The Central Asian Republic of Kazakhstan is the largest nation to break away from the former Soviet Union and has been an independent state since 1991. Mapping still follows patterns established in the Soviet era. Topographic series use the 1942 specification with maps based on the Gauss conformal transverse cylindrical projection, Krassovsky ellipsoid.
Soviet military topographic mapping of Kazakhstan is available at the following scales: 1:1,000,000 (26 sheets, complete coverage, published 1965-1990); 1:500,000 (82 sheets, complete coverage, published 1965-1998); 1:200,000 (591 sheets, complete coverage, published 1960-1993); 1:100,000 (1,983 sheets, complete coverage, published 1954-1992); 1:50,000 (7,474 sheets, primarily complete coverage, published 1961-1997) and city (1:10,000 to 1:25,000) topographic mapping of 41 major cities from Aktyubinski to Zyryanovsk published between 1967 and 1991. These products are available in print, digital raster and digital vector GIS formats from East View Geospatial.
Following independence a national mapping agency, the Main Administration of Geodesy and Cartography of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Kazakhstan (Kazgeodezija) was founded in Almaty. Following the pattern of some other former Soviet republics, Kartografija was established in Almaty. Its recent publications include single-sheet maps using a political base, published with transliteration, as well as updated versions of Soviet administrative series, issued as double-sided 1:200,000 scale maps for areas around the administrative center of each region and with an environmental map of the regional center on the reverse side. A Russian town map of the capital was published in the 1980s by Glavnoe Upravlenie Geodezii Kartografii (GUGK), now Federal’ naya Sluzhba Geodezii i Kartografii Rossii (Roskartografija) and recently revised by Kazgeodezija. Other recent initiatives include digital mapping in support of land registration, carried out by the State Land Committee, with funding from the World Bank, which started in 1997 with pilot projects in Almaty, Akmola and Almaty City.
Earth science mapping of Kazakhstan was produced by Russian agencies in the Soviet era, notably Vserossiiskoi nauchno-issledovatel’skii geologicheskii Institut (VSEGEI) in St. Petersburg, in conjunction with local branches of the Academy of Sciences. Geological and tectonic maps were compiled at 1:1,500,000 scale to cover Kazakhstan and Central Asia in two sets of eight sheets. Kazakhstan was also mapped in Soviet 1:200,000 and 1:1,000,000 scale programs. Recent mapping has been encouraged by the minerals exploration boom following independence. In 1996 a significant minerals atlas was published by the Ministry of Geology and the Institute of Geological Sciences of the Kazakhstan Academy of Sciences (Kazgeologija), with mapping at 1:4,000,000 scale, generalized from 1:1,500,000 scale data, and information in Russian and English for 1,000 mineral deposits.
Soil mapping continues to be compiled by the Soils Institute, with an increasing amount of applied mapping of erosion and pollution risks.
Groundwater mapping has been carried out by the Hydrogeology and Hydrophysics Institute, including a 1:1,500,000 scale geothermal and resources map in six sheets. The Hydrometeorological Institute (KazNIGMI) acts as the main meteorological organization in the country and is a specialist avalanche and mudslide research agency, with many published in these fields.
The Ministry of Ecology and Bioresources coordinates all ecological and bio-resources research in Kazakhstan, and is collaborating with the Institute of Geography in the Academy of Sciences in the compilation of a medico-environmental atlas of the country. Vegetation mapping of Kazakhstan is carried out by the Botanical Institute, including a 1:2,500,000 scale coverage derived in 1991 from satellite imagery, in association with the Institute for Space Research.
The Kazakhstan State Institute for Drafting Land Management (KAZGIPROZEM) surveys and manages land resources in the country, including the compilation of a large number of land use and agricultural maps of the country.
The Soviet Academy of Sciences (now Rossiskaja Akademija Nauk (RAN)) was involved in the production of many thematic maps of Kazakhstan, including a two-volume atlas prepared in the early 1980s in association with GUGK. Following independence, branches of the Kazakhstan Academy of Sciences in Almaty have assumed these responsibilities. A greater diversity of themes has been mapped than for most of the Central Asian Republics.
A variety of commercial map publishers have issued tourist maps of the city, provincial and country level form Kazakhstan.
In Kazakhstan publishers include SCE “Cartography” whose offerings include an English-language map of the new country capital, Astana.
Western publishers of country maps of Kazakhstan include Gizi Map and Reise-Know-How.
Copyright © 2014 De Gruyter for e-version of World Mapping Today, 2nd Edition | Copyright © 2019 East View Geospatial, Inc.
