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  • Strategic or operational?
  • Basemap, baseline or situational?
  • When might it be produced?
  • Intended audience
  • Influence on humanitarian decisions
  • Methods
  • Data

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  1. Reference products

Country overview

PreviousReference mapsNextAdministrative boundaries and p-codes

Last updated 1 year ago

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St Kitts and Nevis: Tropical Storm Philippe - Country overview

Perhaps one of the first maps that you may see in a response or if you are unfamiliar with a country. This map provides the simplest overview and orientation of a country, region or other geographical area providing an overview of the capital and other key cities, major roads and transport links and physical features such as rivers and lakes.

Strategic or operational?

Strategic and operational.

Basemap, baseline or situational?

Basemap.

When might it be produced?

These maps already exist but they can should be produced as early as possible. It should be a one off production, it can however be the basis for many other maps such as situational overview maps and many of the other thematic maps that can be produced.

Intended audience

Everyone.

Influence on humanitarian decisions

For new responders coming into a country that is new to them or at least unfamiliar it helps orientate them and familiarise themselves with the overall lie of the land.

Methods

Keep the map simple and only include key features such as the following:

  • National capital

  • Other major cities

  • Key roads, airports and seaports

  • Significant rivers and lakes

Remember that this map can be used for many of the other maps so keep this in mind when you are designing. It is also an easy and useful map to add to a presentation slide for others to use or to add to a report to orientate the reader.

You can keep the map title really simple, for example,"Reference map of Sri Lanka" or "Reference map of Eastern Europe".

Data

is a clean simple dataset that is perfect to use for these maps. You may wish to supplement it with data from or where there might be more accurate data or administration boundaries that are being used by the humanitarian community.

Natural Earth Data
OpenSteetMap
Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX)
Reference map of Sri Lanka