<P> As they evolved, topographic map series became a national resource in modern nations in planning infrastructure and resource exploitation . In the United States, the national map - making function which had been shared by both the Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of the Interior migrated to the newly created United States Geological Survey in 1879, where it has remained since . </P> <P> 1913 saw the beginning of the International Map of the World initiative, which set out to map all of Earth's significant land areas at a scale of 1: 1 million, on about one thousand sheets, each covering four degrees latitude by six or more degrees longitude . Excluding borders, each sheet was 44 cm high and (depending on latitude) up to 66 cm wide . Although the project eventually foundered, it left an indexing system that remains in use . </P> <P> By the 1980s, centralized printing of standardized topographic maps began to be superseded by databases of coordinates that could be used on computers by moderately skilled end users to view or print maps with arbitrary contents, coverage and scale . For example, the Federal government of the United States' TIGER initiative compiled interlinked databases of federal, state and local political borders and census enumeration areas, and of roadways, railroads, and water features with support for locating street addresses within street segments . TIGER was developed in the 1980s and used in the 1990 and subsequent decennial censuses . Digital elevation models (DEM) were also compiled, initially from topographic maps and stereographic interpretation of aerial photographs and then from satellite photography and radar data . Since all these were government projects funded with taxes and not classified for national security reasons, the datasets were in the public domain and freely usable without fees or licensing . </P> <P> TIGER and DEM datasets greatly facilitated Geographic information systems and made the Global Positioning System much more useful by providing context around locations given by the technology as coordinates . Initial applications were mostly professionalized forms such as innovative surveying instruments and agency - level GIS systems tended by experts . By the mid-1990s, increasingly user - friendly resources such as online mapping in two and three dimensions, integration of GPS with mobile phones and automotive navigation systems appeared . As of 2011, the future of standardized, centrally printed topographical maps is left somewhat in doubt . </P>

Name 3 human made features that are shown on a topographic map