What's New at the Map Library?

Official Plans for the Regional Municipality of Waterloo (2010)

2012-01-17T07:38:00.000-08:00

Received in September 2011 the Official 2010 Plans for the Region of Waterloo.

Southwestern Ontario Orthoimagery Project 2010 (SWOOP)

2011-11-03T08:22:00.000-07:00

Swoop 2010 digital orthophotography for the Regional Municipality of Waterloo. Resolution for aimagery is 20cm with horizontal and vertical accuracy of 50cm. Eventually, imagery for
approximately 45,572 square kilometres of land in Southwestern Ontario will be available.

Interactive Map Showing Aerial Photography Coverage/ Years's available at the University Map Library

2011-10-20T12:36:00.001-07:00

Interactive Map Showing Aerial Photography Coverage/ Years's available at the University Map Library.

http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/locations/umd/photos/airphoto_index.html

1:250,000 Digital Maps of Greece, (both georeferenced and non-georeferenced)

2011-09-12T12:34:00.000-07:00

Received from LandInfo Worldwide Mapping, on June 24, 2011, two scanned sets of 1:250,000 JOG (Joint Operation Graphic) Topographic Maps of Greece. One set is georeferenced and cropped (no legend or border). The second set is non-georeferenced and includes the borders and legend.

City of Toronto 2009 Orthoimagery

2011-08-31T05:26:00.000-07:00

Received on 24 May 2011 from the City of Toronto, two distinct and complete 2009 colour orthoimagery data sets for the entire City of Toronto. The first data set consists of 5,754 tiles each covering an area of 0.5 km2 and with an image resolution of 10cm ground. The second set is an orthomosaic with image resoulution of 40cm.

City of Toronto: Property Data Maps

2011-08-26T10:37:00.000-07:00

Received on 24th of May 2011 from the Geospatial Competency Centre, Mapping Services, City of Toronto, an updated set of tiled Toronto Property Data maps (PDMS) with print date of Feb 2011.

City of Guelph 2011 Municipal Data

2011-08-18T12:08:00.000-07:00

Received June 9, 2011 updated municipal data, including a new property/ building type file not previously available from the 2006 data release.

Simply Map Canada 2.0

2011-08-17T12:26:00.000-07:00

SimplyMap Canada is being upgraded from 1.0 to 2.0 and will be available early September, 2011. New version available for trial from August 18, 2011 to September 5, 2011 at: http:sm2.simplymap.com

RMOW street network

2011-08-15T08:43:00.000-07:00

Received on May 24th, 2011, single line street network shapefile from the Regional Municipality of Waterloo. Shapefile has the same rich attribute information as earlier editions.

Official Plans for the Regional Municipality of Waterloo (2006 and 2009)

2011-06-30T12:32:00.000-07:00

The 2006 and 2009 Regional Official Plans contains planning policies for directing growth and change in Waterloo Region and was developed in consultation with community groups, area municipalities and agencies and the general public.

DRAPE (Digital Rastor Acquisition Project for the East) 20cm imagery

2011-03-14T06:11:00.000-07:00

Covers approximately 54,000 square kilometres in eastern Ontario and was taken between January 2008 - January 2009.

Canadian Archival Road Maps

2011-03-03T12:02:00.001-08:00

New collection of Canadian Archival Road Maps (1934-1951) compliments our collection of Ontario Archival Road Maps (1926-2005).

1964 and 1969 Air Photos - Bruce County/ Grey County-Lake Huron

2011-02-08T07:14:00.000-08:00

1964 and 1969 Air Photos covering Bruce County/ Grey County - Lake Huron. Scale of imagery is 1:30,000 and 1:40,000.

Northern Ontario Engineering Geology Terrain Study

2011-02-07T10:45:00.000-08:00

Received from the Ontario Ministry of Northen Development. Interpretive data covers up to latitude 51 degrees and covers landforms and features including: bedrock, dunes, escarpment, eskers, quarries, roads, sand and gravel pits, etc.

Building Heights: RMSI Data

2011-01-24T14:06:00.000-08:00

Building Heights received from RMSI covers the Downtown Core areas of Galt, Guelph, Hamilton, Kitchener, Waterloo, Montreal, North York, Ottawa, Toronto, London and Vancouver.

Acres Landsat 7 Mosaic of Australia

2010-12-07T12:25:00.000-08:00

Two distinct Ortho-rectified Mosaics of Australia. Mosaics are 25 pixel resolution and comprised from 369 satellite scenes taken between July 1999 and September 2000.

City of Toronto Municipal Data 2010

2010-11-12T12:11:00.000-08:00

This dataset was received from the City of Toronto's Geospatial Competency Centre in September 2010 and provides complete coverage for the City of Toronto.

Proposed Light Rail Transit Route and Stations for Waterloo/ Kitchener/ Cambridge

2010-11-11T08:24:00.000-08:00

Received from the Region, shapefiles for the proposed LRT route and stations for the Region.

2010 Niagara Regional Data

2010-10-13T13:23:00.000-07:00

This data covers the entire Niagara Region and was received from the Niagara Region Authority in April, 2010. The information is current as of March 2010.

Map Library is conducting a survey to better serve you

2010-10-08T13:00:00.000-07:00

The Map Library is conducting a survey to find out how we can better serve your needs. If you have used the Map Library’s GIS services in the past year (maps, data, website, workshops), please consider filling out our survey, or stop by the library for a paper copy. As a sign of appreciation, we will be drawing $25.00 and $10.00 gift cards for the bookstore in mid-November.

The survey can be accessed at http://fluidsurveys.com/s/maplibrary/

2006 Orthomosaic for Niagara Region - 1 metre resolution

2010-10-06T10:42:00.000-07:00

Received Orthomosaic for entire Niagare Region, including all twelve municipalities. The resolution is 1 metre.

Workshops Offered in the Fall of 2010

2010-08-12T10:08:00.000-07:00

http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/locations/umd/digital/EventSchedule.html

SimplyMap Canada: Intro to the new deomographic and business tool (Friday September 24th, 4:30 - 6:00)

Google Earth Sketchup: Intro to 3D Model Building (Monday September 27th, 3:30 - 5:00)

Building Digital Elevation Models (DEM) in ArcGIS (Monday October 4th, 3:30 - 5:00)

Introduction to ArcGIS Products: ArcMap and ArcExplorer (Friday October 15th, 2:30 - 4:30)

Geo-Abstract: Creating Your Own Catrographic Art (Monday, November 15th, 3:30 - 5:00)

RMSI Global data for the city cores of Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver

2010-07-23T11:09:00.001-07:00

Recieved on May 31st, RMSI Global data for the city cores of Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver. Data package includes 3-D building heights, points of interest (banks, bus stations, cinema's, musems, etc.) and clutter data (roads, railways, airstrips, lakes and streams).

Extended RMSI data for NorthYork, East and West Toronto

2010-06-11T10:12:00.000-07:00

On May 31st, the Map Library received extended RMSI coverage for Toronto, east and west of the downtown core and also North York.

1952 Airphotos - Southern Kitchener, Preston and Hespeler

2010-05-19T11:11:00.000-07:00

1952 airphotos (1:11,500 scale) covering southern Kitchener, Preston and Hespeler.

1949 Airphotos - Waterloo, Kitchener, Preston and Galt

2010-05-19T11:05:00.000-07:00

1949 airphotos (1:12,500 scale) from the Ministry of Natural Resources, covering Waterloo, Kitchener, Preston and Galt.

SimplyMap Canada

2010-05-11T12:37:00.000-07:00

The Map Library has a subscription to SimplyMap Canada. SimplyMap Canada is user friendly and lets you create thematic maps and reports using demographic, business, and marketing data.

International Travel Maps - Free for the taking.

2010-04-30T07:52:00.000-07:00

Free travel maps for anyone who wants them. Countries include: Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Cape Verde, Malaysia, Eastern Canada, Niger, Swaziland, Montevideo, among others.......

Come to the Map Library to claim.

They have all now been taken. Bon voyage!

Regional Municipality of Waterloo (RMOW): updated Single Line Street Network

2010-04-12T10:37:00.000-07:00

Received updated single street network for RMOW with the same rich attribute information as previous versions.

New Vancouver Municipal Data

2010-03-15T12:59:00.000-07:00

New Data downloaded from the City of Vancouver site: http://data.vancouver.ca/ .
New files include: building footprints, lots, bikeways, heritage sites, traffic signals, etc.

City of Hamilton: 2010 vector data

2010-03-11T14:06:00.000-08:00

Updated 2010 vector data for the City of Hamilton. Also received new files for transit routes, bus stops, parcels, bikeways and sidewalks.

City of Hamilton : 2007 colour Orthomosaic

2010-03-05T08:41:00.000-08:00

This 1 metre resolution 2007 colour Orthomosaic covers the entire City of Hamilton.

City of Toronto Municipal Vector Data 2009

2010-01-26T10:45:00.000-08:00

This 2009 vector data covers the entire City of Toronto and was downloaded from the City of Toronto's open data website: http://www.toronto.ca/open.

Vancouver: Orthoimagery 2008

2010-01-25T13:50:00.000-08:00

This 10 cm resolution, colour orthoimagery covers the entire City of Vancouver and was downloaded from the City of Vancouver's website: http://data.vancouver.ca/.

City of Vancouver: Vector Data

2010-01-25T13:39:00.000-08:00

Data was downloaded from the City of Vancouver's website: http://data.vancouver.ca/ and was compiled between 2002 - 2009.

Regional Municipality of Waterloo (RMOW): updated Single Line Street Network

2010-01-19T07:26:00.000-08:00

On January 15, 2010 the Map Library received an updated Single Line Street Network for RMOW with the same rich attribute information as previous versions.

Ontario Road Network: 2010 update

2010-01-13T13:55:00.000-08:00

Received updated 2010 Ontario Road Network, from Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources.

DMTI Spatial: 2009 data updates

2010-01-13T12:51:00.000-08:00

Received new updates (as of March 2009) for CanMap RouteLogistics, CanMap Water, CanMap Parks, CanMap Rail, Canadian Atlas, Neighbourhood Boundaries, Platinum Postal Codes and Enhanced Points of Interest (EPOI).

Region of Waterloo: DEM, Ground Water, and Municipal Wells

2009-12-01T13:30:00.000-08:00

Received new data for DEM, Ground Water and Municipal Wells for RMOW.

Region of Waterloo: Address Points & Neighbourhood Boundaries

2009-12-01T13:20:00.000-08:00

Received November 20th, updated Address points and Neighbourhood Boundaries for RMOW (Neighbourhood Boundaries unchanged from 2006 data file already at Map Library)

Regional Municipality of Waterloo Communities Orthoimagery 2009

2009-11-25T12:35:00.000-08:00

The orthomosaics of RMOW communities (Waterloo, Kitchener, Cambridge, Breslau, Ayr, Conestogo, Elmira, Wellesley, Baden, New Hamburg, North Dumfries) were received in October 2009 and flown in March 2009. Pixel resolution is 12 cm.

Bathymetry Data (Gridded Global Data from GEBCO)

2009-11-20T08:30:00.000-08:00

This dataset from GEBCO provides global gridded elevation data for land surfaces and gridded depths for the world's oceans. Elevations and depths are in metres, at one metre intervals.

Toronto Core (RMSI Data)

2009-11-16T06:10:00.000-08:00

Toronto Core data received from RMSI Global Data. Data includes building heights, DEM, inland water, transportation and tree density.

2009-11-13T10:01:00.001-08:00

Received from the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, updated street data.

2009-11-13T09:44:00.000-08:00

The Map Library recently acquired QuickBird Satellite Imagery for ThunderBay. Imagery is 60 cm resolution. Other select cities in Ontario are available.

2009-11-13T09:29:00.000-08:00

The Map Library received updated vector data for the City of Kitchener including address points, building footprints, landmarks and zoning boundaries.

Also, received for the City of Kitchener, new vector data for telephone poles and street lights; water supply with storm and sewer networks.

2009-11-13T09:02:00.000-08:00

City of Kitchener municipal data 2009 update. New updates include address points, building footprints, landmarks and zoning boundaries.

New vector data received for water supply with storm and sewer network; street lights and telephone poles.

Latest Orthoimagery Acquired

2009-08-21T07:45:00.000-07:00

The Map Library's orthoimagery collection has recently been expanded and updated with several new additions:

Simcoe Communities 2007 and 2008 :

Including communities : Alcona, Alliston, Angus, Bradford, Collingwood, and Penetang.
These images are 10 cm resolution, full colour.

Muskoka Communities 2008

Including communities : Bala, Baysville, Bracebridge, Gravenhurts, Honey Harbour, Huntsville, Mac Tier, Port Carling and Port Severn.
These images are 10 cm resolution, full colour.

Greater Toronto Area 2007

These digital orthoimages provide full-colour aerial coverage of of Toronto (15 cm), Hamilton (15 cm), Oakville/ Burlington (15 cm), Mississauga (15 cm), regions of Peel (20cm), Halton (20cm and 15cm) and York (20cm).

Essex 2008
These images are 10 cm resolution, full colour.

Workshop Update

The Map Library is pleased to announce a new series of hands-on workshops being offer in this fall. Check out the schedule and sign up now! http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/locations/umd/digital/EventSchedule.html

2008 Simcoe/Muskoka/Dufferin orthoimagery

2009-05-11T06:40:00.000-07:00

The Map Library has acquired large-tile 2008 ortho mosaics for Muskoka District, Simcoe County and east half of Dufferin County. The images are true colour 30cm resolution in MrSID compressed format. The mosaics are 20 km by 20 km and vary in size from 100 MB to over 600 MB.

Project area is approximately 14,000 sq km.

Sample Image

Data Update : Canadian Climate Dataset

2009-03-24T08:27:00.000-07:00

After much interest from students in mapping temperature and precipitation in Canada, the Map Library has acquired the climate dataset from the National Land and Water Information Service.

The Daily 10km Gridded Climate Dataset for Canada 1961-2003 contains gridded point locations of daily maximum temperature (°C), minimum temperature (°C), and precipitation (mm) for the Canadian landmass south of 60° N. The data are georeferenced TIF images, one image for each day of the year.

More information about the dataset is available from the Map Library's data website.

Map Library gets Google Earth/Google Earth Pro 5.0

2009-02-09T08:10:00.001-08:00

Stop by the library to try out the latest release of Google Earth 5.0. Several new features will enthral you with never seen before imagery. Dive into the ocean layer featuring photographs and videos of the deep sea. Travel to the bottom of the sea in search of shipwrecks, or marine life. Learn about endangered species, track animals and research facts that have been compiled by a number of scientists and organizations including NOAA, NASA, National Geographic Society, BBC, Monterey Bay Aquarium and many others.

Also new to 5.0 is the ability to go back in time and view historical imagery of particular geographical areas. A new clock button in the toolbar toggles a timeline controller that enables users to seamlessly view all imagery that is available for the area in the view’s extent.

Google Mars is the last of the newest additions, where high resolution satellite imagery (HiRISE imaging system) and 3D terrain of Mars replaces Earth. The layers available include Rovers and Landers, 3D Models, Terrains and more. Users gain a unique perspective of the planet, travelling through the eyes of the Mars rovers and other missions.

All of these features are available in the new Google Earth. For additional GIS features, try Google Earth Pro, also available at the Map Library.

Whitehorse Orthophoto Mosaic 2006

2009-01-08T06:30:00.000-08:00

The Map Library has acquired a mosaic of the city of Whitehorse in Yukon. The image was taken in September 2006 and processed at a ground resolution of 25cm. The image is available in .ecw format with a size of 1.5 GB. This compressed format is compatible with ArcGIS.

This mosaic was received from the City of Whitehorse, Land Development Office in January, 2009.

Sample image of Whitehorse 2006 mosaic

Map Library Staff are now online to answer your questions!

2009-01-06T11:53:00.000-08:00

Effective immediately, Map Library reference staff are online Monday - Friday 1:30 - 4:30 to answer your cartographic or GIS-related questions. Unfortunately, staff are not able to distribute geospatial data through this service. To start chatting live, go to http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/locations/umd/Chat.html

Please note that this is a pilot project for the winter term, 2009.

GIS Day on Wednesday November 19th

2008-11-18T06:28:00.001-08:00

The Map Library and the Faculty of Environment are hosting UW's fifth annual GIS Day Event between 11:30 and 2:30 in the EV1 couryard tomorrow. There are lots of great activities planned for tomorrow including poster presentations, cake, door prizes and a hands-on GPS and Google Earth session. Please register for the event at : http://www.environment.uwaterloo.ca/gisday/2008/

Student Licenses for ArcGIS at $25.00

2008-11-11T12:48:00.000-08:00

Students can now get a one-year ArcGIS software license for $25.00. Students, if you require your own copy of the program for academic purposes, please contact Sandra Laughlin in IST to purchase a copy.

Sandra Laughlin
Info Systems and Technology MC 2008
Mail: laughlin@ist.uwaterloo.ca

Collection Update

2008-11-06T08:12:00.000-08:00

Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps : Trial until November 25th, 2008

The Map Library is pleased to offer you for a limited time trial access to the American Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, 1867-1970. These large-scale plans provide extensive building and property information including building outline, size, shape and construction materials, height, location of windows, doors and more. Buildings include residential, commercial, industrial and other. The maps also provide street names, street and sidewalk widths, property boundaries and house numbers. The collection consists of over 660,000 maps of 12,000 American cities and towns.

This collection is available from Proquest where the maps can be downloaded and printed in Adobe PDF. This resource can be found on the Library’s website by visiting the Research Databases page , click the letter S in the A-Z browse list, and scroll to Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps.

GIS Data Update :

DMTI

DMTI has released its v2008.3 CanMap datasets for Canada. The Library has also acquired a new product this year called Neighbourhood and Community Boundaries. The Neighbourhood Boundaries are only available in urban areas and Community Boundaries are available in both urban and rural areas. For more information, please visit DMTI Spatial.

City of Kitchener

The Map Library has received the annual update for Kitchener's Municipal data. Updated layers include building footprints, double and single line street network, landmarks, address points, surface waters, community trails, ward boundaries, zoning, etc.

UW Campus 2008

Received from UW Plant Operations, an updated version of UW campus data in DWG AutoCad format. Both the north and south campus is included in this 2008 update. Staff will convert the Cad files to GIS Shapefiles within the next several months.

Looking for Poster Presenters for GIS Day

2008-10-23T06:32:00.001-07:00

The Map Library in collaboration with Mapping, Analysis and Design (MAD)will be hosting the fifth annual GIS Day on Wednesday November 19th. The event will include poster presentations showing the work of students, faculty and staff. The planning committee is encouraging everybody who has worked with GIS to showcase their research in a poster format. Poster presenters must be available on GIS Day to talk about their poster. For more information, please contact Eva Dodsworth, x36931.

Additional workshop sessions offered

2008-09-02T13:01:00.000-07:00

Due to popular demand, the library has opened up two addition time slots for each GIS session being offered at the Flexlab in October. Recently added:

Intro to GIS Software : Oct 1, 10:00 am
Intro to GIS Software : Oct 3rd, 3:00 pm

Google Earth : More than Imagery : Oct 6th, 3:00 pm
Google Earth : More than Imagery : Oct 17th, 10:00 am

Spaces are limited!

Eva

Pre-Fall term update

2008-08-19T08:06:00.000-07:00

The Map Library is buzzing with busyness as the staff prepare for the fall term. There are two special GIS workshops being offered in the fall term, and a handful of podcasts that have just been created by Eva.

During the week of September 15th, the Map Library is hosting an Art Show in the ML Gallery entitled Geo-Abstract. Be sure not to miss this event.

The Map Library would also like to welcome back Ksenia Bronicki who returns from maternity leave. Ksenia is the Map Library's Library Clerk who is responsible primarily for reserves, fines, circulation and training.

Map Library in the News

2008-07-21T13:57:00.000-07:00

Read the summer issue of News & Your Library to learn more about the Map Library's Historical Air Photo Project.

http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/newsatlib/080717/digitization.html

Data Update for Spring Term

2008-07-21T13:40:00.000-07:00

The Map Library has recently recieved new and updated geospatial data:

From Teranet, Inc (July, 2008), updated property parcels in Shapefile format including:

* Waterloo ownership
* Wellington ownership
* Hamilton ownership
* Huron ownership
* Oxford ownership
* Perth ownership
* Bruce assessment
* Lambton assessment

Received the following Teranet parcel boundaries on 19 June from the University of Toronto under a sublicensing agreement:

* Frontenac ownereship 2007
* Lennox assessment 2007
* Northumerland assessment 2007
* Durham ownership 2007
* Peel ownership 2007

Received the following Teranet parcel boundaries in early June from the University of Guelph under a sublicensing agreement:

* Halton assessment 2008
* Halton ownership 2005

Accompanying each ownership shapefile is a basic property report.
Coordinate system: UTM zone 17 NAD83

**********************************
From the Region of Waterloo (July, 2008), Traffic Zones for the Regional Municipality of Waterloo in Shapefile format. The polygon features were created in 2006. Attributes include house holds in 2004 and 2005, total population in each zone in 2004 and 2005, total employment in each zone in 2001, 2004, 2005, and the number of post-secondary students in 2005.

Coordinate system: UTM zone 17 NAD83

*****************************

From the City of Brampton, July, 2008) City of Brampton Municipal Data and Orthoimagery.
Municipal data includes the following layers:

* double line roads
* single line streets
* building footprints
* contours, 1 m
* hydrology
* wooded areas
* Official Plan landuse
* zoning
* hydrants
* curbs, sidewalks, painted lines
* catchbasins (i.e., grates)
* manholes
* hydro poles
* bridges
* guard rails
* fences
* telecom towers
* turn arrows (left, right, straight through)
* parking lots
* railways

All datasets are 2007 except zoning and single line streets, both of which are June 2008. Landuse is not current since it has not yet been approved by the City.

The orthomages were flown in early April 2008 and are 10cm pixel resolution. Data format is MrSID.
All datasets are in coordinate system UTM zone 17, NAD83.

Geospatial Dataset Updates

2008-06-04T08:11:00.001-07:00

The Map Library is pleased to announce that SOLRIS' land cover data is now available for all of southwestern Ontario, Central Ontario, and Eastern Ontario.

The Southern Ontario Land Resource Information System (SOLRIS) is a landscape-level inventory of natural, rural and urban areas. Inventory categories include, for example, shorelines, tallgrass savanah, coniferous forest, swamp, built-up area, and so on. There are a total of 23 landcover categories plus open water and undifferentiated (largely cropland).

More information available from : http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/locations/umd/digital/SOLRIS.html

***********************

In April, 2008 the Map Library had acquired environmental data from the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA). Included in this dataset are:

natural cover: beach/bluff, forest, meadow, succession, wetland
vegetation type (polygons): these are community types (e.g., sumac cultural thicket, willow shrub beach, dry-fresh oak-hardwood deciduous forest)
fauna (21,000 points): significant species (e.g., birds, squirrels, frogs: alder flycatcher, bobolink, red squirrel, western chorus frog)
flora (44,000 points): significant species (e.g., woodfern, shagbark hickory)

municipality boundaries

water bodies
water courses
watersheds
TRCA properties
contours 1m

Please visit the Map Library for data access.

Map Library offers Scanned and Digitized Historical Photos of KW

2008-05-07T12:25:00.000-07:00

The Map Library is pleased to share its archival and digitization efforts with the UW campus and community at large. After several months of scanning, digitizing and georeferencing air photos from the 1930s and 1940s, a webpage is now available that showcases these photos. Although the project is not complete yet, central rural areas of Kithener and Waterloo are available for the years 1930 and 1945. Everybody is invited to view and download these images. Images are available in jpg, tiff, pdf and kml formats. Kml can be brought into Google Earth for geospatial viewing.

Please visit : http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/locations/umd/project/

New Dataset : City of Cambridge Municipal Data

2008-04-14T10:26:00.000-07:00

The University Map Library has recently received municipal data for the City of Cambridge providing topographic, planning and recreation information. Examples of features include:

- Heritage Designations
- Landmarks (Schools, fire stations, churches...)
- Sanitation and Storm Management
- Zoning and Offical Plan
- address points
- DTM

Please visit http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/locations/umd/digital/Cambridge.html
for list of complete features and more information.

New Spring Workshop Schedule

2008-04-03T06:34:00.000-07:00

The Map Library has released its spring term workshop schedule. http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/locations/umd/digital/EventSchedule.html

Learn about using Google Earth as a personal map maker.
Find out how to visualize your popular 'list of things to do'.
Learn the basics of GIS techniques and methods - an introduction to GIS.

All workshops require registration.

See you there!

Creating Maps in Google Earth

2008-03-25T06:51:00.000-07:00

A guide has been created that demonstrates how you can use Google Earth and Google Maps to create customized maps. Learn how to add your own geospatial features onto these online sites. If you're interested in a hands-on workshop or would like assistance converting your files to Google's KML format, please contact Eva Dodsworth.

Creating Maps in Google

City of Ottawa Vector and Image data

2008-03-20T10:29:00.000-07:00

The University Map Library has recently received a collection of municipal datasets and orthoimages from the City of Ottawa. The 2005 orthoimages are full-colour, 20 cm resolution, comprising of 55 MrSID images in total, covering the City of Ottawa and parts of the City of Gatineau. For more information please visit : http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/locations/umd/digital/Image_Ottawa2005.html

The vector datasets are available at two different scale: 1:2,000 and 1:10,000. The larger-scale layers provide coverage of the urbanized area within the City of Ottawa and are dated 2004. The smaller scale layers cover the entire City of Ottawa and are dated 2008. For a complete list of features please visit : http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/locations/umd/digital/ncr_vector.html

Recommended GIS Software

2008-03-12T07:41:00.000-07:00

The Map Library routinely updates it's recommended list of GIS software for its users. The most recent addition is the open source product MapWindows GIS.

From the website : http://www.mapwindow.com/

MapWindow GIS 4.0 Open Source Software
The MapWindow application is a free, extensible, geographic information system (GIS) that can be used in many ways:

As an alternative desktop GIS
To distribute data to others
To develop and distribute custom spatial data analyses
MapWinGIS ActiveX Control

At the core of the MapWindow application is the MapWinGIS ActiveX control. Using this control, you can program custom mapping functionality directly into your own software.
Open source component (free distribution)
Complete GIS API for shapefile and grid data
Many built in GIS functions

MapWindow includes standard GIS data visualization features as well as DBF attribute table editing, shapefile editing, and grid importing and conversion.

MapWinGIS ActiveX includes a GIS API for shapefile and grid data with many built in GIS functions.

The Map Library has updated its Recommended Software guide at :
http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/locations/umd/digital/gissoftware.html

GRCA now offers online downloads of SWOOP 30cm orthoimagery

2008-03-12T07:17:00.000-07:00

The Grand River Conservation Authority (GRCA) is now offering the most recent orthoimagery available for our local area - the SWOOP colour 30cm collection which is available for download from their website : http://grims.grandriver.ca/imf/imf.jsp?site=grca_datadis&ddsid=6479e

Orthoimagery is available for the entire GRCA boundary and the user can define their own geographical extent of interest (within the boundary) and download the image as a jpeg 2000 image format.

For distribution purposes, GRCA applied a 40:1 compression to the original data and mosaiced to create 2km x 2km tiles.

SWOOP imagery is becoming freely available on the internet, but until now has only been available for viewing from sites such as The Region of Waterloo Locator. Having public access to the actual images is exciting news for both scholars and the community at large.

For those interested in crisper resolution, the University Map Library has 12 cm resolution for areas within the Region of Waterloo.

City of London 2007 Orthoimagery

2008-03-04T14:27:00.000-08:00

In Feburary, 2008, the Map Library acquired from the City of London a MrSID orthoimage encompassing the City of London. This 1.1 GB image is in full colour with a resolution of 15 cm. http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/locations/umd/digital/LondonOrtho2007.html

SOLRIS : Version1_2 now Available

2008-01-29T08:41:00.000-08:00

SOLRIS: Southern Ontario Land Resource Information System
The Southern Ontario Land Resource Information System (SOLRIS) is a landscape-level inventory of natural, rural and urban areas. Version 1_1 covering the GTA was released in 2007. Version 1_2 is now available for GTA plus part of southwestern Ontario.

SOLRIS was developed to support landscape-scale planning initiatives in southern Ontario such as Source Water Protection, Biodiversity Conservation, Natural Spaces, and State of Resources Reporting. The SOLRIS inventory is a compilation of data from various sources including topographic maps, aerial photos and satellite imagery. Computer modelling, visual interpretation and field validation were used to create a seamless inventory for Southern Ontario.

Inventory categories include, for example, shorelines, tallgrass savanah, coniferous forest, swamp, built-up area, and so on. A total of 23 categories.
Choice of shapefile and ESRI grid formats. Coordinate system: UTM zone 17, NAD83. Mapping of southern Ontario is due for completion in 2008.

Customizing Google Maps

2008-01-18T12:15:00.000-08:00

You can easily create your own custom map for the world to see. Using KMZ files, I created a map of buildings on campus and highlights all the libraries. Click on the highlighted buildings to gain access to the library's website. For best results, view larger map and have your satellite image turned on.

View Larger Map

Orthoimagery Available

2008-01-16T07:22:00.000-08:00

Sample image from GeoBase : City of Waterloo, 10 M panchromatic.

GeoBase Orthoimage 2005-2010. GeoBase Orthoimage 2005-2010 is made from SPOT 4/5 earth observation data covering Canada’s landmass south of the 81st parallel during the period 2005-2010. Orthoimages have a resolution of 10 metres for the panchromatic band and 20 metres for the multispectral bands.

Satellite StreetView : 60 cm resolution Quickbird satellite imagery for several cities in Canada, including Kitchener-Waterloo (30 cm). This product also includes CanMap street files.

General Information

2008-01-16T07:19:00.002-08:00

Air Photo Digitization Project

The University of Waterloo Map Library is working an air photo digitization project that will place you on a 70-year old map. By using a third party resource that offers familiar streets and points of interests, you will be able to see how specific parts of towns looked like back in the 1930s and 1940s. Using Google Earth, you can find your home today and with a simple click find out how the land was used in 1930, and 1945-47. Combining the old and the new will place Tim Horton’s in the middle of a farmers field; will place the highway on top of an old stone school house and subdivisions on a gravel pit. Find the long lost forests, marshes, and small towns and make use of archival images that tell the story of time.In a few months the Map Library will provide access to these photos of Kitchener, Waterloo and surrounding areas in a variety of image formats for download: PDF, Tiff, GeoTiff and KMZ (for Google Earth). Providing these images in a georeferenced format will enable the GIS and non GIS users to use them in a variety of ways. Users can add the images into a GIS program such as ArcGIS and overlay their own datasets or they can open up the PDF and simply enjoy the photo for its natural quality. See article in News @ Your Library http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/newsatlib/080110/aerialphotography.html