International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume XXXIX-B4, 2012 
XXII ISPRS Congress, 25 August - 01 September 2012, Melbourne, Australia 
51 
GLOBAL MAPPING PROJECT 
- APPLICATIONS AND DEVELOPMENT OF VERSION 2 DATASET 
T. Ubukawa, T. Nakamura, T. Otsuka, T. Iimura, N. Kishimoto, K. Nakaminami, 
Y. Motojima, M. Suga, Y. Yatabe, M. Koarai, T. Okatani 
Geospatial Information Authority of Japan, 1 Kitasato, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0811, Japan, env-gm@gsi.go.jp 
KEY WORDS: Global Map, Environment, International Cooperation, ISCGM, Framework data, National Mapping Organization 
ABSTRACT: 
The Global Mapping Project aims to develop basic geospatial information of the whole land area of the globe, named Global Map, 
through the cooperation of National Mapping Organizations (NMOs) around the world. The Global Map data can be a base of global 
geospatial infrastructure and is composed of eight layers: Boundaries, Drainage, Transportation, Population Centers, Elevation, Land 
Use, Land Cover and Vegetation. 
The Global Map Version 1 was released in 2008, and the Version 2 will be released in 2013 as the data are to be updated every five 
years. In 2009, the International Steering Committee for Global Mapping (ISCGM) adopted new Specifications to develop the 
Global Map Version 2 with a change of its format so that it is compatible with the international standards, namely ISO 19136 and 
ISO 19115. With the support of the secretariat of ISCGM, the project participating countries are accelerating their data development 
toward the completion of the global coverage in 2013, while some countries have already released their Global Map version 2 
datasets since 2010. 
Global Map data are available from the Internet free of charge for non-commercial purposes, which can be used to predict, assess, 
prepare for and cope with global issues by combining with other spatial data. There are a lot of Global Map applications in various 
fields, and further utilization of Global Map is expected. This paper summarises the activities toward the development of the Global 
Map Version 2 as well as some examples of the Global Map applications in various fields. 
1. INTRODUCTION 
1.1 Background and History of Global Mapping Project 
The Global Mapping Project is an endeavour to develop basic 
geospatial dataset, named “Global Map”, in a consistent manner. 
In 1992, the United Nations Conference on Environment and 
Development, known as “Earth Summit”, was held in Rio de 
Janeiro where the importance of various kinds of information 
for decision-making, including geospatial information, was 
recognized. In response to this, the Ministry of Construction 
(the current Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and 
Tourism; ML1T) of Japan proposed the concept of the Global 
Mapping Project in 1992, and the Global Mapping Project was 
launched in 1996 with the establishment of the International 
Steering Committee for Global Mapping (ISCGM). Since then, 
the National Mapping Organizations (NMOs) of more than 180 
countries and regions around the world participate in the project 
and they have been working to develop their Global Map 
datasets through international cooperation. The ISCGM, 
consists of 20 members, has promoted the Global Mapping 
Project as the steering body of the project. 
1.2 Steering Body 
The ISCGM, consists of 20 members including 17 heads of 
NMOs and is chaired by Professor D. R. Fraser Taylor of 
Carlton University, Canada, has conducted and managed the 
project. The Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI) 
serves as the secretariat of the ISCGM. The ISCGM holds an 
annual meeting to achieve its primary purpose, i.e., to examine 
measures that concerned national, regional and international 
organizations can take to foster the development of Global Map 
in order to facilitate the implementation of global agreements 
and conventions for environmental protection as well as the 
mitigation of natural disasters and to encourage economic 
growth within the context of sustainable development. 
The ISCGM is also actively participating in various 
international activities in the field of geospatial information, 
such as ISO/TC 211 and GGIM as an external liaison or a 
partner organization. 
1.3 Participants 
A unique character of the Global Mapping Project is voluntary 
participations of NMOs around the world. This enables to 
collect reliable data from each country. With the 
recommendation of the Director of the UN Statistics Division, 
ISCGM invited NMOs of all over the world for their 
participation in 1998, which resulted in the great increase of 
participants. Currently, as of April 2012, 165 countries and 16 
regions participate in the project. 
Figure 1 : Number of the participating countries/regions