LibGuides: Environmental and Geographical Science Library Guide: GIS services & websites

GIS

The UCT's Geographic Information Systems (GIS) support is now available at UCT Libraries. The support includes meeting researchers GIS and spatial data needs:

Troubleshooting, Project Planning, Analysis, Cartographic Design and Data Handling.
GIS Training
Apply for an ESRI Software license.

To find more information please visit 'Digital Library Services' website. You may schedule an appointment with GIS team.

Email: uct-gis@uct.ac.za

Consulting Hours: Weekdays 10am - 12pm & 1pm - 3pm

Websites for online maps, GIS & related data

Know of a great map related website? Then please email me to add it to this list.

This list is arranged alphabetically.

A Vision of Britain through Time
The Great Britain Historical Geographical Information System is a unique digital collection of information about Britain's localities as they have changed over time. Information comes from census reports, historical gazetteers, travellers' tales and historic maps assembled into a whole that is much more than the sum of its parts.
Blue Marble Navigator
NASA's "Blue Marble" pictures of Earth show each month of the year 2004 to illustrate changes in snow cover and vegetation... Blue Marble was initially created by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, the night lights by NOAA's National Geophysical Data Center.
CartoMundi.com
"... to make available old and new maps of coastlines, travel routes, ancient civilizations etc., events such as wars, and locations of ancient cities... The objective of Cartomundi.com is to reconstruct the history of mankind through the ages. Cartomundi.com is not a replacement for Wikipedia, rather it aims to combine information from Wikipedia and other resources for its maps and timelines, with reference to these sources for further study."
Chief Surveyor-General (South Africa)
VISSION: A recognised world leader in the provision of a national cadastral survey management system.
MISSION: To provide a national cadastral survey management system in support of an equitable and sustainable land dispensation that promotes social-economic development.
Crime Map Viewer - Crime & Justice Hub, Institute for Security Studies
The crime map viewer has been developed to assist you to quickly obtain information about the different types of crime in particular localities. You will be able to to see the crime statistics as for each police precinct in South Africa as recorded by the South African Police Service (SAPS).
Data First
DataFirst is a research unit at the University of Cape Town engaged in promoting the long term preservation and reuse of data from African Socioeconomic surveys.
The DataFirst Data Portal enables online keyword searches of the survey data available from DataFirst. It also provides information to assist users of the data files (Metadata). Survey microdata and metadata files from public access datasets can be downloaded from this portal.
David Ramsey Map Collection
The David Rumsey Map Collection Database and Blog has many viewers and the Blog has numerous categories. The historical map collection has over 36,000 maps and images online. The collection focuses on rare 18th and 19th century North American and South American maps and other cartographic materials. Historic maps of the World, Europe, Asia, and Africa are also represented.
DigitalUrban
The blog aims to cover everything relating to sensing, mapping and visualising digital technologies in urban environments, with a view towards smart cities, smart places and urban technology.
Do-It-Yourself GIS: 20 Free Tools & Data Sources for Creating Data Maps
The world of mapping and presenting data sets through geographical representations is no longer relegated to GIS librarians and highly trained technologists. New free and open source applications now make it possible to create complex and robust data visualizations in the form of maps that display statistics and poll results. Here’s a guide to 20 free applications and data sources.
Blog posting by Ellyssa Kroski — August 21, 2013
Environmental Data Explorer (United Nations Environment Programme)
The Environmental Data Explorer is the authoritative source for data sets used by UNEP and its partners in the Global Environment Outlook (GEO) report and other integrated environment assessments. Its online database holds more than 500 different variables, as national, subregional, regional and global statistics or as geospatial data sets (maps), covering themes like Freshwater, Population, Forests, Emissions, Climate, Disasters, Health and GDP. Display them on-the-fly as maps, graphs, data tables or download the data in different formats.
Gapminder
"...[U]nveil the beauty of statistical time series by converting boring numbers into enjoyable, animated and interactive graphics" such as maps using "development statistics for all countries".
Source: Gapminder website
GeoNames
The GeoNames geographical database covers all countries and contains over eight million placenames that are available for download free of charge.
GISSA
The Geo-Information Society of South Africa
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The Geo-Information Society of South Africa
Mapbox
Build... Build a world-class map with Mapbox.js and our native mobile tools.
Design... Use TileMill or the online editor to gain comprehensive design control.
Publish... Publish your maps on our fast and reliable cloud platform.
National Geo-Spatial Information (South Africa)
NB: If the page does not load, make sure the URL slashes face forward, i.e. "/" not "\"
Products & Services include:
• Aerial Photography & Imagery
• Geodetic & Control Survey Services
• Maps & Geo-Spatial Info
• South African Spatial Data Infrastructure
• Professional & Advisory Services
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The functions of NGI are mandated by the following Acts :
• Land Survey Act 8 of 1997: To regulate the survey of land in the Republic; and to provide for matters connected therewith.
• Spatial Data Infrastructure Act of 2003: To facilitate the capture, management, maintenance, integration, distribution and use of spatial information.
Natural Resources Canada
Find data, maps, and tools on the The Natural Resources Canada agency homepage. Primary materials include sections on Climate Change, Energy & Minerals, Geography & Boundaries, Groundwater, and Natural Hazards. The Geography & Boundaries area provides access to the Atlas of Canada includes 393 interactive maps, over 1,000 referenced and archived maps on all aspects of Canadian geography. (Source: The Scout Report November 16, 2012 - Volume 18, Number 46)
Old Maps Online
The OldMapsOnline Portal is an easy-to-use gateway to historical maps in libraries around the world. It allows the user to search for online digital historical maps across numerous different collections via a geographical search.
Open Data for Africa
The Open Data Platform is a user-friendly tool for extracting data, creating, and sharing customized reports, and visualizing data across themes, sectors and countries through tables, charts, and maps. Watch the Intro Video on the Home page for an overview.
PLATO
South African Council for Professional and Technical Surveyors
SAEON Data Portal
The SAEON Data Portal provides access to data through a meta-data repository aggregated from collaborators, partners, and linked sites. The shared platform currently houses 15,617 meta-data records from 17 providers.
SAGI
South African Geomatics Institute
Scientists team up with Google in an Australian first
Detailed satellite imagery about Australian landscapes will soon be only a button push away for land managers in community and non-profit sectors thanks to a partnership between Australian scientists and Google, announced last night in Sydney. (6 November 2012)
South African Navy Hydrographic Office (SANHO)
The SANHO is the national producer of paper charts, electronic navigational charts (ENCs) and publications, with a folio of 102 paper charts, 55 ENCs and 9 publications. The mission of the SANHO is to meet National, Defence and Commercial customers' needs for navigational charts and other hydrographic information, in support of safe navigation.
StatPlanet via Statsilk
StatSilk offers a range of web-based and desktop software to cater to diverse mapping and visualization needs.
StatPlanet is a free download: create fully customizable, feature rich interactive maps & graphs and publish them online.
Download free shapefile maps to embed in StatPlanet: StatPlanet Plus and StatPlanet Lite support the widely used ESRI shapefile map format.
Source: Statsilk website
StatsSA - Maps Alive: Census 2011
Check out Maps Alive on the StatsSA website.
TERN - Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
Check out their Data Discovery Portal.
TERN is able to support high-level analysis and synthesis of complex ecosystem data across the science-policy-management continuum, which in turn helps advance ecosystem research.
TileMill: an open source project by MapBox
Whether you're a journalist, web designer, researcher, or seasoned cartographer, TileMill is the design studio you need to create stunning interactive maps.
UltraMapping via Pinterest
A collection of map websites using Pinterest.
World Bank
Open Data; The Data Catalogue; Find an indicator; Browse data: by country, indicators, topic & use our data; Learn more about data sets; The World at a Glance; eAtlases and more!
World DataBank (Beta)
DataBank is an analysis and visualisation tool that contains collections of time series data on a variety of topics. You can create your own queries; generate tables, charts, and maps; and easily save, embed, and share them. Watch the tutorial and read the FAQs.
WorldMap
Build your own mapping portal and publish it to the world or to just a few collaborators. WorldMap is open source software. Watch the WorldMap Quick Start video for an overview of how it works.