Mapping

A little birdy came in the window and told me that NY State office of Information and Technology Services has posted aerial photography taken in the spring of 2020 this morning to their website

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A little birdy came in the window and told me that NY State office of Information and Technology Services has posted aerial photography taken in the spring of 2020 this morning to their website. It includes the dairy farm country of the very fertile Genesee Valley (MOO with the smell of silage and manure !!!), and most of Nassau and Suffolk County down on the Island, yes, the big one to the east of New York City where the Long Island Expressway runs and people adorn their cars with bumpster stickers that read, “Please Pray for Me, I Drive the Long Island Expressway,” America’s Largest Parking Lot.

You may noticed that I have been doing many interactive maps on the blog lately using leafletjs

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You may noticed that I have been doing many interactive maps on the blog lately using leafletjs. Here are the data sources used for these maps, you can also use them in your favorite GIS program, including the free, open source Quantum GIS.

Web Map Services:

These services can be used in QGIS or other mapping program under the WMS mapping section.

USGS National Map Modern Topographic: https://basemap.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/services/USGSTopo/MapServer/WMSServer?’ layers: ‘0’

USGS National Map Modern Topographic (Aerial Photos Underlain): https://basemap.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/services/USGSImageryTopo/MapServer/WMSServer?  layers: ‘0’
         
USGS Aerial Photos (National Agriculture Imagery Program): https://basemap.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/services/USGSImageryOnly/MapServer/WMSServer?’  layers: ‘0’

NY Aerial Orthophoto, taken 2014-2019: https://orthos.its.ny.gov/ArcGIS/services/wms/Latest/MapServer/WMSServer? layers: ‘0,1,2,3,4’

NY Aerial Digital Orthophoto Quarter Quads (DOQQs), taken from 1994-1998. http://orthos.its.ny.gov/arcgis/services/wms/napp/MapServer/WMSServer? layers: ‘0’

Vermont Aerial Photos: https://maps.vcgi.vermont.gov/arcgis/services/EGC_services/IMG_VCGI_CLR_WM_CACHE/ImageServer/WMSServer?’ layers: ‘0’

Pennsylvania Emergency Management Aerial (2018) https://imagery.pasda.psu.edu/arcgis/services/pasda/PEMAImagery2018/MapServer/WMSServer? layers: ‘0’

Pennsylvania NAIP Imagery (2019). https://imagery.pasda.psu.edu/arcgis/services/pasda/NAIP2019/MapServer/WMSServer?  layers: ‘0’

Tile Map Services

These services can be used in QGIS or other mapping program under the XYZ tiles section of the program. They require you include a brief citation on any final rendered product, acknowledging the source.

Open Street Map: https://{s}.tile.openstreetmap.org/{z}/{x}/{y}.png     
Open Topo Map: https://{s}.tile.opentopomap.org/{z}/{x}/{y}.png
USGS DRG (Traditional Topographic): https://caltopo.s3.amazonaws.com/topo/{z}/{x}/{y}.png

Map Examples

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Map Examples

Here you can find a selection of maps created with QGIS. These maps come from the QGIS maps - lickr Group.

Map makers show off their creativity and the map making capabilities of QGIS:

Click on an image to see author and more information about the maps.

I added additional layers to the KMZ/LeafletJS maps on the blog

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I added additional layers to the KMZ/LeafletJS maps on the blog … 🗺

On the whole, LeafletJS’s API is similar if not in some cases simpler and more straightforward then Google Map.

I have to admit that the feature that allows you to use any WMS map in the background in QGIS is a really neat feature. You can load Forest Service Topos, or any layer from the National Map or state WMS services, automatically onto a map, and easily switch between them. Definitely some neat technology — and it’s free of Google, so you never have to worry about either their servers going down or being charged for overage use.

The only downside I have found so far is that KMZ files tend to render more slowly compared to Google Maps, as Google often does a lot of processing on their servers, compared to LeafletJS which is entirely done on the browser side.