What's the best tool for non-political geography?
June 28, 2021 1:43 PM Subscribe
Google maps and open street map are wonderful if I want to see the addresses,street view,or satellite photos of a location. But lately I've been wishing they could highlight a river watershed, or show the elevation differences, or display the biom type. Is there a tool that let's me find that information around the globe? I tried a few geography apps and they seem to focus on country borders or elevation only.
For global hydrography, there isn’t much better than hydrosheds and for watershed characteristics, hydroatlas
posted by rockindata at 2:44 PM on June 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by rockindata at 2:44 PM on June 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
Worth noting that there is a major project underway to massively improve the data behind Hydrosheds. It’ll be really cool to see what drops in 2022.
posted by rockindata at 2:51 PM on June 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by rockindata at 2:51 PM on June 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
The keyword that you need is probably "GIS" (geographic information system). Tack that on to any location (city, country, gov) and you'll get a bunch of non-political maps. For example: United States GIS
Also check out Esri's Living Atlas. You will need to do some searching, so not the best for random browsing, but there is a lot of good content there.
posted by TurnKey at 7:15 PM on June 28, 2021 [2 favorites]
Also check out Esri's Living Atlas. You will need to do some searching, so not the best for random browsing, but there is a lot of good content there.
posted by TurnKey at 7:15 PM on June 28, 2021 [2 favorites]
https://www.floodmap.net/ for wet elevations. Esp useful for, say, Bangladesh.
posted by BobTheScientist at 4:08 AM on June 29, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by BobTheScientist at 4:08 AM on June 29, 2021 [2 favorites]
search Google and add "kmz" to your search term. For example "biome kmz". KMZ files are zipped versions of KML (Keyhole Markup Language) files which are a common format for geographic data. You can also search for KML instead of KMZ. You can import them into Google Earth. While looking I actually found some teacher / class's project called "Biomes of the World" which is a .kmz file at this page. I myself haven't added it to Google Earth.
Two that I do use are NOAA/NWS/NHC's NOAA Tropical Cyclones (I live in Florida, hurricanes are a thing), and the US Geographic Services USGS Magnitude 2.5+ Earthquakes, Past Month (a relative lives in Alaska where earthquakes are more likely than hurricanes). Google Earth automatically retrieves refreshed copies of these from time to time.
posted by TimHare at 10:29 PM on June 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
Two that I do use are NOAA/NWS/NHC's NOAA Tropical Cyclones (I live in Florida, hurricanes are a thing), and the US Geographic Services USGS Magnitude 2.5+ Earthquakes, Past Month (a relative lives in Alaska where earthquakes are more likely than hurricanes). Google Earth automatically retrieves refreshed copies of these from time to time.
posted by TimHare at 10:29 PM on June 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
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posted by kschang at 2:40 PM on June 28, 2021