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Helpful resources↵

Data 🗺↵

You can use what ever data you want. But here are a few sources which could help you to get started or give you new ideas 👇

  • OpenStreetMap
    • OpenStreetMap (OSM) is a collaborative project to create a free editable map of the world. If you seek for easy ways to get an extract of the data, you can check for GeoFabrik for Shapefiles or Overpass API for GeoJSONs etc..
  • Overture Maps Foundation
    • OMF publishes global data extracts monthly which are a combination of OpenStreetMap and other open data sources.
  • Natural Earth Data
    • Natural Earth is a public domain map dataset available at 1:10m, 1:50m, and 1:110 million scales. Featuring tightly integrated vector and raster data, with Natural Earth you can make a variety of visually pleasing, well-crafted maps with cartography or GIS software.
  • Free GIS Data
    • The site contains a categorised list of links to over 500 sites providing freely available geographic datasets - all ready for loading into a Geographic Information System.
  • OS OpenData
    • Ordnance Survey Open Data for Great Britain. Includes general topographic map data at a range of scales; useful thematic data such as greenspace, terrain, roads and rivers; postcode and place name georeferencing.
  • Humanitarian Data Exchange
    • Interesting datasets from around the world.
  • LINZ Data Service
    • New Zealand land and sea data available for free under a Creative Commons licence via download or OGC APIs.
  • LINZ NZ Aerial Basemap
    • Current aerial imagery for New Zealand available under a Creative Commons licence via WMTS or XYZ tile services.
  • Open Topography
    • Lidar point cloud and DEM data.
  • A collective list of free APIs for use in software and web development.
  • GIS data repositories spreadsheet by Karen Payne
  • Data is Plural
    • The best data newsletter out there with an awesome archive including also some very obscure datasets.

Tools 🔨🔧↵

The challenge is open to any software, but here’s a list of popular open-source tools to consider. No programming skills are required. Or if you are a programmer, no design skills are required.

  • QGIS
    • A Free and Open Source Geographic Information System. A desktop software that allows you to read/write multiple data formats and output (mainly static) maps.
  • Kepler
    • Open source geospatial analysis tool for large-scale data sets and for interactive maps.
  • Aerialod
    • Not really a GIS tool, but can be used to create some stunning 3D visualizations
  • Blender
    • Free and open source 3D creation suite. Check out the BlenderGIS extension.
  • R packages for geospatial
  • Python packages for geospatial
  • geopandas, xarray-spatial, matplotlib, geoplot, hvplot and plotly to mention a few.
  • Mapshaper
    • Useful for geospatial data processing in the browser such as file format conversion, map projection, feature simplification, filtering, clipping, merging etc. Can also be run locally from the command line.
  • Vega-Lite
  • Vega
    • More flexible but lower-level declarative visualization specification including cartographic output. Specifications can be written directly in JSON or via program language interfaces such elm-vega.
  • Litvis
    • Literate Visualization notebook environment optimised for specifying visualizations and documenting the design process. While not specific to cartography, can be a useful environment for exploring cartographic design.
  • Observable
    • Reactive notebook environment for generation of visualization and cartographic output embedded in a textual narrative. Focus is on using d3 for specifying visual output.

Tutorials & Helpful Resources 📚↵

If you want to make maps with QGIS, this video is a great starting point. Check out also other videos by Klas Karlson - Steven Bernard's QGIS Introduction - QGIS Tutorials by Ujaval Gandhi - 3D Landscape Tutorial by Alasdair Rae - Basics of Mapmaking by Kenneth Field