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Guyana, South America

latitude: 4.78, longitude: -58.16

Browse map of Guyana ^{4°46′48.00″ N, 58°09′36.00″ W}

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Guyana is a country in South America at latitude 4°46′48.00″ North, longitude 58°09′36.00″ West.

This page contains information relating to mapping activity that is specific to Guyana. If you are interested in South America, please visit the Mapping projects page.

Guyana OpenStreetMap Project

Guyana needs a free up to date map. OpenStreetMap is made by you and me. Add your knowledge to the global community's.

Be sure to check the Beginners Guide for OpenStreetMap as well as the Mapping Techniques page.

GPS tracks are being made mainly in the capital city Georgetown. Trips have been made to Parika, Linden, Lethem, Charity and New Amsterdam. Traces have been donated from the Maburumba region.

If you don't have a GPS device and would like to help out here's some suggestions:

Trace overhead images

Consider tracing rivers using JOSM and landsat WMS or by using the Potlatch editor showing Yahoo background images. These backgrounds generally don't have enough detail to trace roads on them, remember that we legally can't use Google satellite images with OpenStreetMap so please don't.

UPDATE: OpenStreetMap now has permission to use Microsoft's Bing map images as a background for tracing on. Check out Potlatch 2 for easy tracing of clear images in the Georgetown area. (Anna Catherina -> Farm -> Mahaica) Past that area is the same as the Yahoo images.

Add names

Add street names and villages names of places that you know. Many streets don't have signs on them so local knowledge is very helpful. Use the noname map style to quickly find streets needing names. Also take care to note exactly what the name is and where it is, some streets have slight name changes from sign to sign. For example at the corner of Smyth Street, Princess Street is actually Princes, but further down the road it changes to Princess. Also Benn and Bent Street are both found on signs on the same street. So which is correct? Please change the names to what the sign says where you see it. So mark Benn where you see it, mark Bent where you see it. That's the most correct way to go.

Map on paper

You can also add to the map by printing out portions of it, walking around and adding details then scanning it back in. Walking Papers This can even be done if you don't have access to a scanner and a printer by mailing but it may take a very long time.

Add canals, ditches and drains

Especially those that divide villages and mark boundaries.

Add Points of Interest

Water filling stations, gas, food, public restrooms, embassies, churches, government buildings, etc... anything someone may want to look for or use as a landmark.

Taxis and buses

Learn about relations and use them to add bus routes. Add taxi offices and phone numbers so people can easily find them.

Add buildings

You can also add buildings by estimating their dimensions or using overhead images, check out the GPHC buildings for an example of how you could do it. With Bing images it's now possible to do every building in Georgetown.

Add Lot numbers

Eventually when more lot numbers are added we'll be able to search for any address and be given it's exact location. For example: Charlestown.

Restrictions

Add fences, gates, stop signs, traffic lights, speed limits, one ways streets, no right or left turns, etc...

Advocacy

Share OpenStreetMap with your friends, teachers and people working in GIS. Perhaps someone with a GPS would not want to personally work with OpenStreetMap but may be willing to donate their personal GPS traces to it. Restaurants that deliver food, shipping companies, utilities, anyone that does house calls.

Now What?

The OpenStreetMap project is focused on the gathering and sharing of the map data. Because of this, the map you see at openstreetmap.org is very basic, other creative uses of the data including features you may need can be found on other websites that use the OpenStreetMap data.

Directions

CloudMade maps allow you to make directions from one place to another as well as any points along the way you wish to add. These can then be emailed or sent in an IM so that others can see exactly how they should travel.

Bus Routes

OsmTransport Allows you to turn on and off individual bus lines and view their routes.

Map Styles

CloudMade also allows you to change the style of the map among hundreds of community made styles and also to define your own styles.

GPS Maps

CloudMade automatically creates the files you need to use OpenStreetMap on various GPS devices. If you want more customized maps on your GPS you can make your own using Mkgmap.

Printing Maps

For a simple image you can click the "Export" button at the top of the page while viewing in openstreetmap.org. Fo information on printing for various situations including PDFs and City map guides see OSM on Paper.

Private Points of Interest

If you want to save a collection of places for personal use but not share them with the OSM project GPS Visualizer is an easy way to do it. Mark your points, save it to a GPX file then load them later on. Please do not trace the Google map views and upload that information to OSM, it would violate the terms of the OSM project and copyright law.