Topographical maps describe the locality involved, indicating the natural structure and forms of appearance of the ground surface, e.g. housing development, transport routes, rivers, lakes, etc., forms of terrain, vegetation, both in detail and in full, depending on the scale concerned.

TTopographical maps are officially produced to different scales, edited and issued, for example as main map series, by state authorities as well as by regional institutions, e.g. Kommunalverband Ruhrgebiet, the umbrella organisation covering all towns and cities within the Ruhr conurbation.

Main map series are updated at five-year intervals and identified by a standard overlap which is established on the basis of geographical coordinates.

Terramapserver provides these maps in digital form and - in contrast to other suppliers - both overlap-free (without frames and legends, etc.,) and georeferenced, i.e. specifically geographically allocated on the basis of the coordinates, ready for being downloaded. This means that customers have the possibility of purchasing only the data they really require. Hence, the purchased data does not need to be outlined by a rectangle but can also be defined by a polygon.

Example: An engineering office is engaged in planning reconstruction work along a pipeline route. This entails appropriate route planning documentation. In the traditional method, individual maps along the route would have to be ordered. In the worst case, some maps would only be marginally affected.

In the case of terramapserver, the user enters a polygon along the route. Only the areas actually affected are transmitted by downloading or CD-ROM and invoiced as appropriate.