Cartography
IBGE releases updated cartographic base with adjustments of borders and municipal meshes
November 26, 2025 10h00 AM | Last Updated: November 27, 2025 10h58 AM
Highlights
- The base includes adjustments in terms of the municipal meshes and the country's northern border.
- The new municipality of Boa Esperança do Norte (MT) has been added.
- The Transportation and Hydrography systems have undergone significant updates.
- Approximately 44,000 geographic names have been validated.
The IBGE launched this Wednesday (26) the seventh edition of the Continuous Vector Cartographic Base of Brazil, BC250, updated every two years since 2013. Produced at a scale of 1:250,000, the base brings together essential information for the planning, monitoring and management of the national territory.
The new version, which includes the new municipality of Boa Esperança do Norte (MT), was developed using satellite imagery covering the entire country, data from IBGE surveys and information provided by partner agencies. This input made it possible to revise and expand a significant set of data compared to the previous edition, released in 2023.
According to Rafael Balbi, geoprocessing analyst and manager of IBGE Continuous Bases, BC250 “comprises a set of reference geospatial data that provides the geometry, toponymy and classification necessary for studies focused on the territory, offering a comprehensive view that supports planning and management. Because it is continuous and standardized, the database allows the representation of general and thematic aspects of the territory, enabling the mapping of population, geology, vegetation, soils, natural and environmental resources, among others.”
The BC250 comprises 70 feature classes, distributed across 13 categories including Energy and Communications, Hydrography, Boundaries and Localities, Relief, and Transportation System. It also includes a Name Index, a tool that allows users to locate all feature names registered in the database using geographic coordinates.
Since 2014, the BC250 has been part of the Permanent Update Program (PAP), which ensures methodological improvements, quality inspections, and the continuous incorporation of new data. As the largest continuous cartographic database on a national scale, it has become a reference for GIS users and geographic databases. The BC250 Transportation System is also the Brazilian geospatial reference in the Observatorio de Infraestructura de América del Sur (South American Infrastructure Observatory) Project, which brings together 12 countries under the coordination of the Latin American Institute for Technological Evaluation (ILAT).
What's new in this version:
- Update of the municipal meshes, including the new municipality of Boa Esperança do Norte (MT), and revision of Brazil's northern border with French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, Venezuela, Colombia, and Peru;
- Expansion and improvement of the Transportation System, with more comprehensive updates to the road, rail, waterway, and airport subsystems;
- Improvement of the topological consistency of Hydrographic features;
- Validation of approximately 44,000 feature names in the database, including 7,384 Localities, 33,720 Hydrographic features, and 2,292 Relief features.
The new BC250 follows the norms of the National Cartographic System, meets the standards of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (INDE), and is structured according to ET-EDGV 3.0.
The 2025 version of BC250 is available in open formats (shapefile, geopackage, and PostGIS dump) and can be accessed:
- On the IBGE website;
- On the Interactive Geographic Platform - PGI ;
- On the Geoportal of INDE;
