The Cayman Islands are a British dependency, formerly under the administration of Jamaica. There are three islands in the group: Grand Cayman, Little Cayman and Cayman Brac.
The Directorate of Overseas Surveys (now Ordnance Survey International (OSI)) first published a 1:25,000 scale map (DOS 328) in 1965-6, based on air photography flown in 1958. Complete air photo cover was again flown in 1970-71, and the 1:25,000 scale sheets were revised and published in a second edition in 1978 with planimetry derived from large scale cadastral plans, and swamp vegetation from an ODA survey carried out in 1976. The 1:25,000 scale map has 20 ft contours, and is on a Transverse Mercator projection with UTM grid, Clarke 1866 ellipsoid.
In 1979, a single-sheet visitors’ map using a photomap base was issued (DOS 428P). A second edition was revised by Ordnance Survey from information supplied by the Lands and Survey Department (LSD), Cayman Islands and published in 1989. It has an inset map of Georgetown.
Soviet military topographic mapping of the Cayman Islands exists at the following scales: 1:1,000,000 (1 sheet, complete coverage, published in 1963) and 1:500,000 (2 sheets, complete coverage, published in 1983). These products are available in print, digital raster and digital vector GIS formats from East View Geospatial.
In 1981, three 1:25,000 scale swamp maps were published by the Land Resources Development Center (now Natural Resources Institute (NRI)) based on work by the Mosquito Control and Research Unit in the Caymans.
Large scale mapping includes 1:2,500 scale maps of Georgetown published in 1965, and 1:25,00 scale cadastral mapping carried out in the 1970s by the Lands and Survey Department, revised in the late 1980s using new color air photography.
The latter comprises 200 land registry maps covering all three islands.
In 1991, LSD began digitizing its cadastral map using ARC/INFO software. This now forms the basis of the Cayman Islands Land Information System. Digital map data is linked to an Oracle database containing land parcel-related information. GPS-controlled color air photography, flown in 1994, has also been scanned to provide a raster background to cadastral and survey map data. Other digital data include a roads database, buildings database, planning zones, soil maps, boundaries of protected areas such as National Trust and Ramsar sites, polling districts and census enumeration districts. The roads and buildings databases are used in a GPS-guided Emergency Response System launched in 1996. It is planned to extend the land information system to include private sector utilities data and to create a comprehensive national GIS.
A Cayman street and dive site map has been published by International Map Services (IMS), Grand Cayman, and a tourist map by International Travel Maps (ITM), Vancouver, Canada. A small folded road map is also produced by Cartographers Ltd.
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