# Topographic mapping with Plot

**URL:** <https://talk.observablehq.com/t/topographic-mapping-with-plot/8164>\
**Category:** Show and tell\
**Created:** [August 9, 2023, 5:51pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/topographic-mapping-with-plot/8164 "2023-08-09T17:51:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jwoLondon](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.observablehq.com/jwolondon/32/259_2.png) [@jwoLondon](https://talk.observablehq.com/u/jwoLondon)\
**Post date:** [August 9, 2023, 5:51pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/topographic-mapping-with-plot/8164/1 "2023-08-09T17:51:15Z")

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Ever since the raster and contour marks became available in Plot, I’ve thought about how it might be possible to produce high quality topographic maps from elevation models.

I’ve finally got around to documenting the process, which I hope shows off Plot’s expressiveness as well as inspiring others to create high quality maps in Observable.

As usual, comments or suggestions for improvements are very welcome.

> **[Topographic Mapping](https://observablehq.com/@jwolondon/topographic-mapping)**
>
> Building a topographic map with Plot. Plot's raster mark provides the facility to render continuous surfaces from a regular grid of values (or interpolated from an irregular set). This makes it an ideal starting point for producing topographic...