BARBADOS

Barbados became an independent sovereign state within the British Commonwealth in 1966, and now has its own Lands and Survey Department at Christ Church.

The basic mapping of the island was carried out by the Directorate of Colonial Surveys (later Directorate of Overseas Surveys, now Ordnance Survey International (OSI)) at 1:10,000 scale in the early 1950s, and this was one of the earliest Caribbean series to be completed.  The first 1:50,000 scale map was compiled from this.  Subsequent editions were revised from air photographs, and the latest editions were published in 1993 (DOS 418) with the Barbados National Grid (Edition 6) and the UTM grid (Edition 7).  Projection is Transverse Mercator, Clarke 1880 ellipsoid (modified), and contours are at 100 ft intervals.  The 1:10,000 series was recompiled and revised in 1986 (DOS 218/1) and covers the island in 12 sheets. 1:2,500 scale mapping covers the west of the island in 102 sheets (DOS 018) dating from 1976-81. 1:1,250 scale maps cover the south-west in 102 sheets and south-east in 30 sheets (DOS 0018).  These maps were issued between 1974 and 1979.  The remainder of the island has also been mapped at scales of 1:2,500 and 1:5,000 with the aid of the Canadian International Development Agency. A new edition of the 1:5,000 scale tourist map of Bridgetown was published in 1999.

Soviet military topographic mapping of the Barbados exists at the following scales: 1:1,000,000 (1 sheet, complete coverage, published in 1990) and 1:500,000 (1 sheet, complete coverage, published in 1986).  These products are available in print, digital raster and digital vector GIS formats from East View Geospatial.