The subdelegate of the Government in Ourense, Eladio Santos, presented this morning the new official cartographic maps of the province of Ourense and of the Autonomous Community of Galicia, edited by the National Geographic Institute.
The presentation, which was also attended by the head of the functional area of Promotion of the Government Delegation, Ana Quintairos; the head of the National Geographic Institute in Galicia, Pablo Carballo, and the head of the Office of Information and Registry of the Government Subdelegation in Ourense, Patricia Ribo, was made known the update of these documents, which were published in paper for the last time 10 years ago.
The new maps reflect the latest developments, mainly in terms of infrastructure, population centres and toponymy, thus adjusting to the changes in the territory. Updates that, as explained by the head of the National Geographic Institute in Galicia, Pablo Carballo, respond to a change in its working methodology. “We used to work with individualized production paths for each province, layout maps individually, and in recent years we created a database generation. We took a little longer to change the process, but we intend to release new editions on paper more quickly, hopefully in about four years,” he said.
The new updates are available not only in paper, but also in digital, to download in PDF, image and database vector format, on the web www.ign.es. “The cartographic series in digital format are those that allow us to consult the maps as we enter our browser and zoom in or out,” explained Pablo Carballo. In addition, the versions on the network have constant changes, “we use even artificial intelligence to update information as quickly as possible.”
In addition, the National Geographic Institute provides information to other public administrations, with the aim of providing their service in the most efficient way to citizens and reducing the costs for them. “Our vocation is to disseminate all the work we do to reach as many groups as possible, not only the engineering companies or people who are dedicated to environmental studies, but also the other administrations. We are pioneers because we allow citizens to have access to geographic information free of charge,” said Carballo.
In this regard, the deputy delegate of the Government, Eladio Santos, wanted to emphasize that this Institute “is a reference for other administrations, which seek your information and use it”.
Resources for various groups
But the work of the National Geographic Institute goes beyond that. For example, it has a section of educational resources in which in addition to downloadable physical and political maps, they offer applications that are used in teaching, in the different stages, with which students can do exercises to know geography, create their own compositions, etc.
Likewise, it is in charge of the national seismic network, “we have our own viewers. In real time we publish all the seismic activity that occurs in Spain and the citizen can enter and report how he perceived a tremor. We have permanent stations throughout the territory,” explained Pablo Carballo