The Principality of Andorra, with an area of only 468 km and a population of 49,000 inhabitants, lies between Spain and France. A fine selection of maps has been produced by the Sección de Topografia I Cartografia (STC) under the Ministeri d’Ordenament Territorial of the Andorran Government (M.I. Consell General). This mapping began in 1969 with the initial aim of fulfilling the requirement for large scale plans. Such plans now cover the settled areas at scales of 1:500, 1:1,000 or 1:2,000. The 1:500 and 1:1,000 scale maps are available in digital format as DGN and DXF files.
The first complete basic scale mapping was at 1:10,000, and was made from a photogrammetric survey of 1972 and published in 1976. This 19-sheet series is printed in four colors with 10 m contours. The projection is a Lambert conic conformal and the ellipsoid is Clarke, 1880. In 1997-98, the Institut Cartogrà fic de Catalunya (ICC), Barcelona, was commissioned by the Andorran Government to produce a new digital topographic base map for the Principality at 1:5,000 scale together with a set of 74 orthophotomaps at the same scale.
A single sheet covering Andorra at 1:50,000 scale was published in 1977, and a second edition issued in 1987. The map is printed in six colors with contours at 20 m intervals. In 1989, a 1:25,000 scale topographic map, derived from the 1:10,000 scale series was also published. This also has 20 m contours and shaded relief and shows mountain refuges and long distance walking routes (GRs). There is also a three-dimensional relief map of Andorra at 1:50,000 printed in six colors.
Soviet military topographic mapping of Andorra exists at the following scales: 1:1,000,000 (1 sheet, complete coverage, published in 1986); 1:500,000 (1 sheet, complete coverage, published in 1983); 1:200,000 (1 sheet, complete coverage, published in 1996) and 1:100,000 (2 sheets, complete coverage, published 1964-1980). These products are available in print, digita raster and digital vector GIS formats from East View Geospatial.
Geological mapping of Andorra was undertaken for the Instituto de GeologÃa Económica, Madrid, by N. Llopis Lladó, and an eight-sheet cover at 1:25,000 scale was issued in 1967 by the Real Academia de Ciencias y Artes de Barcelona. This map showed solid geology in color with quaternary deposits in black and white. A single-sheet 1:50,000 scale geological map by SabarÃs and Lladó was also published.
Environmental and resource mapping of Andorra is represented by a set of three 1:50,000 scale maps accompanying El patrimoni natural d’Andorra, a book about the natural systems of Andorra and their utilization. These maps are of vegetation, geomorphology and land evaluation. The publisher is Ketres Editora, Barcelona, and the work was produced with the support of the Department of Agriculture and the Andorran Government.
Other map coverage of Andorra includes a sheet in the 1:100,000 scale orthoimage map series published by the ICC, and the sheet Andorra in the series of Pyrennean sheets published by Editorial Alpina, Granollers, Spain. ICC also has a 1:50,000 scale series published in association with Randonnées Pyrénéennes, Map excusionista / Carte de randonnées, which includes Andorra.
The book Valls d’Andorra. Geografia i diccionari geografic, besides offering a brief geography of the country (in Catalan), has a substantial gazetteer of place names taken from the toponymy of the 1:10,000 series.
A broader range of small scale thematic maps is to be found in an excellent educational Atlas d’Andorra, published in 1991 by the Conselleria d’Educació, Cultura i Joventut (MEJE), Andorra la Vella. This volume has many high quality maps, graphics and photographs in color, covering physical geography, demographics and economic activities, and includes a five-page version of the 1:50,000 scale topographic map. The text is in Catalan.
Seven four-color town maps at scales of 1:2,000 to 1:5,000 were published in 1986 and cover the main settlements of the seven parróquias.
Official road maps of Andorra at scales of 1:50,000 and 1 100,000 have been published by STC. Both include distance tables, and the 1:50,000 scale map also has ancillary maps of the main settlements.
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