Guyana, formerly British Guiana, became independent in 1966 and was declared a cooperative Republic in 1970.
In 1942, the United States Army produced some photomaps of British Guiana at 1:62,500 scale. In the mid-1940s a 1:125,000 series of conventional colored maps was issued (AMS E691). The principal geodetic framework for the country was established by the Inter-American Geodetic Survey (IAGS), and from 1967 this was densified and extended by the British Directorate of Overseas Surveys (DOS) (now Ordnance Survey International (OSI)). The basic scale of mapping for the entire country is 1:50,000, provisional mapping at this scale was issued by DOS from the early 1950s, and by the mid-1960s had covered about one-sixth of the country, mainly the densely settled coastal plain. A new program then was started with Canadian assistance aimed at completing 1:50,000 scale cover of the country with 50 ft interval contoured mapping. The work was carried out by Terra Surveys of Ottawa in cooperation with the Lands and Surveys Department (LSDG), Georgetown. This program was completed in 1981. Sheets are monochrome and each covers a 15′ square. Projection is Transverse Mercator, Hayford international ellipsoid, and an edition was produced with UTM grid added by DOS.
In the period 1976 to 1987, DOS undertook a joint mapping project with LSDG in the coastal area, and issued a series of over 400 1:10,000 scale controlled photomosaics of the coastal plain (DOS 240M) and 120 sheets of controlled photomosaics at 1:5,000 scale of Georgetown, New Amsterdam and part of the coast north of the Essequibo River mouth (DOS 140M). Then between 1987 and 1990, 44 1:50,000 scale sheets of the coastal plain (DOS 440) were recompiled and published by OSI for LSDG. Contours are at 20 m intervals. 1:2,500 scale mapping of Georgetown and other settlements (DOS 040) was issued in the late 1970s.
Soviet military topographic mapping exists at the following scales: 1:1,000,000 (5 sheets, complete coverage, published 1966-1990) and 1:500,000 (10 sheets, complete coverage, published 1964-1987). These products are available in print, digital raster and digital vector GIS formats from East View Geospatial.
Some geological mapping was conducted by the Land Resources Division of DOS in the early 1970s, resulting in particular, a 1:200,000 scale coloured photogeological map by J.P. Berrange, covering the whole of the country south of latitude 4° N in nine sheets. 1:500,000 scale tectonic and geomorphological maps of this area were also published and are included in LRD Overseas Memoir No. 4 (1977). A more extensive printed series of 1:200,000 scale maps was issued in the early 1960s by the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), Georgetown, founded in 1933. The monochrome sheets each cover a quarter-degree square and have a marginal descriptive text. Color aeromagnetic survey maps at scales of 1:200,000 and 1:50,000 were produced by Terra Surveys, Ottawa, for GGMC in the 1970s.
Soil surveys were carried out by the Agricultural Department and United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in the early 1960s. A series of 1:60,000 scale maps of the coastal zone and immediate hinterland was produced by interpretation from aerial photographs, and a reconnaissance soil map of the whole country was published at 1:1,000,000 scale.
Small-scale general and administrative maps have been published by LSDG. Tourist maps of the country have been published by International Travel Maps (ITM) and Berndtson and Berndtson (B&B).
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