Reprinted from Spring 2003 Imaging NOTES© magazine

© Space Imaging, www.imagingnotes.com

By Kent D. Lee, president and CEO, andAndrei Shumakov, geospatial data productiondirector, East View Cartographic Inc.[http://www.eastview.com], Minneapolis

s we enter the information revolu-tion’s second decade, one of thesimplest requirements for geospa-

tial data users continues to be one of the mostvexing—getting good 3-D data. High-resolutionimagery users want to orthorectify their prod-ucts; simulation and modeling folks needdigital elevation models (DEMs); and a newwave of users taking advantage of increasinglyuser-friendly GIS software systems are thrilledto move from 2-D to 3-D presentations. Butfor users whose territory falls outside theUnited States—where there are public domain

data policies and a fully digitized (often free)national database of large-scale mapping—DEM solutions can be frustratingly expensive,complex or nonexistent. That is, until oneconsiders Russian data.

Throughout the Cold War, American andSoviet military behemoths confronted eachother globally. Underlying this confrontationwas a quest by each to map the Earth at largescales. While the United States may have pre-vailed politically with the Berlin Wall’s col-lapse and the USSR’s breakup in 1991, theSoviets prevailed overwhelmingly on the car-tographic front. Today, the implications aresignificant for people seeking DEMs.

Soviet Mapping HistoryTwo facts contributed to Soviet supremacy

in global mapping: the sheer size of the Soviet

Empire, the core of which was Russia itself,and the world-class intellectual traditions ofRussian/ Soviet mathematicians, geodesists,physicists and engineers. Covering one-sixthof the Earth’s land mass, the Soviet Empiredominated the northern and eastern hemi-spheres. Once it was mapped, there was com-paratively little mapping left to do. The Soviettradition in the natural sciences provided aconceptual framework for a global approach.Following World War II, Academician F.N.Krasovsky calculated a global spheroid, with adatum set to 1942 Pulkova (just outsideLeningrad), which has proved to be stun-ningly accurate, considering that it was intro-duced before satellites could confirm hispredictions. This was the first modern globalgeodesic system introduced by anyone, and it’sstill used today. (The Russians recently

Russian Data Illuminate World Mapping

Eas

t Vi

ew C

arto

grap

hic

Inc.

Figure 1. These DEMs were produced from U.S. (left) and Soviet (right) 1:1,000,000-scale source maps.

A

East View Cartographic3020 Harbor Lane NorthMinneapolis, MN 55447-5137Tel. 1 (800) 477-1005Tel. 1 (763) 550-0965Fax. 1 (763) 559-2931www.cartographic.commaps@cartographic.com

improved the system with the PZ-90 datum,which will be introduced soon).

Soviet victory in World War II and quickdevelopment of the Cold War thereafterexpanded the importance of Soviet globaltopographic mapping. The Soviet Empiregrew to encompass Eastern Europe, andcommunism soon expanded into China. Ingeneral, the Soviets took an intense interestin all things global, as decolonization pro-ceeded across Africa and Asia. All these areaswere the subject of potential military opera-tions, and all required systematic mappingfrom Moscow’s perspective.

Technology weighed in as well, especiallywith the Soviet expansion into space. SomeRussian generals considered orbiting satellitesan ideal remote sensing platform to supportlarge-scale global topographic mapping. TheTK-250 system of the 1970s and the TK-350system launched in 1984 have providedunsurpassed global coverage of stereo imageryto support 1:50,000-scale topographicmapping anywhere on Earth. These TKimagery archives provided the Russians withthe photogrammetric basis for modern topo-graphic mapping efforts. It was an imageryasset wholly designed for and dedicated toglobal topographic mapping, as opposed tomilitary intelligence. As such, it represented asingular achievement in military (or civilian)cartography. The United States never had a satellite program wholly dedicated tocartography.

Methodological differences in cartogra-phy and military strategy also played a role.

The “Russianschool” of cartogra-phy invariablybegins with large-scale mapping andproceeds step-by-step to smaller-scale mapping.Consequently,there is a carry-overof accuracy anddetail that contrastswith more haphaz-ard, less systematicU.S. approaches toglobal mapping. In the case of elevation data,the result is scale-for-scale Soviet/Russiansuperiority in accuracy and detail.

Soviet military traditions gave primacy toground detail. Essentially, the Russians attackfrom the ground, and the United Statesattacks from the air. This essential differencein warfare culture is reflected in respectivetopographic map quality. Mapping require-ments are quite different if you plan towalk/drive over the ground or fly over it atsupersonic speeds. The differences are starkwhen comparing equal-resolution DEMsproduced from either side’s similar-scaletopographic maps (Figure 1).

Soviet Mapping ResultsWhen combined with their domestic

mapping—all based on aerial photographybut produced to the same specifications asextra-territorial mapping—Soviet topographic

mapping covers theworld as outlined inTable 1 (Figure 2).

Even thoughthe Soviets won themapping battle,they lost the ColdWar. By the early1990s, Soviet mili-tary mapping wasat a comparativestandstill, havingrun out of moneyand collapsing intobankruptcy like

other elements of that society. The central-control collapse resulted in a windfall ofbizarre opportunities. Soviet weapons sud-denly became available. Soldiers and mid-/high-level officers sold everything fromhand grenades to submarines. Soviet militarymaps were also on the selling block, mostlyfrom large stockpiles in the Baltic states. By1993, these maps had entered the commer-cial map trade en masse.

But it took awhile for the maps’ signifi-cance to be understood. There were so manymaps that no one library could buy them all,so their dissemination was piecemeal. Beingpreviously unknown, the maps created suspi-cion as to their accuracy. Intentional distor-tions of Stalin- and Brezhnev-era small-scalepolitical administrative maps tainted manypeople’s attitude about map accuracy, espe-cially for DEM creation. The fact that themap text was in Russian didn’t help.

Eas

t Vi

ew C

arto

grap

hic

Figure 2. Worldwide Russian topographic mapping.

Scale Sheet Count Coverage

1:1,000,000 1109 Complete

1:500,000 3088 Complete

1:200,000 18,056 Nearly complete

1:100,000 38,783 Nearly complete for Asia, Europe, most of northern Africa and large portions of North America

1:50,000 106,944 Complete for Former Soviet Union and Europe, most of Far East and Middle East

1:25,000 ca. 225,000 Complete for Former Soviet Union and much of eastern Europe

Table 1. Soviet/Russian Global Topographic Mapping

Russian Data Enter the MarketWith the Cold War over, and the cat

out of the bag with respect to cartographicsecrecy, the Russians began to takeincreasingly pragmatic attitudes towardcommercialization of geospatial data. Themost well-known aspect of this was the1994 release of KVR-1000 2-meterimagery for commercial sale and the1998 launch of the Kometa mission withsignificant civilian-tasked imagery collec-tion efforts (SPIN-2 program). Lessknown were Russian efforts to providehigh-resolution DEMs from the TK-350archive, as well as a Moscow-sanctionedsale of various geospatial data.

Outside of Russia, the telecommuni-cations industry was building cellulartelephone networks in virtually everycountry. Telecom engineers and networkplanners soon discovered the advantagesof using Soviet topographic maps fortheir global coverage and exceptional ele-vation data accuracy. Other advantagesalso became apparent. First, even incountries with well-developed mapping,such as China, secrecy surroundingdomestic maps made them impossible toshare with telecom engineers. But Sovietmaps were usable. Second, in

most Western European countries, thecrazy quilt of national copyright andlicensing regulations made using public-domain Soviet maps far more expedient.Consequently, DEMs from Soviet mapsbecame an overnight sensation in thismarket sector. In fact, the 1:200,000-scale series is considered the workhorseof first-generation mobile telephonenetwork planning around the world.

The telecom boom came and went, but it made engineers, service bureaus and numerous end users aware of the

utility of DEMs extracted fromSoviet sources, maps and stereoTK-350 imagery.

Since September 11, a newglobal challenge has emerged.While much of the challengeis being met with the U.S.military’s own geospatial cre-ations, as a practical matter,most of this imageryremains off limits to com-mercial use. Yet numerousend-users—news media,United Nations andvarious humanitarian/development organiza-tions—have a com-pelling interest in thesame territories that aresubject to the war onterrorism.

The New York Times

Figure 3. The New York Times’ front page featured a DEM of Tora Bora, Afghanistan, on Dec. 1, 2001. A rendered imageof Tora Bora is also shown.

Eas

t Vi

ew C

arto

grap

hic

The rapid organization of OperationEnduring Freedom in Afghanistan pro-vided an exceptional opportunity forRussian DEMs. Afghanistan’s extremeterrain was an essential part of the story,with Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters hid-ing in caves and other mountainousredoubts. Because the Russians had beenactive in the country, there was a ready sup-ply of highly detailed 1:50,000-scale topo-graphic maps with 10-meter contourintervals. When digitized, these highlydetailed maps sprang to life.

Several battles and assaults dominatedthe news—the battle for Mazar-I-Sharif, theTora Bora bombing and attack on Shah-I-Kot. The Tora Bora event was legendary

because it was the first time in media his-tory that a DEM was used in a major worldnewspaper’s (The New York Times) front-page graphic. As such, it set a new standardin the news graphic design business. Builtby East View Cartographic Inc. (EVC,Minneapolis) from a 1:50,000-scale Sovietmap of Tora Bora, Afghanistan, the DEMpassed the tests of time, cost and quick

delivery. As a result, the Times got the visual scoop (Figure 3).

Currently, the world’s attention is focusedon Iraq and North Korea (Figure 4). Both arecovered by large-scale Soviet mapping andstereo imagery. With the Afghanistan experi-ence so fresh, there’s no question that analystswill make good use of Russian DEMs of these new international hot spots.

East View Cartographic is a major producer and distributor of topographic and vector mapdatasets at various scales for most countries of the world. We can also provide high-quality,large-scale digital geospatial data customized to meet clients' specific requirements. Vectordata is produced using topographic maps and/or satellite imagery and is often utilized tobuild digital elevation models. Besides custom digitization, EVC has amassed an impressiveglobal set of off-the-shelf digital geospatial data that can be delivered immediately. In addition,we provide full service bureau offerings including digital data conversion, database creation,vectorization, imagery orthorectification, geoname translation and transliteration, boundaryanalysis and reporting, custom map production, georeferencing/coding, clipping, mosaicking,and other value-added mapping services.

East View Cartographic

Figure 4. This orthorectified image-draped DEM showsPyongyang, North Korea.

Eas

t Vi

ew C

arto

grap

hic,

Dig

italG

lobe

East View Cartographic3020 Harbor Lane NorthMinneapolis, MN 55447-5137Tel. 1 (800) 477-1005Tel. 1 (763) 550-0965Fax. 1 (763) 559-2931www.cartographic.commaps@cartographic.com