18 February 2011

Global Map and Data from Intl. Steering Committee

The primary purpose of this Committee is to examine measures that concerned national, regional and international organizations can take to foster the development of Global Mapping in order to facilitate the implementation of global agreements and conventions for environmental protection as well as the mitigation of natural disasters and to encourage economic growth within the context of sustainable development.

Global Map is a group of global geographic data sets of known and verified quality, with consistent specifications which is open to the public as FREE downloads. Global Map is considered a common asset of mankind, and will be distributed worldwide.

The ISCGM Global Mapping Project supports development of global scale geographic information through international cooperation. Registration is required before data downloading. Global map thematic data sets will provide coverage of the whole land area on earth at 1 km resolution in a consistent manner. Each thematic data set is released to the public in a digital format for easy handling by computer and its content is equivalent to conventional maps at scales of 1 : 1,000,000.
Below map shows the progress & participants of the project.
Summary of the Global Map DataThe Global Map Data have 8 thematic layers. They are Boundaries, Transportation, Drainage, Population Centers, Elevation, Vegetation, Land use and Land cover. These layers were produced in either vector or raster data. The layers in vector representation are Boundaries, Transportation, Drainage and Population Centers. The layers in raster representation are Elevation, Vegetation, Land use and Land cover. Vector data and raster data will be downloaded separately. And, raster data can be downloaded separately by every layer.

Sample Map: This map was produced using elevation data and representing the image in 3D

The data source of Land use, Land cover and Vegetation layers is Global Land Cover Characterization datasets by the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) Earth Resources Observation System (EROS) Data Center, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) and the Joint Research Center of the European Commission. The source of Elevation layers is GTOPO30 by U.S. Geological Survey’s EROS Data Center.
(Free Registration Required)Click here to access the FAQ
Posted by Moderator at 10:55 AM

You may also like:

FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, sustainable development, environmental, community and worker health, democracy, public disclosure, corporate accountability, and social justice issues, etc. We have included the full text of the article rather than a simple link because we have found that links frequently go "bad" or change over time. We believe this constitutes a "fair use" of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without fee or payment of any kind to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.