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Terrain (from Latin: terra 'earth'), alternatively relief or topographical relief, is the dimension and shape of a given surface of land. In physical geography , terrain is the lay of the land. This is usually expressed in terms of the elevation , slope , and orientation of terrain features.
In modern mapping, a topographic map or topographic sheet is a type of map characterized by large-scale detail and quantitative representation of relief features, usually using contour lines (connecting points of equal elevation), but historically using a variety of methods.
Land is often defined as the solid, dry surface of Earth. [1] The word land may also collectively refer the collective natural resources of Earth, [2] including its land cover, rivers, shallow lakes, its biosphere, the lowest layer of the atmosphere (troposphere), groundwater reserves, and the physical results of human activity on land, such as architecture and agriculture. [3]
Securing a terrain advantage is an important consideration for modern commanders, particularly those engaged in unconventional tactics such as guerrilla warfare, but it was likely of even greater concern for pre-industrial forces since the lack of mobility during first-generation warfare left soldiers very vulnerable to its effects.
Terrain rendering is widely used in computer games to represent both Earth's surface and imaginary worlds. Some games also have terrain deformation (or deformable terrain). One important application of terrain rendering is in synthetic vision systems. Pilots flying aircraft benefit greatly from the ability to see terrain surface at all times ...
Terrain is commonly modelled either using vector (triangulated irregular network or TIN) or gridded (raster image) mathematical models. In the most applications in environmental sciences, land surface is represented and modelled using gridded models. In civil engineering and entertainment businesses, the most representations of land surface ...
One of the most important applications of the topographic profiles is in the construction of works of great length and small width, for example roads, sewers or pipelines. [ 2 ] Sometimes topographical profiles appear in printed maps, such as those designed for navigation routes, excavations and especially for geological maps , where they are ...
Landforms together make up a given terrain, and their arrangement in the landscape is known as topography. Landforms include hills , mountains , canyons , and valleys , as well as shoreline features such as bays , peninsulas , and seas , [ 3 ] including submerged features such as mid-ocean ridges , volcanoes , and the great ocean basins .