The Topic Maps standard, as expressed in XTM 1.0 specification, contains no explicit guidelines for effective building of consistent and meaningful TM. This paper proposes a general methodology for Topic Map building and management in complex information environments involving a great diversity of resources, objects, concepts and actors. The methodology focuses on the distinction between "objective” levels of identified Objects and Resources, and "conceptual” level, and proposes ways for structuring, linking and managing these different levels. The question of Topics identity and naming is addressed, as well as the problem of mixing hierarchical structures and non-hierarchical relationships, at both objective and conceptual levels, using the concept of entangled hierarchies. Besides technical aspects, management of human expertise, definition of administration and authoring levels, are a crucial part of consistent development and updating. Topic Maps applications can tackle these issues with collaborative multi-level tools, using scopes for filtering. A use case is presented: Mondeca Topic Navigator is the management tool for a collaborative resource data base for the Semantopic Universe: people, organizations, tools, projects and events involved in the development of Topic Maps, Semantic Web and other relative knowledge technologies.