Florida: Terrain & Recreation 36x36
Florida: Terrain & Recreation is the ultimate physical and recreational map of Florida. This square-shaped wall map is printed on heavyweight matte poster paper at high resolution and shipped in a sturdy cardboard tube to avoid creasing. The map measures exactly 36 inches by 36 inches.
Map elements include:
A digital elevation model Florida and much of South Georgia and South Alabama. Imagery was downloaded from the U.S. Geological Survey in TIFF format, tile-by-tile. Each individual tile was then stitched together to form an elevation mosaic to cover the map frame, and clipped to a highly accurate coastline that continues into Georgia and Alabama.
A digital bathymetric model of the adjacent Gulf & Atlantic seafloor. Seafloor imagery was retrieved from the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO), and stitched into a mosaic.
A detailed depiction of the following physical geographic features:
Rivers, canals, and lakes
Wetland features
Florida's systems of low ridges and hills, with ample spot elevations and named summits
Islands, points, capes, and other coastal features
Seafloor features, such as the West Florida Escarpment, Florida Valley, and DeSoto Canyon
Political elements, including:
State boundaries
Cities, delineated into several classes by population
A detailed depiction of the following recreational, tribal, and military elements:
Recreational points of interest
Florida lighthouses
U.S. national parks
U.S. national park units
U.S. national wildlife refuges
U.S. national forests
U.S. military bases
Tribal lands
Florida State Parks
Other state conservation lands
Some transportation elements, including:
U.S. interstates
Scaled secondary highways
Florida: Terrain & Recreation was the ninth map produced by Ridgeline Geographic, and the first map focused on a single U.S. state. The elevation color gradient and hillshading was enhanced to adapt to Florida's subtle changes in elevation (which generally facilitates significant changes in natural landscape), while not allowing the higher elevations in Alabama and Georgia to overpower the map. Special care was taken to enhance the Lake Wales Ridge system and its dizzying adjacent system of mostly pristine inland lakes. Naming conventions of Florida's relatively obscure landforms were adopted from the Florida Geological Survey's Florida Geomorphology Atlas, which was published in 2022.
All major conservation lands in Florida are depicted, including all 176 Florida State Parks (including the new addition in the Panhandle, Upper Shoal River State Park) and Florida's system of federal conservation and military lands. Miccosukee and Seminole tribal lands stand out toward the southern end of the peninsula.
Cultural and recreational points of interest emphasize the state as a global tourism hotspot, while a system of lighthouses emphasizes Florida's roughly 1,350 miles of coastline.
Particular areas of interest include the Lake Wales Ridge, the densely populated Tampa, Orlando, and Miami metropolitan areas, the Florida Keys, and the system of highlands in the Florida Panhandle.