The Danish Geodata Agency (GST, ; previously National Survey and Cadastre of Denmark or KMS, ), is the Danish state agency responsible for

surveying Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the land, terrestrial Plane (mathematics), two-dimensional or Three-dimensional space#In Euclidean geometry, three-dimensional positions of Point (geom ...

, mapping and land registering of all of

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

, the

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ) (alt. the Faroes) are an archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean and an autonomous territory of the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. Located between Iceland, Norway, and the United Kingdom, the islands have a populat ...

and all waters associated with these. Geodatastyrelsen is an agency under the Danish Ministry of the Environment. The overall goal of Geodatastyrelsen is to supply and ensure that everyone in the Danish society has access to reliable and accurate maps and information on all parts of the

Danish Realm The Danish Realm, officially the Kingdom of Denmark, or simply Denmark, is a sovereign state consisting of a collection of constituent territories united by the Constitution of Denmark, Constitutional Act, which applies to the entire territor ...

. Until 31 December 2004, KMS was a Sector research institute for the Ministry of the Environment in the fields of

seismology Seismology (; from Ancient Greek σεισμός (''seismós'') meaning "earthquake" and -λογία (''-logía'') meaning "study of") is the scientific study of earthquakes (or generally, quakes) and the generation and propagation of elastic ...

, geodynamic and

geodesy Geodesy or geodetics is the science of measuring and representing the Figure of the Earth, geometry, Gravity of Earth, gravity, and Earth's rotation, spatial orientation of the Earth in Relative change, temporally varying Three-dimensional spac ...

. The

part was detached on 1 July 2004 and moved under the responsibility of

Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland The Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland () is the independent sector research institute under the Danish Ministry of Climate and Energy. Headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, GEUS also maintains field offices in Nuuk, Greenland. GEUS is a ...

(GEUS). On 1 January 2005, the

part was detached and together with Danish Space Research Institute it formed Danish National Space Center.

History

KMS was officially formed on 1 January 1989 by combining Geodætisk Institut, Søkortarkivet and Matrikeldirektoratet, in an effort to strengthen mapping in Denmark. The political decision was conceived in a Royal resolution of 10 September 1987. The definition of its responsibilities is described in law #749 of 7 December 1988. Initially it was located under the Ministry of Housing, but in 2001 it was moved to the Ministry of the Environment. On 1 January 2013, the agency changed its name to Danish Geodata Agency. In 2014, the Danish government (through the GST) launched a full 1:1 recreation of the country of Denmark in Minecraft. The game map was based on real, official measurements made public by the Danish Geodata Agency. The reason was to "use the appeal of gaming to draw the public’s attention to geographical data" and an "invitation to teachers and schools to use the data in geography, math, science and history lessons". This, of course, drew attention of cyber vandals who attacked the server by blowing up areas of the map, destroying buildings and planting American flags. It is unclear exactly why. Chris Hammeken, chief press officer at the Danish Geodata Agency, responded with "Minecraft is about building and rebuilding. ..Only a minor area was destroyed. ..It was the players who cleaned up the damage, replacing it with green grass and flowers the following morning." Regardless of the attacks ‒ which have since been fixed ‒ the replica appears to have been a success. On 1 January 2016, the Agency changed into the Agency for Data Supply and Efficiency, and links in English regarding “Denmark in Minecraft” were removed, although individual sections could still be downloaded elsewhere.

References

External links

General information on the "basic data programme"
Danish Geodata Agency (Official Homepage) {{authority control Survey and Cadastre National mapping agencies 1989 establishments in Denmark Environmental agencies in Denmark

History

See also

References

External links