Contour line

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This article is about lines of equal value in maps and diagrams. For more meanings of the word "contour", see Contour (disambiguation).
The bottom part of the diagram shows some contour lines with a straight line running through the location of the maximum value. The curve at the top represents the values along that straight line.
A two-dimensional contour graph of the three-dimensional surface in the above picture.

A contour line (also isoline, isopleth, or isarithm) of a function of two variables is a curve along which the function has a constant value.[1] It is a cross-section of the three-dimensional graph of the function f(x, y) parallel to the x, y plane. In cartography, a contour line (often just called a "contour") joins points of equal elevation (height) above a given level, such as mean sea level.[2] A contour map is a map illustrated with contour lines, for example a topographic map, which thus shows valleys and hills, and the steepness of slopes.[3] The contour interval of a contour map is the difference in elevation between successive contour lines.[4]




Contour lines are often given specific names beginning "iso-" (Ancient Greek: ἴσος isos "equal") according to the nature of the variable being mapped, although in many usages the phrase "contour line" is most commonly used. Specific names are most common in meteorology, where multiple maps with different variables may be viewed simultaneously. The prefix "iso-" can be replaced with "isallo-" to specify a contour line connecting points where a variable changes at the same rate during a given time period.

The words isoline and isarithm (ἀριθμός arithmos "number") are general terms covering all types of contour line. The word isogram (γράμμα gramma "writing or drawing") was proposed by Francis Galton in 1889 as a convenient generic designation for lines indicating equality of some physical condition or quantity;[6] but it commonly refers to a word without a repeated letter.

An isogon (from γωνία or gonia, meaning 'angle') is a contour line for a variable which measures direction. In meteorology and in geomagnetics, the term isogon has specific meanings which are described below. An isocline (from κλίνειν or klinein, meaning 'to lean or slope') is a line joining points with equal slope. In population dynamics and in geomagnetics, the terms isocline and isoclinic line have specific meanings which are described below.

Equidistants (isodistances)[edit]

Equidistant is a line of equal distance from a given point, line, polyline.


In geography, the word isopleth (from πλῆθος or plethos, meaning 'quantity') is used for contour lines that depict a variable which cannot be measured at a point, but which instead must be calculated from data collected over an area. An example is population density, which can be calculated by dividing the population of a census district by the surface area of that district. Each calculated value is presumed to be the value of the variable at the centre of the area, and isopleths can then be drawn by a process of interpolation. The idea of an isopleth map can be compared with that of a choropleth map.[7][8]

In meteorology, the word isopleth is used for any type of contour line.


Isohyetal map of precipitation




Barometric pressure[edit]

Loop showing the motion of a cold front by the movement of isallobars

An isobar (from βάρος or baros, meaning 'weight') is a line of equal or constant pressure on a graph, plot, or map; an isopleth or contour line of pressure. More accurately, isobars are lines drawn on a map joining places of equal average atmospheric pressure reduced to sea level for a specified period of time. In meteorology, the barometric pressures shown are reduced to sea level, not the surface pressures at the map locations.[9] The distribution of isobars is closely related to the magnitude and direction of the wind field, and can be used to predict future weather patterns. Isobars are commonly used in television weather reporting.

isallobars are lines joining points of equal pressure change during a specific time interval.[10] These can be divided into anallobars, lines joining points of equal pressure increase during a specific time interval,[11] and katallobars, lines joining points of equal pressure decrease.[12] In general, weather systems moves along an axis joining high and low isallobaric centers.[13] Isallobaric gradient are important component of the wind, too, as they increase or decrease the geostrophic wind.

An isopycnal is a line of constant density. An isoheight or isohypse is a line of constant geopotential height on a constant pressure surface chart.

Temperature and related subjects[edit]

The 10 °C mean isotherm in July, marked by the red line, is commonly used to define the Arctic region border

An isotherm (from θέρμη or thermē, meaning 'heat') is a line that connects points on a map that have the same temperature. Therefore, all points through which an isotherm passes have the same or equal temperatures at the time indicated.[14] An isotherm at 0 °C is called the freezing level.


An isohel (from ἥλιος or helios, meaning 'Sun') is a line of equal or constant solar radiation.

Precipitation and air moisture[edit]

An isohyet or isohyetal line (from ὕετος or huetos, meaning 'rain') is a line joining points of equal precipitation on a map. A map with isohyets is called an isohyetal map.

An isohume is a line of constant relative humidity, while a isodrosotherm (from δρόσος or drosos, meaning 'dew', and θέρμη or therme, meaning 'heat') is a line of equal or constant dew point.

An isoneph is a line indicating equal cloud cover.

An isochalaz is a line of constant frequency of hail storms, and an isobront is a line drawn through geographical points at which a given phase of thunderstorm activity occurred simultaneously.

Snow cover is frequently shown as a contour-line map.


An isotach (from ταχύς or tachus, meaning 'fast') is a line joining points with constant wind speed. In meteorology, the term isogon refers to a line of constant wind direction.

Freeze and thaw[edit]


Physical geography and oceanography[edit]

Elevation and depth[edit]

Topographic map of Stowe, Vermont. The brown contour lines represent the elevation. The contour interval is 20 feet.

Contours are one of several common methods used to denote elevation or altitude and depth on maps. From these contours, a sense of the general terrain can be determined. They are used at a variety of scales, from large-scale engineering drawings and architectural plans, through topographic maps and bathymetric charts, up to continental-scale maps.


In cartography, the contour interval is the elevation difference between adjacent contour lines. The contour interval should be the same over a single map. When calculated as a ratio against the map scale, a sense of the hilliness of the terrain can be derived.


There are several rules to note when interpreting terrain contour lines:

  • The rule of V's: sharp-pointed vees usually are in stream valleys, with the drainage channel passing through the point of the vee, with the vee pointing upstream. This is a consequence of erosion.
  • The rule of O's: closed loops are normally uphill on the inside and downhill on the outside, and the innermost loop is the highest area. If a loop instead represents a depression, some maps note this by short lines radiating from the inside of the loop, called "hachures".
  • Spacing of contours: close contours indicate a steep slope; distant contours a shallow slope. Two or more contour lines merging indicates a cliff. By counting the number of contours that cross a segment of a stream, you can approximate the stream gradient.

Of course, to determine differences in elevation between two points, the contour interval, or distance in altitude between two adjacent contour lines, must be known, and this is given at the bottom of the map. Usually contour intervals are consistent throughout a map, but there are exceptions. Sometimes intermediate contours are present in flatter areas; these can be dashed or dotted lines at half the noted contour interval. When contours are used with hypsometric tints on a small-scale map that includes mountains and flatter low-lying areas, it is common to have smaller intervals at lower elevations so that detail is shown in all areas. Conversely, for an island which consists of a plateau surrounded by steep cliffs, it is possible to use smaller intervals as the height increases.[15]


An isopotential map is a measure of electrostatic potential in space, often depicted in two dimensions with the electostatic charges inducing that electric potential. The term equipotential line or isopotential line refers to a curve of constant electric potential. Whether crossing an equipotential line represents ascending or descending the potential is inferred from the labels on the charges. In three dimensions, equipotential surfaces may be depicted with a two dimensional cross-section, showing equipotential lines at the intersection of the surfaces and the cross-section.

The general mathematical term level set is often used to describe the full collection of points having a particular potential, especially in higher dimensional space.


Isogonic lines for the year 2000. The agonic lines are thicker and labeled with "0".

In the study of the Earth's magnetic field, the term isogon or isogonic line refers to a line of constant magnetic declination, the variation of magnetic north from geographic north. An agonic line is drawn through points of zero magnetic declination.

An isoclinic line connects points of equal magnetic dip, and an aclinic line is the isoclinic line of magnetic dip zero.

An isodynamic line (from δύναμις or dynamis meaning 'power') connects points with the same intensity of magnetic force.


Besides ocean depth, oceanographers use contour to describe diffuse variable phenomena much as meteorologists do with atmospheric phenomena. In particular, isobathytherms are lines showing depths of water with equal temperature, isohalines show lines of equal ocean salinity, and Isopycnals are surfaces of equal water density.


Various geological data are rendered as contour maps in structural geology, sedimentology, stratigraphy and economic geology. Contour maps are used to show the below ground surface of geologic strata, fault surfaces (especially low angle thrust faults) and unconformities. Isopach maps use isopachs (lines of equal thickness) to illustrate variations in thickness of geologic units.

Environmental science[edit]

In discussing pollution, density maps can be very useful in indicating sources and areas of greatest contamination. Contour maps are especially useful for diffuse forms or scales of pollution. Acid precipitation is indicated on maps with isoplats. Some of the most widespread applications of environmental science contour maps involve mapping of environmental noise (where lines of equal sound pressure level are denoted isobels[16]), air pollution, soil contamination, thermal pollution and groundwater contamination. By contour planting and contour ploughing, the rate of water runoff and thus soil erosion can be substantially reduced; this is especially important in riparian zones.


An isoflor is an isopleth contour connecting areas of comparable biological diversity. Usually, the variable is the number of species of a given genus or family that occurs in a region. Isoflor maps are thus used to show distribution patterns and trends such as centres of diversity.[17]

Social sciences[edit]

From economics, an indifference map with three indifference curves shown. All points on a particular indifference curve have the same value of the utility function, whose values implicitly come out of the page in the unshown third dimension.

In economics, contour lines can be used to describe features which vary quantitatively over space. An isochrone shows lines of equivalent drive time or travel time to a given location and is used in the generation of isochrone maps. An isotim shows equivalent transport costs from the source of a raw material, and an isodapane shows equivalent cost of travel time.

A single production isoquant (convex) and a single isocost curve (linear). Labor usage is plotted horizontally and physical capital usage is plotted vertically.

Contour lines are also used to display non-geographic information in economics. Indifference curves (as shown at left) are used to show bundles of goods to which a person would assign equal utility. An isoquant (in the image at right) is a curve of equal production quantity for alternative combinations of input usages, and an isocost curve (also in the image at right) shows alternative combinations of input usages having equal production costs.

In political science an analogous method is used in understanding coalitions (for example the diagram in Laver and Shepsle's work[18]).

In population dynamics, an isocline shows the set of population sizes at which the rate of change, or partial derivative, for one population in a pair of interacting populations is zero.

Thermodynamics, engineering, and other sciences[edit]

Various types of graphs in thermodynamics, engineering, and other sciences use isobars (constant pressure), isotherms (constant temperature), isochors (constant specific volume), or other types of isolines, even though these graphs are usually not related to maps. Such isolines are useful for representing more than two dimensions (or quantities) on two-dimensional graphs. Common examples in thermodynamics are some types of phase diagrams.

Isoclines are used to solve ordinary differential equations.

In interpreting radar images, an isodop is a line of equal Doppler velocity, and an isoecho is a line of equal radar reflectivity.

Other phenomena[edit]


The idea of lines that join points of equal value was rediscovered several times. In 1701, Edmond Halley used such lines (isogons) on a chart of magnetic variation.[19] The Dutch engineer Nicholas Cruquius drew the bed of the river Merwede with lines of equal depth (isobaths) at intervals of 1 fathom in 1727, and Philippe Buache used them at 10-fathom intervals on a chart of the English Channel that was prepared in 1737 and published in 1752. Such lines were used to describe a land surface (contour lines) in a map of the Duchy of Modena and Reggio by Domenico Vandelli in 1746, and they were studied theoretically by Ducarla in 1771, and Charles Hutton used them when calculating the volume of a hill in 1777. In 1791, a map of France by J. L. Dupain-Triel used contour lines at 20-metre intervals, hachures, spot-heights and a vertical section. In 1801, the chief of the Corps of Engineers, Haxo, used contour lines at the larger scale of 1:500 on a plan of his projects for Rocca d'Aufo.[20][21][22]


When maps with contour lines became common, the idea spread to other applications. Perhaps the latest to develop are air quality and noise pollution contour maps, which first appeared in the US, in approximately 1970, largely as a result of national legislation requiring spatial delineation of these parameters. In 2007, Pictometry International was the first to allow users to dynamically generate elevation contour lines to be laid over oblique images.

Technical construction factors[edit]





Numerical marking is the manner of denoting the arithmetical values of contour lines. This can be done by placing numbers along some of the contour lines, typically using interpolation for intervening lines. Alternatively a map key can be produced associating the contours with their values.

If the contour lines are not numerically labeled and adjacent lines have the same style (with the same weight, color and type), then the direction of the gradient cannot be determined from the contour lines alone. However if the contour lines cycle through three or more styles, then the direction of the gradient can be determined from the lines. The orientation of the numerical text labels is often used to indicate the direction of the slope.

Plan view versus profile view[edit]


Labeling contour maps[edit]

Contour map labeled aesthetically in an "elevation up" manner.

Labels are a critical component of elevation maps. A properly labeled contour map helps the reader to quickly interpret the shape of the terrain. If numbers are placed close to each other, it means that the terrain is steep. Labels should be placed along a slightly curved line "pointing" to the summit or nadir, from several directions if possible, making the visual identification of the summit or nadir easy.[25][26] Contour labels can be oriented so a reader is facing uphill when reading the label.


See also[edit]


  1. ^ Courant, Richard, Herbert Robbins, and Ian Stewart. What Is Mathematics?: An Elementary Approach to Ideas and Methods. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. p. 344.
  2. ^ [1]contour line
  3. ^ [2]contour map
  4. ^ Tracy, John C. Plane Surveying; A Text-Book and Pocket Manual. New York: J. Wiley & Sons, 1907. p. 337.
  5. ^ Davis, John C., 1986, Statistics and data analysis in geology, Wiley ISBN 0-471-08079-9
  6. ^ Oxford English Dictionary; see also: Nature, 40, 1889, p.651.
  7. ^ Arthur H. Robinson, "The geneaology of the isopleth", Cartographic Journal, 8, 49-53, 1971.
  8. ^ T. Slocum, R. McMaster, F. Kessler, and H. Howard, Thematic Cartography and Geographic Visualization, 2nd edition, Pearson, 2005, ISBN 0-13-035123-7, p. 272.
  10. ^ World Meteorological Organisation. "Isallobar". Eumetcal. Retrieved 12 April 2014. 
  11. ^ World Meteorological Organisation. "Anallobar". Eumetcal. Retrieved 12 April 2014. 
  12. ^ World Meteorological Organisation. "Katallobar". Eumetcal. Retrieved 12 April 2014. 
  13. ^ "Forecasting weather system movement with pressure tendency". Chapter 13 - Weather Forecasting. Lyndon State College Atmospheric Sciences. Retrieved 12 April 2014. 
  15. ^ Sark (Sercq), D Survey, Ministry of Defence, Series M 824, Sheet Sark, Edition 4 GSGS, 1965, OCLC 27636277. Scale 1:10,560. Contour intervals: 50 feet up to 200, 20 feet from 200 to 300, and 10 feet above 300.
  16. ^ "Isobel". 2005-01-05. Retrieved 2010-04-25. 
  17. ^ Specht, Raymond. Heathlands and related shrublands: Analytical studies. Elsevier. pp. 219–220. 
  18. ^ Laver, Michael and Kenneth A. Shepsle (1996) Making and breaking governments pictures.
  19. ^ Thrower, N. J. W. Maps and Civilization: Cartography in Culture and Society, University of Chicago Press, 1972, revised 1996, page 97; and Jardine, Lisa Ingenious Pursuits: Building the Scientific Revolution, Little, Brown, and Company, 1999, page 31.
  20. ^ a b R. A. Skelton, "Cartography", History of Technology, Oxford, vol. 6, pp. 612-614, 1958.
  21. ^ Colonel Berthaut, La Carte de France, vol. 1, p. 139, quoted by Close.
  22. ^ C. Hutton, "An account of the calculations made from the survey and measures taken at Schehallien, in order to ascertain the mean density of the Earth", Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, vol. 68, pp. 756-757
  23. ^ C. Close, The Early Years of the Ordnance Survey, 1926, republished by David and Charles, 1969, ISBN 0-7153-4477-3, pp. 141-144.
  24. ^ T. Owen and E. Pilbeam, Ordnance Survey: Map Makers to Britain since 1791, HMSO, 1992, ISBN 0-11-701507-5.
  25. ^ Imhof, E., “Die Anordnung der Namen in der Karte,” Annuaire International de Cartographie II, Orell-Füssli Verlag, Zürich, 93-129, 1962.
  26. ^ Freeman, H., “Computer Name Placement,” ch. 29, in Geographical Information Systems, 1, D.J. Maguire, M.F. Goodchild, and D.W. Rhind, John Wiley, New York, 1991, 449-460.

External links[edit]