I am greatly impressed by this post even though my comment is coming very late. I had to bookmark this page, so that i can read again and digest further.
By the way, i use ArcGis software for most of my GIS projects. Also i have used USGS Earth explorer often. I enjoy it for its simplicity unlike other sources.
For my topographic maps, i use the spatial analyst tool in Arcmap ( slope,hill shade e.t.c ) to analyse.
Where can i get more GIS related articles on steemit. Thank you.