 12-15 minutes [ISSOM 2007]
Personal remark: Can anybody run in a forest in high speed?
International Sprint Specification (ISSOM)
• Map must be easy to read at fast running speed
• It should be possible to relocation instantaneously (legibility)
• Barriers are forbidden to cross
• The main ‘running’ level of multilevel structures should be
represented
• Intensive collaboration between course planner, mapmaker, event
or/and map adviser
Choosing an attractive area
• No traffic or it must be possible to keep it off!
• Now crowded areas (pedestrian)
• Park areas, down town, narrow streets, simple under- and overpasses
(with two levels)
• Ownership and permission issues (private areas, botanical gardens,
etc.)
Avoid multi-level constructions  Cartography can represent only 2
levels (simple under- und underpasses)
8
Landowners
Talk to landowners about:
• when you can use area
• restrictions on access to parts of area
• Closed/Open doors, gates, passages, etc.
• Evaluate planned new constructions
9
Make attractive courses (Course Setting)
• Short and long legs
• Change directions often and sharp
Avoid tricky controls to provoke searching and unfair action by the
competitors. The goal is to find the fastest way between controls and
not finding the control flag itself!
10
How to draw maps?
Riga, 11th/12th March 2016
Scale for Sprint Maps
• Running time 12 - 15 min.
 2,0 – 4 km ≈ max. 2.5 km2
• 1: 4 000 or 1: 5 000, no other scales!
• 2 or 2,5 m contour interval
• Size of the symbols are the same
for both scales (no enlargement!)
12
Base map
• Vector data (DXF, SHP, OpenStreetMap)  Check national survey
authorities
• Up to date (georeferenced) aerial photos  GoogleMap
• LiDAR data for contours  Check national survey authorities
• Paper base map in scale from 1: 2’500 to 1: 5’000  Scan and do
rubber sheeting
 Try to draw as much as possible at home!
13
Field Checking
• Start field checking only, if you know the concept of the courses
• If the base map is good enough, pacing and bearings are not
necessary / using GPS in narrow street is difficult
• Expect some questions from passers-by  be polite
• An urban map will need to be updated shortly before competition
14
Generalization
• A map with few well chosen features will give a much better map
than a map cluttered with many insignificant features.
Eduard Imhof (Famous Swiss Cartographer)
• Features that are not important for a competitor taking part in a
sprint orienteering event should not be mapped. Examples of this are
waste baskets, fire hydrants, parking meters and individual street
lights [ISSOM 2007]
15
Generalization
City of Basel, 2003, Switzerland
16
Map Drawing
• Drawing urban maps are very time consuming: 1 hour of field
checking  2 hours of drawing
• Try not to overlap area symbols (pavement, open land, etc.)
Topological correct (point, edge, areas)
• Changing things takes significantly more time than drawing from
scratch
• Check pre-printed map against the fieldwork after each drawing
session, then make corrections
17
Legibility - Gaps
Importing digital vector data  narrow streets are to narrow 
between buildings > 0.4 mm
18
Legibility - Limits of visual perception
Resolution of the eye 138-336 dpi ≈ 318 dpi
If good contrast between map symbols and background is present, the
human eye can:
• Recognize a fine black line of 0.04 mm thickness at a normal reading
distance of 30cm
• Recognize an isolated point of approx. 0.1 mm in diameter
• Recognize an interval space of approx. 0.15 mm
19
Legibility – Limits of visual perception
Min. Visual Range in cm
Min. Viewlenght in a age of
25 %
 Follow minimum dimensions
Age in Years
20
Legibility – Limits of visual perception
Min. Viewlenght in a age of
Min. Visual Range in cm
100%
Correct usage of ISSOM 2007 symbols
50 %
25 %
 Follow minimum dimensions
Age in Years
21
Excursus: Aim of Contour Lines ?
Represent the terrain in a 3D-modell (Pseudo 3D effect):
• Hachure
• Relief shading
• Contour lines and relief shading
• Contour lines  Solution
for Orienteering maps
22
Excursus: Aim of Contour Lines ?
Represent the terrain in a 3D-modell (Pseudo 3D effect):
• Hachure
• Relief shading
• Contour lines and relief shading
• Contour lines  Solution
for Orienteering maps
23
Excursus : Aim of Contour Lines ?
Represent the terrain in a 3D-modell (Pseudo 3D effect):
• An individual contour line does not state much. Only a number of
adjacent contour lines show form an structure
• Interrelationships between adjacent contour lines among themselves
have to be observed.
 Enlarge the map scale, the contour line interval has to adopted as well.
 The reduction of contour line interval does not follow in linear way
24
Excursus : Aim of Contour Lines ?
Contour lines interval depends on
• Scale
• Line width of contour lines
• Steepest slop in the terrain
 Logarithm function
Fig. Eduard Imhof, Cartographic Relief Shading, 1965
25
1: 15 000 / 5m
26
1: 10 000 / 5 m
27
1: 10 000 / 2.5m
28
Correct usage of ISSOM 2007
symbols ?
Riga, 11th/12th March 2016
Contour Lines for Sprint Maps
• Contour line interval 2 m or 2.5 m (not 5 m!)
• Very flat terrain consider for 1 m
• Consider to avoid index contour lines in flat terrains
• Contour lines running trough buildings to order to improve 3D effect
• Cut contour lines off, when they running trough openings, stairs,
passable wall, etc.
Take care about the contour lines  you are a cartographer!
30
Contour Lines
Contour lines running trough buildings to improve 3D effect
ETH Hönggerberg Campus 2012, Switzerland
31
Contour Lines
Where does rainwater run down?
ETH Hönggerberg Campus 2012, Switzerland
32
Contour Lines
Where does rainwater run down?
Aix-les-Bains, WOC 2011
33
Contour Lines
Place contour lines, where they not disturb map reading!
Neue Welt, WC Final 2014, Switzerland
34
Contour Lines
Place contour lines, where they not disturb map reading!
35
Rock and Boulders
• Differentiate rock from walls by using the tags
36
Water and Marsh
• Impassable and passable water
Neue Welt, WC Final 2014, Switzerland
37
Vegetation
• Impassable vegetation
• Use only 60% green for
passable hedges
• Use 100% green and
50% black for
impassable hedges
• Do not use 30% and
100% green black for
hedges
Neue Welt, WC Final 2014, Switzerland
38
Paved Areas vs. Unpaved Areas
• A paved area is an area with a firm level surfaces such as asphalt,
hard gravel, tiles, concrete or the like  those types will not be
differentiated, only the borderline
39
Paved Areas vs. Unpaved Areas
• An unpaved footpath or rough vehicle track is a way for passing
mainly by foot, without a smooth, hard surface  reduced runability
40
Small Unpaved Footpath or Track
• Not to be used in urban areas
Neue Welt, WC Final 2014, Switzerland
41
Bridge (simple)
• Cut off neighbouring lines to bridges (legibility)
 recognizing the bridge symbol
Neue Welt, WC Final 2014, Switzerland
42
Bridge and Overpasses (complex)
• Only two simple levels can be represented properly
• End tag of the bridge symbol should fit together
Neue Welt, WC Final 2014, Switzerland
43
Railway / Tramway
• Replace Railway to Tramway, to emphasize the passage (legibility)
44
Railway / Tramway
• Mostly used in down town!
45
Step / Sidewalk
• Optical differences, edge of sidewalk and Step  same symbol
46
Passable wall
47
Passable wall
48
Impassable wall
49
Passable Fence
50
Impassable Fence
51
Barriers that are forbidden to cross
Features that are represented on the map as impassable,
independently of their effective passability, shall not be crossed.
Competitors who do not obey this rule … must be disqualified.
Crossing is not permitted because:
• Impossible to cross
• Unsafe to cross
• Forbidden by the organiser. This is often due to the law or by
decisions of the landowner or other interested parties.
52
Buildings
• Dominant outstanding house front we be shown
53
Buildings
• Generalize Buildings
54
Buildings
• Significant height differences within houses will be shown
55
Canopies
56
Canopies
57
Prominent point features
• Prominent “trees, small trees, bushes”;
• Or X, O:
• “A … feature which is significant or prominent” that you choose; and
• define “The definition of the symbol shall always be given in the map
legend.”
• Point features on sprint maps should:
•
•
•
be few in number (unless other features are lacking);
definable;
consistently prominent.
58
Multilevel structures
• “The cartographic representation of more than one level is in general
impossible.”
• You only have one sheet of paper!
• “Hence only the main ‘running’ level should be represented on the
map.”
• “However, underground passages (e.g. underpasses, lighted tunnels)
or overpasses (e.g. bridges), which are important for the competitors
should be represented on the map.”
59
Questions?
Thank You!