NORTH MACEDONIA

The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia declared its independence in 1992. Before the break-up of Yugoslavia, official mapping was centralized at Belgrade. North Macedonia is the most poorly resourced of the former Yugoslav republics, and although a new National Geodesy Office has been established, Republika Geodetska Uprava, at Skopje, the current topographic maps, at scales of 1:25,000, 1:50,000, 1:100,000, 1:200,000, 1:500,000 and 1:1,000,000 remain those produced at Belgrade and are unrevised. Most current effort is in cadastral mapping, in an attempt to keep pace with the privatization of land following independence.

Soviet military topographic mapping of North Macedonia exists at the following scales: 1:1,000,000 (1 sheet, complete coverage, published in 1990); 1:500,000 (4 sheets, complete coverage, published 1982-1989); 1:200,000 (10 sheets, complete coverage, published 1976-1988); 1:100,000 (28 sheets, complete coverage, published 1976-1988); 1:50,000 (88 sheets, complete coverage, published 1974-1988) and a city (1:10,000) topographic map of Skopje published in 1974. These products are available in print, digital raster and digital vector GIS formats from East View Geospatial.

An Environmental Information Center has been established in Skopje under the Ministry of Urban Planning, Construction and Development. This has the task of developing spatial information on environmental themes. It has a division of data processing and GIS and may be expected to be a source of thematic mapping in the future.

Some thematic mapping is undertaken by the Department of Geography at the University ‘St Cyril and Methodius’ (Univerzitet ‘Sv. Kiril I Metódi’). A digital atlas of North Macedonia containing 1:250,000 scale geographical and demographic data for use with ARC/INFO or ArcView software, was released on CD-ROM in 1998.

Useful thematic maps may be found in the Balkans regional atlas produced by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

The best available general maps are those published by Gizimap, Budapest, Cartographia of Sofia, and Geokarta of Belgrade. A street map of Skopje may be obtained from the tourist office, Turisticki Sojuz na Skopje.

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