Journal Article

National atlas of Mongolia and revision

Монгол Улсын Үндэсний Атлас Ба Шинэчлэл

By Ц. Наранцацрал; Б. Сайнбуян; М. Уртнасан; Р. Болдбаяр· 2022

Publication: Монгол Орны Газарзүй-Геоэкологи Сэтгүүл
Issue: 43
Pages: 260-266

Mongolia

1990

In their comparative editorial account, the authors trace the 1990 National Atlas of the Mongolian People’s Republic to a 1973 government resolution. An interinstitutional working group involving Mongolian and Soviet organizations accelerated compilation from 1981; the manuscript was completed in 1985 and published in Moscow in 1990 in separate Mongolian and Russian editions. The atlas has 144 pages and 276 maps in a 600 × 450 mm format, with an introductory section and three main divisions covering history and revolution, natural conditions and resources, and the national economy. Its sources included joint geological, palaeontological and biological expeditions from 1967 onward and socioeconomic data collected throughout Mongolia in 1971–1981. The authors attribute the lengthy compilation to the need to assemble source materials and draw maps manually. They particularly value the thematic introductions explaining sources, mapped phenomena, cartographic methods and practical uses. They also report that its large format, strongly scientific orientation and ageing information were cited as reasons for commissioning an update in 2008.

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Marking the Institute of Geography and Geoecology’s 60th anniversary, the authors review the 1990 National Atlas of the Mongolian People’s Republic and its 2009 and 2022 revisions, published as the National Atlas of Mongolia. Commissioned in 1973, the first atlas’s manuscript was completed in 1985 after more than a decade of work by over 300 Mongolian and Russian researchers. It combined expedition findings with specially collected socioeconomic data and manually prepared maps, and appeared in separate Mongolian and Russian publications in 1990. The 2009 Mongolian-language revision took one year, drawing on earlier materials, accumulated experience, GIS and statistical data, principally from 2007. The bilingual Mongolian–English 2022 revision used the 2009 database, statistics updated to 2020 and new research; work begun in 2019 was delayed by COVID-19. The article compares dimensions, contributors, production periods, languages, scales, thematic organization, sources and mapping techniques. Map totals fell from 276 to 256 and 246, while the authors judge thematic coverage largely stable. Both later editions use DEM backgrounds for some maps; the 1990 and 2009 maps use Gauss–Krüger (Pulkovo 1942), whereas the 2022 edition uses UTM under a government decision. The authors emphasize the continuing use of established thematic mapping methods and identify the 1990 atlas’s explanations of sources, phenomena, methods and practical uses as a particular strength.