The French overseas territory of New Caledonia has been mapped by French survey authorities, in conjunction with locally established offices. Institut Géographique National (IGN) cooperates with the Service des Infrastructures de la Topographie et des Transports Territoriaux (SITTT) in Nouméa in the publication of a 41-sheet 1:50,000 scale map. This is compiled to Série orange specifications on the UTM projection, International ellipsoid, and when completed in 1994 replaced 1:50,000 mapping compiled by the French in 1962. The current specification uses 20 m contours and is compiled from 1:40,000 scale aerial photography flown in 1982.
Soviet military topographic mapping of New Caledonia is available at the following scale: 1:1,000,000 (5 sheets, complete coverage, published 1964-1973). This product is available in print, digital raster and digital vector GIS formats from East View Geospatial.
Service Hydrographique et Océanographique de la Marine (SHOM) publishes over 50 hydrographic charts giving coastal coverage at a variety of scales and has used SPOT imagery for the compilation of a Spatiocarte marine of the Ouvéa Lagoon.
Geological mapping of the island has been carried out by Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières (BRGM) and the local geological surveyor the Service des Mines et de l’Energie (NCSME). A 1:50,000 scale geological map has been completed, but not for Lifoe, Ouvéa or Mare. This has very similar sheet lines to the Série orange. A two-sheet 1:200,000 scale map is derived from the larger scale and published by BRGM with an accompanying monograph. NCSME is currently cooperating with other New Caledonian agencies in a three-year project to establish an environmental GIS for the territory.
Institut Français de Recherche Scientifique pour le Développement en Coopération (ORSTOM) has produced a number of thematic maps of the territory. These include the national atlas of the territory, compiled by ORSTOM and published in 1981, which comprises a wide variety of 1:1,000,000 mapping. Two separately published 1:1,000,000 scale maps, showing soil and land capability, accompanied by a comprehensive soil monograph. Other larger scale soil mapping has also been carried out, but coverage is local. For example, 1:200,000 scale mapping of the Loyalty Islands, and 1:50,000 scale soil and land capability mapping of the Pam-Ouégoa area. ORSTOM has also produced bathymetric and geophysical coverage of the area at 1:500,000 and 1:1,030,010 scales as part of its southern Pacific geophysical map series, and a rainfall map of New Caledonia.
Smaller-scale tourist mapping of New Caledonia produced by IGN include: seven-color 1:200,000 scale tourist maps published between 1995 and 1997 to cover the territory in five sheets, replacing an earlier six-sheet series and two 1:500,000 scale maps of the whole territory, a tourist map and raised relief map.
Copyright © 2014 De Gruyter for e-version of World Mapping Today, 2nd Edition | Copyright © 2019 East View Geospatial, Inc.
