Background
The Albania Geopolitical Mapset is a set of basemaps for Garmin GPS units. The map was designed for the GPSmap 60CSx series. It is distributed as a Windows installer and requires Garmin Mapsource.
The authors are compiling a compatibility list. If you have tested this map on another unit, please e-mail the model number to webmaster@bunkertrails.org.
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Current Features
- GPS Zoom Level Definitions
- Metric system
- Covers all of Albania
- Based on standard GPS ellipsoid and datum (WGS84)
Political Map Features
- Cities and establishments (Village level data, sorted by population)
- Commune and Municipality Names and Boundaries
- District Boundaries
Geographic Map Features
- Topographical Data (contours delineated by 10m increments)
- Hydrology Data (major and minor bodies of water)
Infrastructure Features
- Transportation Network (Roads and Railroads, Non-Routable)
Planned Features
- National Park, Protected Area, and Wildlife Preserve Boundaries (Currently developing shapefile from raster maps obtained from the Ministry of the Environment)
- Routing Data for Road Networks (Commercial Version of cGPSMapper Required)
- Road Network Updates (Orthographic Aerial Photography Required)
- Digital Elevation Model Updates (Evaluating quality of recently released ASTER DEM product.)
Publication Information
Production Process
Geographic Data Acquisition and Quality Control
- Obtain digital elevation models of Albania to generate accurate contour lines. Shuttle Radar Topography Mission
- Evaluate the quantity of voids in the data and determine if alternate sources are necessary.
- Locate and obtain alternate data sources to correct major void areas (Viewfinder Panoramas)
- Use interpolation process to correct remaining voids (SRTMFill & 3DEM)
- Generate contour lines, major contour interval: 500, intermediate: 100, minor: 10, simplify factor: 10 to Polish format files (DEM2TOPO)
Political Data Acquisition and Quality Control
- Obtain political shapefiles for administrative regions and settlements (USAID Albania)
- Evaluate the quality, consistency, and accuracy of data
- Locate and obtain alternate sources if necessary
- Reproject data from Albanian 1987 -- Gauss-Kruger Zone 4 to WGS84 for the purpose of easier integration with GPS units (no need to define this datum and projection information inside the GPS unit) (Accomplished using MapWindow GIS)
Map Compilation and Production Processing
- Create map with geographic and political data (GPSMap Edit -- edits Polish format mapping files)
- Compile maps into Garmin IMG format (CGPSMapper)
- Create the Garmin preview IMG file and compile various files for installation into Garmin MapSource (MapSetToolkit)
- Create the installation executable (Nullsoft Scriptable Install System -- thanks David for the sample install script
Zoom Levels Reference
| Zoom Level | Scale | Political Boundaries | Cities and Settlements Included
|
| Level 0 | 120 m | Communes and Municipalities | All Available Data
|
| Level 1 | 500 m | Communes and Municipalities | All Available Data
|
| Level 2 | 800 m - 1.2 km | Communes and Municipalities | All Available Data
|
| Level 3 | 2 km | Communes and Municipalities | All Available Data
|
| Level 4 | 3 km | Communes and Municipalities | All Available Data
|
| Level 5 | 5 - 8 km | Districts | 5,000+
|
| Level 6 | 12 km | Districts | 20,000+
|
| Level 7 | 20-30 km | Districts | 50,000+
|
| Level 8 | 50 km | |
|
References & Data Sources
Digital Elevation Models
- Created by Paul Edwin Mastin, derived from USAID provided contour lines
Political Boundary Shapefiles
Political, Geographic, and Infrastructure Data
Copyright Information
webmaster@bunkertrails.org