Digital map database charts a new course for future services
The Survey and Mapping Office has harnessed technology to built a database of digital maps that gives a new dimension to the future development of its services.
Unlike paper maps, digital ones are so seamless that maps covering the whole territory can be read and navigated as one single map.
Their features are differentiated and uniquely coded and can connect to textual attributes. They are topologically structured and organised into different layers for easy retrieval and analysis of data such as buildings, roads and contour lines.
Deputy director for Survey and Mapping Yeung Kin-fai says the office started converting paper maps into digital ones in 1987. The project was completed in 1995 and the initial cost was $30 million.
'We will continually update the database. New geographic features, such as reclamation land, buildings, housing estates, roads or railways, will be updated within three months,' he says.
The digital map database includes 3,000 pieces of 1:1,000 basic maps and another 3,000 pieces showing land boundaries.