LibGuides: Maps: GIS & remote sensing

Collections of sites

Earthworks
Earthworks is Stanford University Libraries' geospatial data discovery application. EarthWorks allows you to discover and download GIS data and maps from a variety of (US) institutions. Some data is restricted.
ALA MAGIRT map scanning registry
The American Library Association, Map and Geospatial Information Round Table hosts this database of map scanning projects. It aims to prevent duplication of efforts and provides links to websites and any downloads which may be available.
GIS internet resources (Uinversity of California, Berkeley)
List of (mostly American) resources.
Historical GIS Research Network
List of major historical GIS websites plus additional relevant websites. Emphasis on British and US resources.
Texas Geodata Portal
World data. Includes georeferenced scanned maps from the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection, vector datasets developed from collections in the Alexander Architectural Archives, geospatial data from the Benson Latin American Collection and more. Hosted by the University of Texas Libraries,
Data Analysis and GIS Mapping - Butler University
Provides an overview of spatial data analysis and GIS mapping for those new to the subject, including links to other useful sources of information on the topic.

World

Data for the world. For individual countries and regions see box below.

d-maps.com
Free downloadable outline maps, available in 6 graphic formats - gif, pdf, cdr, svg, ai and wmf.
OpenStreetMap
"OpenStreetMap is built by a community of mappers that contribute and maintain data about roads, trails, cafés, railway stations, and much more, all over the world." Free to use for any purpose as long as you credit OpenStreetMap and its contributors. See the terms and conditions if you alter or build upon the data.
OpenTopography
"OpenTopography facilitates community access to high-resolution, Earth science-oriented, topography data, and related tools and resources." Based at the San Diego Supercomputer Center at the University of California, San Diego.
Daylight Map Distribution
Daylight is a free, stable, and easy-to-use street-scale global map. It combines the work of global contributors to projects like OpenStreetMap with quality and consistency checks.
OpenSeaMap
OpenSeaMap is a free nautical chart, with a topographic (OSM) or satellite image base. There are selectable layers: weather (wave height, temperature, wind, precipitation, NOAA data), sea marks, ports, sport, coordinate grid, elevation profile, sea floor profile, marine traffic, water depth, bathymetry, marine traffic. Marine traffic shows you the names and real-time position and movement of ships worldwide (zoom in).
Data and maps for ArcGIS
Formerly ESRI Data & Maps. From ArcGIS 10.1 these are available as downloads from ESRI. See their Help with Data and Maps pages for more information. There is no search facility, but the files are in alphabetical order of geographic area, so Europe is at the top and World at the end. The majority of files cover North America and the USA, but it does include various world files for countries, hydrology and elevation.
DIVA-GIS
DIVA-GIS is a free GIS programme; it also has links to download country specific data in shapefile format. Raster data is also available, but must be exported from DIVA-GIS to Arc
Free GIS data
Categorised list of links to over 300 sites providing freely available geographic datasets - all ready for loading into a Geographic Information System. Site maintained by Robin Wilson, a PhD student at the University of Southampton.
GEBCO gridded bathymetry data
From the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans. Gridded bathymetry data can be downloaded from the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC).
World ocean base
The ocean basemap focuses on bathymetry but also includes inland waters and roads, overlaid on land cover and shaded relief imagery. Compiled from a variety of best available sources from several data providers, by ESRI.
Global surface water explorer
Interactive website showing different facets of surface water dynamics. Updated regularly. Alternatively, the data can be downloaded free of charge.
GMRT Map Tool
"The Global Multi-Resolution Topography (GMRT) Synthesis is maintained as a multi-resolution gridded global Digital Elevation Model (DEM) that includes cleaned processed ship-based multibeam sonar data at their full spatial resolution (~100m in the deep sea)." The map tool allows users to generate custom maps and grids directly from the GMRT compilation.
Mapstor
Purchase "topographic maps issued by military and state agencies of Europe, US, Russia in the 19-20th centuries." They are accompanied by area information, graphic indexes and previews and are presented as georeferenced GIF images.
National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC)
United States organisation based at the University of Colorado. Covers both Arctic and Antarctic, as well as high altitude areas. Includes frozen ground, glaciers/ice sheets, palaeoclimate/ice cores, sea ice, and snow and land ice.
Protected Planet
"Protected Planet is the most up to date and complete source of information on protected areas. It is managed by the United Nations Environment Programme's World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) with support from IUCN and its World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA)." Download as csv, shp or kml.
Natural Earth data
Natural Earth is a public domain map dataset available at 1:10m, 1:50m, and 1:110m scales. Includes vector and raster data, built through a collaboration of many volunteers and is supported by NACIS (North American Cartographic Information Society). It is free for use in any type of project
Online spatial data by country
Hosted by the Geographic Information Systems Laboratory at MIT.
CGIAR CSI data archive
Data from the CGIAR Consortium for Spatial Information data archive. Includes CRU-TS v3.10.01 Historic Climate Database for GIS; Global Aridity and PET Database; SRTM 90m Digital Elevation Database v4.1; and Global High-Resolution Soil-Water Balance.
USGS Earth Explorer
US Geological Survey site offering access to aerial photography and satellite data. Includes Landsat, AVHRR, IKONOS-2, Quickbird-2, SPOT and many others. Some can be downloaded free of charge.
USGS Global Visualization Viewer (GloVis)
US Geological Survey site offering access to aerial photography and satellite data. Includes Landsat, AVHRR, IKONOS-2, Quickbird-2, SPOT and many others. Some can be downloaded free of charge.
CShapes
CShapes is a dataset that provides historical maps of state boundaries and capitals in the post-World War II period. CShapes can be used directly with standard GIS software, allowing a wide range of spatial computations.

Useful tools

Ordnance Survey coordinate transformation tool
"The Coordinate Transformation Tool transforms GPS based ETRS89 latitude and longitude or cartesian XYZ coordinates to the equivalent OSGB36 National Grid eastings and northings, and vice-versa, using Ordnance Survey's National Grid Transformation OSTN02. It also transforms GPS ellipsoid heights to orthometric (mean sea level) heights on the relevant Ordnance Survey mapping datum (Ordnance Datum Newlyn for mainland Britain), using the National Geoid Model OSGM02."
Latitude/Longitude OSGB Converter
Basic converter from latitude/longitude to British National Grid and vice versa.
Corodinate converter
British Geological Survey. Convert British National Grid (BNG) to latitude and longitude (lat/long WGS84) or vice versa.
Transverse Mercator calculator
A tool for converting latitude/longitude coordinates to coordinates in metres on a Transverse Mercator projection. An Excel Workbook is also available on this page to carry out bulk conversions.
Free mapping tools
Various free conversion tools
Projection Wizard
Projection Wizard is a web application that helps map makers select an appropriate projection for their map. Depending on the extent and the distortion property of the map, the application returns a list of appropriate map projections with additional projection parameters (such as standard parallels) if necessary.
For more information see: Šavrič, B., Jenny, B. and Jenny, H. (2016). Projection Wizard – An online map projection selection tool. The Cartographic Journal, 53–2, p. 177–185. Doi: 10.1080/00087041.2015.1131938.

See the Projections box in the Using maps tab in this guide for more information about Map projections.

G.Projector
"Cross-platform application which can transform an equirectangular map image into one of over 100 global and regional map projections. Longitude-latitude gridlines and continental outlines may be drawn on the map, and the resulting image may be saved to disk in GIF, JPEG, PDF, PNG, PS or TIFF form." Based at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
ArcGIS blog
The ESRI ArcGIS blog gives hints and tips on how to use ArcGIS effectively.
Map Warper
Map Warper is an image and map georeferencing or "georectification" service. Warp or stretch your map images to fit on real world map coordinates. It is open source.
MaskMy.XYZ
This app will help simplify the process of geomasking to preserve confidentiality of data.

Guides to data

Using LiDAR layers for landscape research
This guide is produced by the National Library of Scotland and aimed at people using their resources. However, the guide is a useful introduction to LiDAR and contains examples.

Great Britain (institutional log-in required)

More information about Accessing e-resources at the University of Reading.

Digimap This link opens in a new window
Current and historic Ordnance Survey, British Geological Survey, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology land cover data, aerial imagery and Lidar data on the web for the higher education community. A separate Digimap registration is also needed - you will be prompted the first time you use it. Provided by Edina (University of Edinburgh). NB: data for the Isle of Man is not available from Digimap, but may be accessible through a different route.
Please note: By accepting the licence you are agreeing to the terms and conditions listed in the End User Licence Agreement (EULA).

Map data of Great Britain comprising ten datasets:

-Ordnance Survey Digimap (including Scottish Improvement Service data)
-Historic Digimap
-Geology Digimap
-Marine Digimap
-Environment Digimap
-Aerial Digimap (including Aerial Extra data and Lidar Digimap)
-Global Digimap
-Society Digimap
-Verisk Digimap (formerly Geomni)
-agCensus Digimap

Data can be downloaded to use with appropriate application software such as GIS or CAD, or as maps generated by Digimap online using the Roam facility.

Using Roam you can:

-View maps of any location in Great Britain at a series of predefined scales
-Print maps at a variety of scales and sizes
-Add your own annotations

Coverage details:

-Ordnance Survey Digimap offers MasterMap - the most detailed current map dataset
-Ordnance Survey Digimap includes Digital Terrain Model data for download.
-Ordnance Survey Digimap includes Scottish Improvement Service data, 37 datasets from Scottish local authorities, available for download only.
-Historic Digimap provides access to 1:10 560, 1:2500 and 1:1250 data from 1846-1996; two maps of the same area can be compared on screen at once.
-Geology Digimap provides access to bedrock and Quaternary geological maps at scales of 1:625 000, 1:250 000 and 1:50 000.
-Marine Digimap includes hydrographic charts and marine themes data
-Environment Digimap includes land cover data for 1997, 2000 and 2007 from the Centre of Ecology and Hydrology.
-Aerial Digimap includes aerial imagery in a single seamless coverage, captured since 2000, at 12.5 cm resolution (nationally) and 5 cm (selected areas).
-Aerial Digimap includes access to Lidar Digimap - download Lidar data for use in GIS and CAD applications.

More about Digimap

Help and guidance
Digimap help can be found in the Digimap Help Centre, including links to help you get started and help for GIS/CAD users. Digimap Help pages can be accessed without logging in to Digimap.
Guides, exercises and case studies can be found on the Digimap learning materials page
Short videos about aspects of using Digimap can be found at EDINA Digimap Youtube channel
For help and guidance on licensing and copyright see the Digimap copyright & licensing page.

Current awareness
To keep up to date with what is happening with Digimap, follow Digimap on Twitter or Facebook, or look at the Digimap Blog

British population census data: Casweb
Casweb provides access to England, Wales, and Scotland 2001, 1991, 1981, 1971 data and 2001 and 1991 Northern Ireland census data in a form that can be imported into a GIS. A separate registration is also needed.
British population census data: InFuse
InFuse provides access to England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland 2011 census data and some 2001 data in a form that can be imported into a GIS. A separate registration is also needed.
UK Data Service census support
Digitised boundary datasets of the UK, both current and historic are provided by this service. Formerly known as the UKBORDERS service, it is now integrated into the ESRC UK Data Service under a Census Support capability. A separate registration is also needed. Provided by Edina (University of Edinburgh).

agCensus This link opens in a new window
Grid square agricultural census data for England, Scotland and Wales from 1969. Download data or create a map online. Provides realistic estimates of: what was produced; how much was produced; and where it was produced. Provided by Edina (University of Edinburgh).
The Agricultural Census is conducted in June each year by the government departments dealing with Agriculture and Rural Affairs for Scotland, England, and Wales. Each farmer declares the agricultural activity on the land via a postal questionnaire. The respective government departments collect the 150 items of data and publish information relating to farm holdings for recognised geographies.

Dates covered:
England and Wales: 1969-1997
England: 2000-
Wales: 2000-
Scotland: 1969-

Help for agCensus

Great Britain

Defra Data Services platform
UK government environmental data. High quality imagery including LIDAR, vertical and oblique aerial photography. All available as open data, captured by the Environment Agency.
MAGIC
MAGIC provides authoritative geographic information about the natural environment from across the UK government. The information covers rural, urban, coastal and marine environments across Great Britain. It is presented in an interactive map which can be explored using various mapping tools that are included. Natural England manages the service on behalf of DEFRA and other bodies.
OS Open Greenspace
OS free download showing location of public parks, playing fields, sports facilities, play areas and allotments, along with access points for entering and exiting urban and rural greenspaces.
British Geological Survey Data Centres
The BGS has over 400 datasets in its care, including environmental monitoring data, digital databases, physical collections (borehole core, rocks, minerals and fossils), records and archives.
The National Archives (TNA)
The National Archives of the United Kingdom holds a number of datasets, including Agricultural and Horticultural Censuses; Countryside Information System; Ancient Woodland Inventory, Oil and Gas Directorate North Sea GIS; Survey of Contaminated Land in Wales. Search the online catalogue 'Discovery' for specific datasets, or to get an overview search for 'dataset'
Soilscapes viewer
The Soilscapes Viewer is a free online soil reporting tool which produces summary soils information for a specific location (England and Wales). Available from the LandIS Soil Portal. For more detailed soil information use the Soils Site Reporter (link on the same page)
Downloadable UK base map
Fully vectorised UK base map from public domain sources, in Adobe Illustrator 10 format. Can be imported into later versions.
Postcodes, maps and code
Lats and longs, postcodes and other geodata for the UK, including national parks, electoral constituencies, distance measuring, directions and route elevations. Data may be downloadable in csv or kml format
UKCEH Countryside Survey
UKCEH Countryside Survey is the longest integrated national monitoring programme of the countryside for Great Britain, and began in 1978. Includes information on plants, soil, woodlands and small water bodies. Data is free to use, but you must register.

Regional and country

EUROPE: European Soil Data Centre (ESDAC)
This includes access to the European Soil Database and its derivatives. Access to data and information on specific soil themes eg erosion, carbon content is also available, as are national and regional overviews of soil datasets. Use the ESDAC Map Viewer to navigate key soil data for Europe.
EUROPE: Copernicus Land Monitoring Services
Copernicus is a European system for monitoring the Earth. Land cover data Includes CORINE and other European Environment Agency data. Data can be downloaded to use in GIS, or maps can be produced within the site.
IRELAND: Geological Survey of Ireland
Free digital geological data of the Republic of Ireland. Includes bedrock data at 1:100 000 and 1:500 000 as shapefiles, and a link to GSI Map and Document Archive (Goldmine) which includes scanned historic geological maps.
SPAIN: Visor Cartográfico del IGME
WMS, online geodata by IGME, covers Spain, the Balearic and Canary Islands, different base maps (road, topographic, satellite, relief or physical), selection of IGME layers like geological maps at different scales, lithology, geotectonic maps, geochemistry, karst, hydrology, and many more. WGS84 with geographic and UTM coordinates, entirely in Spanish.
CANADA: GeoGratis
GeoGratis gives access to free data for Canada. Includes both raster and vector data. It can be searched via the Open Government portal
UNITED STATES: Wind resource data, tools and maps
Includes links to wind gespatial tools, and map images and data. Covers the contiguous United States and includes some international data and maps.
AUSTRALIA: GeoScience Australia
Download maps and data for Australia and Antarctica. Browse Online tools, Web services, Maps of Australia or Interactive maps; or search the catalogue
ANTARCTICA: Quantarctica
A collection of Antarctic geographical datasets which works with the free, cross-platform, open-source software QGIS. It includes community-contributed, peer-reviewed data from ten different scientific themes and a professionally-designed basemap. Free to download and re-distribute.
ANTARCTICA: South Georgia GIS
WMS (Web Mapping Service), includes a wide variety of available layers. Base: hillshade and bathymetry or satellite image; two marine layers; six terrestrial layers (including surface, coastline, rivers and contours); heritage sites; management of marine and terrestrial areas; wildlife layers. Legend and metadata available for each layer.

GIS and mapping software

The University recommends using the industry standard ArcGIS Desktop, for which we have a licence. ArcGIS 10.5 can be obtained through the University's Apps Anywhere service. However, there are also various Open Source or free options which may be a better option depending on your needs.

Open Source software is defined as free to download, use and develop. Code or raw data is available to update or develop.

Free software is free to download and use; code or source data is not available.

Freemium software is free to download. Extra functionality or content is available but not free.

If you want to create your own interactive map for a website and don't need the data analysis capabilities of a full GIS, there are a number of web mapping options - the three at the bottom of the list are examples of this.

This section is based on Tom Armitage's presentation 'Open and "Free" geo software & data', at EDINA Geoforum 2013.

QGIS
OpenSource, desktop. Lots of functionality and plugins which allow complex spatial analysis. Large user community so plenty of forum support.
gvSIG
OpenSource, desktop GIS. Good foreign language support. Includes a mobile version.
GRASS
OpenSource, desktop remote sensing package. Very powerful but difficult to use. A GRASS plugin is available in QGIS which makes it much simpler.
ArcGIS Online
Freemium system from ESRI, the creators of ArcGIS desktop. You can create maps online, add your own or ESRI data and store the maps in ESRI's cloud-based storage. Your maps are available for all to see, but if you pay they can be kept private. PLEASE NOTE: Ordnance Survey data (from Digimap) must not be uploaded to cloud-based services.
Map Box
Simple intuitive website. Basic functionality is free, more advanced functions are available for a small fee.
Leaflet
Free, but not very flexible. Some programming necessary. MapBox is built on this.
OpenLayers
More flexible than Leaflet and very powerful. However programming knowledge is necessary. Large user community, OpenSource.