Posts Tagged ‘ne vector’

PREVIEW Natural Earth Vector: First Order Admin Units

Monday, July 13th, 2009

We shipped off the 1:15,000,000 scale first-order administrative units for Natural Earth Vector to University of Wisconsin @ Madison to be attributed with country and province names and alpha-numeric codes last week. There are only 3,000+ of these around the world so this is no small task! Kudos go to Tom for doing the heavy lifting on this data theme. Props to Kevin and Ben @ UW-Madison for undertaking the attributing.

Some units are super tiny (see Slovenia in the Europe detail at bottom, almost equivalent in scale to municipalities in the USA). We ignore some small, mostly island nations (see the Caribbean image below) but will include a general admin_0 polygon for the entire country instead. First order administrative units are composed what most people call “provinces” and “states” (not to be confused with countries aka “states”). For some countries, we will also include 1st order admin “regions” that group smaller 1st order units into larger statistical areas (eg: the United Kingdom’s England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland).

If you have 10 to 20 hours to spare, we need your help to complete Natural Earth Vector. Please email me at nathaniel@kelsocartography.com to find out more.

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admin_1_africa

admin_1_asia_se1

admin_1_australasia1admin_1_central_america_caribbean1

admin_1_south_america1

admin_1_europe1

admin_1_europe_detail1

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Posted in Data source, General, Geography, Google Earth, Google Map Mashup, Mapping, Self promo | 1 Comment »

North Korea Issues Heated Warning to South (Wash Post)

Friday, July 10th, 2009

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[Editor’s note: The Egypt-Sudan boundary post reminds me that North Korea says it will no longer respect the legal status of the five islands South Korea administers west of the South’s mainland allocated during the 1953 armistice that halted the Korean War. So many small details.]

Republished from The Washington Post.
By Blaine Harden. Wednesday, May 27, 2009

TOKYO, May 27 — North Korea announced Wednesday that it is no longer bound by the 1953 armistice that halted the Korean War, the latest and most profound diplomatic aftershock from the country’s latest nuclear test two days earlier.

North Korea also warned that it would respond “with a powerful military strike” should its ships be stopped by international forces trying to stop the export of missiles and weapons of mass destruction.

The twin declarations, delivered by the country’s state news agency, followed South Korea’s announcement Tuesday that it would join the navies that will stop and inspect suspicious ships at sea. North Korea has repeatedly said that such participation would be a “declaration of war.”

They followed other developments in North Korea that have added to the sense of jangled nerves across northeast Asia since Monday’s underground nuclear test.

Continue reading at The Washington Post . . .

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Posted in Geography, Mapping, Maps in the Wild, Print, Promote | Comments Off on North Korea Issues Heated Warning to South (Wash Post)

“You take it – No, you take it”: the Bir Tawil Trapezoid (StrangeMaps)

Friday, July 10th, 2009

[Editor’s note: I’ve been researching sovereign state boundary disputes for Natural Earth Vector at the 1:15,000,000 and 1:50,000,000 scales so I read this entry at the StrangeMaps blog last week with some curiosity. Egypt effectively administers their portion of the “disputed” area along the Red Sea and seems to have dropped their claim to the Sudan portion south of the 22nd parallel. This boundary will be shown de facto along the 22nd parallel the Natural Earth Vector dataset. Thanks Laris!]

Republished from Strange Maps. June 28, 209.

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The Bir Tawil Triangle is a desert of sand and rocks on the border between Egypt and the Sudan. It is also officially the most undesired territory in the world. Bir Tawil is the only piece of land on Earth (*) that is not claimed by any country – least of all by its neighbours. For either of them to claim the Bir Tawil Triangle would be to relinquish their claim to the Hala’ib Triangle. And while Hala’ib is also mainly rock and sand, it is not only ten times larger than Bir Tawil, but also adjacent to the Red Sea - so rather more interesting.

This bizarre situation started out with what is supposed to be the simplest of borders: a straight line. By the Condominium Treaty of 1899, the British drew the line between Egypt and what was then still known as the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan at the 22nd parallel north, resulting in a straight-line border of about 1,240 km (770 miles) from Libya to the Red Sea.

Continue reading at StrangeMaps . . .

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Posted in Critique, Geography, Mapping, Maps in the Wild | 1 Comment »

Greenland Gains Self-Government from the Kingdom of Denmark, Kinda (Economist)

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

2609ww2[Editor’s note: What is a country? A nation? A nation-state? By some counts, there are about 195 “countries” or 194 (US State Department) in the world, but by others like the ISO and United Nations, about 245 which includes extra “regions” for statistical reasons or FIPS code assignments. The World Bank (2) says 186 or 210. How can there be such a wide spectrum of valid answers? The issue is complicated by historic colonial relationships with overseas dependencies and affiliated political administrative units, and by the non-uniform way different “countries” sub-divide themselves.

For instance, France considers all it’s “dependencies” unitary parts of France, while the U.S. does not view it’s own territories equal to states vis-a-vis constitutional rights. But some unitary parts of France outside mainland Europe get treated differently from Metropolitan France by the European Union (they don’t necessarily get an E.U. passport).

This week, Greenland steps closer to becoming one of the club of 195 “countries” in the world, but really it’s just getting more quasi-self-government (sticking in the 245 bracket) within the Kingdom of Denmark’s administrative umbrella (which is and is not the same as the “country” of Denmark) for defense and foreign policy.

The higher number doesn’t even address sub-national semi-autonomous entities like the United Kingdom’s England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland which fall somewhere between what we in the U.S. think of as “states” and “provinces” (1st order admin units) and those top level countries and nations. Nor does it address disputed or break away regions like Abkhazia.

For Natural Earth Vector, we will include groupings at both “top-level” views (about 195 and 245), and at the 1st order admin (state, province, over 3,000). We will also include a sample of sub-national areas and disputed, breakaway areas.]

Republished from the Economist.

Two tonnes of rare whale meat were distributed in Greenland as part of celebrations to mark the start of an era of self-government. After nearly three centuries of rule by Denmark, Greenland’s 56,000 people will gradually take control of most domestic affairs, although defence and foreign policy remain in Danish hands. Greenlandic is now the official language. Photo by: Adam Roberts.

Continue reading related story, “Greenland’s future: Divorce up north?” from Nov. 27, 2008 . . .

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Posted in Best practices, Critique, General, Geography, Mapping, Print, Promote, Self promo | 1 Comment »