KINGSTON, Jamaica – The National Land Agency (NLA) is in the process of developing a “master map” for Port Maria, the parish capital of St Mary, during the current financial year.

A master map, which is a hybrid document, is designed to depict all the natural and man-made features of major towns across Jamaica.

It can be used for development planning, modelling, navigation and visualisation purposes by professionals within the real estate, land surveying, architecture and engineering sectors.

Since 2005, the NLA has produced a total of 13 master maps, each at a scale of 1:4000 for several major cities and towns.

These include the Corporate Area (Kingston and St Andrew), Portmore, Ocho Rios, Spanish Town, Montego Bay, Santa Cruz, Falmouth, Port Antonio, Negril, Mandeville, May Pen, Lucea and Green Island.

Manager for the NLA’s Mapping Services Branch, Milton Saunders said, “We started out with this concept of having a map that combined both what we refer to as topographic and planimetric features in one map, hence the name master map”.

He explained that prior to developing the master map, “typically, you would have a topographic map which highlights the natural features in an area, such as rivers [and] vegetations, and a planimetric map which highlights the man-made features, such as roads and buildings”.

Saunders said the combination of the topographic and planimetric maps eliminates the need for persons to buy two separate maps for any given area.

Chief Cartographer at the NLA, Judith Taylor stated that to create a master map, “we send field personnel out to gather the specific data, including civic features, roads, foot paths, and anything that’s on [the] ground that we don’t have in-house for a specific area”.

She explained that the NLA thereafter creates a “data dictionary with specific features that we need and they [field personnel] pick up the data [such as] schools, churches, hydrants, etc., using a handheld GPS”.

The data-collection process can take between two weeks to one month, depending on the size of the area.

Once the data reaches the NLA office, the process of creating the master map begins using a specific template.

“We use the 1:4000 scale, and based on the template, we populate the map with the data that was picked up as well as additional in-house data that we have. Additional in-house data can be the parcel data that we have, so we use that as the base and then we add the additional information to that,” Taylor shared.

The overall master map development process usually takes a year to complete, after which the document is finalised and approved by the NLA’s director and chief executive officer. It is, thereafter, passed on to the Agency’s Business Services Division.

The completed maps would also be added to the NLA’s catalogue of maps, with snippets posted on their website and other outlets for public awareness.

The maps are available for purchase in both soft and hard-copy formats from the NLA.

The Agency offers a variety of customised and standardised mapping products, ranging from topographic, planimetric and cadastral maps, to aerial photographs and digital parcel data.

-JIS