Instituto Geográfico Nacional (Spain)
Encyclopedia
The Instituto Geográfico Nacional (IGN), or National Geographic Institute is a Spanish government agency
, dependent on the Spanish Ministry of Public Works. It is the national mapping agency
for Spain
, together with the Centro Nacional de Información Geográfica (CNIG).
The IGN is responsible for:
Government agency
A government or state agency is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government that is responsible for the oversight and administration of specific functions, such as an intelligence agency. There is a notable variety of agency types...
, dependent on the Spanish Ministry of Public Works. It is the national mapping agency
National mapping agency
A national mapping agency is an organisation, usually publicly owned, that produces topographic maps and geographic information of a country. Some national mapping agencies also deal with cadastral matters.-List of national mapping agencies:...
for Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, together with the Centro Nacional de Información Geográfica (CNIG).
The IGN is responsible for:
- Astronomic observations and research
- Observation and maintenance of the national geodetic networkGeodetic networkA geodetic network is a network of triangles which are measured exactly by techniques of terrestrial surveying or by satellite geodesy.In "classical geodesy" this is done by triangulation, based on measurements of angles and of some spare distances; the precise orientation to the geographic north...
s - Making and updating the cartographyCartographyCartography is the study and practice of making maps. Combining science, aesthetics, and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality can be modeled in ways that communicate spatial information effectively.The fundamental problems of traditional cartography are to:*Set the map's...
for the country - Making and maintaining the IDEE or Infraestructura de Datos Espaciales de España, the Spanish Spatial Data InfrastructureSpatial Data InfrastructureA spatial data infrastructure is a framework of spatial data, metadata, users and tools that are interactively connected in order to use spatial data in an efficient and flexible way...
- R&D and application of teledetection systems
- Geophysics and gravimetry
- Seismographic and volcanic activity analysis