Maps and Atlases
United
States Geological Survey (USGS)
The Geography Division (formerly
Mapping) meets the Nation's need for basic geospatial data, and is the
primary government distributor of topographic, geologic, and hydrologic
maps of the U.S., as well as numerous Products
in geospatial data and information.
The
National Map is the agency's flagship interactive map service, offering
nationwide coverage at limited resolutions for transportation, hydrography,
elevation, land cover, and cultural features.
GEODE,
or GEODATA Explorer provides digital geographically referenced
data to policymakers, land and resource managers, educators, industries,
and private citizens.
National
Atlas of the United States delivers views of America's natural
and sociocultural landscapes. In addition to maps, the Atlas
includes geospatial data such as soils or watersheds, and geostatistical
data such as crime, population, and disease.
Earth
Resources Observation Systems (EROS) Data Center is a data management,
systems development and research center. Among its many ongoing
projects are:
Land
Cover Characterization program for global and national land
cover datasets.
The National
Elevation Dataset, to provide elevation data for the United
States.
The Seamless
Data Distribution System for domestic and international datasets.
GISDATA
Map Studio provides access to geospatial datasets for seamless
access and delivery. Some have national extent, others were prepared
for a particular project. The site focuses upon preservation
of past datasets, but new products are continuously added. These
include a series of interactive maps drawn from the National
Map, such as:
The
Amphibian Research
and Monitoring Initiative, a cooperative program for researching
the effects of environmental change upon the Nation's amphibians.
The Hazards Data
Distribution System, which provides dynamic interface to the
study of natural hazards.
The EROS
Data Center Orthoimagery site provides graphics and ortho-imagery
of a growing number of cities and metropolitan areas.
The KidsViewer
provides educational information drawn from the National Map.
AmericaView
is a joint project of the USGS and the AmericaView Consoritium that
seeks to expand remote sensing education through a network of state
consortia., focusing on support of applied research, K-16 education,
workforce development, and technology transfer. Membership is
required.
Geographic
Names Information System is our Nation's official repository of
domestic geographic names information, containing geographic names for
almost 2 million known places, features, and areas in the United States
that are identified by a proper name.
GeoMAC,
or Geospatial Multi-Agency
Coordination, provides a online mapping tool for the study of
and response to wildfires in the continental U.S. and Alaska.
The National
Hydrography Data Set is a comprehensive spatial dataset that contains
information about surface water features such as lakes, ponds, streams,
rivers, springs and wells. It employs its own Data
Viewer that provides access to downloadable datasets that are
available.
The
U.S. Atlantic Coast interactive map server displays information
from a number of USGS marine research programs along the U.S. East
coast and a composite mosaic of the U.S. East coast EEZ GLORIA side
scan sonar image.
SAGEMAP
provides support for management of sage grouse and sagebrush steppe
habitats in the western United States. The project identifies
and collects information to assess the current status of sage grouse
populations and their habitats, or to plan for recovery if sage grouse
are listed as a Threatened or Endangered Species. The Interactive
Mapper can provide data layers that are available for that spatial
extent.
The U.S.
Antarctic Research Center has an Atlas
of Antarctic Research to promote geographic awareness of the continent
and provide research results and data as well as descriptions of ongoing
and past projects.
LifeMapper
is a collaboration of the U.S. Geological Survey and The University
of Kansas (and others) that records millions of plants and animals
in the world's natural history museums. Lifemapper
analyzes data, computes a profile of each species, maps where it has
been found and predicts where it could potentially live.
National Imagery and Mapping Agency
(NIMA)
Established in 1996, the Agency is responsible for providing imagery,
intelligence and geospatial information in support of the national security
objectives. GEONet
Names Server is the NIMA database of foreign geographic feature
names. Raster
Roam provides public access to imagery, maps, elevation data and
other geographic information.
Bureau
of the Census
The Bureau site makes available the results of its statistical
research to the public. American
FactFinder is the Bureau's most developed tool for disseminating
Census 2000 data and maps. U.S.
Gazetteer is used to identify places to view with the TIGER Map
Server. A products page of downloadable
maps is also available. See also Browse
Topic Census Tracts and Blocks (Maps).
Federal
Geographic Data Committee
The FGDC coordinates the development of the National Spatial Data
Infrastructure (NSDI)
as well as policies to cooperatively produce and share geographic data.
The committee maintains Geodata.gov,
a portal to government geospatial information on the Internet, aimed
at improving access to needed data and information about ongoing projects.
National
Park Service
The Park Service has an Interactive Map
Center, with materials for geographic reference and navigation.
Other materials can be viewed, downloaded and printed from the National
Park Service Maps page.
United
States Forest Service
Through the Federal Depository Library Program, the Forest Service
distributes maps and charts of the nation's national forests. Users
may purchase USDA Forest Service maps from various regional
forest pages. Most prominently, the service works to implement
the Roadless Area
Conservation Rule, aimed at systematizing the spread of construction
into forests and grasslands. The site has Inventory
Maps of Roadless Areas in National Forests in support of the project.
U.S.
Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of the Interior, administers
261 million surface
acres of America's public lands, located primarily in 12 Western
States. The Bureau's Geo-Communicator
is the portal of the National Integrated
Land System, focused on land management and stewardship. The
user can access geographic data, and documents, as well as publish or
request information and monitor new or updated information.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration
NOAA's mission is to understand and predict changes
in the Earth’s environment and conserve and manage coastal and
marine resources. Many of
its observation functions have been streamlined into NOAA
Observation System Architecture (NOSA), including the National
Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service (NESDIS) which
provides access to environmental data from satellites. NOAA's
National Data Centers for Climate
(NCDC), Geophysics (NGDC),
Oceans (NODC), and Coasts
(NCDDC) each have ongoing projects:
The
National Ocean Service
is the nation's principal advocate for coastal and ocean stewardship.
The agency's NOS
Data Explorer serves as a portal to obtain NOS spatial
data. The HAB
Mapping System is an interactive mapping tool on harmful algal
blooms in the Gulf of Mexico. The
Electronic Navigational Charts support the navigation of vessels
in U.S. waters, or other purposes.
The
National Weather Service home page provides mapping application
displaying warnings and forecasts, national maps , radar, rivers,
and satellite images.
The NCDC
Climate Visualization System (CLIMVIS) is an interactive graphing
tool designed to allow visual browsing of NCDC
data available on-line. The NCDC
also publishes the Beringian
Paleoenvironmental Atlas, to provide historical and environmental
information on Beringia (The land around the Bering Straights between
Alaska and Eastern Siberia).
NOAA
Office of Coast Survey is the oldest scientific agency in the
United States, dating back to the Jefferson administration charged
with creation of navigational charts for U.S. waters. Its
Historical Map & Chart Project has many online images of maps
back to the Federal era. Its
nowCOAST Portal provides easy and centralized access to online,
real-time physical meteorological, oceanographic, river, and air/water
quality information.
The NGDC
Coastal Relief Model seeks to combine NOAA offshore topography
data with USGS coastal elevation data.
The NODC
has published nine volumes in its International
Ocean Atlas Series.
The NCDDC
Coastal Risk Atlas, when complete, will deliver a risk/vulnerability
atlas for the coastal U.S.
NOAA
Shoreline Data Explorer provides high-resolution digital shoreline
images from multi-temporal surveys of our nation's coastline.
NOAA's
Coral Reef Information System (CoRIS) provides access to NOAA
coral reef information, mostly derived from NOAA Coral Reef Conservation
Program.
U.S.
Department of Agriculture
The agency's mission, since 1862, has been to promote the health and
well-being of American farmlands and agricultural production.
USDA
Geospatial Data Gateway is a one stop shop for environmental resource
data for the United States, allowing users to create custom CDs for
private research.
The Crop
Explorer features near-real-time global crop conditions based
on satellite imagery and weather data.
The Economic
Research Service is the department's statistical arm. Mapping
Resources provides access to imagery and interactive map utilities
on many aspects of food, agriculture, nutrition and environmental
well-being.
Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
FEMA is the central agency within the Federal Government for emergency
planning, preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery. FEMA's Mutihazard
Mapping Initiative maintains HazardMaps.gov
for advisory purposes. The
Mapping and Analysis Center (MAC) provides national level GIS support
to the Agency, with mapping available for current and prior disasters.
Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA)
The EPA's mission is to safeguard the natural environment. Envirofacts Warehouse
can generate maps using demographics, environmental conditions, and
geospatial data from many data sources. EnviroMapper
can be used to map many types of environmental information, including
air releases, drinking water, toxic releases, hazardous wastes, water
discharge permits, and Superfund sites. Particular applications
include:
EnviroMapper for New York City Response
provides environmental monitoring in the New York City area in the
aftermath of the events of September 11, 2001.
Window to My Environment
provides views
to federal, state, and local information about environmental conditions
in an area of the user's choice.
OpenLink provides users with
the ability to add a hyperlink in a Web page, whereby a map image
will be generated dynamically and displayed in any Web page together
with other text and images
U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics
The agency, a main supplier of business and economic data from the Federal
government, has created a series of interactive
Maps of UnSearch Insurance Providers by Zip Code Here!Rates dating from previous quarter back to
1978.
Minerals
Management Service
The MMS manages gas, oil and other mineral resources on the Outer
Continental Shelf (OCS). The agency has data and graphics
for each of its four principle areas of offshore resource management:
Alaska, The Atlantic
Region, The Gulf
of Mexico and the Pacific
Region.
U.S.
Fish & Wildlife Service
The agency serves to conserve, protect and enhance fish, wildlife, and
plants and their habitats for the benefit of the American people.
The National
Wetlands Inventory documents the characteristics, extent, and
status of wetlands and deepwater habitats, via the Wetlands
Mapper.
The Environmental
Conservation Online System (ECOS) provides access to data on endangered
species and habitat conservation program areas. Geotract
is its interactive mapping tool that covers any geographic area in
the United States.
The NBII
Bird Conservation Interactive Map includes breeding bird surveys
water-bird colonies, waterfowl breeding population and habitat survey
data, and bird conservation regions, along with political/infrastructure
and physical/geologic/land cover information.
Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS)
The Bureau provides transportation spatial data and GIS. Transtats
is the agency's “one stop shopping” for transportation data. Its
Mapping Center
has downloadable data sets and mapping utilities. National
Transportation Atlas Data (NTAD) consists of transportation networks,
tfacilities, and other spatial data. North
American Transportation Atlas Data (NORTAD) provides transportation-related
geospatial data to support the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
Department
of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
HUD administers programs concerned with housing needs, fair housing
opportunities, and community development. The Enterprise
Geographic Information System (EGIS) combines information
on HUD programs with EPA's environmental data.
Recreation.gov
This federal partnership links to web sites and information about federal,
state, and non-profit parks and recreation facilities. The Recreation
Maps Viewer finds maps by name, place or type of activity, and provides
an interactive map and links to further information.
National
Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA)
The agency, charged with aeronautical research and space exploration,
has many collections of satellite imagery and and other information.
Destination
Earth is the homepage of NASA's Earth Science Enterprise, dedicated
to understanding the total Earth system and the effects of natural
and human-induced changes on the global environment.
The Globe
Program Visualization Center is maintained by Digital
Earth and GLOBE
Visualizations at the Goddard
Space Flight Center for The
GLOBE Program, a worldwide school-based hands-on education and
science program. Contents include GLOBE student data and environmental
data from federal and other sources.
The Jet
Propulsion Laboratory has a Planetary
Photojournal of our solar system, including a large gallery of
satellite imagery of the Earth, and is also responsible for the Shuttle
Radar Topography Mission, that produces relief images, perspective
views, and video flyovers of a growing number of Earth's regions.
Demographic
Data Viewer lets you create maps and calculate statistics
for 220 demographic variables from the 1990 U.S. Census.
NASA's Earth Observing
System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) has a a broad array
of earth science data, images and maps.
Library
of Congress (LOC)
The Library of Congress houses material in every format, on every subject,
and in a multitude of languages. The Geography
and Map Division (G&M) keeps the most comprehensive cartographic
collection in the world, from medieval portolan charts through recent
GIS data sets. American Memory
is the gateway to primary source materials relating to the history and
culture of the United States. The focus of Map Collections:
1500-1999 is Americana and Cartographic Treasures of the LOC. The
Mapping
the National Parks collection documents the history, cultural aspects
and geological formations of areas that eventually became National Parks,
with about 200 maps dating from the 17th century to the present.
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
The CIA's mission includes the production of maps and atlases of foreign
nations. The
World Factbook is a comprehensive resource of facts, maps and statistics
on more than 250 countries and other entities. CIA
Maps and Publications Released to the Public is a listing, with
image files, of unclassified maps and publications available for purchase
from GPO and/or NTIS.
Federal
Communications Commission
The FCC Geographic Mapping
Resources page offers a wide range of downloadable information on
the whole of North America. These include maps of FCC
Service Areas and a Cross
Reference to Counties and FCC Areas.
The
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is recognized as
the lead federal agency for protecting the public health and safety.
The National
Center for Health Statistics has an
Atlas of United States Mortality, and a home page for GIS
and Public Health, with many resources including
links
to related sites.
Cardiovascular
Health maintains an interactive series of Heart
Disease and Stroke Maps showing current mortality rates by state.
Oral
Health Maps is an interactive application that presents indicators
of oral health and preventive interventions.
The Center
for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion maintains
the Reproductive
Health Information Source, which has released its Interactive
Atlas of Reproductive Health, dedicated to reproductive
health issues such as infant mortality, fertility, and low birth
weight. The atlas has a unique collection of geographic datasets
that describe reproductive health indicators.
National
Archeological Database
NADB is an expanded bibliographic inventory of over 350,000 reports
on archeological investigation, planning, and public archeology. A small
collection of GIS
maps are available on the distribution and density of archeological
sites.
National
Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
NARA preserves our nation's history by overseeing the management of
Federal records including cartographic records. NARA's
Cartographic and Architectural Records include over 15 million maps,
charts, aerial photographs, architectural drawings, patents, and ships
plans.
National
Cancer Institute
The Cancer Mortality Maps
& Graph Web Site provides interactive maps, graphs, text, and
tables showing geographic and time patterns of cancer death rates for
1950-1994 for more than 40 cancers.
United
States Army Corps of Engineers
The Corps has made available its
Inland Electronic Navigational Chart, produced under contract.
|