GIS+Resources


 * CARTOGRAPHY BLOGS Etc.**
 * **Cartotalk** A useful site for the latest GIS and cartographic updates.
 * **GIS At Bucknell** I found this site as a useful page for links to various GIS programs and opportunities.
 * **Mappamond** This commercial site has regular updates on GIS data, developments etc. posted on their blog. The focus is on GIS application in the environment.
 * **Shaded Relief**
 * **Story Maps**


 * COMMERCIAL MAPS & IMAGERY**
 * **Asitrium: **European commercial geospatial imagery company hosting the SPOT satellites and others. There are some sublime relief models amongst their examples.
 * **East View Cartographic**. This commercial company advertises a wide range of maps and GIS data that you can commercially buy. Prices seem high to me given what is available freely. They even advertise 1:50,000 Sri Lanka sheets at @ US $49! These can be bought here in Colombo for about $1.50! Geo referenced raster images of all these sheets, with associated shapefiles for rivers, contours etc., are also available here through the Survey Department.
 * **Digital Globe** The is the company that provides much of the imagery in Google Earth.
 * GeoEye A global leader in geospatial imagery (including the IKONOS satellite imagery), also used in Google Earth.
 * MapMart: Commercial providers of mapping data.
 * **MBM Systems** A German company specializing in 3D maps


 * EARTH OBSERVATION**
 * **Earth Observatory:** NASA's superb site that highlights satellite photography of the earth to "explore the causes and effects of climatic and environmental change."
 * **Earth Resources Observation & Science (EROS)** Run by the USGS this is a great site that highlights temporal changes using Landsat and other remote sensing imagery. They have a superb gallery of comparative studies from around the world.
 * **Global Land Cover Facility (University of Maryland) **One of the best portals for accessing a wide variety of data showing land cover. They specialize in various kinds of remote sensing data from satellites (Aster, Landsat, MODIS, Quick Bird, SRTM etc.). Data can be downloaded via FTP through their **Earth Science Data Interface**.
 * **Earth Now! Landsat Earth Observer (USGS).** This site shows the (nearly) real time view of the Landsat satellites as they pass over the United States & Canada. These can then be downloaded on the GloVis (USGS Global Visualization Viewer) site.
 * **TerraLook** permits users to create their own collections of georeferenced JPEG satellite images. TerraLook images allow for visual interpretation and comparison without the need for complicated software.
 * **ToppoMapper.** This site uses a mosaic from Landsat 7 to visualize any place in the world.


 * EXEMPLAR MAPS**
 * **ArcGIS Map Gallery** Samples of maps made with ESRI's ArcGIS, the software that we use at OSC.
 * **UNOSAT Maps** The UN's geospatial arm tasked with providing maps for a variety of hazards and man-made disaster areas. There are excellent maps on India, Sri Lanka and other individual countries in their online catalog.
 * **UNEP** A great site for exemplar maps.
 * **University of Texas Library**
 * Tactical Pilotage Charts (TPC)


 * GIS/ REMOTE SENSING IN SOUTH ASIA**
 * **Bangladesh Local Government Engineering Department** A site with downloadable digital maps from Bangladesh.
 * **BHUVAN:**The very useful portal for spatial data gathered from the Indian Remotes Sensing Organization (ISRO). You can view and download a a whole range of different spatial data from India. Being signed in is useful for downloading Awfis imagery etc. For data click on the following link. or the Thematic Mapper.
 * **Biodiversity Information System:** Created by the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS) and the Indian Space Research Organizaiton (ISRO) to display and map the biodiversity of India. The data has vegetation types at a 1:50,000 scale.
 * **Center for Environmental & Geographical Information Services (CGIS)** One of the leading GIS centers in Bangladesh
 * **Mizoram Remote Sensing Agency (MIRSAC):** This is the state agency running all remote sensing and mapping jobs for other state government agencies. I had a chance to visit them in January 2012 and was impressed with their productivity and impressive atlases (land use, earthquake, etc.). Unfortunately most of their work has to be seen in their office and is not available online.
 * **National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC):** This is India's premier RS organization, based in Hyderabad. It falls under the space agency Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
 * **Reef Base:** An online GIS that focuses on the state of coral reefs around the world. There is useful data and imagery on Sri Lanka and the Maldives.
 * **Sentinel Asia** A Japanese funded organization with multiple nodes that helps channel spatial data to recipients who need it to deal with disasters (earthquakes, tsunamis, flooding etc.)
 * **Spatial Database for Climate Change Mapping in South Asia.** New from IWMI
 * **Survey of India** Not the most user-friendly or dynamic site, but home to the oldest mapping organization in South Asia. They have more recently added a Web Mapping Service (WMS) and better links to their products.
 * **University of Texas Library.** The US army published a 1:250,000 series of maps on South Asia (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal) in 1955. They are all available for download here!
 * **Western Ghats GeoPortal:** Thanks to the French Institute, ATREE and others.
 * **Western Michigan University US Army Maps:** This is a project led by our family friend Professor David Dickason to scan and georeference a treasure trove of 1:250,000 maps of South Asia that were published in the early 1950s. The base map is on Bing Maps.


 * GIS SOFTWARE**
 * **ArcGIS Online** This is the relatively new ESRI site where you can download online mapping data and create maps. I am still working on using it fully..
 * **Bing Maps** Microsoft's answer to Google Maps
 * **Earth Explorer:** USGS visualizer where you can download GeoTiff files (spatial images that have a spatial reference)
 * **ERDAS** This is the principal remote sensing software that is being used by global agencies working with spatial information. They have a host of applications.
 * [|ESRI ArcGIS Explorer] similar to Google Earth but with handy interfaces to the ArcMap software that we use. **FREE**
 * **GeoMapApp** A downloadable software[package for visualizing and mapping terrain. Provided by the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University This is being used be several catrographers, such as Ronald Blakey, to produce stunning maps of the earth's surface.. FREE
 * **Global Mapper** An easy to use and fast software package to view DEMs and other spatial data. It is modestly priced and you can download a trial version for free.
 * **Google Map Maker** Newly introduced from Google
 * **Google Earth** The standard Earth viewer that has revolutionized the way we see the world
 * **Maperitive** Maperitive is a FREE desktop application for drawing maps based on OpenStreetMap and GPS data. You can define what gets on the map and how it is painted. You can also export these maps into bitmaps and SVG files and print them.
 * **MapInfo **Commercial Microsoft Windows–based mapping and geographic analysis application GIS software
 * **Q-GIS** Open source GIS software fro both PC and Mac platforms


 * GIS EDUCATION/ARC LESSONS**
 * **Chinese International School GIS**. CIS, under the leadership of David Brian, has been running an innovative program of integrating GIS into IB courses (both MYP and DP) for several years. They have generously uploaded lessons and data here.
 * **ESRI GIS Education** (This useful site has prepackaged lesson plans with data ready for free downloads)
 * **Geographical Association** A UK based Geography Education association with numerous useful links including this set of pages on web based GIS applications for education
 * **Google Earth for Educators**: Hints and tricks for educational uses of Google Earth
 * **Harvard Graduate School of Design GIS**
 * **Landsat Program. **This is a NASA-based site that details many aspects of the Landsat program. There are links to educational tutorials and further links.
 * **Yale University GIS Library Resources**


 * MAPPING DATA**
 * **ASTER DEM.** This site hosts a large set of Digital Elevation Model (DEMs) that is one of the most updated. It can be downloaded as compressed tiles. We have the world collection in our database for easy use. They are easily viewed on Global Mapper. In October 2011 an updated version was released by METI and NASA.
 * **Bathymetry from National Geophysical Mapping Center.** Useful for oceanic (bathemetic) data.
 * **Center for International Earth Science Information** at Columbia University. This site hosts a variety of very useful information including population and economic datasets based on UN data.
 * **[|Cornell University Geospatial Repository]**
 * **Digital Elevation Model Discovery Portal **A site for accessing a wide range of DEMs for download.
 * **Earth Resources Observation Science (EROS)** USGS portal with links to GloVis, Landsat data etc.
 * **ESRI ArcGIS Online.** A great place to download baseline maps, collaborate with others and view exemplar maps.
 * **Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) Forest Cover Portal**
 * **Global Land Cover Facility (University of Maryland)** One of the best portals for accessing a wide variety of data showing land cover. They specialize in various kinds of remote sensing data from satellites (Aster, Landsat, MODIS, Quick Bird, SRTM etc.). Data can be downloaded via FTP through their **Earth Science Data Interface**.
 * **Global Network for Geospatial Health-GSNSIS Data**. An important source for health metadata.
 * **[|Global Mapper Data Link]**
 * **Humanitarian Response.** This is a very useful data portal for a variety of countries are doing reileif work. The Sri Lanka data (1:250,000 scale) was made available in October 2012.
 * **Jet Propulsion Laboratory** A useful site for data and images with links to counterparts in the Japanese
 * **Mountain Geoportal (ICIMOD)** Excellent resources on the Himalayan area.
 * **[|NASA Earth Observatory]** An amazing site that publishes daily and weekly imagery from various (MODIS etc.) satellites
 * **Natural Earth** This sites provides excellent base maps.
 * **[|Open Data]** A portal for Open Data set up by ESRI (ArcGIS)
 * **Socio Economic Data & Application Center (SEDAC)**: A useful online search interface from NASA, developed by the Consortium for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) that provides integrated searching of multiple catalogs.
 * **Spatial Database for Climate Change Mapping in South Asia.** New from IWMI
 * **[|Sri Lanka Urban Development Authority (UDA) Geoportal]** Unfortunately this site was not activated though it had the intention of making the data publicly available. We have useful land use data of our area thanks to their good offices.
 * **US Maps & Data** United States government link featuring a variety of maps. "Data.gov has integrated the Geospatial One-Stop (GOS) portal and catalog, and added some exciting improvements to both the user interface as well as the underlying infrastructure."
 * **[|United States Geological Survey (USGS) GIS Data Portal]**
 * **[|IWMI Water Data Portal]** Good site for a variety of vector layers, including Sri Lanka and other countries.
 * **Reverb/ECHO** This is the new NASA "Earth Observing System" data portal that will channel all of their spatial data for public use.
 * **[|UNEP GRID (Maps & Graphs)]**
 * **UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre **A useful site with links to datsets focusing on biodiversity.
 * **World Bank Maps.** A good site for online maps of human and economic development data. You can also getinto the World Bank Data using ArgGIS online.


 * FURTHER EDUCATION IN GIS**
 * **Clark University Department of Geography**
 * **Penn State University Program in Geospatial Skills**
 * **UMBC (Maryland)**
 * **Western Michigan University W.E. Upjohn Center for the Study of Geographical Change **


 * OTHER**
 * **Barttlet Center for Advanced Spatial Analysis** Linked to UCL (London) with published case studies that are useful for HL Geography students.
 * **Biodiversity Informatics Facility:** A useful portal of information, data etc. sponsored by the Center for Biodiveristy Conservation (at the American Museum of Natural History), NOAH, NASA and others.
 * **Geo Community**. Portal for GIS users, professionals with data pages etc.
 * **Google Earth Outreach.** A portal of information linking users to a wide vareity of projects using Google tools (Earth, Maps etc.) for positive change.
 * **Google Earth Engine** An up and coming site of amazing magnitude that is hosting a wide variety of spatial andtemporal data (Landsat, MODIS imagery etc.) for users to be able to freely access.
 * **Hubble Telscope Site:** For amazing views of space and more from the ground breaking Hubble Telescope.
 * **Milton, MA GIS.** An example of how a local municipal area (my US neighborhood) used GIS for public information.
 * **Space Science & Engineering Center. **From the University of Wisconsin. Has excellent links to weather satellites etc.
 * **UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Program**.
 * **WWF Ecoregions Links Page.** A good site for lining into various conservation initiatives using remote sensing and GIS in their work.


 * PRINT RESOURCES FOR TEACHING GIS**
 * Clarke, Keith. //Getting Started with Geographic Information Systems, 5th Edition//. Upper Saddle River, Pearson Prentice Hall, 2011. Print. Companion website (password required)
 * Heywood, Ian, Sarah Cornelius and Steve Carver. //An Introduction to Geographic Information Systems, 4th Edition//. Essex,Pearson Prentice Hall, 2011. Print. Companion website. Instructor's Resources.
 * Horning, Ned et al. //Remote// //Sensing for Ecology & Conservation//. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. Print.
 * Jensen, John R. //Remote Sensing of the Environment: An Earth Resource Perspective//. Upper Saddle River, Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007.
 * Kimerling, A. Jon. et al. //Map Use, Sixth Edition//. Redlands, ESRI Press, 2009. Print. Review of book.
 * O'Connor, Peter. //GIS for A-Level Geography//. United Kingdom: ESRI UK & Geographical Association, 2008. Print.
 * Palmer, Anita et al. // Mapping Our World Using GIS: Our World GIS Education. //Redlands, ESRI Press, 2009. Print.


 * VIDEO RESOURCES FOR TEACHING GIS **
 * ** Penn State Geospatial Revolution ** ( a useful video introduction to changes in technology and their applications)
 * Part I
 * Part II
 * Part III
 * x