Surveys and Mapping Division Integral to Operations of National Land Agency

The Surveys and Mapping Division is an integral part of the National Land Agency (NLA), which became an Executive Agency on April 1, 2001, reporting to the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands.
This division is one of several in the agency, and offers different services, such as building and maintaining the national geodetic control network, checking and drawing survey plans in accordance with the Land Surveyors Act and providing surveying and land information.
“The main functions of the Surveys and Mapping division are checking and approving survey plans to support title operations, survey of government lands, provision and maintenance of a network of geodetic survey points and the development and maintenance of maps,” Director of Surveys and Mapping, Trevor Shaw tells JIS News.
The division has developed a number of maps, to enable the country to better understand its natural landscape. Chief among them is the Portmore master map which was developed last year. In an interview with JIS News, Patricia Davis, Acting Manager for the Business Services Unit of the NLA, says the map was created for Portmore because of several reasons.
“Portmore, for example, is perceived as a disaster area. We have heard that over and over, and having maps like these can help the planners that are in disaster management to be able to formulate plans for evacuation and disaster mitigation activities,” she informs.
The division is currently developing a similar map for the Kingston Metropolitan Area (KMA).
Mr. Shaw says that work on the map is progressing well. “We are currently in the field collecting data and we are in the office capturing the buildings from photographic images. We are doing compilation from different sources, putting on parcel boundaries, putting on names, verifying names, adding special features. So the map is in progress and we expect to have this map completed by about January,” he notes.
He says that the completion or creation of a map is dependent on the type of map being developed and the size of the map that is being created.
“We began this map sometime last year, but we did not start from scratch. We are relying on existing map information. So it is a very efficient process; it is a process where we do not try to re-invent anything. What we do is update and add new information,” Mr. Shaw explains.
He points out that the reason for the creation of up-to-date maps for Portmore and Kingston results from the fact that they are metropolitan areas and are very dense and very complex.
“They are areas that people need to know to navigate them, and they are areas of intense business activities. So they are important to guide the planning process, the communication process and the development process,” Mr. Shaw informs.
Mr. Shaw adds that when the maps are finished, places such as the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management will have access to them in both digital and hard copy form.
“We build these maps with a great deal of flexibility in mind to meet the needs of a wide range of map users and Geographic Information System (GIS) practitioners,” he explains.
The division also provides digital maps to security companies, to assist these companies to do their jobs properly.
“We are in a very modern society where security companies need to be able to locate points of interest quickly, and they must be able to operate in a digital environment. They must be able to pre plan and also to respond within very short periods of time,” says Mr. Shaw.
“We have developed digital maps that will facilitate this kind of activity,” he adds, pointing out that the process of creating digital maps is done in a computer environment.
“It is done in a computer environment through a process referred to as digitizing, where we are actually converting hard copy paper maps to a digital format,” he says.
Mr. Shaw reveals that the division is currently working on some new projects, including the production of road maps for Jamaica. “We will be adding our National Land Agency touch to them to give them a difference,” he adds.
Miss Davis tells JIS News that each map has several features. “The Portmore map, for example, will have the road network, it will have minor roads, and it will have major roads. It will have the parcels outline, it will also have special areas, and utility features,” she notes.
Mr. Shaw says the Surveys and Mapping division has come a long way since the division was created and it has achieved a lot.
“Some of the major achievements include our launch into the world of technology where we are using very state-of-the-art equipment like Global Positioning System, to help to build the infrastructure on which we will bring together different types of land information in a single data base,” he explains.
“Another major achievement is the production of digital and intelligence maps. We have also been providing charts for the Civil Aviation Authority, which is very important to air navigation in Jamaica.
We give a lot of support to the Port Authority for sea navigation and we provide the government with a lot of mapping and surveying products to support planning and land management. So, we would say that we have made significant contributions to the sustainable development of Jamaica,” Mr. Shaw argues.