Micronesia comprises the independent Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, the Republic of Marshall Islands, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and the Republic of Palau. In other words, the area formerly designated as Guam and the United States Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. Local survey offices in the different states include the Division of Lands and Surveys in the Northern Marianas, the Bureau of Lands and Survey for the Republic of Palau, the Department of Land Management in Guam, the Department of Lands, in the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Ministry of Resources and Development for the Marshall Islands.
Mapping of these island states has almost all been carried out by American agencies and topographic surveys of the different islands conform to United States Geological Survey (USGS) standards. 1:25,000 scale coverage has been published on the UTM projection and with 10 m contours for the Republic of Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Monochrome black line prints are available at 1:10,000 or 1:25,000 scale for a large part of this region, but USGS surveys fail to represent the Marshall Islands. The latest surveys of Guam use a modified azimuthal equidistant projection, show relief with 20 ft contours and are published at 1:24,000 scale. A single 1:50,000 sheet of the island is also published with 40 ft contours. USGS also issues an overview of the area of the former Trust Territory at 1:4,000,000 scale, which also appears in the published version from the Hawaii Geographic Society (HGS) overprinted with statistical information. Charting of the islands has been published by the United States National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA), with larger scale charting of Guam from the National Ocean Service (NOS).
Soviet military topographic mapping of the Federated States of Micronesia is available at the following scale: 1:1,000,000 (10 sheets, complete coverage, published in 1964). This product is available in print, digital raster and digital vector GIS formats from East View Geospatial.
The United States Soil Conservation Service (now Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS)) has compiled soil mapping of the more important islands in the group, including many 1:10,000 scale black and white survey sheets, and smaller-scale full color soil maps.
The United States Forest Service prepared two-color vegetation mapping at 1:20,000 scale for many islands.
A simple atlas of the whole area has recently been published as a second edition by Bess Press, Hawaii.
Useful resources mapping was compiled by Manoa Mapworks and issued as coastal resources atlases for six atolls and island groups.
Tourist mapping of Guam is published by the Guam Visitors Bureau, which issued a double sided Sports activity map and a town map of the capital Agana.
Copyright © 2014 De Gruyter for e-version of World Mapping Today, 2nd Edition | Copyright © 2019 East View Geospatial, Inc.
