Global mapping project by national mapping organizations on the globe
Maruyama, Hiromichi .... [et al.]
Global Mapping Project is a project to develop digital geographic data in 1km resolution covering the whole land area of the globe with consistent specifications under international cooperation among National Mapping Organizations (NMOs) on the globe. Responding to the case of Agenda 21 which points out lack of geographic information for decision making, Ministry of Construction of Japan advocated a concept to develop such geographic data, so called Global Mapp under international cooperation in 1992. This concept became a concrete project in 1998 after getting support of United Nations as well as various NMOs on the globe. In 2002 at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), Global Mapping was registered as a Type II partnership / initiative led by International Steering Committee for Global Mapping (ISCGM), where completion of global coverage of the Global Map by the year 2007 was declared. As of end of January 2005, 137 organizations participated in this project, and 20 of them completed the development of Global Map of their countries, which correspond to 13 % of whole land area of the globe. In order to complete global coverage by the year 2007, participation of Arabic and African countries, where participation remains in relatively low level, is indispensable. Objective of this paper is to inform countries in those regions of the importance of this project, and to invite them to work together to complete global land coverage by Globa l Map by the year 2007. This paper describes the past, present and future of the Global Mapping Project. It also describes how Global Map is useful for analyzing global environment issues and attaining sustainable development, and thus great contribution by NMOs to the global society as well as respective country.
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