REPUBLIC of the CONGO [BRAZZAVILLE]

Prior to independence in 1960, Congo (sometimes called Congo Brazzaville to distinguish it from the former Belgian Congo) was part of French Equatorial Africa, and was mapped by the French Institut Géographique National (IGN), Paris. IGN undertook mapping at scales of 1:200,000 and 1:50,000, beginning in the late 1940s. In 1976, a national mapping agency, Institut Géographique National Congolaise, was established to continue the mapping and surveying activities initiated by the IGN. The current name for the agency is the Centre de Recherche Géographique et de Production Cartographique (CERGEC), Brazzaville.

The mission of CERGEC continues to be the production of topographic map series at 1:50,000 and 1:200,000 scale. It is also responsible for cadastral mapping, for the coordination of all geographical, topographic, photogrammetric and levelling work, and for archiving cartographic, aerial photographic and satellite imagery or data.

Sheets in the 1:200,000 scale series were issued from 1948 and the series was completed in 1978. A few new editions have appeared since 1981. There are 44, one-degree sheets in the series, although a few are only in a provisional edition (esquisses). Projection is UTM, Clarke 1880 ellipsoid, and the regular editions are in six or four colors with 40 m interval contours.

Soviet military topographic mapping for the Republic of Congo Brazzaville exists at the following scales: 1:1,000,000 (7 sheets, complete coverage, published 1969-1985); 1:500,000 (14 sheets, complete coverage, published 1962-1983) and 1:200,000 (10 sheets, primarily northern coverage, published 1979-1981). These products are available in print, digital raster and digital vector GIS formats from East View Geospatial.

1:50,000 scale mapping is much more limited in cover. About 570 sheets are required for complete coverage, but only 44 have been published in a printed edition, covering some areas in the south of the country. All were done by the IGN in the 1950s and 1960s. These quarter-degree sheets are in four colours with 20 m interval contours. The series was briefly revived in 1982 with the publication of a solitary new sheet near Sembé in the north of the country.

Recently there has been important progress towards modernizing the mapping system, although this is still constrained by funding problems. A new geodetic network has been established from the ADOS Doppler program, and, more recently, using GPS. In 1994, GIS hardware and software were purchased with World Bank funding, initially for use in a management project for national parks and game reserves (PROJECAP/GEF-CONGO), and some digital mapping is in progress.