Resources of Levantine mappers
This is a list that I started compiling a while ago, to consolidate a bunch of resources that I use for reference in my every day research and mapping work. I wanted to share it with my class and my communities at large, so here it is.
Compiled by: Majd Al-Shihabi (@majdal)
I need to...
Make maps
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Geojson.io - scratch pad for maps
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uMap - More advanced map editing tools with good sharing options
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QGIS - Serious map making an analysis, free open source alternative to ArcGIS/ArcMap. It’s free now, and it’ll stay free forever.
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MapHub - quick map making and sharing
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OpenRouteService - Generate route, isochrone , and isodistance maps from OpenStreetMap road network, and export into geoJSON and other formats
Get data
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BBEDb - The Beirut Built Environment Database, by the Beirut Urban Lab
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GADM - administrative boundaries of all countries around the world, at different administrative levels (country, mohafaza, town)
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Admin Boundaries level 0-3 of Lebanon - vetted by OCHA, has Arabic names
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Satellite imagery 1- Here’s a tutorial on how to add it to QGIS
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Elevation 1, 2- Get a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of any place in the world. From the DEM, you can extract topographic maps at various resolutions.
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Railways in Lebanon - includes lines and stations
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Title register (الصحيفة العقاريّة) - get the register online (paid)
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Humanitarian data exchange - Repository of humanitarian data from all over
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Geomolg - very (very!) rich spatial data on Palestine
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Makaneyyat - spatial data about Palestine, including data about land use and botanical data
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Busmap.me - data on bus lines in Lebanon
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Built Environment Deprivation Indicators - Egypt urban data by 10Tooba
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Planning (In)Justice - urban data in Cairo by Tadamun
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Conflict in Lebanon - Geo-located mapping of conflicts in Lebanon (January 2018 - June 2019)
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Climatescope - energy data in emerging markets
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Real estate prices from Q1 2017, and 2018 (raw data, map 2017, map delta 2017-2018) - Source: RAMCO real estate advisors
Access historical map archives (and other spatial data)
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Old Maps Online - searches a bunch of historical map collections, searches by location, maps are georeferenced
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David Rumsey Map Collection - more georeferenced historical maps
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Archnet - by the Agha Khan Foundation: "An open-access resource on architecture, urbanism, environmental and landscape design, visual culture, and conservation issues", with a ton of material on the region
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Palestine Open Maps - historical maps of Palestine, with all the data extracted (my project!)
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Al-Madaq - historical maps of Cairo, going back to 1809
OpenStreetMap
Get data from-
OpenStreetBrowser - pre-formulated queries
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Overpass turbo - advanced queries
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OSM export - export OSM data as .osm files
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HOT OSM Export - allows you to select different layers for exporting in many different formats
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Open Map Tiles - Free pre-styled data exporter
Add data to OSM
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Vespucci - OSM editor for Android
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Go Map!! - OSM editor for iOS
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iD editor - Web browser based editor
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JOSM - advanced editor for desktops
Collect data privately
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Open Data Kit - the most comprehensive mobile data collection tool set out there. All open source, but requires lots of setup.
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Field Papers - create atlases for printing, that you can then upload to OpenStreetMap or OSM-seed
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OSM Seed - create your own private version of OpenStreetMap
Style maps
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Mapbox Studio - style and serve very highly customized geographic data. There’s a free version, but gets very expensive very quickly.
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Maputnik - Free and open source map styler, but it doesn’t serve the files for you.
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Kartotherian - same thing but made by Wikimedia (the people behind Wikipedia)
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Color Brewer - color advice for cartography
Learn GIS and get help
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Learn QGIS - training manual for QGIS
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A Gentle Introduction to GIS - does exactly what it says :)
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QGIS Tutorials - a set of tutorials with good comments section
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LearnOSM - training manuals for OpenStreetMap
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GIS tutorials - by Center for Spatial Research at Columbia
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QGIS tutorials - by Nik Lomax
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Every Projection - understand the different projections of the 3d globe into 2d surfaces
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GIS StackExchange - Questions and answers by a community of practice of GIS users. If nobody has asked your question before, you can post a question yourself!
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Spatial Thoughts - a collection of advanced courses for QGIS and spatial programming using Python
Problematize GIS as a form of knowledge
- Revisiting Critical GIS - a very good overview of what GIS can and cannot do
License my data openly
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Open Data Handbook - very practical guide on how to open your data sets
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OSM out of copyright maps - info about historical maps per country
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Collaborative Data Patterns - The Open Data Institute has published a guide for various models for managing data that you’ve collected
I also want to…
Make pretty visualizations
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RAWgraphs - Make complex visualizations of complex data
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Kumu.io - Understand complex systems by understanding the relations between their components. They also have a fantastic newsletter that you should subscribe to.
Learn more about information design
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Design principles - An open source collection of Design Principles and methods.
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IDEO Design Kit - set of tools and methodologies that you can use in your workshops
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Visualizing information for Advocacy - Tactical Tech created this resource
But I’m a programmer…
Analysis
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Shapely - Python package for analyzing vector geographic datasets
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Rasterio - Python package for analyzing raster geographic datasets
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OSMnx - Python for Street Networks from OpenStreetMap
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OpenRouteService - an open source package for route management
Visualization
- D3 - Data Driven Documents in Javascript
Learning resources
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Geocomputation in R - an open source text for doing spatial analysis in R language
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Geographic Data Science in Python - An open textbook with examples and tutorial for Python language
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Automating GIS processes - a course by the University of Helsinki
I want to see some cool applications
- OSM Luxumburg LiDAR - LiDAR visualization with hillshading of the entirety of Luxumbrug
- Use the following URL
http://server.arcgisonline.com/arcgis/rest/services/World\_Imagery/MapServer
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