Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística

Technical Information

• -#Informações Ténicas - Coleção de Mapas Municipais (en)

The represented political-administrative division data are those of the Digital Municipal Mesh, comprising all its methodological base, exposed in details on https://www.ibge.gov.br/geociencias/organizacao-do-territorio/malhas-territoriais/15774-malhas.html?=&t=o-que-e

The Indigenous Lands officially delimited had its borders represented based on the graphic file of Indigenous Lands produced by the National Indian Foundation - FUNAI. The set of Indigenous Lands, for mapping purposes, is composed by those which had the land status as declared, approved, regulated and in process of acquisition as Indigenous reservation up to June 30, 2020 - a reference date for the consolidation of official borders in the 2020 Municipal Maps, in view of the minimum necessary time for data processing in the Census Mapping and other IBGE registries.  This criterion, for the sake of methodological coherence, is the same as the one used in the dissemination of the statistical results by Indigenous Lands since the 2010 Population Census. Any disagreements concerning this information level compiled in this product should be directly forwarded to FUNAI.

The Quilombola Territories officially delimited had its borders represented based on the graphic file of Quilombola Areas available in the Land Collection of the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform and in the files developed by state land agencies.  The set of Quilombola Territories, for mapping purposes, is composed by those that had the Recognition Ordinance published (i. e., were under an ordinance, a decree or a title) on June 30 of 2020, a reference date of the consolidation fo the official borders in the 2020 Municipal Maps, in view of the minimum necessary time for data processing in the Census Mapping and other IBGE registries.  Any disagreements on this information level compiled in this product should be directly forwarded to the bodies in charge of the information.

The borders of the Conservation Units represented have as reference the georeferenced file of the National Register of Conservation Units (CNUC), held by the Ministry of the Environment with the collaboration of the Federal, State and Municipal Managing Bodies. In the maps are the representations, whenever possible, of the existing Conservation Units on June 30 of 2020 - a reference date of the consolidation of the official borders in the 2020 Municipal Maps, in view of the minimum necessary time for data processing in the Census Mapping and other IBGE registries.   In some Municipalities, the Conservation Units had to be omitted due to the extension characteristics of the Units and the limitations of map scale representation. Any disagreements on this information level compiled in this product should be directly forwarded to the bodies in charge of the information.

The delimitation of the urban areas represented was carried out aiming at supporting the census operation and other IBGE surveys. The classification of  spaces into urban and rural is made based on interpretations on the concentration and dispersion of households and urban infrastructures, taking into consideration the same methodological bases of the 2020 Intermediate Mesh of Enumeration Areas, exposed in details on: https://www.ibge.gov.br/geociencias/organizacao-do-territorio/malhas-territoriais/26565-malhas-de-setores-censitarios-divisoes-intramunicipais.html?=&t=sobre

The toponyms of the mapped locations are obtained from a methodology that brings together access to administrative records and mappings produced by several institutions, field work carried out by IBGE teams and the names given by the respondents of statistical survey.  Thus, local variations are expected in the names given, not being IBGE’s responsibility to make the local toponyms official.

In addition to the Indigenous Lands officially delimited, the Indigenous groups mapped out by the IBGE are also represented. They are differently represented in the maps through the insertion of the prefix “Indigenous village” before the locality name. The concept of Indigenous group adopted in this publication is the same as the one used in the 2019 Information Base on Indigenous Peoples and Quilombolas, exposed in details on: https://www.ibge.gov.br/geociencias/organizacao-do-territorio/tipologias-do-territorio/27480-base-de-informacoes-sobre-os-povos-indigenas-e-quilombolas.html?=&t=o-que-e

As the prior consultation with the Quilombola population on the location data of the Quilombola communities represented in the mapping was not finished in time for the consolidation of the product for dissemination, seeking to observe the right of prior consultation with the Quilombola population, pursuant to Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, promulgated by Decree No. 5.051, of April 19, 2004 and consolidated in annex LXXII of Decree no. 10.088, of November 5, 2019, the prefix “Quilombola Community” was omitted from the clustered toponyms identified as being so. They were represented only by the toponym's core.

The file of the published maps were measured in accordance with the map scale, in size A0, as established by the ABNT NBRNM-ISO 216. In some Municipalities, due to the territorial size or the density of information to be represented, it was necessary to adopt the immediately lower geographic level - districts or sub-districts - as a mapping specification. For the municipalities that were in that situation, but had just one district and none sub-district, the maps were produced based on the operational grids defined by the IBGE, exclusively for the purposes of that collection.

Limitation of use in Municipal Maps

The IBGE Foundation is an entity under the direct Federal Administration in the category of Public Foundation, in charge of official statistical, geographic and cartographic services, of national scope pursuant to article 21, item XV of the Federal Constitution.

Pursuant to article 4, item II, sub-item "d", of Decree-Law No. 200, of 02.25.1967, instituted by Decree-Law No. 161, of 02.13.1967 and provided by Law No. 5.878, of 05.11.1973 and IBGE Foundation Statute, approved by Decree No. 4,740, of 06/13/2003, with the following legal attributions:

“to portray Brazil by providing the information required to the understanding of its reality and the exercise of citizenship, by means od production, analysis, survey and dissemination of information of statistical, demographic and socio-economic, geographic, cartographic, geodetic and environmental nature.”

Additionally, as a product of the composition of the different sources and of the improvements implemented at different stages, the Census Mapping follows the evolution of the geotechnologies and, therefore, faces the limitations of georeferencing.  Consequently, there might be positional discrepancies in relation to the real world, in some areas of the territory. The IBGE cannot be held responsible for those imperfections or for other that might arise.

Although the IBGE Foundation has been incorporating a series of improvements based on recent geotechnologies to generate its municipal maps, this collection is not produced with the compatible technical precepts of location, shape and dimensions that characterize products governed by the norm of the Brazilian Association of Technical Standards – ABNT NBR 13.133 and 14.166) and by the Georeferencing and Certification of Rural Properties (INCRA – Law 10.627 and its regulations and normative instructions) as to underpin decisions of legal nature in terms of territorial occupation or ordering.

Specifically, the census mapping constitutes a Territorial Base infrastructure, conceived and generated to meet the demands of the stages of Data Collection, Calculation, Tabulation, Analysis and Geographical and Statistical Dissemination, associated with Household Surveys, Annual Population Estimates and Censuses in compliance IBGE's institutional mission. Therefore, it uses information and administrative records produced by various public bodies, institutions and civil society organizations, not having the purpose of initially validating the information mapped for purposes other than the use made by IBGE in its censuses and surveys.

Of note is that the International Borders are in charge of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Brazilian Commissions of Border Demarcation. State Borders and Municipal Limits are in the scope of State Agencies. Intra-municipal subdivisions (districts, sub-districts, etc.) are the scope of the Municipalities.

Any issues regarding the limits of the special areas represented – Indigenous Lands, Quilombola Territories and Conservation Units – must be forwarded to the respective body producing the information not being the IBGE responsible for their delimitation.

That being said, there is no doubt that although there is a series of reference data for the territory in general, the IBGE maps do not fit as a legal instrument for the definition, location, demarcation or public registration of real estate or for defining limits of any type of urban equipment, of the subdivision of municipal land that imply the administration of IPTU, TSU, ITBI, ISSQN or any other instrument of territorial or fiscal planning, nor for the definition, control or possession of territorial assets or the subordination of urban or rural properties, master plans, approval or linking processes for subdivisions, cadastral, fiscal or socioeconomic administration processes, pipelines, power plants, airports, antennas, oil/gas wells, mining areas, wind farm towers, toll plazas, gas stations tax and any other commercial or industrial buildings or installations.

The IBGE Foundation is restricted to the aforementioned administrative regulations and to the enshrinement of the constitutional and infra-constitutional principles of legality, impersonality or purpose, efficiency, unavailability, administrative morality, including the prevalence of the public interest legal system, pursuant to the provisions of article 37 , caput, of the Federal Constitution.

Although IBGE's Municipal Maps are currently used as a reference for various activities and by various public and private bodies and society in general, the IBGE is not a body with legal attribution to define and demarcate territorial borders. The municipal boundaries represented here should not be considered as official demarcations or characterizations.

This maps series is not part of the series of products referring to Systematic Terrestrial Mapping, therefore, it does not fit into technical criteria established for the representation range from 1:25,000 to 1:1,000,000 depending on the region of the country.

The IBGE thanks you for kindly reporting any failures and omissions in the geographic data.