Territorial atlases: the production problem facing survey departments with limited resources

Abstract

The rapidity with which the 1st edition of the Kenya atlas sold out and the flood of advance orders for the 2nd edition from Kenya and overseas, indicates that there is a very considerable demand for this type of publication. Nevertheless, the decision of a government survey department to undertake the production of a territorial atlas is not one which can be lightly made. Much of the work involved is fascinating and of excellent training value for cartographers, but it is also rather expensive and time consuming. In the notes which follow, its attempted to outline the production problem from the point of view of a government survey department with limited resources, and to describe briefly the methods adopted by the survey of Kenya in our attempts to produce an acceptable atlas with the facilities available to us.