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Welcome to the website of the International Cartographic Association
Get to know the new ICA Executive Committee for the term 2023-2027

Map of the Month 12/2010: Parc National des Virguna

The ICA is happy to feature the 11th Map of the Month: “Parc National des Virguna”

At the 24th International Cartography Conference in Santiago, Chile, the map won the 1st jury’s prize in the category “Maps based on satellite images and remote sensing”. The jury stated:

Eye-catching. Excellent job on type legibility on an image background.

Publisher’s Description: Parc National des Virunga is one the five UNESCO world heritage sites in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). For each of these sites a set of two maps is made. One map, like this one, has a satellite image in the background with topographic features on top of it, which gives a good overview of terrain and vegetation in a certain area. The second map has a neutral background allowing a better visualization of the topographic features. These maps are the result of a close collaboration between the ICCN, UNESCO, UGent, UCL and other partners. The mission of the ICCN (L’Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature) is to protect endangered species and ecosystems and to conserve and maintain the protected sites in DRC. To be able to carry out this mission, the ICCN requires appropriate and actual information about these protected sites. As a consequence, the Belgian Scientific Policy Office, in close collaboration with the centre of the World Heritage Sites of UNESCO, have decided to assist the ICCN with a project which object is to assemble and integrate all the cartographic documents and ecological knowledge necessary for a sustainable management of the five world heritage sites of DRC: la Réserve de faune à okapis et les parcs nationaux de la Salonga, de Garamba, des Virunga et de Kahuzi Biega.
A multidisciplinary team of scientists belonging to the universities of Ghent (UGent) and Louvain-la-Neuve (UCL) has been mandated to develop, together with the ICCN, an Information and Management system for the protected sites, known as SYGIAP (Système de Gestion d’Information des Aires Protégées). This system is managed by the ICCN and contains all the parks-related documentation and cartographic information available on the sites and is both a tool for archiving, monitoring and management. These new base maps for the protected World Heritage areas in the DRC have been established within the framework of this project and form the core of the new information system of the ICCN. The interpretation of the recent and orthorectified satellite images, collection GPS coordinates, compilation of existing field data and quality control have been achieved through effective collaboration between the ICCN and its partners on the site level.

  • Paper
  • Scale: 1:200,000
  • Size (mm): 690x2,000
  • Authors: UGent, UCL, WWF, UNESCO
  • Publisher: UGent
  • Date of edition: 01/01/2008
  • Languages: English, French

More information:
L’Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature
Système de Gestion d’Information des Aires Protégées

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