7 ms·

Natural Earth: A public domain map dataset

114 points by falava 12y ago

denom 12y ago
This is a really useful dataset, especially when combined with tools like mapbox tile mill[0] and qgis[1]. Hours of fun! [0] https://www.mapbox.com/tilemill/ https://www.mapbox.com/tilemill/ [1] http://www.qgis.org/ http://www.qgis.org/
- dmarusic16 12y ago
  Works great with d3.js too. Couldn't've made this map of the early days of the Ukraine crisis[0] without Natural Earth. Also helpful to that end: the Global Administrative Areas[1] database. Finally, it would've been impossible to even start getting my head around how to go about these things if it wasn't for this amazing tutorial by Mike Bostock[2]. [0] http://www.the-american-interest.com/blog/2014/03/03/the-noose-tightens/ http://www.the-american-interest.com/blog/2014/03/03/the-noo... [1] http://www.gadm.org http://www.gadm.org [2] http://bost.ocks.org/mike/map/ http://bost.ocks.org/mike/map/
- petepete 12y ago
  I used it for exactly this when playing around with the data I exported from my Google location history. As a relative newcomer to GIS the process was pretty simple. http://i.imgur.com/fXMc7nc.png http://i.imgur.com/fXMc7nc.png
  - aw3c2 12y ago
    Aaaargh, holy distortion. Try a projection like OSGB36/EPSG:27700 for a less weird image. ;)
    - petepete 12y ago
      Ah thanks, that looks much better!
jonemo 12y ago
We're using some of the vector data from there for printablegeography.com and so far have been impressed with the quality of the data when compared to other free outline datasets out there. There's a Wikipedia article with a little more info about this dataset including a reference to the Null Island: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_Earth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_Earth
heydenberk 12y ago
Earlier this week I wanted to write a function that takes geographic coordinates and returns whether that coordinate is on land or in water. I might be able to use the raster data here to do that.
- bdon 12y ago
  Depending on the resolution you need, the OpenStreetMap derived world coastline may work better: http://openstreetmapdata.com/data/land-polygons http://openstreetmapdata.com/data/land-polygons
- gissolved 12y ago
  You could also use the World Vector Shorelines (http://shoreline.noaa.gov/data/datasheets/wvs.html http://shoreline.noaa.gov/data/datasheets/wvs.html) or if you need lakes, the GSHHG (http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/shorelines/gshhs.html http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/shorelines/gshhs.html) from NOAA. I recently implemented similar functionality in Python, I haven't open sourced it (yet) but I can share some code if you want.

114 points by falava 12y ago

denom 12y ago

This is a really useful dataset, especially when combined with tools like mapbox tile mill[0] and qgis[1]. Hours of fun! [0] https://www.mapbox.com/tilemill/ https://www.mapbox.com/tilemill/ [1] http://www.qgis.org/ http://www.qgis.org/

dmarusic16 12y ago
Works great with d3.js too. Couldn't've made this map of the early days of the Ukraine crisis[0] without Natural Earth. Also helpful to that end: the Global Administrative Areas[1] database. Finally, it would've been impossible to even start getting my head around how to go about these things if it wasn't for this amazing tutorial by Mike Bostock[2]. [0] http://www.the-american-interest.com/blog/2014/03/03/the-noose-tightens/ http://www.the-american-interest.com/blog/2014/03/03/the-noo... [1] http://www.gadm.org http://www.gadm.org [2] http://bost.ocks.org/mike/map/ http://bost.ocks.org/mike/map/
petepete 12y ago
I used it for exactly this when playing around with the data I exported from my Google location history. As a relative newcomer to GIS the process was pretty simple. http://i.imgur.com/fXMc7nc.png http://i.imgur.com/fXMc7nc.png
- aw3c2 12y ago
  Aaaargh, holy distortion. Try a projection like OSGB36/EPSG:27700 for a less weird image. ;)
  - petepete 12y ago
    Ah thanks, that looks much better!

jonemo 12y ago

We're using some of the vector data from there for printablegeography.com and so far have been impressed with the quality of the data when compared to other free outline datasets out there. There's a Wikipedia article with a little more info about this dataset including a reference to the Null Island: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_Earth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_Earth

heydenberk 12y ago

Earlier this week I wanted to write a function that takes geographic coordinates and returns whether that coordinate is on land or in water. I might be able to use the raster data here to do that.

bdon 12y ago
Depending on the resolution you need, the OpenStreetMap derived world coastline may work better: http://openstreetmapdata.com/data/land-polygons http://openstreetmapdata.com/data/land-polygons
gissolved 12y ago
You could also use the World Vector Shorelines (http://shoreline.noaa.gov/data/datasheets/wvs.html http://shoreline.noaa.gov/data/datasheets/wvs.html) or if you need lakes, the GSHHG (http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/shorelines/gshhs.html http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/shorelines/gshhs.html) from NOAA. I recently implemented similar functionality in Python, I haven't open sourced it (yet) but I can share some code if you want.