PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
September 2020
531
by
Clifford J. Mugnier, CP, CMS, FASPRS
P
ronounced “kir-ih-bahss,” the islands were
originally settled by Austronesians thousands
of years ago. Around the 14
th
century AD, the
islands were invaded by Fijians and Tongans. The
first recorded European encounter with Kiribati
was by the Spanish explorer Quiros in 1606. By
1820, all of the islands had been charted. At that
time, the Russian hydrographer A. I. Krusenstern
gave the group the name Gilbert Islands. Until
1870, many British and American whaling vessels
sought sperm whales in Gilbertese waters. Starting
in 1850, trading vessels passed through seeking at
first coconut oil and later copra. In the 1860s, slave
ships known as “blackbirders” carried off islanders
to work in plantations in Peru, Fiji, Tahiti, Hawaii,
and Australia. The male population was decimated,
and European disease (measles) took a further
large toll on the “I’Kiribati” people. The Ellice
group (now Tuvalu –
PE&RS
, December 2001) and
the Gilbert Islands became a British Protectorate
in 1892. In 1975, the Ellice Islands seceded from
the colony and became the independent nation
of Tuvalu. On 12 July 1979, Kiribati obtained its
own independence from the United Kingdom and
became a republic within the Commonwealth.
Kiribati consists of a three-island group: the Gilbert Is-
lands, the Line Islands, and the Phoenix Islands. These
groups of islands straddle the equator and the International
Date Line, about half way between Hawaii and Australia. In
1995, The Republic of Kiribati proclaimed that all of its ter-
ritory lies in the same time zone as the Gilbert Islands group
(GMT + 12). The total land area equals 717 sq km, about four
times the size of Washington, D.C. The country is composed
of mostly low-lying coral atolls surrounded by extensive reefs.
The Grids & Datums column has completed an exploration of
every country on the Earth. For those who did not get to enjoy this
world tour the first time,
PE&RS
is reprinting prior articles from
the column. This month’s article on the Republic of Kiribati was
originally printed in 2002 but contains updates to their coordinate
system since then.
The lowest point is the Pacific Ocean, the highest point is on
Banaba Island (81 m). Twenty of the 33 islands are inhabited,
and the capital is Tarawa.
According to Russell Fox of the Ordnance Survey, “We re-
vised our Tarawa 1:50,000 map in 1997 and produced new
1:25,000 photomapping of the Line and Phoenix Islands in
1995/96 using Australian Army aerial photography, but we
did not do any geodetic survey work in that decade. I believe
that a GPS survey, aerial photography and new mapping
(on WGS84) project was planned for Tarawa for 1998/99 un-
der Australian aid. The following notes summarise what we
know about Kiribati.
B
ackground
The Republic of Kiribati (pronounced “kiribass”) comprises
the Gilbert, Phoenix and Line island groups in the central
Pacific Ocean. Total land area 717 sq km, total sea area 5.2
million sq km, greatest extent 4000 km W-E by 2000 km N-S.
The modern republic has its genesis in a British protector-
ate proclaimed in 1892, which became the Gilbert and Elli-
REPUBLIC OF
KIRIBATI
Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing
Vol. 86, No. 9, September 2020, pp. 531–534.
0099-1112/20/531–534
© 2020 American Society for Photogrammetry
and Remote Sensing
doi: 10.14358/PERS.86.9.531
