The Botswana National Atlas (Production & Planning)

Summary

This paper reports on the planning and production of Botswana’s first national atlas. A feasibility study completed by Swedesurvey in 1993 established both a need for the project and willingness to undertake it. The Department of Surveys and Mapping manages the project and technical production, with content coordinated by the National Atlas Board and Editorial Committee. Botswana’s government and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) share costs equally, while Swedesurvey supports technology transfer through training and continuing consultation. Author nominations for approximately 22 topics are largely complete, and manuscript preparation is under way. Coverage includes political, economic, social and cultural conditions, natural resources, and environmental conservation. The installed production system uses a Sun workstation, two Pentium computers, and Unix Arc/Info. A single-volume printed atlas is planned, with funding negotiations under way for parallel development of a PC version to extend educational use. The author emphasizes the atlas’s intended role in supplying geographic information for development planning and outlines continuing updates, GIS database development, and possible subsequent thematic atlases.