Free Data and Software

Geospatial data and software are used to collect, analyze and interpret geographic information. Geomatics is the science of collecting, storing, analyzing and interpreting spatial data. Geospatial data can be used in a variety of applications such as mapping, surveying, navigation, land use planning, environmental monitoring, and resource management.

Nova Scotia Open data and other Free Geospatial Data sets

Geomatics data and software are used in industries such as agriculture, forestry, engineering, urban planning, oil and gas, and mining. Geomatics software includes Geographic Information Systems (GIS), satellite imagery, surveying and mapping software, and other specialized applications.

The combination of these technologies allow for efficient and accurate data collection and analysis, as well can be used to help identify trends and patterns in the environment, track the movement of animals and natural resources, and monitor the health of ecosystems. Geomatics data and software are essential for understanding and managing the Earth’s resources.

We use the “Free Data and Software” section of our site to share various information about free data & software that we use or know about. See the various pages listed further below for more information …

If you have information related to Free Data & Software that you think we should share here, then please do let us know.

New Brunswick topo maps

GeoNB Map Viewer and free New Brunswick Digital data sets

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Check out the remarkable efforts that Service New Brunswick has been able to accomplish ensuring that their residents have access to good geographic information data sets as well as access to amazing free online web mapping tools for those that are not fortunate enough to have GIS related software. If you are looking at generating maps related to the province of New Brunswick then I recommend that you check out these data sets as they will provide a stable building block to build a decent GIS with. And if you are not interested in doing any GIS work with New Brunswick data sets, then at least check out the GeoNB online web Map Viewer.
British Columbia Court Services Locator Map

British Columbia Court Services Locator Map

DataBC and the Ministry of Justice have joined forces to provide an online mapping application to help the people of British Columbia be able to spatially locate where the various court facilities in British Columbia are located. The interactive mapping tool based on the Google Maps platform uses data from uses data from DataBC and Ministry of Justice (Court Services Branch) to provide people with a new way of accessing location information for courts in British Columbia.Thier interactive mapping tool offers various search abilities and provides the locations of courts in the map window that when clicked, prodding basic information and links to the respective web pages for that facility with more adequate information.
Free Data Sets for the City of Toronto

Free Data Sets for the City of Toronto

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The City of Toronto has recently celebrated two years of online Open Data service and they have full intention on continuing to build on that success, by stating that they intend to add more data layers and will further develop their site. Data sets are provided in various standard downloadable file formats such as XLS, CSV, DGN & SHP. All data set contains basic meta info associated with them such as who created the data, date, format, projection, attributes, contact info etc. The bottom line here is the City of Toronto has granted the GIS community a royalty free, non exclusive licence to use, modify, and distribute any of their data sets that they continue to make available via their data catalogue.
City of Edmonton & ESRI online mapping tools

Free Data Sets for the City of Edmonton & ESRI online mapping tools

The City of Edmonton has been providing an online Open Data service to help make municipal information more accessible since 2009. They feel that through collaboration and innovation that they have become a leader in Open Government by using the latest technology to increase access to their information. One difference that Edmonton has from the other cities is that they provide the ability to visualize the data sets unsing online ESRI web mapping technology. This way allows users to better unserdtand what the data sets they are downloading consists of.
Canada Open Data Project

Free Canadian Geospatial Data Sets

The Federal Government produces and acquires data sets in many different areas including health, agriculture, the environment and natural resources. The Government of Canada launched an open data portal [data.gc.ca] earlier this year as part of Canada's open government initiative. The portal aims to provide Canadians with a single point of access to find and download government open data sets.
ArcGIS Desktop Application Tutorials

ArcGIS Desktop Application Tutorials

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We often get asked for resources to help people learn how to work with GIS. Now that Esri provides a affordable not for commercial version of ArcGIS, we often suggest that they try out these ArcGIS desktop application tutorials provided by the ArcGIS Resource Center