Contour Maps Online
Pictured above: An exported contour map of an established permaculture farming project in Wisconsin, using the contour maps generator .
How can we transform a degraded landscape into one of resilience and abundance? One where water moves naturally, the soil is rich, wildlife is thriving, and food is abundant? Although this may seem daunting, we can start by creating a well-designed plan using a powerful tool: contour maps. By reading the land's natural slope, contour maps enable us to work with the landscape, rather than against it, utilizing the elements to help support key ecosystem functions such as water retention, reducing soil erosion, and bringing back healthy soil.
Many conventional farming methods approach land planning with a few simple criteria: select a home site with a beautiful view and find a flat, tillable area with easy access to machinery. This approach can lead to long-term problems for not only the farm but for the earth—landscapes become prone to flooding, fields planted with a single crop risk total loss from an unexpected freeze, and the soil becomes extremely depleted, requiring ever-increasing amounts of synthetic fertilizers to sustain productivity and ward off insects over time.
The good news is that there is another way - harnessing the land’s natural contours and patterns to create a healthy environment. Contour maps help us make important decisions about planning and using the land effectively.
Contour maps help us see how energy—water, sunlight, and even wind—naturally moves across the landscape. At its simplest, a contour map is designed to show us the space between different elevations at a given increment. For example, a single contour line can mark the difference of ten feet in elevation. However, once we understand the layout of the steps, we can see a whole new set of nature’s signs that allow us to map energy movement and plan in harmony with the slope of the land.
Pictured above: An example of a contour map with 10-foot contour lines. Contour maps help us map energy flows and make crucial decisions for the site.
With water, contour lines help us show the direction it’s headed with gravity. Taking a look at the contour map above, the areas marked ‘A’ represent the highest points in the landscape, with the right lower corner marked with red and orange contour lines being the highest at approximately 750 feet elevation. When it rains, water flows downslope towards the green and blue lines, marked ‘B’ at 650 feet (a 50 foot drop). It then makes its way to the darkest blue lines and lower river valley marked ‘C’, where it exits off site.
With the sun, contour lines can help identify slopes and aspects - south-facing slopes in the northern hemisphere receive more sunlight, while north-facing slopes are cooler and shadier. Additionally, the spacing of the lines indicates slope steepness, meaning that closer lines resemble a steeper slope, while wider lines show a more gentle slope. With the image above, the lower right hand corner is a rather steep North-facing slope, meaning it’s not only shadier but that water in this area moves at a much faster pace than the lower fields and valley. With this understanding, we can place elements such as annual gardens and water tolerant row crops in the lower valleys, as these receive the most water and sun. We could also place perennial systems (plants that grow back year after year) such as orchard rows or food forests ‘on contour’ in the central areas (around 650’), capitalizing on the movement of water downhill. Typically we wouldn’t want to put a house or barn in low areas prone to flooding.
You can even use contour lines to understand wind. Wind speeds up over ridges with closely packed lines and slows down in valleys with wider lines. Wind near point ‘A’ in the lower right hand corner will accelerate much faster, but depends on the main wind direction, as it could also act as a wind block if it comes from the South East. Knowing the prevailing wind direction of your site is key, so that you can install elements such as hedgerows and buildings in the right places to further protect your food systems. Because most of the food systems would be established in the cleared central areas of the above project, installing some sort of hedgerows for protection, especially in areas with steeper slopes would be necessary.
It has currently been proposed that the entire Amazon rainforest was created by humans as a way to cultivate food. In many parts of the rainforest, natural earthworks have been discovered in archaeological digs, and have been hypothesized to move water in one way or another, although for what purpose is not entirely clear. It therefore goes to show that understanding the contour of the land can work wonders when it comes to planning the food systems on your property.
In permaculture and regenerative DIY farming, contour maps are commonly used for this purpose, often for establishing food forests, orchards or annual garden beds on contour. Contour maps are used to map out the recommended length and width of cultivation rows based on slope, then confirmed and installed in person using technology such as an A-Frame or a laser level. In Viola, Wisconsin, the New Forest Farm (pictured below) project has converted over 100 acres of farmland to a regenerative forest project where thousands of fruit and nut trees have been planted on swales on contour. For this project, cultivation areas were implemented using large machinery to be in line with the natural slope, so every time it rains, water soaks deep into the soil. The results were astonishing, as all trees for the farm were able to be established without irrigation, or synthetic inputs like fertilizer.
Pictured above: A contour map of New Forest Farm in Viola, Wisconsin in 5’ increments. Over 106 acres have been converted to a regenerative agriculture project with fruit and nut trees planted on contour.
You can see the results in the above map, with point ‘A’ marking the site's high point, and water moving downslope to point ‘B’. All tree rows have been planted in line with the slope, maximizing water infiltration and producing healthy, profitable trees. To learn more about this project, check out Mark Shepard’s book: Restoration Agriculture: Real-World Permaculture for Farmers.
Contour maps are invaluable tools in housing and settlement design, offering clues that go beyond ecological principles of water and soil management. Whether you’re planning a house, barn, garden, or entire community, understanding the land’s natural contours can help make smarter (and even critical) decisions. Take for example, the Center for Rural Livelihoods in Cottage Grove, Oregon. Originally developed by the Peace Corps in the 1970s and spanning over 40 acres, this site demonstrates well thought out contour-based planning and settlement design.
Pictured above: A contour map taken from the Center for Rural Livelihoods in Cottage Grove, Oregon
Firstly, the main community housing structures were strategically placed on high points of the property, taking advantage of over 75 feet of elevation drop from the first house near 975’. This positioning not only allows for ease of rainwater collection from rooftops and movement downslope, but also provides easier access to gardens and food systems below. Secondly, the flatter areas were reserved for gardens and growing spaces, ensuring they benefit from full natural moisture retention. The community does this with garden beds on contour, as well as several tree rows on contour.
The community also installed a pond within the last several to restore the watershed downslope and provide for some of their irrigation and potential firefighting needs. It was strategically placed within a central area of the site’s slope, while also having full coverage from the nearby forest. And finally, many of the buildings were nestled within tree groves, which act as windbreaks and provide shelter from harsh Oregon weather, overall creating microclimates that support both structure health and resilience of their food systems.
William Horvath, the creator of the blog Permaculture Apprentice, often discusses how his house was previously built on a floodplain, causing major issues and stress for his family generations later. If the original homeowners and designers had access to contour maps, they would understand how they were at the base of a hill, at serious risk for flooding. Keeping buildings away from the natural sinking points and flow of water allows for proper drainage, while also freeing up space for water to go to the right places (food systems). To learn more about settlement design and the right places to place a home in the landscape, this video is an excellent place to start: 5 Best (and Worst) Places to Build a Home or Village.
Once we have our water systems in place, the next step is to understand the importance of soil and how to improve its quality. Soil is the basis of life, as all life has evolved from the same minerals found in soil. One healthy tablespoon of soil contains more microorganisms than there are people on the planet. Healthy soil is the foundation of any successful DIY farming, permaculture, or construction project, and contour maps are an excellent tool for improving it.
One key aspect of building soil quality is preventing erosion through the seasons. Erosion involves the slow stripping away of topsoil through sun, water, and wind exposure. With the insights provided by contour lines and the earthworks we implement with those insights, water penetrates deeply into the soil, providing much-needed hydration and preventing runoff. This allows for the growth of root development, creating a healthier soil ecosystem that supports diverse plant life and increases resilience to events such as climate fluctuations. Healthy plants add nutrients back into the soil. By incorporating contour maps into our design process, we begin a domino effect that starts with planning, which then leads to the creation of life through water and soil systems.
Water is life! Water is arguably the most important element to life and a thriving ecosystem. If you look at any aerial image of a river or another body of water, it’s not hard to see that life will always follow. So how can contour maps allow us to manage water in the landscape? Firstly, they give us a clear sign of where water is flowing, for example across ridges and valleys, into streams and rivers, or as simple as around the house and off the property. They also allow us to understand how steep the slope is, which can allow us to choose the right earthworks to implement. Earthworks such as swales, basins, berms, ponds, and check dams are some of many examples that can be installed by hand or machine to slow, capture, and direct water where it’s needed most.
The below image is an excellent example of this, as it’s an aerial image taken from a large-scale restoration project currently taking place in Niger, Africa. Teams of thousands of people have installed either shallow basins or berms, also known as infiltration basins or boomerang berms, across hundreds of miles, in order to capture rain and grow a variety of crops. These earthworks can actually be seen from above, as shown with the contour lines in the image. Contour mapping helps us follow the land's natural patterns, turning it into an invaluable resource for creating a thriving ecosystem.
Pictured above: An example of a contour map from Contour Maps Online Generator in 1-foot increments. Areas in red mark high points, while areas in blue mark low points. This map is a great demonstration of what can be installed by hand to maximize water management in an otherwise desertified landscape.
A restorative landscape or permaculture design will often take into account something called Keyline Design, a design system originally developed by P.A. Yeomans as a way to revive dryland areas in Australia. Keyline design starts by locating the highest points in the landscape, and then leveraging natural contours to help the soil hold more water (SLOW IT, SPREAD IT, SINK IT), ensuring that water is directed to the most fertile areas. Water is therefore designed to be captured at high points of the property, so that gravity can be utilized to move water downhill naturally, therefore using less energy to pump water uphill. By then implementing earthworks like those stated in the previous paragraph, keyline design with contour maps helps ensure water is retained in the soil permanently.
To get started with your own contour map simply go to our online Contour Maps Generator and get your map.
Ultimately, by reading the land’s contours, designing and making decisions with them, then implementing and improving upon our methods, we’ll be able to work with nature rather than against it. And hopefully, through this, we’ll all be able to create a more resilient, productive, and regenerative earth that works to heal the damage we’ve done and lead to a beautiful future for us all.