The ''Instituto Geográfico Nacional'' (''IGN''), or National Geographic Institute is a Spanish

government agency A government agency or state agency, sometimes an appointed commission, is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government (bureaucracy) that is responsible for the oversight and administration of specific functions, s ...

, dependent on the Spanish Ministry of Public Works. Founded in 1870, it is the

national mapping agency A national mapping agency (NMA) is an organisation, usually publicly owned, that produces topographic maps and geographic information of a country. Some national mapping agencies also deal with cadastral matters. According to 2007/2/EC European ...

for

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, together with the Centro Nacional de Información Geográfica (CNIG). Since 2015, most of its products (including ''MTN50'' and ''MTN25''

topographic map In modern mapping, a topographic map or topographic sheet is a type of map characterized by large- scale detail and quantitative representation of relief features, usually using contour lines (connecting points of equal elevation), but histori ...

s, and ''PNOA'' aerial photographies) are freely available online, and licensed under a CC-BY-4.0-like license, as ''FOM/2807/2015'' decree requires its products must be released under a

free license A free license or open license is a license that allows copyrighted work to be reused, modified, and redistributed. These uses are normally prohibited by copyright, patent or other Intellectual property (IP) laws. The term broadly covers '' fr ...

Roles

The IGN is responsible for: # Astronomic observations and research. Manages the Yebes Observatory, devoted to

radio astronomy Radio astronomy is a subfield of astronomy that studies Astronomical object, celestial objects using radio waves. It started in 1933, when Karl Jansky at Bell Telephone Laboratories reported radiation coming from the Milky Way. Subsequent observat ...

. # Observation and maintenance of the national geodetic networks # Making and updating the

cartography Cartography (; from , 'papyrus, sheet of paper, map'; and , 'write') is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an imagined reality) can ...

for the country (including official National Topographic Maps, called MTN50 (1:50,000 scale) and MTN25 (1:25,000 scale)) # Making and maintaining the IDEE or Infraestructura de Datos Espaciales de España, the Spanish

Spatial Data Infrastructure A spatial data infrastructure (SDI), also called geospatial data infrastructure, is a data infrastructure implementing a framework of geographic data, metadata, users and tools that are interactively connected in order to use spatial data in an eff ...

# R&D and application of teledetection systems # Geophysics and gravimetry # Seismographic and volcanic activity analysis

Main products

MTN50

MTN50, acronym for ''Mapa Topográfico Nacional'' (National Topographic Map) scale 1:50,000, is produced by the National Geographic Institute (IGN), being obtained by direct processes of observation and measurement of the Earth's surface. It constitutes, together with the MTN25, the official basic cartography of Spain. It consists of a total of 1073 sheets. Its original publication began in 1875 and did not finish until 1968. In 1985, the updating of its sheets was stopped, to focus all efforts on the production of the then new National Topographic Map at a scale of 1:25,000 (MTN25). In 1999, the production of a new, completely renovated, MTN50 is resumed. This new MTN50 includes shading, and is generated by cartographic generalization processes, using digital technology, from the corresponding sheets of the MTN25. The publication of the first edition of this new digital MTN50 began in 1999, with sheet 605 (Aranjuez), and ended in 2010, with sheet 262 (Salvaterra de Miño), making a total of 1073 sheets. File:MTN50-0535-2013-cns Algete.jpg, Sheet #535 (2013 version; second digital edition) of MTN50 Spanish National Topographic map series, covering Algete town (near

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

) and its surroundings. File:Hoja-especial-50-Madrid y su entorno-2012.jpg, Special MTN50 sheet ''Madrid y su entorno'' (

and its surroundings). First edition, 2012.

MTN25

MTN25, acronym for ''Mapa Topográfico Nacional'' (National Topographic Map) scale 1:25,000, consists, as of October 2017, of 4,098 sheets in vector format and 4,102 in raster format, sheets of 5' latitude by 10' longitude, a distribution that inherits the distribution table of the MTN50, with each one of the MTN50 sheets being divided into four quarters that are identified with Roman numerals (each one of the quarters making a MTN25 sheet), with slight modifications for sheets that cover very little territory. Image:MTN25-0159c1-2002-Bembibre.jpg, MTN25 sheet for Bembibre (2nd edition, 2002). Image:Hoja-especial-25-Madrid-1982.jpg, Madrid special MTN25 sheet (first edition, 1982).

PNOA

The National Plan for Aerial Orthophotography (in Spanish, ''Plan Nacional de Ortofotografía Aérea'', abbreviated as PNOA) began in 2004 and aims to obtain digital aerial

orthophoto An orthophoto, orthophotograph, orthoimage or orthoimagery is an Aerial photography, aerial photograph or satellite imagery geometrically corrected ("orthorectified") such that the scale is uniform: the photo or image follows a given map p ...

graphs of the entire Spanish territory, with a fixed update period, currently 3 years. The resolution of orthophotos has been changing over time and since 2017 the resolution is at least 25 cm, although in some areas resolutions of 15 cm are reached. The PNOA is a cooperative project in which the

Government of Spain The government of Spain () is the central government which leads the executive branch and the General State Administration of the Kingdom of Spain. The Government consists of the Prime Minister and the Ministers; the prime minister has the ...

and the

Autonomous Communities The autonomous communities () are the first-level administrative divisions of Spain, created in accordance with the Spanish Constitution of 1978, with the aim of guaranteeing limited autonomy to the nationalities and regions that make up Spa ...

participate. A single photogrammetric flight is carried out, and then a rigorous treatment of the data follows, in which technical specifications agreed upon by all the participating Public Administrations are complied. This approach of cooperative production between the different administrations is in accordance with the spirit of the Inspire Directive for the establishment of a Geographic Data Infrastructure in Europe, which seeks that the maximum level of detail of geographic information is captured only once and that it is shared openly among the different agents that need it.

General directors

Carlos Ibáñez e Ibáñez de Ibero Carlos Ibáñez e Ibáñez de Ibero, 1st Marquis of Mulhacén, (14 April 1825 – 28 or 29 January 1891) was a Spanish divisional general and geodesist. He represented Spain at the 1875 Conference of the Metre Convention and was the first presid ...

(1870–1889) * Severo Gómez Núñez (1917, 1921–1922) * Rodolfo Núñez de las Cuevas (1974–1980) * Julio Morencos Tevar (1980–1983) * Emilio Murcia Navarro (1983–1984) * Ángel Arévalo Barroso (1985–1994) * José Teófilo Serrano Beltrán (1994–1995) * Ricardo Díaz Zoido (1995–1996) * José Antonio Canas Torres (1996–2002) * Alberto Sereno Álvarez (2002–2012) * Amador Elena Córdoba (2012–2018) * Lorenzo García Asensio (2018–)

References

External links

Official webpage

Spain ortophotographies (PNOA) and National Topographic Maps (MTN50 (1:50,000 scale) and MTN25 (1:25,000 scale)) download website

Gallery of MTN50 (first digital edition) maps of main Spanish cities, at Wikimedia Commons
{{DEFAULTSORT:Instituto Geografico Nacional (Spain) Geography of Spain Government of Spain National mapping agencies