Converting Radar Topography Maps into Contour Maps for BFTB MapMaker

[Chief Rudiger]

I have been playing about with creating contour maps from radar topography data and free programs. The ASTER data, which cover virtually the whole world at 30m resolution (a higher resolution than the Shuttle SRTM which is at only 90m outside the US) is freely available and after a lot of frustration i found this nifty site:

http://www.gdem.aster.ersdac.or.jp/

After registering (for free) you can download tiles of data really easily. In the screenshot below you can see a portion of the data loaded into a free program called MicroDEM. This allowed me to create contour maps from the DEM. The final pictures show these contour maps as viewed in MicroDEM at 50m intervals, with heavy contours every 250m and that same data without labels as viewed in QuantumGIS, another free GIS package.

Either of these contour maps could be screenshoted and traced over using the MapMaker's bitmap underlay feature to create a fairly accurate map in BFTB.

The reason i wanted to do this was because Google Earth doesn't give very many contours and i didn't have modern topological maps of the area to hand. What maps i have are from the 1940s and are cluttered with all kinds of things that confuse the eye when i'm trying to draw the contours, the most time consuming part, in the MapMaker.

[Chief Rudiger]

second image

[Chief Rudiger]

third image

[Chief Rudiger]

The above shots can be compared to the maps shown in the thread, below, for a small map I created from a 1940 map & tracing. The tracing covers the area North of the big river valley, from the sea to just before it forks to the East. I think the DEM extract goes as far North as the smaller valley on the far side of the town of Damour, three squares North of the valley/river.

tm.asp?m=2178878

I have attached the original map from which the tracing was taken for comparison with the Radar Topography and contour map. I'm not sure what kind of detail is lost because of the satellite's 30m resolution, or in the contour extrapolation but I doubt the accuracy of the "original" maps was very high. Tomorrow I will overlay the contour map onto the period map as best I can to see how different they are.

It seems that many of the maps used in the Syria/Lebanon campaign were bodged together out of various existing maps (road maps, atlas etc) which weren't necessarily of high quality to begin with. Detail was definitely added or amended by Aerial recce and there was a cartographic unit in the Corp but whether this map was issued before or after that information was collated is something I don't know.

Certainly there will be conflicts between the sources but I think for clarity's sake this should make map making a bit easier. The DEM download site is certainly easy to use and the following link gives a walkthrough on the Contour creation, as does the MicroDEM help file.

http://freegeographytools.com/2007/elev ... -topo-maps

[wgs_explorer]

Chief, this looks really great! I'm looking forward to seeing more!

Bill

[Arjuna]

Excellent! [&o]

[Chief Rudiger]

The problems remains though on how to add detail to the contour map. I have looked at various landcover maps available online, which could be converted to the basic classes used in the MapMaker but i really want period maps, of at least 1:25,000 scale ombined with reductionist field sketches and tracings, so as i can see what the man on the ground felt were important features.

The series i'm really looking for is the 1:25,000 one i attached in my previous post, details below. It is probably based on the same info as the GSGS but as you can see, aerial recce info has been used, perhaps to add more contours, and the map republished by you diggers mid way through the campaign.

If you happenned to know anyone at the AWM could you give them a gentle kick up the arse to digitise the 2/2 Pioneer Bn War Diary for June/July 1941, when they fought as Infantry in one of the campaigns important battles, Merdjayoun. The other Australian Bns who took part in the fighting around Merdjayoun did not leave very volumous War Diaries, others of which contain good maps. I have been unable to find any good maps of Merdjayoun in any of the available 7th Div war diaries, whereas theres lots for Damour and Jezzine, the other importan areas on the 7th Div front, so i'll either have to look into some of the British Inf Bn records, who were attached to the Division, or have something like the British GSGS maps digitised myself:

http://copac.ac.uk/search?rn=8&any=Syri ... ti%2C-date

Another great source of map info might be the work of the Survey Corp, no doubt the authours of the attached map, whose products must be fascinating, but aren't exhibitted in their book:

http://copac.ac.uk/search?rn=14&any=Aus ... ti%2C-date

If you know of any easy way of getting the GSGS series in digital form i'd be glad, or have experience/advice in dealing with the AWM.

[Arjuna]

We did not source our mapping through the Australian War Memorial ( AWM ). Rather, we used the Map Librarary at the Australian National Library. This has a pretty comprehensive set of GSGS maps for WW2. We have to pay them to digitise it. The cost to digitise the Bulge maps we used was around A$650 five years ago. I don't know what todays pricing would be.

[bromstarzan]

Some good tips there Rudiger. I do maps for Steel Beasts Pro and FSX and also use some of the tools you mentioned. In combinaion with Matlab and ArcGIS some maps turn out great. Still have not made a serious atempt for BFTB. Will certainly try this eventually.

cheers,
broms

[Chief Rudiger]

Have you tried anything yourself yet? I've had an email from someone else who seemed to be making a map complete with vector land cover data, but i haven't heard where he was getting that data from. If you've tried out anything would you post the results on the forum?

[bromstarzan]

I have been too busy not playing BFTB lately but I should find some time for map-making later on. Hopefully something that can be posted.

It is funny how you posted this example map, because I've been working on this region for another wargame project which is not using the BFTB engine.

Cheers,
Broms

[Chief Rudiger]

ORIGINAL: bromstarzan

It is funny how you posted this example map, because I've been working on this region for another wargame project which is not using the BFTB engine.

You can't say that without telling me more!

[Anonymous]

[Deleted by Admins]