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The Global Mapping Project
posted by Satri
on Friday February 23, @02:42PM
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from the one-map-to-bind-them dept.
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from the one-map-to-bind-them dept.
A colleague sent me the link to the active Global Mapping Project. From their summary: "What is a Global Map?
Digital geographic information in 1 km resolution covering the earth's surface with standardized specifications and available to everyone at marginal cost. How Many Layers are there in a Global Map?
Global Map data have 8 layers: Boundaries, Drainage, Transportation, Population Centers, Elevation, Land Cover, Land Use, and Vegetation." What's impressive is the quantity of countries which participates, in short: most countries!
Related Stories
Global Landsat mosaic: raw data access
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spatialguru writes "When the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) set up their Web Map Server (WMS) for a global Landsat image mosaic, it blew my socks off. They've got it wrapped up really nicely at: http://onearth.jpl.nasa.gov/. Of course, all those eager WorldWind users gave it a good stress test early on, bringing it to its knees (and leaving a few of us lamenting for a while). But once they had the WMS back up and running, it was even better and more stable and it is a staple data layer in many applications.
So what's new? Have you ever wanted more "raw" access to the data? I have! It doesn't take long before you hit the WMS image size limitations and find you can't print large, high quality maps. So what's a guy to do? Hold your breath for recent work at San Diego State University's (SDSU) Center for Information Technology and Infrastructure. John Graham tempted me with enough information to make me drool. JPL is giving a copy of the Landsat mosaic to SDSU to host. John says: "We should have it available for download as geotiffs and via wms very soon..." Wow! Imagery downloads from this great dataset will go a long way to grassroots global mapping initiatives and I'm stoked to see it happening. I asked about them serving it up via Web Coverage Server (WCS) specifications. In his usual encouraging manner he replied: "We will make it available in as many formats as we are asked for :)". Go team go! Good luck and godspeed!"
So what's new? Have you ever wanted more "raw" access to the data? I have! It doesn't take long before you hit the WMS image size limitations and find you can't print large, high quality maps. So what's a guy to do? Hold your breath for recent work at San Diego State University's (SDSU) Center for Information Technology and Infrastructure. John Graham tempted me with enough information to make me drool. JPL is giving a copy of the Landsat mosaic to SDSU to host. John says: "We should have it available for download as geotiffs and via wms very soon..." Wow! Imagery downloads from this great dataset will go a long way to grassroots global mapping initiatives and I'm stoked to see it happening. I asked about them serving it up via Web Coverage Server (WCS) specifications. In his usual encouraging manner he replied: "We will make it available in as many formats as we are asked for :)". Go team go! Good luck and godspeed!"
Mapping Global Cities: GIS Methods in Urban Analysis
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GIS Monitor offers a review of Mapping Global Cities: GIS Methods in Urban Analysis, by Aye Pamuk, published by ESRI Press. From the review: "Today, according to Aye Pamuk, "Spatial analysis methods using GIS have not yet become integrated into the standard methods toolbox of all social scientists." Her book challenges this omission, by demonstrating how GIS can "add value" to conventional nonspatial social science quantitative methods and why it "should be adopted by those not yet fluent with these methods.""
Global Irrigated Area Mapping Knowledge Gateway Launched
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The satellite-based Global Irrigated Area Mapping Knowledge Gateway has just launched. From the announcement: "This is the first satellite sensor based global map of irrigated area. The site provides country-by-country statistics of irrigated areas. The web map option allows you to quickly zoom into area of your interest and produce an irrigated area map of your area. All data and products are available for download from the web portal." From the website: "The GIAM products are produced using time-series data of: (a) AVHRR 10-km monthly from 1997-1999, (b) SPOT 1-km monthly for 1999, (c) GTOPO30 1-km elevation, (d) CRU 50-km grid monthly precipitation from 1961-2000, (e) AVHRR derived 1-km forest cover, and (f) AVHRR 10-km skin temperature. In addition JERS SAR data was used for the African and South American rainforests."
ESA's GlobCover 300m Global LULC Coverage
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All Points Blog links to ESA's GlobCover project which released a global land use land cover classification at 300m. From the site: "The GlobCover project has developed a service capable of delivering global composite and land cover maps using as input observations from the 300m MERIS sensor on board the ENVISAT satellite mission. The GlobCover service has been demonstrated over a period of 18 months [Januray 2005 - June 2006], for which a set of MERIS Full Resolution (FR) composites (bi-monthly and annual) and a Global Land Cover map have been produced. The GlobCover composites are the results of a set of processing made on the MERIS FR images such as cloud detection, atmospheric correction, geolocalisation and re-mapping. The GlobCover Land Cover map is compatible with the UN Land Cover Classification System (LCCS)." Yes, it's free. See also related stories below.
Global Land Cover Network Bulletin Issue #10
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The short issue #10 of the Global Land Cover Network bulletin is now available. This "global alliance for standard multi-purpose land cover data production" focuses on United Nations activities and projects. From the 6-pages documents: "As anticipated in the last edition, this issue hosts a
detailed report of the activities of the Northern
Eurasian Earth Science Partnership Initiative (NEESPI)." See global land cover related stories below.
New True Color Global Dataset
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mailseth writes "I'm happy to announce the release of my new true color global dataset: True Marble. It's a global 15m, 3 terabyte, dataset which concentrates on reproducing the natural color of the landscape while maintaining the contrast required to distinguish small features. I think it's much more realistic than other similar products out there. I've released a 250m resolution version of True Marble under a Creative Commons license.
We're also releasing True Marble GLCD, a global 15m land cover dataset. This is a highly experimental, but first of its kind, dataset. I've been in contact with a professor and am planning on starting a PhD in the fall to study the algorithm I used. The accuracy isn't the best, but that's what makes it experimental. :) I'm also releasing a free 250m version of the True Marble GLCD." See also related stories below.
We're also releasing True Marble GLCD, a global 15m land cover dataset. This is a highly experimental, but first of its kind, dataset. I've been in contact with a professor and am planning on starting a PhD in the fall to study the algorithm I used. The accuracy isn't the best, but that's what makes it experimental. :) I'm also releasing a free 250m version of the True Marble GLCD." See also related stories below.
GlobCover Global 300m LULC Update
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Via AGISRS, here's two updates on the GlobCover dataset which provides free 300m-resolution land-use land-cover of global coverage. We discussed GlobCover about a year ago, the source data is not available but should be this coming July. You can browse the whole world GlobCover LULC data using the tool in the links above. From the ESA article: "Earth’s land cover has been charted from space before, but this map, which will be made available to the public upon its completion in July, has a resolution 10 times sharper than any of its predecessors.
Scientists, who will use the data to plot worldwide land-cover trends, study natural and managed ecosystems and to model climate change extent and impacts, are hailing the product – generated under the ESA-initiated GlobCover project – as 'a milestone.'"
See other LULC related stories below.
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Commercial use?
(Score:3, Insightful)( http://www.redgeographics.com/ )
Q. Can I use the data for commercial purposes?
For commercial purposes, it’s up to each country. Please see the data policy on download page. If the country approves commercial use, you can use it for the purpose. If the country doesn’t show about the commercial use, you should contact to the country directry. If you are permitted, you can use it for commercial purposes.
So, in other words, what is the added value of this over the free alternatives? From what I've gathered, all of the raster data referenced here is freely available already, as well as the VMAP vector data.
Hans van der Maarel
Re:Commercial use?
(Score:3)( http://alexandreleroux.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: Friday March 17, @04:07PM )
Good question. I guess the added value lies in the data integration part: one source to retrieve all the said layers for the whole world, instead of downloading them country by country (there's 200 of them! try to find all the appropriate websites!
Now, probably even more important is the standardization schemes, not only on the file format (one could say this is mostly solved now for this kind of generic geospatial data), but rather on the content. An example, there are great initiatives to standardize land-cover classes. See this [fao.org], this [glcn.org] and these [slashgeo.org] two [slashgeo.org] somewhat related previous