How to create a 1m Contour Map for your land. (Australia)

An accurate contour map is the baseline data set for your land.

It literally shows you the 3D shape of your land - on a 2D drawing.

A solid base map is required to do any sort of planning -
whether you want to build dams, roads or houses.

There are a few easy-to-use tools out there now that let you generate contours for your site. However, they export data from 3D satellite mapping in Google Earth - rather than more accurate data collection means - like LIDAR data.

LiDar stands for Light Detection and Ranging, a remote sensing method that uses a pulsed laser to measure the distances to the Earth. Over the years significant resources have been thrown into mapping most of Australia with this method multiple times.

As time passes these datasets become available to the public through the ELVIS portal. The data is available as a raster tif file and cannot be opened directly into user-friendly apps like Google Earth Pro.

We utilise a professional open-source program called QGIS to convert the raster tif to a vector shape file which can then be opened in Google Earth Pro.

We recommend all land managers have a Google Earth Pro folder with a collection of layers that accurately map their property. From contours to water, fences to roads and forestry, having accurate pictures and measurements of these layers - informs long-term holistic and strategic decision-making.

If you want some support developing the Base Map and Master Plan for your land -

Book a free strategy call with us here.
https://www.groundedpermaculture.org/...

ELVIS portal
https://elevation.fsdf.org.au/

QGIS
https://www.qgis.org/en/site/forusers...

Google Earth Pro
https://earth.google.com/intl/earth/d...

Link to the blog article
https://www.groundedpermaculture.org/...