Walk the ground around your site at 50 m, 200 m and 500 m, note every path that leads to it, mark the places you cannot see from your shelter, and record water, food and natural barriers on a hand-drawn map. Fewer approach routes are better, higher ground gives drainage and sight, and dead ground is where you will be surprised. Update the map regularly, because the map is only as good as its last walk.
Part of Threat Assessment
The geography around a site decides about half its threat profile: elevation, approach routes, cover, water and distance from population. A hand-drawn map made by walking rings around the site records all of it.
Geography Decides Half the Threat Profile
The parent article states that your location’s geography determines half your threat profile. It lists these factors:
- Elevation — higher ground provides visibility and drainage; low ground floods and limits sightlines.
- Approach routes — fewer is better. A location backed against a cliff or river has fewer approaches to monitor.
- Cover and concealment — dense vegetation hides you and also hides threats. Open ground is exposed but gives long sightlines.
- Water access — critical, but waterways are also travel corridors that bring traffic past you.
- Distance from population centres — more people means more competition for resources in the short term, and more potential for community in the long term.
What You Need
- Paper, pencil and a way to estimate distance — pace count, or known objects. Step length differs between people, so measure yours once over a known distance.
- Daylight — and a partner if possible.
- Sturdy footwear — see Terrain Dangers before you walk broken ground.
Method: Survey the Ground in Three Rings
Step 1: Walk the inner ring Walk your perimeter at about 50 m from the shelter. Note anything that gives cover to someone approaching.
Step 2: Walk the middle and outer rings Repeat at 200 m and 500 m, as the parent article specifies. You do not have to do all three rings in a day.
Step 3: Note every approach path Roads, trails, game paths, dry creek beds. Count them.
Step 4: Find the dead ground Return to your shelter and, from each place you sit or sleep, note the areas you cannot see. These are the parent article’s dead ground.
Step 5: Mark resources and barriers Water sources, food sources, natural barriers such as cliffs and rivers, and flood-prone ground.
Step 6: Draw the map and date it Keep it simple. Mark north, the rings, paths, dead ground, water and your exits. See Escape Routes.
Worked Example
Pace length varies by person. To calibrate, walk a known 50 m stretch and count steps. If it takes 70 steps, one step is 50 ÷ 70 ≈ 0.71 m. A 200 m ring is then about 200 ÷ 0.71 ≈ 280 steps along a straight line.
Common Mistakes
- Mapping only what is easy to reach — thickets and ditches hide the most.
- Treating the map as finished — update after rain, new tracks or a change of season.
- Ignoring the way out — note not only where people could come from, but where you could go.
What’s Next
- Learn next: Resource Inventory — what you hold and what shows
- Combine with: Terrain Dangers — what the ground can do to you