Major Roads and Settlements of Africa from 1984 FAO GIS Project

Two vector files detail major roads and human settlements across the African continent, created in 1984. The dataset was developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization, the United Nations Environment Program, and the Environmental Systems Research Institute. It digitizes features from historical maps like the 1977 UNESCO/FAO Soil Map and 1976-1982 navigation charts.

Use Cases

• Analyze historical road network connectivity using the ROADS2 file's vector line features.
• Map the distribution of towns and airports from the late 1970s to early 1980s using point features in the TOWNS2 file.
• Study spatial relationships between human settlements and major transportation routes by joining TOWNS2 and ROADS2 coverages.
• Use the one-degree graticule coverages to assess regional infrastructure density across Africa.

Strengths

• Data integrates multiple authoritative sources including FAO, UNESCO, and DMA maps.
• Features were digitized at a spatial resolution of 0.002 inches before transformation to latitude/longitude.

Limitations

• Temporal coverage is stale, based on source maps from 1975 to 1982 with a publication date of 1984.
• The dataset lacks a continent outline file, complicating continent-wide visualization.
• Specific row counts and geographic precision metrics for features are unknown.

Provenance

Source

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI).

Collection Method

Manual digitization from paper maps, re-registered to a basemap and transformed to latitude/longitude using a USGS/ESRI algorithm.

Time Range

Source maps from 1975-1982; dataset published December 1984.

Freshness

null

Geography

Continent of Africa.