Ask HN: How are mapping organisations notified of land border changes?
In the news today is a land-exchange between Holland and Belgium [0].
How are - if indeed they are - the Ordnance Survey, Google Maps, and other entities notified of the precise changes, coordinates that allow them to recreate the division in their maps?
[0] - http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/28/world/europe/belgium-netherlands-land-dispute.html
3 comments
[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 14.4 ms ] threadMost countries have a mapping agency/authority (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_mapping_agency). I've always assumed that each country defines it's own spatial boundary defined by the relevant legal agreements that define a country. Third parties such as Google presumably use whatever each country provides and try to stay out of any disputes (http://qz.com/218675/here-are-the-32-countries-google-maps-w...).
As far as updates, someone probably just has an annual calendar reminder to pull the latest shapefile for each territory or from a central authority (UN? National Geospatial Agency?)! The geographer in me is mildly amused at the thought of someone in Belgium making a pull request to The Netherlands related to updating a boundary.
If you're interested in questions like this, I highly recommend the FOSS4G conferences (http://2017.foss4g.org/). Many of the big names in GIS attend and can likely give an authoritative answer on questions such as this.
https://www.gislounge.com/cartographers-respond-border-chang...
> Johnson noted that in the United States, most map making companies take the lead from the State Department in determining when to update border changes on their maps.