The Vector Map (VMAP), also called Vector Smart Map, is a

vector Vector most often refers to: *Euclidean vector, a quantity with a magnitude and a direction *Vector (epidemiology), an agent that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen into another living organism Vector may also refer to: Mathematic ...

-based collection of

geographic information system A geographic information system (GIS) is a type of database containing Geographic data and information, geographic data (that is, descriptions of phenomena for which location is relevant), combined with Geographic information system software, sof ...

(GIS) data about

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

at various levels of detail. Level 0 (low resolution) coverage is global and entirely in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...

. Level 1 (global coverage at medium resolution) is only partly in the public domain. There are ongoing discussions about making most of the information available in the public domain.

Description

Coordinate reference system A spatial reference system (SRS) or coordinate reference system (CRS) is a framework used to precisely measure locations on the surface of the Earth as coordinates. It is thus the application of the abstract mathematics of coordinate systems and ...

: Geographic coordinates stored in decimal degrees with southern and western hemispheres using negative values for latitude and longitude, respectively. *

Horizontal Datum A geodetic datum or geodetic system (also: geodetic reference datum, geodetic reference system, or geodetic reference frame) is a global datum reference or reference frame for precisely representing the position of locations on Earth or other plan ...

World Geodetic System The World Geodetic System (WGS) is a standard used in cartography, geodesy, and satellite navigation including GPS. The current version, WGS 84, defines an Earth-centered, Earth-fixed coordinate system and a geodetic datum, and also descri ...

1984 (WGS 84). *Vertical Datum:

Mean Sea Level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. ...

Thematic data layers

Features and data attributes are tagged utilizing the international Feature and Attribute Coding Catalogue (FACC). #major

road A road is a linear way for the conveyance of traffic that mostly has an improved surface for use by vehicles (motorized and non-motorized) and pedestrians. Unlike streets, the main function of roads is transportation. There are many types of ...

networks #

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

networks #

hydrologic Hydrology () is the scientific study of the movement, distribution, and management of water on Earth and other planets, including the water cycle, water resources, and environmental watershed sustainability. A practitioner of hydrology is calle ...

drainage systems #utility networks (cross-country pipelines and communication lines) #major

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

s #

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...

contours #coastlines # international boundaries #populated places #index of geographical names

Levels of resolution

The vector map product are usually seen as being of three different types: low resolution (level 0), medium resolution (level 1) and high resolution (level 2).

Level Zero (VMAP0)

Level 0 provides worldwide coverage of geo-spatial data and is equivalent to a small scale (1:1,000,000). The data are offered either on CD-ROM or as direct download, as they have been moved to the

. Data are structured following the

Vector Product Format Vector Product Format (VPF) is a military standard for vector-based digital map products produced by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD). It has been adopted as part of the Digital Geographic Exchange Standard (DIGEST) in the form of Vector Rel ...

(VPF), compliant with standards MIL-V-89039 and MIL-STD 2407.

Data sets

The entire coverage has been divided into four data sets: #

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

(NOAMER
v0noa
#

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and North

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

(EURNASIA
v0eur
#

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, and

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

(SOAMAFR
v0soa
#South

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

(SASAUS
v0sas

Level One (VMAP1)

Level 1 data are equivalent to a medium scale resolution (1:250,000). Level 1 tiles follow the ''MIL-V-89033'' standard. * Horizontal accuracy: 125–500m * Vertical accuracy: 0.5–2 Contour Interval (for example: if contour interval 50 m, accuracy will be 25 to 100m)

Data sets

VMAP Level 1 is divided in 234 geographical tiles. Only 57 of them are currently (2006) available for download from NGA. Among the available datasets, coverage can be found for parts of

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

Level Two (VMAP2)

Level 2 data are equivalent to a large scale resolution. Level 2 tiles follow the ''MIL-V-89032'' standard. * Horizontal accuracy: 50–200m * Vertical accuracy: 0.5–2 Contour Interval (for example: if contour interval 50 m, accuracy will be 25–100m)

Debate about availability of data

The USA

Freedom of Information Act Freedom of Information Act may refer to the following legislations in different jurisdictions which mandate the national government to disclose certain data to the general public upon request: * Freedom of Information Act 1982, the Australian act * ...

and the Electronic Freedom of Information Act guarantee access to virtually all GIS data created by the

US government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a feder ...

. Following

the trend The Trend was a Marxist-Leninist political movement of the mid-1970s through the mid-1990s in the United States. It consisted of a loose collection of small communist organizations, newspapers, and theoretical groups that staked out a line that wa ...

of the

, much of the VMAP data has been offered to the

. But many countries consider mapping and

cartography Cartography (; from grc, χάρτης , "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 im ...

state monopoly In economics, a government monopoly or public monopoly is a form of coercive monopoly in which a government agency or government corporation is the sole provider of a particular good or service and competition is prohibited by law. It is a monopoly ...

; for such countries, the VMAP Level1 data are kept out of the public domain. However, some data may be

commercialised Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market. An early form of trade, barter, saw the direct exchan ...

national mapping agencies A national mapping agency 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 direct ...

, sometimes as a consequence of

privatisation Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...

. Various public groups are making efforts to have all VMAP1 data moved to the public domain in accordance with FOIA. Further steps have been taken by the ''Free World Maps Foundation'' and others to have the data licensed under the

GNU General Public License The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the Four Freedoms (Free software), four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was th ...

, while remaining copyrighted, as an alternative to the public domain. This is an ongoing debate (as of 2006).

Copyrights

VMAP0

The U.S. government has released the data into public domain, with the following conditions imposed (quotation from VMAP0 Copyright Statement): The VMAP0 download page states: However, all is not quite what it seems. There is a 'readme1.txt' file located in the v0eur, v0sas, and v0soa directories. This file contains information saying that layers: Boundaries Coverage and the Reference Library, are copyrighted to the

Environmental Systems Research Institute Esri (; Environmental Systems Research Institute) is an American multinational geographic information system (GIS) software company. It is best known for its ArcGIS products. With a 43% market share, Esri is the world's leading supplier of GIS ...

. If these copyrighted layers are not used there is no violation of any copyrights.

Tools to read and convert VMAP data

*VPFView (V2.1) - developed by NIMA, is available from NGA or

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, a ...

(as part of the NIMAMUSE package); this tool can render simple plots and export

GIS A geographic information system (GIS) is a type of database containing Geographic data and information, geographic data (that is, descriptions of phenomena for which location is relevant), combined with Geographic information system software, sof ...

data to other

GIS file formats A GIS file format is a standard of encoding geographical information into a computer file. They are created mainly by government mapping agencies (such as the USGS or National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency) or by GIS software developers. Raster ...

* " OGR with OGDI driver": this

free software Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, no ...

tool can convert VMAP format to standard

such as

SHAPE A shape or figure is a graphics, graphical representation of an object or its external boundary, outline, or external Surface (mathematics), surface, as opposed to other properties such as color, Surface texture, texture, or material type. A pl ...

PostGIS PostGIS ( ) is an open source software program that adds support for geographic objects to the PostgreSQL object-relational database. PostGIS follows the Simple Features for SQL specification from the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). Technicall ...

etc.

History

*1991-1993: The ''National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA)'' develops the Digital Chart of the World (DCW)Digital Chart of the World
- DCW data access site for the US Defense Mapping Agency (DMA) with themes including Political/Ocean Populated Places, Railroads, Roads, Utilities, Drainage,

Hypsography Hypsometry () is the measurement of the elevation and depth of features of the Earth's surface relative to mean sea level. On Earth, the elevations can take on either positive or negative (below sea level) values. The distribution is theorised ...

, Land Cover, Ocean Features, Physiography, Aeronautical, Cultural Landmarks, Transportation Structure and Vegetation. One of the sources for the data was the ''Operational Navigation Chart'' that compiles military mapping from Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, and the United States. VMAP (level 0) is a slightly more detailed reiteration of the DCW.
VMAP (level 1) has much higher resolution data. *2004 The ''National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA)'' is renamed to

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is a combat support agency within the United States Department of Defense whose primary mission is collecting, analyzing, and distributing geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) in support of national ...

which will include other mapping agencies such as the ''Defense Mapping Agency (DMA)'', the ''Central Imagery Office (CIO)'' and the ''Defense Dissemination Program Office (DDPO)''. All VMAP data will subsequently be distributed through the NGA.

References

* Processing of VMAP0 data with free GIS software: ''SRTM and VMAP0 data in OGR and GRASS''
GRASS Newsletter
3:2-6, 2005 (M. Neteler) {{refend

External links

National Geospatial Intelligence Agency The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is a combat support agency within the United States Department of Defense whose primary mission is collecting, analyzing, and distributing geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) in support of national ...

free java viewerfast java viewer from Idevio
in ESRI shapefile format, ready to download

in ESRI shapefile format, ready to download

Geographic information systems

Description

Thematic data layers

Levels of resolution

Level Zero (VMAP0)

Data sets

Level One (VMAP1)

Data sets

Level Two (VMAP2)

Debate about availability of data

Copyrights

VMAP0

Tools to read and convert VMAP data

History

See also

References

External links