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Digital maps and framework data in Korea


In-Kee Shin
In-Kee Shin
President
National Geographic Information Institute
Seoul, Korea
IKshin@moct.go.kr


The digital maps and framework data, are the footsteps towards progress of GIS in the Republic of Korea and is expected to serve as a successful example for those who are engaged in planning and developing GIS projects and related activities for their nation.

Digital maps and framework data have been established on the basis of the agenda of the Korea NGIS (National GIS) Project. The project started in the year 1995 and ended its first stage in 2000. The second stage of the project started in 2001 and is now under progress. As a part of the first stage of the project, digital topographic maps of the whole country in 1 to 5,000 scales were produced, and digital maps in 1 to 1,000 scale covering the major cities of the Republic of Korea were also produced. The ‘dxf’ file format was used for the maps.

The maps are being revised and updated in the second stage of the project according to a technical report ‘The Base Plan of 2nd Stage NGIS’. The country is categorized into 5 regions, and one region is surveyed each year, and the maps of the region are updated accordingly. These updated digital maps are called ‘digital maps version 2’ provided in a new file format, the NGII (National Geographic Information Institute) format.

The version 2 aims at high-quality digital maps so that any user can get benefit from the maps with minimal modifications and additions. It uses a simplified and unified system of classifying features (104 features), whereas the version 1 uses different classification systems between 1/5,000 maps and 1/1,000 maps. The version 2 also provides attribute data as well as spatial data. The two data have their own databases, related by the common key UFID (Unique Feature IDentifier). The data can be in two file types, the ASCII and the binary file types. The available data formats for file types are tabulated in Table 1.

Along with the digital maps, framework data is being constructed and provided in the 2nd stage of the project for users to facilitate the use of the basic and common datasets of geographic features, that is, the framework data. The target feature items of framework data are: administrative boundary lines, traffic facilities, marine and hydrographic areas, public land boundaries, control points and bench marks, topography, buildings, aerial photos and satellite imagery. The datasets and/or data collection and construction strategies for each item are:
  • Administrative boundary lines: Administrative boundary lines on land, along the seashore, and on the ocean and their names of the areas
  • Traffic facilities: Main traffic facilities such as roads, railroads, seaways, and airways
  • and hydrographic areas: Marine topographic features including underwater and offshore topography, shore lines topography, and hydrographic features including rivers and lakes, their boundaries, their related facilities, such as dams
  • Public land boundaries: Cadastral information, such as parcel boundary lines and their addresses
  • Control points and benchmarks: Horizontal control points and benchmarks checked and re-constructed according to a national project of consolidation of control points and benchmarks
  • Topography: Contour lines and DEM (Digital Elevation Model)
  • Buildings: Buildings on the land
  • Aerial photos and satellite imagery: Digital ortho photos from aerial photos and DEMs, satellite images of various sources
Table 1 Available data formats for file types
File Type Spatial Data Attribute Data
ASCII file *.ngi *.nda
Binary file *.nbi *.ndb
The benefits, which can be expected from the framework data listed above, are the following:
  • The cost induced to individual institutes to establish the common spatial and attribute databases can be reduced
  • The framework data can have the consistency and the integrity since the data is manipulated and distributed from one source and by one organization, thus, can have the spatial accuracies and the completeness of the content
  • The data have a common coordinate system, so that the themes (objects) can be overlapped and analyzed to produce other new thematic maps
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