Finding Guides

Can be used as images or for digitizing features, such as hydro-bodies, roads, outlines of buildings, or for classification of land use and land cover. GIS and/or image processing software is required.

For aviation and navigation purposes

A collection of maps with a specific thematic or geographic focus. Explanatory text, charts and tables are usually included.

For depiction and visualization of social/economic characteristics of geographic entities in the United States, ranging from states, counties and municipalities to census blocks and block groups

Profiles of each country, including topography, hydrography, major cities, roads, land use, population, etc. Most current maps are in .sid format, which requires GIS software (such as ArcMap) to view and print.

Geo-political features for countries of the world

Terrain modeling, generation of river basins, etc.

Vector data layers for North America, Europe and the world

Identification of flood zones and related insurance regulations

Identification of geographic places, names and their geographic coordinates

Details on geological structure of regions. Some include information on rocks and rock formations.

In-class instructional and display purposes

Historical maps of many major US cities, as well as Europe and Japan. Our collection also includes many maps published by the National Geographic Society.

Geospatial data derived from Landsat imagery, offers categories of land cover information suitable for state and regional applications such as landscape analysis and environmental modeling. GIS and/or image processing software is required.

Visualization of finer scale elevation and flood modeling. GIS and/or image processing software is required.

Comprehensive information about park boundaries, trails, land cover, infrastructure, topography and hydrography of national forests and parks

Maps depicting vegetation, hydrography of wetlands and deepwater habitats

Depth of water bodies, tide tables and other navigational information

Digital scanned maps of historic buildings in major cities. These are fire insurance maps created by the Sanborn Map Company.

For land classification and detection of natural resources. GIS and/or image processing software (such as ArcMap, ENVI) is required.

Modeling and disaster response

Geospatial vector boundaries of property parcels. GIS software (such as ArcMap) is required.

Topographic maps come in many scales. The three basic scales for the United States are 1:24,000, 1:100,000 and 1:250,000. They provide information such as location of cities, roads, lakes, streams, schools, longitude and latitude, UTM coordinates, township range and section, etc. 1:500,000 world tactical pilotage charts are also available.

Display and analysis for transportation in the US

Roads, boundaries, population centers, elevation, hydrography, and aerial photographs. GIS and/or image processing software required.

Wall maps to enhance lectures and classroom activities

Online databases, which offer free data for download