THE MAPPING PRODUCTION IN COLOMBIA:TOWARDS THE CREATION 
OF TOPOGRAPHIC DATABASES 
Iván Alberto Lizarazo 
Myriam Ardila Torres 
Subdirección de Cartografía 
Instituto Geográfico Agustín Codazzi 
KEYWORDS: Cartography, Mapping, Database, Photogrammetric Production Line 
ABSTRACT. 
The Instituto Geográfico Agustín Codazzi, in charge of the colombian agrology, cartography, cadastre and geography, is 
developing its Technological Modernization Programme in order to improve the productivity and the flexibility of its products 
and, therefore, attend the needs of its clients. 
The new cartographic production of IGAC is oriented to the creation and maintenance of topographic databases useful as 
foundation for the Geographical Information Systems. 
Its current photogrammetric, geodetic and GIS equipments have been integrate into a production system which is going on 
since August 1994. Its actual performance, its advantages and limitations are discussed here. 
IGAC's expectations of the near future are explained. 
1. INTRODUCTION 
The Instituto Geográfico Agustín Codazzi (IGAC) is the 
governmental agency which is responsible for the 
production of topographic maps at different scales to 
support the main activities of territorial ordering and 
planning. 
Since its foundation in 1935, IGAC performs its map 
compilation photogrammetrically. Its maps vary in scale: 
1:100.000 for the entire territory, 1:25.000 and 1:10.000 for 
the developed rural area and 1.2.000 for the most important 
cities. 
An evaluation of the IGAC's activities reported in 1992, 
showed that the compiled maps covered a high percent of 
the nation but they had become old: more than 50% had 
been issued earlier than 1980. In addition, it become clear 
that the biggest obstacle to the aerial photos needed to 
develop the topographic mapping program was the 
permanent presence of clouds and fog over the andean 
territory. 
2. THE MODERNIZATION PROGRAMME 
The mentioned report pushed the Technological 
Modernization Programme, an institutional effort defined 
since 1990 with the aim to improve the quantity and the 
quality of the IGA C's products to fulfill the growing user's 
requirements. 
IGAC started in 1992 its actions to access to the new 
developments in photogrammetry, geodesy, GIS, and other 
related areas. Its departments, Agrology, Cartography, 
Cadastre and Geography used to work with obsolete 
equipment and manual procedures. The slow productivity 
and flexibility claimed for change. 
3. THE TOOLS 
IGAC |designed and implemented a new mapping 
production process. It uses modern technology in order to 
carry out the different tasks: 
- Acquisition of aerial photography. An. aerial 
camera system WILD RC 30 replaces old 
equipment. 
- Ground Control. IGAC uses for the geodetic 
measurement of the control points GPS receivers 
WILD DSR99 (20), distancemeters DI3000 (2), 
distancemeters 2000 (1), geodetic levels N3 (4), 
automatic levels NAK2 (2), electronic theodolite 
T2002 (2), electronic tacheometers TC1610 (4) 
and electronic distancemeters DI2002 (1). 
- Aerotriangulation and Restitution. It is done on 
workstations VAX 4000-90/60 connected to the 
upgraded analog plotters (7) and the analyticals 
plotters DSR15 and SD2000 (5). 
- Editing and graphic outputs. This work is done 
with workstations VAX 4000-60 (30) and 
digitizers CALCOMP 95480 y 95482, flat-bed 
plotters WILD TA10 (4) and drum plotters 
CALCOMP 1044 GT. 
The INFOCAM/ORACLE software running with the VMS 
operating system, enables the overall mapping production, 
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International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXI, Part B4. Vienna 1996 
  
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