Geomapping: what a wonderful world!

GIS
Author

Enrico Spinielli

Published

October 27, 2009

Suppose you have a set of lat/lon points, where do you find out their elevation?

Simple, let say you have the following coordinates (a cross in concrete on the top of the hill in front of my parents’ place):

    45.469678, 10.970527

(I got these from ‘Get Directions from here’ in google maps)

Then call the relevant USGS’ web service

It says

    getElevation
       for Latitude 45.46                   --> Y_Value=45.469678
       for Longitude 10.97                --> X_Value=10.970527
       return result in meters            --> Elevation_Units=METERS
       use the best survey available --> Source_Layer=-1
       not other additional info        --> Elevation_Only=true

Why would you want elevations?

To plot an elevation chart of a bike or hiking tour.

Amazing what you can find around…

(This was inspired by https://econym.org.uk/gmap/altitude.htm)