VIRGIN ISLANDS, BRITISH

The British Virgin Islands are a British colony with internal self-government. They have been mapped by the British Directorate of Overseas Surveys (now Ordnance Survey International (OSI)). Some early mapping was done in the late 1940s using USAAF photography, but the principal series at 1:25,000 scale (DOS 346) was compiled in 1959 using 1953 air photography, and was published in 1960. The current sheets in this series are in their third or fifth editions, having been revised from 1981 photography, from incomplete 1:2,500 scale mapping and from field compilations. Sheet 6 Anegada, a low-lying coralline island, is a color photomap published in 1977; the other five sheets are conventional five-color line maps all published in 1984. They have 25 ft contours, UTM grid, and the projection is Transverse Mercator, Clarke 1866 ellipsoid.

In 1982, a derived tourist map of the whole island group was published at a scale of 1:63,360 (DOS 446), superseding an earlier general map at 1:100,000 scale. This map has 250 ft contours and the relief is enhanced with layer tints and hill shading. There is an alphanumeric grid based on the UTM, and an inset map of Road Town. A new edition was published in 1991.

1:2,500 scale maps covering Tortola, Virgin Gorda and part of Jost Van Dyke (DOS 046) were published between 1972 and 1986.

Soviet military topographic mapping of the British Virgin Islands is available at the following scales: 1:1,000,000 (1 sheet, complete coverage, published in 1966); 1:500,000 (1 sheet, complete coverage, published in 1979) and 1:200,000 (2 sheets, complete coverage, published 1966-1967). These products are available in print, digital raster and digital vector GIS formats from East View Geospatial.