Albania

Published by Shtëpia Botuese in 2003, Atlasi i Shqipërisë: Atlasi Gjeografik i Popullsisë së Shqipërisë maps Albania’s population geography. A 2005 account by Hartmut Asche, Arqile Bërxholi, Julia Siemer and Dhimitër Doka describes the demographic atlas as an international pilot project examining the feasibility of a national atlas information system. It addressed population structure and dynamics during Albania’s post-socialist transformation, using a GIS database, printed maps and complementary screen-map development. The authors reported that Albania still lacked a national atlas covering its physical, economic, social and political structures. In a 2004 review, Régis Darques compared the atlas produced by the Academy of Sciences and the University of Tirana with a separate statistical-office atlas, discussing cartographic shortcomings and public controversy over ethnic-minority data in the Academy’s volume.