The word topography comes from a Greek word, which is composed of lexical elements topos or τόπος, which means place, territory and spelling, which means description, treatise and writing. The topography is the science that studies the objectives of the surface of the earth, with its forms and details, both natural and artificial or fictitious.
This representation takes place on flat surfaces, limiting itself to small increases in terrain, using the denomination of "geodesy" which is a mathematical science that studies and determines the shape and magnitude of the entire terrestrial globe that builds the provided or corresponding maps for larger areas., but in the case of topography the Earth is geometrically flat, while for geodesy it is not.
The topographic maps use system representation of contour maps showing the highest part of the terrain using the lines connecting the points with the same height, which is the number in the map shows the height of a point above the level of the sea or on another level plane with so-called curves and they say that the map is topographic, it is the one that studies the distribution of the highest part of the earth's surface.
The topography is a discipline or technique that takes care to describe a very detailed form the earth 's surface, but is not limited to performing elevation fields on land but has editing components and cartographic drafting, which is responsible for study the elaborations of geographic maps.
