Solomon Islands - dataset under construction.

This dataset was made foremost for images in publications and presentations where an entire island is visible. As such, coordinates have been determined with this use case in mind and may not always be accurate for higher resolutions (i.e. a line follows the rough coast, but not every grain of sand and rock).  

Settlements are classified as a Town, Village or Hamlet. These are relatively subjective classifications, with Towns larger than Villages which are in turn larger than a hamlet. A Hamlet will typically have a dozen buildings. 

Schools include Primary and High schools as well as Language schools, such as the Kolomali Luqa Language School. Features include roads, bodies of water and other places of note. Regions include named regions as well as borders. Islands are categorised separately from regions. Languages include Roviana, Simbo, Luqa, Kubokota/Ganoqa, Bilua, Mono Alu, Kusage, Nggela, Pijin, Nduke, Marovo, Arosi and Varese. 

Individual places are marked with a single placemark. The choice of exact location is often noted in the description (e.g. “marked based on church location”). Places ending in the word “Polygon” are approximate regions, primarily derived from 2025 satellite imagery and based on permanent structures and cleared land. 

Places are described using a subset of the Dublin Core vocabulary. This includes Subject, Description Publisher, Date, Source, Language and Rights. These are detailed below. 

Subject: Possible values of Settlement, School, or Feature. Dublin Core Type is used for more specific categories. 
 
Description: A textual description of the place.

Publisher: The publisher of this dataset. 

Date: Specified in the format YYYY-MM-DD, YYYY-MM, or YYYY. This is the date at which this record is created/revised and/or considered to be accurate. It is NOT the date of first naming. 

Source: A book or other publication that is a relevant resource for this data. Source is sometimes listed as “Various” when, for example, the name of a place is widely known and there is no specific source to provide. 

Language: Three letter language code/s that refer to the primary language/s spoken at a location. When multiple languages are listed they are separated by a semicolon. Sometimes listed as n/a for depopulated areas. 

Rights: Licenses and conditions under which this data can be used (typically an Open-Source license). 

Type: A more specific category than Subject. Possible values of Town, Hamlet, Village, Minor Island, Island, Major Island, Region, Waterways, Lagoon, Point, Road, Vernacular (Language School), Primary School, Secondary School.