1990 + 2000 GIS Data

Source: http://www.lincolninst.edu/subcenters/atlas-urban-expansion/gis-data.aspx

Ho Chi Minh City but not yet Phnom Penh.

The GIS data used in the analysis and in making the maps can be downloaded from the table below. GIS software, such as ArcGIS, is required to view these data.

For each city in the 120 city sample, these data include:

1. two urban land cover maps, one circa 1990 and one circa 2000;
2. the administrative boundary shapefile;
3. two maps of the urban landscape categories, one circa 1990 and one circa 2000;
4. the map of new development categories (infill, extension, leapfrog).

For each city in the 30 city historical sample, these data include the urbanized area shapefiles for each time period.

City	Country	Region	120 city GIS Data	30 city GIS Data
Accra	Ghana	Sub-Saharan Africa	Download	Download
Addis Ababa	Ethiopia	Sub-Saharan Africa	Download	n/a
Ahvaz	Iran	South & Central Asia	Download	n/a
Akashi	Japan	Europe & Japan	Download	n/a
Alexandria	Egypt	Northern Africa	Download	n/a
Algiers	Algeria	Northern Africa	Download	Download
Anqing	China	Eastern Asia & the Pacific	Download	n/a
Ansan	Korea, Republic of	Eastern Asia & the Pacific	Download	n/a
Astrakhan	Russian Federation	Europe & Japan	Download	n/a
Aswan	Egypt	Northern Africa	Download	n/a
Bacolod	Philippines	Southeast Asia	Download	n/a
Baku	Azerbaijan	Western Asia	Download	n/a
Bamako	Mali	Sub-Saharan Africa	Download	n/a
Bandung	Indonesia	Southeast Asia	Download	n/a
Bangkok	Thailand	Southeast Asia	Download	Download
Banjul	Gambia	Sub-Saharan Africa	Download	n/a
Beijing	China	Eastern Asia & the Pacific	Download	Download
Budapest	Hungary	Europe & Japan	Download	n/a
Buenos Aires	Argentina	Latin America & the Caribbean	Download	Download
Cairo	Egypt	Northern Africa	Download	Download
Caracas	Venezuela	Latin America & the Caribbean	Download	n/a
Casablanca	Morocco	Northern Africa	Download	n/a
Castellon	Spain	Europe & Japan	Download	n/a
Cebu	Philippines	Southeast Asia	Download	n/a
Changzhi	China	Eastern Asia & the Pacific	Download	n/a
Chicago	United States	Land-Rich Developed Countries	Download	Download
Chinju	Korea, Republic of	Eastern Asia & the Pacific	Download	n/a
Chonan	Korea, Republic of	Eastern Asia & the Pacific	Download	n/a
Cincinnati	United States	Land-Rich Developed Countries	Download	n/a
Coimbatore	India	South & Central Asia	Download	n/a
Dhaka	Bangladesh	South & Central Asia	Download	n/a
Fukuoka	Japan	Europe & Japan	Download	n/a
Gorgan	Iran	South & Central Asia	Download	n/a
Guadalajara	Mexico	Latin America & the Caribbean	Download	n/a
Guangzhou	China	Eastern Asia & the Pacific	Download	n/a
Guaruja	Brazil	Latin America & the Caribbean	Download	n/a
Guatemala City	Guatemala	Latin America & the Caribbean	Download	Download
Harare	Zimbabwe	Sub-Saharan Africa	Download	n/a
Ho Chi Minh City	Vietnam	Southeast Asia	Download	n/a
Hong Kong	China	Eastern Asia & the Pacific	Download	n/a
Houston	United States	Land-Rich Developed Countries	Download	n/a
Hyderabad	India	South and Central Asia	Download	n/a
Ibadan	Nigeria	Sub-Saharan Africa	Download	n/a
Ilheus	Brazil	Latin America & the Caribbean	Download	n/a
Ipoh	Malaysia	Southeast Asia	Download	n/a
Istanbul	Turkey	Western Asia	Download	Download
Jaipur	India	South & Central Asia	Download	n/a
Jalna	India	South & Central Asia	Download	n/a
Jedda	Saudi Arabia	Western Asia	n/a	Download
Jequie	Brazil	Latin America & the Caribbean	Download	n/a
Johannesburg	South Africa	Sub-Saharan Africa	Download	Download
Kampala	Uganda	Sub-Saharan Africa	Download	n/a
Kanpur	India	South & Central Asia	Download	n/a
Kigali	Rwanda	Sub-Saharan Africa	Download	n/a
Kingston	Jamaica	Latin America & the Caribbean	Download	n/a
Kolkata	India	South & Central Asia	Download	Download
Kuala Lumpur	Malaysia	Southeast Asia	Download	n/a
Kuwait City	Kuwait	Western Asia	Download	Download
Lagos	Nigeria	Sub-Saharan Africa	n/a	Download
Leipzig	Germany	Europe & Japan	Download	n/a
Le Mans	France	Europe & Japan	Download	n/a
Leshan	China	Eastern Asia & the Pacific	Download	n/a
London	United Kingdom	Europe & Japan	Download	Download
Los Angeles	United States	Land-Rich Developed Countries	Download	Download
Madrid	Spain	Europe & Japan	Download	n/a
Malatya	Turkey	Western Asia	Download	n/a
Manila	Philippines	Southeast Asia	Download	Download
Marrakech	Morocco	Northern Africa	Download	n/a
Medan	Indonesia	Southeast Asia	Download	n/a
Mexico City	Mexico	Latin America & the Caribbean	Download	Download
Milano	Italy	Europe & Japan	Download	n/a
Minneapolis	United States	Land-Rich Developed Countries	Download	n/a
Modesto	United States	Land-Rich Developed Countries	Download	n/a
Montevideo	Uruguay	Latin America & the Caribbean	Download	n/a
Moscow	Russian Federation	Europe & Japan	Download	Download
Mumbai	India	South & Central Asia	Download	Download
Nairobi	Kenya	Sub-Saharan Africa	n/a	Download
Ndola	Zambia	Sub-Saharan Africa	Download	n/a
Oktyabrsky	Russian Federation	Europe & Japan	Download	n/a
Ouagadougou	Burkina Faso	Sub-Saharan Africa	Download	n/a
Palembang	Indonesia	Southeast Asia	Download	n/a
Palermo	Italy	Europe & Japan	Download	n/a
Paris	France	Europe & Japan	Download	Download
Philadelphia	United States	Land-Rich Developed Countries	Download	n/a
Pittsburgh	United States	Land-Rich Developed Countries	Download	n/a
Port Sudan	Sudan	Northern Africa	Download	n/a
Pretoria	South Africa	Sub-Saharan Africa	Download	n/a
Puna	India	South & Central Asia	Download	n/a
Pusan	Korea, Republic of	Eastern Asia & the Pacific	Download	n/a
Rajshahi	Bangladesh	South & Central Asia	Download	n/a
Ribeirao Preto	Brazil	Latin America & the Caribbean	Download	n/a
Saidpur	Bangladesh	South & Central Asia	Download	n/a
Sanaa	Yemen	Western Asia	Download	n/a
San Salvador	El Salvador	Latin America & the Caribbean	Download	n/a
Santiago	Chile	Latin America & the Caribbean	Download	Download
Sao Paulo	Brazil	Latin America & the Caribbean	Download	Download
Seoul	Korea, Republic of	Eastern Asia & the Pacific	Download	n/a
Shanghai	China	Eastern Asia & the Pacific	Download	Download
Sheffield	United Kingdom	Europe & Japan	Download	n/a
Shimkent	Kazakhstan	South and Central Asia	Download	n/a
Singapore	Singapore	Southeast Asia	Download	n/a
Songkhla	Thailand	Southeast Asia	Download	n/a
Springfield	United States	Land-Rich Developed Countries	Download	n/a
St Catharines	Canada	Land-Rich Developed Countries	Download	n/a
Sydney	Australia	Land-Rich Developed Countries	Download	Download
Tacoma	United States	Land-Rich Developed Countries	Download	n/a
Tebessa	Algeria	Northern Africa	Download	n/a
Teheran	Iran	South & Central Asia	Download	Download
Tel Aviv	Israel	Western Asia	Download	Download
Thessaloniki	Greece	Europe & Japan	Download	n/a
Tijuana	Mexico	Latin America & the Caribbean	Download	n/a
Tokyo	Japan	Europe & Japan	Download	Download
Ulan Bator	Mongolia	Eastern Asia & the Pacific	Download	n/a
Valledupar	Colombia	Latin America & the Caribbean	Download	n/a
Victoria	Canada	Land-Rich Developed Countries	Download	n/a
Vijayawada	India	South & Central Asia	Download	n/a
Warsaw	Poland	Europe & Japan	Download	Download
Wien	Austria	Europe & Japan	Download	n/a
Yerevan	Armenia	Western Asia	Download	n/a
Yiyang	China	Eastern Asia & the Pacific	Download	n/a
Yulin	China	Eastern Asia & the Pacific	Download	n/a
Zhengzhou	China	Eastern Asia & the Pacific	Download	n/a
Zugdidi	Georgia	Western Asia	Download	n/a

PM’s land titling scheme full of ambiguity

Hmm. The camo uniforms are unnerving. Source: Phnom Penh Post Friday, 06 July 2012

About 400 youth volunteers depart Phnom Penh yesterday to take part in a land measurement program organised by the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction. Photograph: Heng Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post

Adorned in new military uniforms, about 400 more young volunteers who have been enlisted into Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ambitious national land-titling scheme departed from Diamond Island yesterday armed with measuring tapes, computers and GPS units.

The budding surveyors are the latest group of some 2,000 students being dispatched across the country to measure land for families who claim to live in areas overlapping economic land concessions, though details of just how this will be implemented have been murky.

Im Chhun Lim, senior minister for the Ministry of Land Management, told the assembled volunteers yesterday they had six to eight weeks to help officials grant 1,200,000 hectares to villagers nationwide.

“After measuring, we will hand over land titles to the people free of charge,” he told the students, who are destined for 13 different provinces.

In total, the students had been divided into 168 groups to measure land for 350,000 families, Chhun Lim said.

The premier has stated clearly that the scheme will allow every family who has a claim overlapping an ELC to apply for a five-hectare plot, but the details of a plan to compensate those arguing they already occupy more land than this has remained ambiguous.

They are supposed to be able to apply for small ECLSs and a copy of the application forms for the leases obtained by the Post yesterday reveals the plots will be tax-free for five years but expire after 50.

Those granted the small ELCs will be bound to use the land for appropriate agriculture, cultivate it in a manner that does not conflict with the public interest or harm the environment and submit a five-year master plan, all at the threat of having the licences revoked.

Thun Saray, director of the rights group Adhoc, said in theory the small ELCs were a good idea, but how fairly they would granted was another question.

“The problem is to give the fairness to everybody, not only the people who are close to the power while the others are not,” he said.

He wondered what would happen to the children and grandchildren of families that had been granted 50-year small ECLs and called on the government to clearly explain these areas of ambiguity.

“I think the small economic land concession like this is beneficial for people who can do the business by themselves, but I am concerned about the implementation,” he said.

The scheme is being implemented by provincial or district officials and technical experts from the Ministry of Land Planning, Urbanisation and Construction, with the help of the students.

But at a village in Banteay Meanchey’s Puok district, confusion reigns among residents who think the students are responsible not just for measuring land but also awarding it.

Sanh Vanna, 27, from Thlork village in Banteay Chhmar, said that despite spending four days measuring land already, the volunteers were unwilling to act contrarily to the wishes of the National Development Company, which has a 4,667-hectare concession at the heart of a land dispute.

“The district governor said that when I identify how much land I have, the young people will provide land to me according to the amount of land I have, but the young people do not dare to trim land for villagers if the company does not allow them,” she said.

District governor Phlek Vary said a committee including officials from the Ministry of Environment and district authorities was still determining the details of land measurements.

“We will carry out the solution for the village as the foremost stop. The premier put a lot of attention on us because he always makes phone calls to us, almost every hour,” he said.

Caught in the middle of it all is 25-year-old Chhern Yong, a student from the Royal University of Law and Economy, who explained that the volunteers had no right to tackle disputes, only to measure land.

“Since I have been measuring the land for the residents, both the residents and the company always drop accusations of land-grabbing against each other,” he said.

Yong said his group of 12 volunteers had gained better training after meeting provincial experts and working in the field than they had at the ministry.

“The provincial experts allowed us to measure by ourselves, but we do not know how to deal with the residents that have more than five hectares of land, who we have never met yet,” he said.

---

To contact the reporter on this story: May Titthara at titthara.may@phnompenhpost.com
David Boyle at david.boyle@phnompenhpost.com

New NEC Districts

Source: http://teangtnaut.org/

Previously posted.

Phnom Penh Mapping Meet Up 5

PPMM5 presenter #1:

Tim Coulas, Cambodia Land Aministration Support Project http://www.salasan.com/frameset/people/cam-lmap.htm

PPMM5 presenter #2:

Paul Gager, US bombing of Cambodia http://blog.mangomap.com/post/18487155627/delving-into-us-bombing-data-1965-1975

PPMM5 presenter #3:

Den Nhov, Urban Voice Cambodia – an Ushahidi deployment for Phnom Penh http://urbanvoicecambodia.net/

 

Defining Resilience

Source: http://newamerica.net/events/2012/defining_resilience

The ability to bounce back, to absorb shocks, to persevere, to retain functionality over time, to endure, to adapt, to succeed, to survive, to sustain… so many verbs are conjured up by the term “resilience.” Whether we’re talking about our bodies, our minds, our communities, our institutions or our natural environment, the R-word provides a conceptual framework for designing a better tomorrow. Please join us for a wide-ranging inquiry on what it means to be resilient and what a resilient future could look like.

On Twitter? Join the conversation at #resilience

AGENDA

9:30 a.m. – The Quest for Human Resilience

Sander van der Leeuw – @ASUGreen
Dean, School of Sustainability, Arizona State University

Co-Chair, Complex Adaptive Systems Initiative, Arizona State University

9:50 a.m. – Resilient Cities: Rethinking the Urban Landscape

Kaid Benfield – @Kaid_at_NRDC
Director of Sustainable Communities, Natural Resources Defense Council

Justin Hollander – @justinhollander
Professor, Tufts University
Author, Sunburnt Cities: The Great Recession, Depopulation, and Urban Planning in the American Sunbelt

Sander van der Leeuw – @ASUGreen
Dean, School of Sustainability, Arizona State University
Co-Chair, Complex Adaptive Systems Initiative, Arizona State University

Moderator
Andrés Martinez – @NewAmerica
Vice President and Editorial Director, New America Foundation

10:40 a.m. – Resilience and the Sustainability of Buzzwords

Jesse Sheidlower – @JesseSheidlower
Editor at Large, Oxford English Dictionary
Author, The F-Word

10:55 a.m. – Resilient Constitution: Our Original Compact for the Ages Confronts “The Various Crises of Human Affairs”

Garrett Epps – @profepps
Professor of Law, University of Baltimore
Legal Affairs Editor, The American Prospect

Moderator
Emily Bazelon– @emilybazelon
Senior Editor, Slate

11:45 a.m. – Lunch break

12:00 p.m. – Resilient Design: It’s All in the Blueprint (video)

Bruce Mau – @brucemaudesign
Co-Founder and Director, Massive Change Network

12:10 p.m. – Resilient Word on the Street (video)

12:15 p.m. – Resilient Beast: Survival Tips from Sharks

Juliet Eilperin – @eilperin
Environment Reporter, The Washington Post
Author, Demon Fish: Travels Through The Hidden World of Sharks

Moderator
Joel Garreau– @ASUCollegeofLaw
Lincoln Professor of Law, Culture and Values, Arizona State University
Future Tense Fellow, New America Foundation

12:40 p.m. – Resilient Capitalism: How to Succeed in Business in a Changing World

Barry Lynn– @NewAmerica
Director, Markets Enterprise and Resiliency Initiative, New America Foundation
Author, End of the Line: The Rise and Coming Fall of the Global Corporation

Rob McNish — @McKQuarterly
Principal, Corporate Finance and Strategy Practice, McKinsey&Company

Moderator
Matt Yglesias – @mattyglesias
Moneybox Columnist, Slate

1:35 p.m. – Resilient Healthcare: Lessons from the Direst of Scenarios

Sheri Fink – @sherifink
Bernard L. Schwartz Fellow, New America Foundation
Winner of 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting on Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans

1:50 p.m. – Resilient Psyche: More than Recovery in Mind, and More than Oneself to Recover

Alex Zautra – @ASU
Professor, Department of Psychology, Arizona State University

2:05 p.m. – Resilient Homeland: Keep Calm and Carry On

Thad Allen (invited) – @BoozAllen
Admiral, United States Coast Guard (retired)
Senior Vice President, Booz Allen Hamilton

Darrell Darnell – @GWDarrellD
Senior Associate Vice President, George Washington University
Former Director, Critical Infrastructure Protection and Resilience Policy, White House National Security Staff

Patrick Doherty – @NewAmerica
Director, Smart Strategy Initiative, New America Foundation

            Jason McNamara – @FEMA
Chief of Staff, Federal Emergency Management Agency

Moderator
Amanda Ripley– @amandaripley

Emerson Fellow, New America Foundation
Author, The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes – And Why

2:50 p.m. – Resilient You: What To Do in an Emergency (Now That We’ve Defined Resilience)

Amanda Ripley – @amandaripley
Emerson Fellow, New America Foundation
Author, The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes – And Why

Institute for Water Resources U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Source: http://www.iwr.usace.army.mil/

Phnom Penh Spatial Data

Update 2019: I have posted everything I have here in lieu of the Dropbox – it is very likely out of date by now as I was in Cambodia 2011-13.  https://iastate.box.com/s/dtb5r0ampyps8ypbxye40l20p7sy2jux

I am now faculty at the ISU Department of Architecture if you have any questions I can do my best to help but everything I collected during my Fulbright and two years (2011-13) working in Cambodia is available here on City of Water, I posted all of the resources I found or made during this time.

• https://cityofwater.wordpress.com/summary/
• https://cityofwater.wordpress.com/resources/
• https://cityofwater.wordpress.com/print-resources/

Exhibits

• At Parsons: http://www.shelbydoyle.com/portfolio/water-politics-and-art-exhibit/
• At University of Houston: http://www.shelbydoyle.com/portfolio/pan-asia-mekong-exhibit-university-of-houston/

Articles + Chapters:

• https://www.academia.edu/27740061/City_of_Water_Architecture_Infrastructure_and_the_Floods_of_Phnom_Penh
• https://www.academia.edu/2502352/City_of_Water_Architecture_Urbanism_and_the_Floods_of_Phnom_Penh
• https://www.academia.edu/27740343/Learning_from_Las_Vegas_in_Phnom_Penh
• https://www.academia.edu/27740016/Critical_Travel_and_Work-_Mekong_Ho_Chi_Minh_to_Phnom_Penh
• https://www.academia.edu/5603147/Phnom_Penh_Rescue_Archaeology_Chapter

---

The below if for information only the links are no longer correct – please see the above.

You are invited to join the “Phnom Penh Spatial Data” Dropbox.

www.dropbox.com

Username: phnompenhspatialdata@gmail.com

Password: welovemaps

Our goals are:

1) To collect free and accurate spatial data and digital maps of Phnom Penh.

2) To improve access to material for urban research and mapmaking in Phnom Penh.

On the Dropbox you will find files organized by software type: AutoCAD, GIS, Rhino (3D model of the city), Adobe Illustrator and so on. As you will notice some of the folders are empty. Please feel free to add any data you might have and take anything that is useful to you (copy and paste if you drag it off Dropbox it will be deleted).

Additional urban resources for Phnom Penh: https://cityofwater.wordpress.com/resources/ and https://cityofwater.wordpress.com/print-resources/

Also if you are in town then, please join us for the monthly Phnom Penh Mapping Meetup:

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/PhnomPenhMappingMeetup

Google Group: https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!forum/phnom-penh-mapping-meetup

Happy Mapping,
Shelby Doyle, Architect + Fulbright Fellow, shelby.doyle@post.harvard.edu
Wil Waters, Engineers Without Borders + GIS Guru, wilfred.waters@gmail.com

Elevation Data Note: This is what I’ve collected. I do not yet have a) verifiable sources b) a workable ACAD file c) a 3D model

Rhino 3D V5 Model with Buildings of Phnom Penh – No Elevation Data
DXF Model with Buildings of Phnom Penh – No Elevation Data
DWG Model with Buildings of Phnom Penh – No Elevation Data
Source: Author 2011, based on below AutoCAD file 2003.
Note: The accuracy of the model is not verified. However, I hope it is a useful starting point for those of you doing work or research in Phnom Penh.

Buildings + Footprint Heights Phnom Penh AutoCAD
Buildings + Footprint Heights Phnom Penh XML
Source: Extracted by Wil Waters 2012 from below DWG file 2003.
A figure/ground Adobe Illustrator File (Mac CS5).
Source: Extracted from above AutoCAD file.

A figure/ground Adobe Illustrator File (Mac CS5). Version 1.
A figure/ground Adobe Illustrator File (Mac CS5). Version 2.
Source: Traced from tourist map by author 2012.

An AutoCAD map Version 1.
An AutoCAD map Version 2.
Source: Cambodian architecture students 2003.

Several tourists maps from various websites (at bottom of the linked page).
Source: Google search October 29, 2011.

From Cloudmade:

• phnom_penh.administrative.osm.bz2 (2.5K)
• phnom_penh.ai.zip (199.4K)
• phnom_penh.coastline.osm.bz2 (29.7K)
• phnom_penh.highway.osm.bz2 (195K)
• phnom_penh.img.zip (67.8K)
• phnom_penh.navit.bin.zip (92.2K)
• phnom_penh.osm.bz2 (191.3K)
• phnom_penh.poi.gpx.zip (14.9K)
• phnom_penh.poi.tomtom.zip (9.2K)
• phnom_penh.poly (5.9K)
• phnom_penh.shapefiles.zip (243.1K)

Source: http://downloads.cloudmade.com/asia/south-eastern_asia/cambodia/phnom_penh#downloads_breadcrumbs 13 December 2011

Phnom Penh – Cloud Made

Source: http://downloads.cloudmade.com/asia/south-eastern_asia/cambodia/phnom_penh#downloads_breadcrumbs

Last maps update: 13 December 2011
World Asia South-Eastern Asia Cambodia Phnom Penh

• phnom_penh.administrative.osm.bz2 (2.5K)
• phnom_penh.ai.zip (199.4K)
• phnom_penh.coastline.osm.bz2 (29.7K)
• phnom_penh.highway.osm.bz2 (195K)
• phnom_penh.img.zip (67.8K)
• phnom_penh.navit.bin.zip (92.2K)
• phnom_penh.osm.bz2 (191.3K)
• phnom_penh.poi.gpx.zip (14.9K)
• phnom_penh.poi.tomtom.zip (9.2K)
• phnom_penh.poly (5.9K)
• phnom_penh.shapefiles.zip (243.1K)

Open Source Mapping

During my thesis a friend of mine, Jeff Warren of Grassroots Mapping and the MIT Media Lab, introduced me to the concept of open source mapping. When my thesis site – Neft Dashlari (Oil Rocks) showed up on Google Earth only in name – he offered some tips on how to find other maps and posted them to the website. Another example: during the BP Gulf Oil Spill the group used grassroots mapping to map the extent of the oil spill – thereby offering an alternate narrative to the one told by the mainstream press.

Open Source Mapping Resources

OpenStreetmap
Open Street Map is a project that engages the public in the project of developing digital map data comparable with Google maps.

GeoFabrik Web Site
Geofabrik was created out of the conviction that free geodata created by projects like OpenStreetMap will become increasingly attractive for commercial uses.

More Mapping Resources

Google Maps
Google Earth
Bing Maps
Digital Globe
Mango Map
USGS Seamless Data Viewer
USGS Earth Explorer 
The United Nations Environnment Progarm GIS Data Bank.

GIS + Map Hunt Continued

I met yesterday with Paul Cote, the GSD GIS (Geographic Information Systems) guru – who has developed an amazing GIS Manual. The Harvard Library system also offers a very basic GIS tutorial and an introduction to GIS. GIS is new to me – until now I have mapped used Adobe Illustrator – which I think made a proper geographer like Paul cringe a bit.

According to Wikipedia: A geographic information system (GIS), geographical information system, or geospatial information system is a system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage and present all types of geographically referenced data. In the simplest terms, GIS is the merging of cartography, statistical analysis and database technology. GIS may be used in archaeology, geography, cartography, remote sensing,land surveying, public utility management, natural resource management, precision agriculture, photogrammetry, urban planning, emergency management, environmental contamination, landscape architecture,navigation, aerial video and localized search engines.

Paul uses Arc GIS. ArcGIS is a Geographic Information System package developed by Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI). While a student license appears to be affordable it is only valid for one year – meaning if I went that route I  would have to upgrade to a professional license in a year which looks to be $3,000+. The alternative: Open Source GIS Viewers/Software

Online Mapping Resources

Maryland Global Land Cover Facility
The GLCF is a center for land cover science with a focus on research using remotely sensed satellite data and products to assess land cover change for local to global systems.

Historic Maps
The historical map collection has over 27,800 maps and images online.

Harvard Geospatial Library
The Harvard Geospatial Library offers search tools for finding geographic data, GIS data for download, and on-line geographic data exploration tools.

National Geographic Map Machine
This site facilitates full color mapping of world to street level geography. Users can also view and print historical and atlas maps, flags, facts, and even portions of Mars.

US Census Bureau American Fact Finder
Here users can produce basic thematic maps using 2000 US Census data. Users can also download the tabular information or map image.

Map Libraries
Earth Science and Map Library at the University of California at Berkeley Bodleian Library
Cornell Map Collection
University of Florida
James Ford Bell Library’s Historical Map Collection at the University of Minnesota
Library of Congress Map Collections
University of Minnesota Borchert Map Library
New York Public Library Map Division
University of Texas Map Collection