International Map Year (IMY) is coming to a close. Over the last 18 months, some 40 countries have been involved in arranging National Map Days and other types of national events in celebration of IMY. The Executive Committee (EC) of the International Cartographic Association (ICA) and its IMY Working Group are now working to determine whether the IMY concept could be continued with an annual Map Day. Because International GIS Day is held every year in November, it is possible that a suitable month for an International Map Day could be April or May, about six months later. A preliminary decision whether and when to declare such an International Map Day may be made by the IC EC at the 2017 International Cartographic Conference (ICC) in July in Washington, DC, USA, to be followed by a final decision by the ICA General Assembly at the 2019 ICC in Tokyo.
In the meantime, the IMY book, The World of Maps, will be extended with a chapter on Geological Maps to be written by an Italian team and based on a presentation at the Italian Map Day in September 2016 which concentrated on geological maps. The book has already been translated from English to French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese and there are now several translation teams working in China, Indonesia, Germany/Switzerland, and United Arabic Emirates.
The IMY Working Group is in the process of producing a report on the IMY activities held worldwide. An abstract of a paper, titled Outcomes of the International Map Year, has been submitted for presentation at ICC 2017. That report is also being considered for publication in the ICA’s Cartographic Journal.
The IMY Working Group is grateful to the writers of the various chapters of The World of Maps and to the book’s many translation teams. It is also indebted to Manuela Schmidt for acting as webmaster of the IMY website, for continually updating the website with the latest news and events, and for design of the IMY logo. Members of the ICA Executive Committee, ICA Commission Chairpersons, as well as United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) and the Joint Board of Geographic Information Societies (JBGIS) have also been very supportive, in particular by producing the posters of the UN sustainability goals. In all, IMY has been a great success and we congratulate everyone for their participation in this worldwide effort to celebrate of maps and their unique role in our world.
– Bengt Rystedt
Chair of the IMY Working Group
