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The stated height difference between adjacent contour lines.
Also known as: Vertical interval, Contour spacing, VI marking
The contour interval is the vertical distance between one contour and the next, printed in the map legend. It is the number that turns a pattern of lines into a statement about steepness, and it changes between maps and sometimes within one.
States the fixed height difference between successive contour lines, printed in the legend of every contoured map.
Contexts: Maps
Determines what the spacing of the lines means: identically spaced contours describe a far steeper slope at a fifty-metre interval than at a five-metre one.
Contexts: Maps
Varies between national mapping series and can vary within a single sheet where flat and mountainous ground are both covered.
Contexts: Maps
A short printed statement of a distance in the map margin, beside a specimen pair of curved lines.