Aaron's
Links to ONLINE RESOURCES for
FREE
topographic maps and research tools
by Aaron Maizlish
last update 1/20/2005
This page includes links of resources to free online topographic
maps. This page is mostly for my personal use, but I thought I
would share what I have found along the way.
PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT ELSE YOU FIND. I have not attempted to
make
this list complete, and would appreciate information about other free
resources. E-mail me.
It should be noted that I am only attempting to describe sites that
provide FREE, large-scale topographic mapping. There are tens of
thousands of additional sites that offer tourist maps, road maps,
thematic and cultural mapping. This page is solely focussed on
topographic survey data.
The two best U.S. sources to purchase paper international topographic
maps are Map Link, Inc., the
world's largest wholesaler of maps, and Omni
Resources. Map Link stocks every USGS quadrangle, as well as
topographic maps for about 80 countries. Another company East View Cartographic has
more digital titles.
DISCLAIMER: I am only reporting on what I have found on the
internet; and this page is mostly for my own use. Some link might
lead to images that may have been uploaded to the web in
violation of internationally recognized copyrights.
Following is the format of this page.
1. On-Line
Topographic Resources: ONLY 1:250,000 AND BETTER
1A. National Surveys
on-line (seamless platform or scanned sheets)
1B: Other topographic sheets found online (presumed to be
public domain)
1C: Websites of other national surveys
To keep it simple, I will put the countries in alphabetic rather than
my usual geographic (LC) order.
2. Online (free) DEM resources (COMING LATER,
MAYBE)
3. Other noteworthy map resources and online
catalogues
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. On-line Topographic
map resources, 1:250,000 and larger
ALBANIA
U.C. Berkeley Map Library - Soviet 1:50,000
Soviet mapping for Albania at 1:50,000 in 102 sheets dated 1974-1988.
ANTARCTICA
Nothing comes from the Brits for free. Lots of data from
Australia and USGS
USGS Atlas of Antarctic Research
A tremendous amount of information in multiple layers.
Antarctic Geoscience Datasets (from
Geoscience Australia)
AFRICA
Madmappers.com
A project to deliver free Raster and GIS maps for Africa. Lots of
data to be found, although they seem to want you to contribute more
maps to download theirs.
ARMENIA
U.C. Berkeley Map Library - Soviet
1:100,000s
Soviet mapping for Armenia at 1:100,000 in 34 sheets dated 1974-1990.
AUSTRALIA
Geoscience Australia (formerly AUSLIG)
Australia official survey site has an immense growing body of online
resources including:
Seamless Australia viewer at
1:1,000,000 and 1:250,000
Geology maps for the entire nation in JPG
National Geoscience Datasets online
The entire country can be downloaded at 1:250,000, viewable in
ArcINfo,
ArcView, or MapInfo formats (and should also be viewable with free GIS
viewers.) Lots of other datasets including satellite data, DEMs
and
Antarctica data.
Australian Spatial Data Directory
Geoscience Portal
Provides information on geosciences materials, including links to the
above datasets as well as access to state Natural Resources Maps.
AUSTRIA
Austrian
Map Online
The entire country in a seamless portal at 1:50,000 and
1:200,000. The
application does note work well with MacIntosh. I look forward to
system improvements here.
AZERBAIJAN
U.C. Berkeley Map Library - Soviet
1:100,000s
Soviet mapping for Azerbaijan at 1:100,000 in 93 sheets dated 1974-1991.
CANADA
TOPORAMA- Canada Seamless Map.
**Auto-generated data at 1:50,000**
The Canadian government has set up the Toporama website that maps the
entire country at 1:50,000. As of 11/01/2003 this site had a lot
of
limitations (updated review would be appreciated). Although the
contour information is detailed, no spot elevations or contour
intervals are provided (data needs to be interpolated.) The base
map
is in geographic projection, which becomes annoying at the highest
latitudes.
BRITISH
COLUMBIA PROVINCIAL BASEMAP **New survey to 1:20,000**
The British Columbia provincial government has completed an entirely
new resurvey of the province (at substantial cost) whose elevation is
derived from the SRTM data, and not from the old national survey.
The
seamless map will be found on thier website under "provincial
basemap". Once into their system, the user can add contour data,
which
includes spot elevations and contour intervals (at scales greater than
1:50,000). This is a remarkably detailed survey and smooth
functioning
website, although map legibility still needs some work.
COOK ISLANDS
1:25,000 Map of the Cook Islands
Land Information - New Zealand now provides their topographic surveys
of the Cook Islands and Tokelau in high resolution free of charge.
CZECH REPUBLIC
Mapy Atlas
**Entire country survey up to 1:10,000**
You have to be able to read Czech to navigate this site.
DENMARK
Kort and
Matrikelstyrelsen ** Complete official survey to 1:25,000
The Danish government maintains a seamless interface for their 1:25,000
through 1:500,000 series online. In Danish and English.
Small image
size unfortunately.
ETHIOPIA
U.C. Berkeley Map Library - partial coverage
A few sheets at 1:200,000 for the Omo River Basin, 1977-1983
FINLAND
National Land Survey of Finland
Free registration at the Map Site (also in English) allows limited use
of survey maps.
GEORGIA
U.C. Berkeley Map Library - Soviet
1:100,000s
Georgia in 39 sheets.
GREAT
BRITAIN
Streetmap.com
Maps for most of Europe. The UK site has 1:50,000 O/S maps in a
large
screen format. The maps may not be the most current editions (?).
Ordnance Survey - "Get a Map"
The Ordnance Survey has small images and source data to the 1:25,000
scale.
Multimap.com
Multimap is a commercial street map site, like MapQuest for the UK and
Europe. The UK map features the O/S topographic maps when viewed
at
the 1:25,000 scale. This has the advantage of offering a large
screen
image than the Ordnance Survey site.
HONG KONG
Survey and Mapping Office
The government survey office offers a few free maps on their website
including a single sheet topographic map of the district at 1:170,000.
IRAQ
U.C. Berkeley Map Library - Soviet
1:200,000s
88 sheets at 1:200,000 1978-1991.
Various Military, JOGs and Political maps
The Humanitarian Information Centre has a wide selection of Iraq maps
ISRAEL
U.C. Berkeley Map Library - Soviet 1:50,000s
68 sheets from 1983-1993, includes occupied territories. While
this series may be useful as a quick reference it is certainly not the
best mapping of Israel. Survey of Israel maps are higher quality
and readily availalbe commercially.
ITALY
(Emilia-Romagna)
Web Server Cartografico
A scalable interactive map of the region, including various thematic
overlays. Very small image. Also available for download.
JAPAN
Geographical
Survey Institute
A brand-new beta website provides complete mapping for Japan at
1:25,000 in
easy to use format. If you don't read Japanese characters, use
the google.com translator service to help you navigate.
JORDAN
U.C. Berkeley Map Library - Soviet
1:100,000s
82 sheets at 1:100,000 1972-1991.
KOREA,
NORTH
U.C. Berkeley Map Library - Soviet
1:200,000s
38 sheets at 1:200,000 1969-1986
KOREA,
SOUTH
(Korean)
National Geographic Institute **SEAMLESS COVERAGE**
The Global Map View at the bottom of the webpage is a portal to a
seamless Global Map in ArcIMS. Map failed to load for me in Mac
Netscape 7.0.
LUXEMBOURG
Administration
du Cadastre et Topographie
The entire country is available on CD at 1:20,000 for 12 euros.
NEW ZEALAND
New Zealand Topo Online
The Land Information New Zealand (official government survey) has put
up a Beta version of a seamless 1:50,000 scale map for New Zealand and
external territories. In ArcIMS viewer, good functionality but no
place name lookup yet. Land
Info Home.
New Zealand Offshore Islands
Land Information New Zealand also offers free gigantic maps in
high-quality downloads for
1:50,000 Auckland Island, Chatham
1:25,000 Antipodes, Campbell, Snares, Bounty, Raoul
POLAND
Lemko.com
This Ukrainian heritage site put up a detailed 1994 Polish military
survey of Southeastern Poland (Carpathian mountains) as well as some
other resrouces.
RUSSIA
Altnet.ru
This site has the Russian topographic maps at 1:200,000 for the Altai
Mountains, Tuva and Hakasia. In Russian and English.
U.C. Berkeley Map Library - 1:100,000
Russian Caucasus
447 sheets at 1:100,000, see also Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and
Georgia
SLOVENIA
Slovenian National Atlas
Registration for the Slovenian National Atlas site is free, and once
in, you will have access to their impressive topographic and cadastral
map series (down to 1:5,000). Unfortunately the site is only in
Slovenian, and is not compatible with MacIntosh Netscape 7.0 as of
11/01/2003.
SOUTH AFRICA
South Africa 1:50,000 series in raster
format
Available for free download from madmappers.com.
SWITZERLAND
SWISSGEO
This commercial site shows images of the Swiss topographic survey
maps at 1:50,000 and at 1:25,000. While the site has gotten much
better, the images are still too small. Does not work well with a
Macintosh.
TAJIKISTAN
U.C. Berkeley Map Library - Soviet
1:100,000s
130 sheets at 1:100,000 1985-1991
TOKELAU
see Cook Islands
UKRAINE
U.C. Berkeley Map Library - Soviet
1:100,000s
537 sheets at 1:100,000 1972-2000
UNITED STATES
TOPOZONE.COM
If all sites could be just like topozone. Topozone has a seamless
map of the US at all published USGS scales; 1:24,000, 1:100,000, and
1:250,000, and 1:63,360 for Alaska. Recent changes to topozone
mean that you have to pay ($49.95 per year) for the highest degree of
functionality, nonetheless, the free portion of the site is still
superior to most of the other topo sites reviewed on this page.
MAPTECH.COM
MapTech shows all USGS quads, all Nautical Charts and
Aeronautical Charts for US. and aerial photos
TERRASERVER.COM
Terraserver also has the USGS data, and lots of aerial photography.
University of New Hampshire Map Library
HIstoric USGS topos of all of New York and New England 1890-1950.
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE MAPS ONLINE
All of the wonderful National Park maps that you get when you enter a
park are now available on-line at no charge.
USGS (THEMATIC) MAPS ON DEMAND
Thousands of geologic and other thematic maps of the US and
territorities available for download.
WORLDWIDE
SERVERS
http://mapy.mk.cvut.cz/home.htm
Questionable provenance on some of the sheets.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Free Digital Elevation
Data (DEMs) and Other
On-Line Resources
This is a short list, relevant to our
little study of geomorphometry. There are numerous longer lists
out there on the internet.
UNITED STATES
Seamless Data Distribution System -
National Map
USGS has moved to a seamless platform for distribution of the National
Elevation Dataset, which is all free of charge (although there are
constraints on the individual image sizes. The U.S. is mostly
avilable at 1 Arc Second spacing (approximately 30 meter), with
increasing amounts of data becoming available at 1/3rd arc second (10
meter) and 1/9 arc second (3 meter). Seamless is downloadable in
bil, ArcGrid and GridFloat formats. Seamless does not work with
IE for MacIntosh (use Netscape 7.0 or later instead.)
The 1 degree DEMs (90 meter spacing distributed in 1 degree x 1 degree
tiles) are distributed by USGS. These are the tiles that WinProm
is designed to process.
The individual 7.5' DEMS (predecessors to the seamless distribution
system) are still available free of charge through GIS Data
Depot, a
giant reseller of digital cartographic data. The individual DEMS are on
a UTM projection, as opposed to the seamless data, which is
unprojected. GIS Data Depot has tons of free stuff, mostly for
the US.
The California
Spatial Information Library, through the state.
GLOBAL DATA
SRTM
(Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) Data is distributed free of
charge through the USGS seamless data platform. More information
about the survey can be found on the SRTM homepage.
The GLOBE database at the National
Geophysical Data Center (NOAA) is a 30-arc center global DEM.
Parts were derived from GTOPO30, but the database is generally of
better quality.
GTOPO30 is a free DEM of the
world at 1000 meter (30 arc second) spacing,
available in unprojected (geographic) format.
NIMA offers Level 0 DEMs worldwide through the Geospatial Engine.
NOAA's Color landforms, Topography and Bathymetry
page
CANADA
GEOBASE, Level 1 DEM
The Canadian Digital Elevation Data (CDED) derives from the 1:50,000
and 1:250,000 maps in the National Topographic Data Base (NTDB).
YUKON DEPARTMENT OF RENEWABLE RESOURCES
The Yukon government provides a free 90m DEM of the territory, taken
from the 1:50,000 maps.
MEXICO
INEGI
Seamless Map
PLACE NAMES
The Geographic
Names Information System is the most comprehensive
government source of toponymic data for the U.S., its territories and
Antarctica. Elevation data is woefully inaccurate. Most of the
GNIS can also be accessed through the look-up function in topozone.
Run by NIMA, the Geonames database is a standard
reference for place
names for the rest of the world.
Official gazetteer of Australia.
OPEN-SOURCE GIS
WEBPAGES
The Virtual
Terrain Project seems to have useful information. Massive
number of current links to free sources worldwide.
Check out FreeGIS.org,
which has a lot of current information.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.
Map Libraries and Online Map Directories
The "Short List" of Incredibly Comprehensive online map resources
Well I did not endeavor to cover every resource on this page. I
was just exploring one narrow interest, free topographic resources
worldwide. There is a much larger world of internet mapping
resources of course, everything from seamless viewers, to free city
plans and general reference maps to a huge explosion of thematic and
scientific mapping hosted in literally 50,000 different pages. To
help you start the search I've listed only a few directories and map
library websites that I find to be extraordinarily useful.
Odden's
Bookmarks
Links to over 20,000 map sites. An endless resource and a great
place to start, maintained by a Dutch map librarian.
Perry-Casteñeda
Map Collection
The University of Texas map collection with perhaps the best collection
of links to free maps on the internet.
Map Collection - Naval Postgraduate
Institute
The Alexandria Digital Library. An
online map system through the fantastic U.C. Santa Barbara map library.
The links are impressive
U.S. Library of Congress
Their online map collection!
University of Minnesota
The map library webpage has linkes to numerous Map Libraries around the
world.
ESRI
Library
A gigantic resource of online GIS maps contributed by ESRI users.
USGS Mapping Site
Get lost on this site for a while, and check out the new seamless
National Map (doesn't work with all browsers). Lots of free maps,
both US and International.
U.C.
Berkeley Earth Sciences and Map Library
Embassy World
It's really a site about embassies, but their well-organized map page
has decent lists of online maps by country.
The Color Landform Atlas of the United
States
A popular resource for a variety of images of the 50
states. Check out their links page!
4.
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