Mapping Links

It turns out that this is going to be a collection of links about mapping, and also about global/national data in general.

Cartography:

• The Open Source Geospatial Foundation includes the OpenLayers project - an open-source alternative to the Google Maps API.
• Interactive album of map projections
• “Map Projections - A Working Manual” by John P. Snyder, published by the U.S. Geological Survey
• Essay on the National Park Service’s increasing use of realism in map-drawing
• NASA has dozens of interesting global datasets, but they make the maps for you instead of letting you play with the data yourself

Geographic Data:

• geodata.gov: “Your One Stop for Federal, State & Local Geographic Data.” It also seems to be workings towards creating interest-based communities
• Digital line graphs, aerial photographs, elevation data, hydrographic data, land use/cover data from the USGS
• Using geo-tags and user-entered descriptions on Flickr to derive neighborhood/location information
• This free GeoNames database looks great - its sources include NGA and GNS
• OpenStreetMap is a free, collaborative map of the world
• US Census TIGER Data (upon which most of my road-mapping projects are based)
• “VMap Level 0 includes major road and rail networks, hydrologic drainage systems, utility networks (cross-country pipelines and communication lines), major airports, elevation contours, coastlines, international boundaries and populated places. VMap Level 0 includes an index of geographic names to aid in locating areas of interest.’ (I don’t know how old this dataset is.)
• The National Geospatial Program Office incorporates a number of the above programs, and the Federal Geographic Data Committee
• NOAA Tides and Current, Coastal Data, World’s Largest Archive of Climate Data, Satellite Pictures, Other Satellite Resourcees, and Misc. NOAA Data
• World resource and hazard data from the USGS
• National Map from the USGS
• Raw National Atlas data

Other Global Data:

• Hey, the UN is aggregating a lot of its global data over at UNdata.
• BBC News maintains a large number of national profiles and historical timelines
• The CIA does something similar with the World Factbook
• Clearinghouse of statistical agencies of other nations, from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics
• UN Statistics Division
• Statistics from the UN Human Development Program
• National Agricultural Statistics
• It feels like there just has to be some interesting information here, but I haven’t delved into it yet: STAT-USA, “Your trusted source for federal business, trade, and economic information!”
• CDC stats available via an online query or a confusing variety of links
• Housing datasets from HUD User
• NASA’s Global Change Master Directory

Misc:

• Big catalog of mapping resources from National Geographic
• This looks like a good “What is GIS?” poster from the USGS
• I’m fond of this Dodecahedron Globe from the NOAA
• I am, of course, a big fan of the National Weather Service’s web service