GIS data sources, tools, and references
← Back to Map
Used in AeroPlanimetry
Tested — partial/limited use
Tested — unavailable/blocked

🗺 Base Maps & Tile Services

Tile-based background map services used as visual foundations for geographic data overlays.

OpenStreetMap
UsedOpen DataFree
ESRI World Topo Map
ESRI's global topographic basemap with detailed roads, place names, and terrain shading. Served as WMTS tiles.
UsedFree Tier
ESRI World Imagery
High-resolution satellite and aerial imagery worldwide. Provided by Maxar, Earthstar Geographics, and others.
UsedFree Tier
Styled tile maps including Outdoors, Landscape, and Transport themes. Requires a free API key. Included in app but API key needed.
API Key RequiredFree Tier
USGS Topo (National Map)
USGS 7.5-minute topographic quadrangle maps for the USA. Includes topo lines, trails, and hydrography.
UsedPublic DomainFree
USGS Imagery (National Map)
USGS orthoimage basemap covering the USA. Also available as Imagery+Topo composite.
UsedPublic DomainFree
ESRI Hillshade & Shaded Relief
ESRI hillshade, dark hillshade, and shaded relief tiles. Useful as semi-transparent overlays to enhance terrain perception.
UsedFree Tier
Macrostrat Geology Tiles
Global geologic map tile service from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. CORS open, zoom 0–12. Also provides REST query API.
UsedCC BY 4.0Free

🕰️ Historical Maps & Imagery

Georeferenced historical maps, archival satellite imagery, and vintage cartographic collections available as tile services or online viewers.

ESRI Wayback World Imagery
Archive of global satellite imagery snapshots from 2014 to present, updated monthly. 193 releases available as free tile layers. Used in AeroPlanimetry's Historical Imagery viewer.
Provider: Esri  |  Coverage: Global  |  Format: XYZ Tiles  |  Free
National Library of Scotland — Historical Maps API
Georeferenced 19th-century and Edwardian Ordnance Survey and Bartholomew maps of Scotland and Great Britain. Official tile service via MapTiler Cloud (API key required; free non-commercial tier available). Pending MapTiler Cloud integration on AeroPlanimetry Historical page.
Provider: National Library of Scotland  |  Coverage: Scotland  |  Format: XYZ Tiles  |  Free
David Rumsey Map Collection
Over 147,000 historical maps online, covering the 16th through 21st centuries. Each georeferenced map can be overlaid on modern maps via the Georeferencer viewer. Free public access; individual maps have WMTS endpoints.
Provider: David Rumsey / Stanford  |  Coverage: Global  |  Format: Online Viewer / WMTS  |  Free
Library of Congress Map Collections
Thousands of digitized historical maps including Civil War maps, Sanborn fire insurance maps (showing historic city layouts), and exploration-era cartography. Free to view and download.
Provider: Library of Congress  |  Coverage: USA focus  |  Format: Online Viewer  |  Free
Old Maps Online
Aggregator for historical maps from libraries and archives worldwide. Search by geographic area and time period. Maps sourced from institutions including the British Library, David Rumsey, and national archives.
Provider: Klokan Technologies  |  Coverage: Global  |  Format: Online Viewer  |  Free
NLS Historical Map Series — OS 1-inch 3rd Edition (1901–1913)
Edwardian-era Ordnance Survey 1-inch coloured maps of Scotland and England. Free XYZ tiles from NLS S3.
Provider: National Library of Scotland  |  Coverage: Scotland & England  |  Zoom: 10–15  |  Free
NLS Bartholomew Half-Inch Maps (1897–1920s)
Victorian and Edwardian commercial maps of Great Britain and England & Wales by John Bartholomew & Son. Also includes a Bartholomew world map from the 1890s. Free XYZ tiles from NLS S3.
Provider: National Library of Scotland  |  Coverage: Great Britain / World  |  Free
NLS London Large-Scale Maps (1890s & 1940s)
Detailed large-scale maps of London from the Victorian era (1890s) and WWII era (1940s). Shows streets, buildings, and infrastructure as they existed at those times. Zoom 12–16. Free XYZ tiles from NLS S3.
Provider: National Library of Scotland  |  Coverage: London  |  Free
NLS GSGS 3906 & 3908 — WWII British Military Maps
British Army WWII military map series (Geographical Section General Staff Nos. 3906 and 3908) covering Scotland and Northern England. Rare georeferenced military topographic surveys. Zoom 10–13. Free XYZ tiles from NLS S3.
Provider: National Library of Scotland  |  Coverage: Scotland / N.England  |  Free
NLS England — New Popular Edition (1940s)
OS New Popular Edition maps of England produced during WWII. Shows wartime England including infrastructure and settlements. Zoom 8–13. Free XYZ tiles from NLS S3.
Provider: National Library of Scotland  |  Coverage: England  |  Free

🇺🇸 USA Data Sources

Federal and state government geographic data services for the United States.

USGS National Map
USGS portal for topographic, hydrology, boundaries, and elevation data. Source for topo quads, NHD, WBD, and more.
UsedPublic DomainFree
USGS NHDPlus HR Hydrology
High-resolution National Hydrography Dataset. Streams, rivers, waterbodies for the USA.
UsedPublic DomainFree
USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset (WBD)
Hydrologic unit boundaries at multiple scales (HUC4 through HUC12) for the USA.
UsedPublic DomainFree
USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (SGMC)
National geologic map of the USA compiled from state surveys. Tile display only — no identify endpoint available.
UsedPublic DomainFree
USGS Quaternary Fault & Fold Database
Active and potentially active faults and folds in the USA. Queryable — returns fault name and activity.
UsedPublic DomainFree
USGS Earthquake Hazards Program
Real-time earthquake data, historic events, and tectonic plate boundary layers. Updated continuously.
UsedPublic DomainFree
USGS MRLC — NLCD Land Cover
National Land Cover Database (NLCD 2021) classifying USA land use into 20 categories via WMS GetFeatureInfo.
UsedPublic DomainFree
USDA Web Soil Survey (WSS)
USDA NRCS soil map units for the USA. Visual display only — query via SDMDataAccess WMS.
UsedPublic DomainFree
USFWS National Wetlands Inventory (NWI)
Wetland type and classification for the USA. Queryable at zoom 12+. Covers all 50 states.
UsedPublic DomainFree
USFWS Critical Habitat
Final and proposed critical habitat designations for threatened and endangered species.
UsedPublic DomainFree
USFS/USGS MTBS Burned Areas
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) — all fire perimeters in the USA since 1984.
UsedPublic DomainFree
NOAA/NWS Weather Warnings
Real-time weather watches, warnings, and advisories. Updates continuously from National Weather Service.
UsedPublic DomainFree
NOAA MRMS Precipitation
Multi-Radar Multi-Sensor 24-hour quantitative precipitation estimate. Real-time radar-based rainfall data.
UsedPublic DomainFree
US Census TIGER/Line
Census Bureau geographic boundaries — states, counties, congressional districts, and more. Used for state/county name queries.
UsedPublic DomainFree
USDA Forest Service EDW
Forest Service Enterprise Data Warehouse — National Forest boundaries, Ranger Districts, MTBS fire history, and more.
UsedPublic DomainFree
USDA NAIP Aerial Imagery
National Agriculture Imagery Program — high-resolution aerial photography for the contiguous USA. Updated every 1–3 years.
UsedPublic DomainFree
HIFLD Electric Transmission Lines
High-voltage electric power transmission lines across the USA. Queryable via the Reference Overlay layer (500m radius).
UsedPublic DomainFree
USGS Government Units
Federal land boundaries — National Parks, Wilderness, BLM, USFWS, Military, Native American areas. Query returns tribal area names.
UsedPublic DomainFree
BLM Areas of Critical Env. Concern
BLM-designated Areas of Critical Environmental Concern on public lands in the western USA. Visual display only.
UsedPublic DomainFree
ISRIC SoilGrids
Global soil property predictions — pH, clay%, sand%, and organic carbon at depth intervals. Point-based REST API.
UsedCC BY 4.0Free
Utah Geological Survey (UGS)
Utah 1:500,000 geologic map with rock unit identification. Queryable at zoom 7+.
UsedPublic DomainFree
Texas Bureau of Economic Geology
Texas 1:250,000 Geologic Atlas with rock unit identification and geologic ages.
UsedPublic DomainFree
California Geological Survey (CGS)
California geologic map and fault activity map. Currently requires authentication token — query endpoint blocked.
Token RequiredPublic DomainFree

🌍 Global Data Sources

Worldwide geographic data services available across all regional pages.

Macrostrat (UW-Madison)
Global geologic map database from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Returns rock unit name, lithology, and formation description worldwide.
UsedCC BY 4.0Free
OSM Nominatim
OpenStreetMap's geocoding and reverse geocoding service. Returns location name, country, and address for any coordinate.
UsedODbLFree
USGS Tectonic Plate Boundaries
Global tectonic plate boundary layer. Queryable — returns plate names and boundary type (convergent, divergent, transform).
UsedPublic DomainFree
ESRI World Reference Overlay
Reference overlay with roads, boundaries, and place names worldwide. Used on all regional pages. Also proxies power line queries.
UsedFree Tier
ESRI World Transportation
Global roads, railroads, and airports overlay. Visual display only.
UsedFree Tier
OSM Geocoder (Go to Location)
Used by the Go to Location toolbar tool. Converts place names to coordinates worldwide.
UsedODbLFree

🗾 Regional Data Sources

Country and region-specific geographic data services.

LINZ Data Service (New Zealand)
Land Information New Zealand — aerial imagery, topographic raster, and hillshade for NZ.
UsedCC BY 4.0Free
NSW Spatial Services (Australia)
NSW government property boundaries (cadastral parcels). Queryable at zoom 12+.
UsedCC BY 4.0Free
QSpatial (Queensland, Australia)
Queensland government administrative boundaries and cadastral land parcels.
UsedCC BY 4.0Free
Natural Resources Canada (NRCan)
Canada Base Map and CLSS administrative boundaries (Aboriginal Lands, National Parks). WMS service.
UsedOpen GovernmentFree
IBGE (Brazil)
Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics — state and municipal boundaries via WMS/WFS.
UsedOpen DataFree
IGM Uruguay
Instituto Geográfico Militar (Uruguay) — national 1:50,000 topographic map via WMS.
UsedOpen DataFree
IGM Ecuador
Instituto Geográfico Militar (Ecuador) — national 1:1,000,000 topographic map via WMS.
UsedOpen DataFree
INGEMMET (Peru)
Peru Institute of Geology, Mining, and Metallurgy — base map, geology, political boundaries, and mining cadastre.
UsedOpen DataFree
GSJ (Japan Geological Survey)
Japan 1:200,000 geologic map from the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology.
UsedOpen DataFree
USGS Africa Ecosystems & Lithology
USGS Africa regional layers — terrestrial ecosystems and surface lithology for the African continent.
UsedPublic DomainFree
FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer (NFHL)
FEMA FIRM flood zone maps for the USA. Functional on Linux hosting but blocked on Windows due to TLS 1.3 incompatibility with Python's HTTP proxy.
Linux OnlyPublic DomainFree

🚫 Tested — Unavailable or Blocked

Services that were investigated but could not be integrated due to authentication requirements, IP restrictions, broken endpoints, or other technical limitations.

NPS Park Boundaries (National Park Service)
National Park Service ArcGIS services. IP allowlisted — resolves to private/reserved IP from external servers.
IP Blocked
PAD-US Protected Areas Database (USGS)
Protected Areas Database of the United States. Service endpoint returns 404 — URL may have changed.
404 Not Found
California Geological Survey (Identify)
Tile display works but identify/query now requires authentication token. Was working in earlier versions.
Token Required
USGS SGMC ArcGIS Identify
SGMC tiles work, but the ArcGIS REST identify endpoint returns 404. No spatial query capability available.
No Identify Endpoint
NIFC Current Fire Perimeters
National Interagency Fire Center active fire perimeters. Query endpoint returns 400 errors — invalid query parameter issue persistent.
Query Error 400
BLM ACEC Spatial Query
BLM Areas of Critical Environmental Concern — tile display works, but spatial query returns 400 for all geometry types despite claiming Query capability.
Query Error 400
USGS Volcano Hazards
Multiple USGS volcano service URLs tested — all return 404. Service may have been decommissioned or moved.
404 Not Found
USFS Wildfire Hazard Potential
USFS wildfire risk raster layer — returns 403 Forbidden from the RDW_Wildfire folder.
403 Forbidden
EPA Brownfields / Air Quality
EPA GeoPub and geopub.epa.gov ArcGIS services for brownfields and air quality — service not found on tested endpoints.
Service Not Found

🖥 Desktop GIS Software

Full-featured GIS applications for spatial analysis, cartography, and data processing.

QGIS
The leading free and open-source desktop GIS. Supports vector, raster, and database layers. Excellent plugin ecosystem. Available for Windows, Mac, Linux.
Open SourceFree
ArcGIS Pro (ESRI)
ESRI's professional desktop GIS. Industry standard for enterprise spatial analysis, cartography, and 3D visualization. Subscription-based.
Commercial
GRASS GIS
Geographic Resources Analysis Support System. Powerful raster/vector analysis and remote sensing. Used by academic researchers and government agencies worldwide.
Open SourceFree
SAGA GIS
System for Automated Geoscientific Analyses. Excellent for terrain analysis, hydrology modeling, and environmental sciences.
Open SourceFree
gvSIG
Open-source GIS with strong cartographic capabilities. Popular in Latin America and Spain. Supports WMS, WFS, and PostGIS.
Open SourceFree
Manifold GIS
High-performance desktop GIS with GPU-accelerated processing. Unique parallelized engine for large datasets. One-time license.
Commercial
Global Mapper
Versatile GIS tool known for its file format support (300+), terrain analysis, and lidar processing. Popular with geologists and surveyors.
Commercial
TNTgis (MicroImages)
Full GIS, remote sensing, and image processing suite. Free TNTlite version available with dataset size limits.
Free TierCommercial

🌐 Web GIS Platforms

Cloud-based and browser-based GIS platforms for data hosting, analysis, and sharing.

ArcGIS Online (ESRI)
Cloud-based GIS platform for hosting, analyzing, and sharing spatial data. The backbone of many government open data portals. Free public account available.
Free TierCommercial
Felt
Modern collaborative web mapping platform. Drag-and-drop file upload, team editing, rich basemap options. Free for personal use.
Free Tier
Kepler.gl (Foursquare)
Open-source browser-based large-scale geospatial data visualization tool. Excellent for point clouds, heatmaps, and 3D analysis.
Open SourceFree
geojson.io
Quick browser-based tool for creating, editing, and viewing GeoJSON, KML, and CSV geographic data.
Open SourceFree
Mapbox
Developer platform for custom maps and location services. Industry-leading style editor, vector tiles, and navigation APIs.
Free TierCommercial
Google Earth Engine
Cloud-based platform for planetary-scale geospatial analysis. Access to petabytes of satellite imagery and a JavaScript/Python API. Free for research.
Free (Research)
MapHub
Simple web platform for creating and sharing annotated maps. Supports GeoJSON, KML, GPX. Good for non-technical users.
Free Tier
deck.gl (Uber/Vis.gl)
WebGL-powered framework for large-scale data visualization on maps. Handles millions of data points in real time.
Open SourceFree

🔧 Developer Libraries & APIs

JavaScript and Python libraries for building GIS applications and processing geospatial data.

MapML / maps4html
The HTML-native mapping framework used to build AeroPlanimetry. W3C Maps for HTML Community Group proposal. Leaflet-based under the hood.
UsedOpen SourceFree
Leaflet.js
The leading open-source JavaScript library for mobile-friendly interactive maps. Lightweight, extensible, and widely adopted. Powers MapML.
Open SourceFree
OpenLayers
Full-featured JavaScript mapping library. Stronger than Leaflet for WMS/WFS, projections, and vector tile support.
Open SourceFree
MapLibre GL JS
Open-source fork of Mapbox GL JS. GPU-accelerated vector tile rendering in the browser. Supports 3D terrain and custom styles.
Open SourceFree
CesiumJS
JavaScript library for 3D globes and maps in the browser. Supports 3D Tiles, KML, GeoJSON, and terrain. Used for visualizing satellite orbits and 3D city models.
Open SourceFree
GeoPandas (Python)
Python library extending pandas for geospatial operations — reading shapefiles, spatial joins, projections, and plotting.
Open SourceFree
Shapely (Python)
Python library for manipulation and analysis of planar geometric objects — intersection, union, buffer, and more.
Open SourceFree
Rasterio (Python)
Python library for reading and writing geospatial raster data. Works with GeoTIFF, NetCDF, and other formats using GDAL under the hood.
Open SourceFree
GDAL/OGR
The universal translator for geospatial data formats. Supports 200+ raster and vector formats. Foundation of most GIS software.
Open SourceFree

📋 Standards & Specifications

OGC WMS (Web Map Service)
Open Geospatial Consortium standard for serving georeferenced map images over the internet. Used for GetMap and GetFeatureInfo requests.
Free Spec
OGC WFS (Web Feature Service)
Standard for serving geographic features (vector data) in GML or GeoJSON. Used for querying individual feature attributes.
Free Spec
OGC WMTS (Web Map Tile Service)
Standard for serving pre-rendered map tiles in a grid. Faster than WMS for display. Used by most modern basemap services.
Free Spec
GeoJSON Specification (RFC 7946)
JSON-based format for encoding geographic data structures. The de facto standard for web mapping APIs.
Free Spec
MapML Specification
The HTML-native mapping format used by AeroPlanimetry. W3C Maps for HTML Community Group draft specification.
Free Spec
EPSG.io — Coordinate Systems
Searchable database of all EPSG coordinate reference systems. Essential for understanding projections and datums.
Free

📚 Learning Resources

ESRI Training (Free Courses)
ESRI offers many free courses on GIS fundamentals, ArcGIS, spatial analysis, and remote sensing. Good for beginners and professionals.
Free Courses
QGIS Tutorials and Tips
Comprehensive tutorials for QGIS covering everything from basic map creation to advanced spatial analysis and Python scripting.
Free
Spatial Thoughts
Free and paid courses on QGIS, Google Earth Engine, Python for GIS, and spatial data science. High quality practical tutorials.
Free + Paid
Automating GIS Processes (Helsinki)
University of Helsinki open course on GIS automation using Python (GeoPandas, Shapely, Rasterio). Excellent for developers.
Free
ArcGIS REST API Reference
Essential documentation for the ArcGIS REST API — Identify, Query, and Export operations used extensively in AeroPlanimetry.
Free

🗄 Open Data Portals

Repositories for finding and downloading geospatial datasets.

Data.gov (USA)
US government open data portal. Thousands of geospatial datasets from federal agencies.
Open DataFree
USGS EarthExplorer
Search and download satellite imagery, aerial photography, digital elevation models, and more from USGS.
Public DomainFree
Natural Earth
Public domain world vector and raster map data. Cultural, physical, and raster themes at 1:10m, 1:50m, and 1:110m scales.
Public DomainFree
ESRI Open Data Hub
Thousands of open datasets published by government and nonprofit organizations through ArcGIS Hub.
Open DataFree
Overture Maps Foundation
Open map data from Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and TomTom. Buildings, places, transportation, and admins. Free to download and use.
Open DataFree
GADM — Global Administrative Areas
Database of global administrative boundaries (country, province, district) in multiple formats. Free for non-commercial use.
Free (Non-commercial)
GEBCO — General Bathymetric Chart of Oceans
Global ocean and land elevation data. High-quality bathymetric grid for the world's oceans. Freely downloadable.
Open DataFree
OpenTopography
Community platform for high-resolution topographic data — lidar point clouds, DEMs, and derived products.
Open DataFree