The national mapping agency in Liberia is the Liberian Cartographic Service (LCS). This was established in 1951 with American aid and is responsible for geodetic, photogrammetric, topographic and cartographic surveying and mapping of the country. Until the 1970s almost all of the country’s topographic and geological mapping was produced in conjunction with American agencies. A 1:50,000 scale series provides the basic scale for most of the country. Sheets in the southwest were produced by the United States Defense Mapping Agency Topographic Center (now National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA)) in Series G744. These full-colored contoured maps were on the Transverse Mercator projection, Clarke 1880 ellipsoid and were printed with a UTM grid. Further blocks of maps on the same sheet lines, and projection, but using a six-color design and based on WGS 1972 ellipsoid, were produced between 1983 and 1989 by the British Directorate of Overseas Surveys (DOS), (now Ordnance Survey International (OSI)). These Series LIB50 sheets extended coverage to northern, north eastern and other southern areas, so that 102 out of a potential 160 sheets are now available. Other DOS mapping was published in the 1980s, as 1:100,000 scale uncontoured dyeline prints covering seven half-degree quadrangles in the east of the country. Other smaller scale coverage includes an uncontoured three-color 1:250,000 scale series, showing relief with hill-shading and published by the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

Soviet military topographic mapping of Liberia is available at the following scales: 1:1,000,000 (2 sheets, complete coverage, published in 1986); 1:500,000 (5 sheets, complete coverage, published 1984-1985) and 1:200,000 (24 sheets, complete coverage, published in 1985). These sheets are available in print, digital raster and digital vector GIS formats from East View Geospatial.

The Liberian Geological Survey (LGS) was established in 1963 and like LCS has relied upon overseas aid in its mapping programs. 1:250,000 scale earth science mapping was produced in the 1970s by USGS on 1:250,000 topographic sheet lines. Four themes were published: a full color geological map with explanatory notes; a two-color series showing Bouguer gravity anomalies; contoured aeromagnetic anomaly maps and sheets showing total gamma count variation. 1:1,000,000 scale geophysical mapping was also published in conjunction with USGS for six themes.

A thematic atlas of the country from the Ministry of Planning and Development incorporates 1:1,000,000 scale single-sheet maps, focusing in the main upon economic and development planning.

Town mapping projects in the 1960s and 1970s resulted in colored 1:7,500 scale photomaps of Monrovia, Roberts Field, and Buchanan. 1:1,000 scale cadastral coverage of the capital has been updated several times, and 1:5,000 scale line and image mapping of seven other towns was compiled under British aid programs in the 1980s.

The German Technische Fachhochschule Universität Karlsruhe recently published a useful small scale map of the country.

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