Searching for the best global GIS database for your project? Check out the new ADC WorldMap v7.3.
Working on a global GIS or mapping project is a challenge on multiple levels but one of the first problems you will face is what spatial data should you use. When you need a seamless geographic data for the whole Earth of a proven quality and at a comfortable cost there is one dataset you should look at – ADC WorldMap.
This week American Digital Cartography, Inc. released their latest version of the ADC WorldMap Digital Atlas v7.3. The company has been improving and updating this dataset for the past 2 decades. It contains 43 detail layers and tables with cities, capitals, seas & bays, POIs, world coastlines, parks and protected areas among other. The latest release includes current country and first level political boundaries for the entire world and over 39,900 second level political boundaries in 137 countries.
So why would you choose it over other data sources like OpenStreetMap? When the scope of your project is a region or country and the crowd-sourced data quality (which is really great but not guaranteed) is good enough, the OSM might indeed be a good option for you. But once you move to continental or global scale analyzing, filtering and processing that sort of level or detail can simply kill your project. I did such an exercise for a single European country a couple of years ago and it took me two weeks… Doing it for the whole continent or world would take much longer than that.
With ADC WorldMap the American Digital Cartography has managed to create a geographic dataset that balances data integrity, availability in a key GIS formats, flexible customization and licensing options as well as the level of details that is just right for the global GIS project.
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For this year’s Geo Awareness Week (November 13-19) GIS Cloud introduces another GIS Day Contest project challenge, awarding best project ideas that contribute to local communities around the world.
The main goal of the contest is to promote initiative in creating meaningful and relevant mapping projects, while showing how innovative geo technologies might benefit to people with different backgrounds.
Project awards
- support in conducting the project idea (GIS Cloud Premium licenses for free, including storage and full user support)
- project promotion
- GIS Cloud acknowledgment and certification of participation
Who can apply?
Private citizens, non-profit and other organizations with socially relevant project ideas.
If you are a college/university student, attending elementary/high school, part of the academic staff, an activist, start-up company, an organization or a person who wants to make a valuable contribution to a local community, you are eligible to apply for the GIS Day Contest project awards. Application language and support is in English.
Examples of project ideas (who won the award in 2015):
- Malaria Risk Map Project (Nigeria)
- Mapping Tribal Burial Grounds in New Zealand
- Disaster Management in Jakarta
Important note: You don’t have to worry about detailed project plan. We are rewarding an idea, not the fully elaborated project.
Application deadline: November 18th, 2016 (00:00 in your timezone)
Selection Criteria:
- Community impact
- Realization potential (is it realistic that project will be accomplished)
- Original and innovative application of geo technologyContest results will be published one week after the applications deadline.
If you have any questions about GIS Day contest, contact GIS Cloud here.
How to apply?
Just fill in the form on the GIS Cloud official blog (at the bottom of the page).
