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Alter City Council monitors the work of cartographers

To better understand how the pedestrian orienteering event, North Alentejano 'O' Meeting works, nothing better than to meet people from the organization.
We went up to see how Lameira was running the work of cartographers, Armando Rodrigues and José Batista, who for 14 days were doing the fieldwork for the event's future three maps. It is a time consuming job and requires a lot of dedication and concentration on the part of anyone who does it.
"If I'm in the middle of the woods, with many trees, I need to locate on the map what I see, and for that I need to be very concentrated", Armando Rodrigues states. 		Cartographers
Cartographers These maps are precise and detailed, and are prepared for a "human scale", ie the ground and features that appear on the map are those that a person, while moving in this area, sees easily.
For example, stones with just 1 meter in height, fences, isolated trees, holes, depressions, cliffs, hills and recesses appear on the orienteering maps.
There is a feature in the orienteering maps that is specific for this sport: the North Lines, in orienteering maps indicate the direction of the Magnetic North.
There is a set of rules for the symbolism of maps, which aim at standardize the creation of maps in the whole world.
Supporting their work on a base map (picture area with the altimetry from military map 1/25.000) the cartographers walk the ground from one edge to to other in order to identify what has interest to the sport, then follows many work hours, drawing on computer, through a cpecific program (OCAD 9) and only then the 8.3 km2 of maps will be ready for review and route planning. Cartographers
Cartographers After working in the village and the stables circuits, the cartographers were in Lameira, where the landscape is inviting for this type of event.
Among trees, rocks and streams, there they went to mark the characteristic elements in their sketches.

The cartographers do their work based on already established standards, not being an easy accomplishemnt, but the experience is a half way for success.
One of the difficulties they often face relates to scale that are working with.

On the sprint night map, to be held within the village, there are several interesting points, such as the Alamo's Garden and the Castle.
According to the cartographers, "The Alamo's Garden maze is one of the funny places, where you can get 2 or 3 controls, will be very attractive to the younger participants."
The three circuits, Stud Farm, Lameira and Alter, are quite different, but all with a few surprises.
In Lameira, the athletes can breathe fresh air, enjoy nature, but require a great deal of energy to overcome the climbs and descents of the course.
At the Stud Farm have the opportunity to meet an aged area, with much story to tell, but here the acumen of the athlete can not miss.
In the sprint night in the village, the adventure takes care of the participants and surprises here and there, this circuit is certainly very lively, but nothing facilitated. 		Cartographers

Armando Rodrigues and José Batista explained how best to interpret the map during the race, "Keep the map always aimed and follow reference points, looking at everything around them."

Expectations are the best, until January there will still be much work to do, and the City Hall is betting heavily on the success of this event.
This event is considered one of the best organizations at the national level, and to highlight the experience of the Grupo Desportivo 4 Caminhos, in achieving this kind of events.

It is important to note, too, the support to the cartographers during his fiel work in Alter provided by the Alter Real Foundation that sponsored the hosting in the Manuel Leite Messe, the Stud Farm, and the Hotel Convento that offered the meal.

Communication Office of the City of Alter