11 replies to this topic

[Lee1962]

How does it compare, and how do you use the maps?

I go walking a lot and use the OS's 1:25,000 scale Explorer Maps which are very good; especially the 5m contour lines which help a lot when walking across open moorland.

[Hans van der Maarel]

How does it compare, and how do you use the maps?

I go walking a lot and use the OS's 1:25,000 scale Explorer Maps which are very good; especially the 5m contour lines which help a lot when walking across open moorland.

The Dutch equivalent is the "Topografische Dienst Kadaster", or TDK in short. They offer 1:25000 and 1:50000 scale maps, as well as a number of data products.

I think the quality of their mapping is rather good (an advantage of having such a small country to map), but I wish they would shorten their update cycle (it's 4 years now, but they're working to reduce that). In terms of style, I do prefer the OS maps over TDK. To me, the Ordnance Survey produces some of the best designed topographic maps that I've ever seen.

[vW Maps]

In Australia it's Geoscience Australia. Their data isn't updated too often, either, but their products and customer service are good.

I'm actually here because I'm hoping someone will tell me the agency for Italy. I need 1:250k or 1:100k data and for once it doesn't have to be up-to-date. In fact, if you know of Italian GIS data from just after WW2, that'd be optimal!

[frax]

There are loads of pages that list the national mapping/survey/topographic agencies per country - a quick googling found serveral (including wikipedia).

For Italy it is Istituto Geografico Militare.

For Sweden it is Lantmäteriverket, which I have heard somewhere is the oldest cadastral agency. The military used to have a separate agency for topographic maps, but that was folded into Lantmäteriverket at some point.

[vW Maps]

Tack, Frax. You're a better googler than I.

For Italy it is Istituto Geografico Militare.

[rudy]

In Canada it is Natural Resources Canada. It published the CanVec data, a successor to the old National Topographic series of maps.

Various provinces also maintain their own topographic map bases at larger scales.

[Charles Syrett]

Just to clarify: the NTS is still producing new maps and updating old ones. I just downloaded one of the new ones. They've been completely redesigned (for the worse, of course).

Charles Syrett
Map Graphics
http://www.mapgraphics.com

In Canada it is Natural Resources Canada. It published the CanVec data, a successor to the old National Topographic series of maps.

Various provinces also maintain their own topographic map bases at larger scales.

[Daniel Lucan]

In Catalonia, is the Institut Cartogràfic de Catalunya.

http://www.icc.cat

In Spain, badder than catalonian, is the Instituto Geografico Nacional.

http://www.ign.es/ign/main/index.do

[frax]

The term to google for is "national mapping agencies" or "national mapping authorities" or something like that.

Some countries may have split up agencies between geological survey, topographic survey and cadastral services though.

[P.Raposo]

How does it compare, and how do you use the maps?

It's the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in the USA. This link takes you to their recently renovated online server, you can download maps (pdf) and data from there for free: http://viewer.nationalmap.gov/viewer/

There are other agencies that make good topographic maps of the States (e.g., DeLorme, Raven, even online ones like Esri's), but USGS is the official government source.

[French cartographer]

For France, it's the "Institut Géographique National (IGN)".www.ign.fr

[pghardy]

It's more complicated than you would think. Even in the UK, Ordnance Survey only maps Great Britain (the main island), plus very local islands like the Isle of Wight - there are other topographic mapping agencies for Northern Island (Land and Property Services), the Isle of Man, and the Bailiwicks of Guernsey and Jersey.

Also OS is relatively unusual in that it maps the whole area consistently from scales of 1:1250 (cities) and 1:2500 (rural) up through 10K, 25K, 50K, 250K up to the whole country on a page. In many other countries, the detailed mapping at 1:1K up to 1:10K is the responsibility of several regional cadastral agencies, and the national mapping agency only starts at 1:25K and smaller scales. Wherever Napoleon Bonaparte conquered he tended to set up such a cadastral system in order to gather property taxes locally (he never got to Britain!).

Then you have the situation with federal states - the 16 German States (Laender) each do their own mapping up to about 25K, while the NMA (BKG) consolidates data and does whole country coverages. However in Austria, which has a similar federal system, the states do not do their own topographic mapping - it is all done by the central federal agency.

Finally, you have the countries (like Spain) that have autonomous regions (like Catalonia). I'd love to see a list of the topographic mapping entities in Italy, which has official autonomous areas like Sicily, and areas like Piedmont that tend to do their own thing, but haven't found the information anywhere!

Doing a Google search for "list of national mapping agencies" will give you a starting point, but I haven't yet found anything like a complete list. Maybe we all ought to contribute to http://en.wikipedia...._mapping_agency!

Regards,