Resources for (Levantine) mappers

This is a list that I started compiling for my peers in the masters in urban planning program at the American University of Beirut, back in 2018. I use it to consolidate 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.

I need to…

Make maps

• Geojson.io - scratch pad for maps
• uMap - More advanced map editing tools with good sharing options
• QGIS - Serious map making an analysis, free open source alternative to ArcGIS/ArcMap. It’s free now, and it’ll stay free forever.
• MapHub - quick map making and sharing
• OpenRouteService - Generate route, isochrone , and isodistance maps from OpenStreetMap road network, and export into geoJSON and other formats
• Felt - for making (actually really nice) maps collaboratively.

Get data

• Copernicus dataspace - The EU satellites provide free data with high resolution imagery, including a lot of analysis already done. There is a QGIS plugin as well.
• geoBoundaries – a big database of administrative boundaries from the Geospatial Evaluation and Observation Lab.
• GADM - administrative boundaries of all countries around the world, at different administrative levels (country, mohafaza, town).
• 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.
• Humanitarian data exchange - Repository of humanitarian data from all over
• BBEDb - The Beirut Built Environment Database, by the Beirut Urban Lab
• Admin Boundaries level 0-3 of Lebanon - vetted by OCHA, has Arabic names
• Satellite imagery ¹- Here’s a tutorial on how to add it to QGIS
• Railways in Lebanon - includes lines and stations
• Title register (الصحيفة العقاريّة) - get the register online (paid)
• Geomolg - very (very!) rich spatial data on Palestine
• Makaneyyat - spatial data about Palestine, including data about land use and botanical data
• Busmap.me - data on bus lines in Lebanon
• Built Environment Deprivation Indicators - Egypt urban data by 10Tooba
• Planning (In)Justice - urban data in Cairo by Tadamun
• Conflict in Lebanon -  Geo-located mapping of conflicts in Lebanon (January 2018 - June 2019)
• Climatescope - energy data in emerging markets
• 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)

• Old Maps Online - searches a bunch of historical map collections, searches by location, maps are georeferenced

• David Rumsey Map Collection - more georeferenced historical maps

• 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

• Palestine Open Maps - historical maps of Palestine, with all the data extracted (my project!)

• Al-Madaq - historical maps of Cairo, going back to 1809

Get data from OpenStreetMap

• OpenStreetBrowser - pre-formulated queries
• Overpass turbo -  advanced queries
• OSM export -  export OSM data as .osm files
• HOT OSM Export - allows you to select different layers for exporting in many different formats
• Open Map Tiles - Free pre-styled data exporter

Add data to OSM

• Vespucci - OSM editor for Android
• Go Map!! - OSM editor for iOS
• iD editor - Web browser based editor
• JOSM - advanced editor for desktops

Collect data privately

• Open Data Kit - the most comprehensive mobile data collection tool set out there. All open source, but requires lots of setup.
• Field Papers - create atlases for printing, that you can then upload to OpenStreetMap or OSM-seed
• OSM Seed - create your own private version of OpenStreetMap

Style maps

• Stadia Maps - a great set of FOSS tools for map making with a very good transparent pricing scheme.
• Mapbox Studio - style and serve very highly customized geographic data. There’s a free version, but gets very expensive very quickly.
• Maputnik - Free and open source map styler, but it doesn’t serve the files for you.
• Kartotherian - same thing but made by Wikimedia (the people behind Wikipedia)
• Color Brewer - color advice for cartography

Learn GIS and get help

• Learn QGIS - training manual for QGIS
• A Gentle Introduction to GIS - does exactly what it says :)
• QGIS Tutorials - a set of tutorials with good comments section
• LearnOSM - training manuals for OpenStreetMap
• GIS tutorials - by Center for Spatial Research at Columbia
• QGIS tutorials - by Nik Lomax
• Every Projection - understand the different projections of the 3d globe into 2d surfaces
• 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!
• Spatial Thoughts - a collection of advanced courses for QGIS and spatial programming using Python
• Cartography and Mapping Skills for Transportation - by Carly Hallman. A very useful list for people looking into transportation options ².

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

• Open Data Handbook - very practical guide on how to open your data sets
• OSM out of copyright maps - info about historical maps per country
• 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

• RAWgraphs - Make complex visualizations of complex data
• 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

• Design principles - An open source collection of Design Principles and methods.
• IDEO Design Kit - set of tools and methodologies that you can use in your workshops
• Visualizing information for Advocacy - Tactical Tech created this resource

But I’m a programmer…

Analysis

• Shapely - Python package for analyzing vector geographic datasets
• Rasterio - Python package for analyzing raster geographic datasets
• OSMnx -  Python for Street Networks from OpenStreetMap
• OpenRouteService - an open source package for route management

Visualization

• D3 - Data Driven Documents in Javascript
• Prettymaps - a nice Python package for creating maps from OpenStreetMap data and style them beautifully.
• Pretymapp - very similar funcationality to prettymaps, but with more efficient implementation. Demo here.

Learning resources

• Geocomputation in R - an open source text for doing spatial analysis in R language
• Geographic Data Science in Python - An open textbook with examples and tutorial for Python language
• 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