Here is some guidance for fieldworkers and cartographers for these maps. There's a companion page for the urban valley floor maps. Right now its more up to date, as that's where the action has been lately (2014).

• Scale: We will generally use 1:5000. A fieldwork scale of 1:2500 is recommended. Don't use this large scale to cram stuff in though!
• Contours. Old maps (eg Tunnel Gully was one of our earliest colour maps) have contours from various dubious sources. We will standardise on 5m, but its going to take some time. We have 5m contours covering the Hutt CC area, and have been promised them from UHCC too. It's not easy putting them in while maintaining the information that fieldworkers have collected over many years - that should be assessed and merged in and its a painstaking process. If you see ground shapes that you want to depict, draw your best estimate on your fieldwork (usually in red). the cartographer (which might be you) will just have to do their best, which may include using them as formlines.
• Roads and tracks: use the last digit of the symbol number in the standard specification, eg "4" means 504 minor road. If there are very wide roads or paved areas, use black lines with a "P" inside. Includes play areas "paved" with bark. You can get a printout with the aerial photo showing. But it is desirable to show other features near roads, so we don't necessarily draw them to full scale. Note that to be consistent with the rural situation it is the road surface width that is represented, and usually the existence of footpaths alongside is implicit. There isn't any distinction in the ordinary speci between seal and gravel, its all about width.
• (For cartographers) Because of the larger scale, we need wider versions of some of the road symbols. We have provided "very wide", very very, and very very very symbols. For paved areas use the "cultivation boundary" symbol and fill with "paved area". We have provided two fill options, one covers up details like trees and edge lines, and one doesn't. Use what seems right in the circumstances.
• Out of Bounds Roads. We have been using road symbols with red instead of brown ("tomato sandwich") to mean "do not use or cross" as its neater than purple cross-hatching. This is particularly so for bridges that cross a river, where we need to show usable footpaths on one or both sides.
• Buildings: Strictly speaking these are plain black. But at the larger scale the black sometimes dominates. We like the outline/gray infill used in the sprint speci. Canopies are not so common but the sprint symbols can be used here too.
• Smallest building or paving detail. At our scale of 1:5000, don't try to depict every in and out. Certainly nothing under 2m.
• A one-sided concrete wall that is climbable is shown as a passable rock face. Any sort of unclimbable wall or bank is shown as an impassable cliff. A two-sided concrete wall can be drawn as a "rock wall" (black line with blobs).
• Boulders. On the riverbank there are big concrete blocks and flood protection boulders. As far as we are concerned concrete is a form of rock. Draw them on your fieldwork like they appear on the map.
• Dry riverbed. The river at normal flows has dry stony areas. These should be shown as rough open stony ground (fieldwork code perhaps "SG"). The precise edge doesn't matter as it changes with flow and even over time. Use a blue line in your fieldwork.
• (For Cartographers) The spec says the stony ground dots are randomly distibuted, this is ridiclous as you would have to draw each dot, just use the sandy ground symbol. The edge of the water in the river being a bit variable, it doesn't seem so appropriate to use the black "bank line" there. A thinner black line (cultivation boundary) is used for the edge of the river bed. The darker blue is used for the river, only occasionally is it safe to cross and specific event instructions would tell competitors if and where this is allowed.
• Streams: They only have to be 1m wide before the actual size exceeds the standard "crossable watercourse" symbol, code these with a blue "6" (flow likely) or "7" (flow unlikely). From 1-2m code them as "5" and they will be the thicker blue line. Above that draw the actual banks - blue for crossable and black for not. Distinguish the two black lines with a bit of blue between so the cartographer can tell it's not a road.
• Culverts. The "spring" symbol is used where stormwater culverts exit (or enter for that matter).
• Vegetation: code as for standard orienteering, a green outline and number which is the last digit of the symbol number in the spec. (Go on, read the spec!)
• Mowed areas. Areas of trees which are mowed underneath are shown as "scattered trees", fieldwork code a green "2". Individual trees within such areas may well be distinct enough to show individually, there would have to be only a few though. Don't overdo the individual trees.
• Distinct Vege Boundaries. The edge of mowing is a frequent case for using the "distinct vegetation boundary" of black dots. When evaluating distinctness, think of a kid at a white level, could they use it as a handrail? BTW how long since you followed a kid on a white course?
• Individual trees, use sparingly. They should be very distinct (big, or only one or two for miles) to show as the green circle. Similarly for stumps (green cross). But it has become acceptable to use the green dot for a prominent bush/small tree, they still have to be instantly recognisable though. A massive tree with a big canopy (see the aerial) might justify a white blob round the green circle, draw that as a green line (ie fieldwork would show two concentric circles).
• Power lines: we generally don't show them. Pylons certainly, big/multiple poles maybe, there's a "T" for small towers that is ideal for trig beacons.
• Tunnels and Underpasses: are shown by a 30% black line (grey). Um, not sure how to code this on the fieldwork! Larger areas where passage is possible underneath something (carparking building, riverbank under bridge) are shown by areas of 30% black, draw a black outline with a "C" in it. Not necessarily to the full width of access if it would obscure detail. We are struggling with the multi-level problem here.
• Fences: Not shown on the private property, but they do occur on parks, and there are short sections of post and wire for flood protection on the river bank. Ignore those low railing things with gaps that are designed to keep cars off the grass.
• Residential, business, just plain unmapped area: There are heaps of areas we do not have permission for and neither the khaki green nor the vertical black stripes looks great when there is a lot of it. We have used a special colour 50% grey which is placed at the bottom of the colour hierarchy so that it can be drawn under the whole map. All other colours appear on top and when a boundary changes there may be only one object to change rather than two adjoining objects. A byproduct is that white has to be explicitly drawn, it isn't just an absence of anything else as usual. There's a symbol for it, number 405, green "5" on the fieldwork.
• The Man Made Object. It needs careful discrimination, there may be lots of them in a park or reserve. The minimum size is around park bench size, but seats are so common that we're progressively taking them off. A seat would have to really surprise me to put on - maybe on a walkway where there are no others for miles. (Analogy: On a rocky map only the biggest rocks are shown, it's all about "significance in context".) So picnic tables are in, rubbish bins are out. Signs would have to be massive to be on, as pretty much every road junction has them. A lighting tower on a sports field might be tall but to a runner looking straight ahead is it any different from the million and one poles and posts that are round the place? Play equipment is by judgement, there are often a lot close together, a few representative crosses may be used. In some situations it may be better not to put any crosses at all. Point features are only useful if the object stands out from other things around it. If there are too many objects, ask yourself which one(s) stand out. Put them in, and forget about the rest.
• Talking of picnic tables, we've started doing these with the "fodder rack" symbol which is a short arrow pointing north. Same applies to a fixed barbeque. Anything to do with fodder.