Country Profile: Guyana

Country Resources

Topographic
SeriesPublisherScaleYearsSheets
Guyana 1:50,000 Scale Topographic Maps (E791 / DOS 440)Directorate of Overseas Surveys1:50,0001961 – 199068
Guyana 1:50,000 Scale Topographic Maps (GDLS)Guyana Department of Lands & Surveys1:50,0001968 – 1979275

Thematic
SeriesPublisherScaleYearsSheets
The World 1:30,000,000 Scale Topographic Map Series 1145 (NGA)DMA1:30,000,0002

Global Census Archive: GIS Census Data

East View Geospatial has an ongoing effort to add GIS census data to our Global Census Archive program. Please contact us for the status and availability of Guyana census resources.


Global Resources

Topographic
SeriesPublisherScaleYearsSheets
Soviet Military City PlansVoenno-topograficheskoe upravlenie General’nogo shtaba (Soviet Union)Varies1944 – 20033017
Soviet Military 1:100,000 Scale Topographic MapsVoenno-topograficheskoe upravlenie General’nogo shtaba (Soviet Union)1:100,0001947 – 199924897
Soviet Military 1:200,000 Scale Topographic MapsVoenno-topograficheskoe upravlenie General’nogo shtaba (Soviet Union)1:200,0001949 – 200917799
Soviet Military 1:500,000 Scale Topographic MapsVoenno-topograficheskoe upravlenie General’nogo shtaba (Soviet Union)1:500,0001953 – 19983093

Nautical
SeriesPublisherScaleYearsSheets
NGA Nautical Charts POD Certified (All Scales)National Geospatial-Intelligence AgencyVaries1943 – 20134517

Aeronautical
SeriesPublisherScaleYearsSheets
Joint Operations Graphic (JOG) 1:250,000 – AeronauticalDefence Mapping Agency1:250,0001958 – 20074204
Tactical Pilotage Chart (TPC) 1:500,000 Scale – AeronauticalDefence Mapping Agency1:500,0001967 – 2006598
Operational Navigation Chart (ONC) 1:1,000,000 Scale – AeronauticalDefence Mapping Agency1:1,000,0001969 – 2001243
Jet Navigation Chart (JNC) 1:2,000,000 Scale – AeronauticalDefence Mapping Agency1:2,000,0001971 – 1999117
Global Navigation and Planning Chart (GNC) 1:5,000,000 Scale – AeronauticalDefence Mapping Agency1:5,000,0001981 – 199927

Geoscientific
SeriesPublisherScaleYearsSheets
Soviet Military 1:1,000,000 Scale Topographic MapsVoenno-topograficheskoe upravlenie General’nogo shtaba (Soviet Union)1:1,000,0001948 – 19941089

Note: East View Geospatial is continuously sourcing new resources that may not yet be listed in Global Explorer. Please contact us if you have geodata needs beyond what is listed above and we will be happy to discuss available off-the-shelf and custom solutions.


Historical Country Mapping Information

Jump to: Topographic | Geological/Scientific | Soil | Tourist/Reference

Topographic

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.

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Geological/Scientific

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.

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Soil

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.

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Tourist/Reference

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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Content copyright © 2014 De Gruyter for e-version of World Mapping Today, 2nd Edition