Writing, developed first by people in Sumer, is considered a hallmark of civilization and appears to accompany the rise of complex administrative bureaucracies or the conquest state. Traders and bureaucrats relied on writing to keep accurate records.
Elevation, or geometric height, is mainly used when referring to points on the Earth 's surface, while altitude or geopotential height is used for points above the surface, such as an aircraft in flight or a spacecraft in orbit, and depth is used for points below the surface. topographical map is the main type of map used to depict elevation, often through use of contour lines. In a Geographic Information System (GIS), digital elevation models (DEM) are commonly used to represent the surface (topography) of a place, through a raster (grid) dataset of elevations.
The noun altitude refers to how high something rises: âThe high altitude of the Himalayan mountain range slowed the progress of the hikers.â. Whether it refers to how high a plane is flying or to the height of a landform, the word altitude is used to describe an objectâs elevation above a particular reference point. Altitude is typically measured from sea level, which is the average level of the seaâs surface.