GIS/Mapping Centre - Free Data & Software





Provincial GIS/Mapping Data Sources

Manitoba Land Initiative (MLI): In 2003, the Manitoba Land Initiative (MLI), an interdepartmental committee of data producing departments within the Provincial Government, placed its GIS digital data warehouse on the Internet. This initiative enables easy access to this valuable geo-spatial information without restrictive licensing requirements and fees. Members of the public only have to fill out a user agreement, and assigns the user a user-name and password. Provincial GIS data sets include digital air photos, topographic data (scales ranging from 1:20,000 to 1:2,000,000), administrative boundaries, municipal maps, cadastral maps, town and village plans, roads and rail lines, utilities, water maps, geology, soil classification, forestry inventory, land use/cover maps, geographical names and digital imagery.  For additional information, visit Manitoba Conservation.

Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives Agri-Maps: The Department has created net accessible Agri-Maps viewable through its custom Map Viewer.   Viewable layers for agricultural lands include administrative boundaries, climate data, digital orthophotos, elevation data, geology data, hydrology data, land use data, land parcel fabrics, terrain & soils data and wildlife data.  This information is displayed in a dynamic/interactive web-based format.

Mineral Resources Division's GIS Map Gallery: The Division's GIS Map Gallery allows users to interactively view various data sets related to mineral and petroleum dispositions and mining activity while providing the option to download GIS files ranging from First Nation Trapline information to Provincial Mining Claims.



Federal GIS Data Sources

Geogratis: GeoGratis is a web and file transfer protocol (ftp) site that distributes geospatial data of Canada. Data is available for download, without charge. Vector mapping data is available in scales ranging from 1:50 000 to 1:30 000 000 in a variety of file formats.

GeoBase: GeoBase is a federal, provincial and territorial government initiative that is overseen by the Canadian Council on Geomatics (CCOG). It is undertaken to ensure the provision of, and access to, a common, up-to-date and maintained base of quality geospatial data for all of Canada. By creating the GeoBase portal, the partners are also improving Canadians' access to: Administrative Boundaries; Canadian Digital Elevation Data (CDED); Canadian Geodetic Network; Geographical Names of Canada (toponymy); Landsat-7 Orthoimage; National Road Network (NRN).


Free GIS Viewer

Users can have a look at the various Internet GIS datasets without the need for expensive GIS software. There are programs available online and free for download such as ESRI’s easy to use GIS data viewer called ArcExplorer (Windows, UNIX, and Linux). Using this free viewer, individuals can examine much of the online data layered together, zoom in and out on the layers, identify features, perform simple queries and use the attribute data associated with the spatial data to create colourful maps. ArcExplorer is available at: http://www.esri.com/software/arcexplorer/versions.html.


Free maps

Google Maps provides on-line search and display of maps and satellite images all over the world. Users can search for businesses and get driving directions. Google Maps-API can be downloaded and implemented into any website that is accessible free of charge. http://maps.google.com/.

MSN provides a similar service to get directions at http://mappoint.msn.com. There are other map viewers available. The ones listed here are only examples of this kind of service.


Free 3D Earth viewer

Google Earth combines satellite imagery, maps and Google Search to provide access to geographic information all over the world. After downloading the software, users can fly from space to a neighborhood, type in an address and zoom right in, search for schools, parks, restaurants, and hotels in selected areas, get driving directions, tilt and rotate the view to see 3D terrain and buildings, save and share your searches and favourites and  add one’s own annotations. Upgrades allowing further features are available. http://earth.google.com