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