South African Geodata

Back to FOSS4G2008...

= Introduction =

For the FOSS4G2008 conference in Cape Town, South Africa (September 29 - Oct 3, 2008) the OSGeo Public Geospatial Data Committee would like to pull together a catalog of local data from the area around Cape Town so that there would be a readily available pool of services and local datasets for Exhibitors and Presenters to use during the conference. The hope is that this will bring attention to the efforts being made by the Public Geospatial Data Committee committee. Benefits to the conference would be fast access to services (if we were to host them somewhere locally during the conference), an increased local feel, and a resource so that we could see different applications all working with the same data.

= Data Custodians =

National

 * Chief Directorate: Surveys and Mapping.

Lots of free GIS data, not many if any web services? * Comment: Where is the free data on this site? I can't find any
 * Ecoregions of Department of Water Affairs and Forestry.
 * Rivers (1:500 000) of Department of Water Affairs and Forestry.
 * Monitoring sites of Department of Water Affairs and Forestry.

Manual downloads, no web services.

Provincial

 * Western Cape Provincial Government. Any GIS?

Local

 * City of Cape Town Corporate GIS
 * Stellenbosch

Advanced Fire Information System (AFIS) WMS
near-realtime and time series fire points for southern Africa: http://afis.meraka.org.za:8080/geoserver/wms

OpenStreetMap
http://www.openstreetmap.org

Commercial

 * Various companies and organizations, whether they are South African or not, may have data that they would be willing to provide for free.

Courtesy of Maurizio at Madmappers
Here is a link to 4 sample CDSM 50k maps for the Cape Town area: http://www.madmappers.com/upload/EKM/3318CD_2000_ED9_GEO.zip 16.4 MB http://www.madmappers.com/upload/EKM/3318DC_2000_ED9_GEO.zip 51.0 MB http://www.madmappers.com/upload/EKM/3418AB&AD_2000_ED7_GEO.zip 37.7 MB http://www.madmappers.com/upload/EKM/3418BA_2000_ED7_GEO.zip 13.8 MB > Maurizio, can you add some Worldwind or Madmapper services? Here is a list ... take your pick ... A) AFRICAN DATA AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD FROM MadMappers WEB SERVER: 1)Russian topographic maps scale 1:500 000 - full African coverage 500k North geo - Russian Maps - scale 1:500 000 - Northern Africa (334 maps) 500k South geo - Russian Maps - scale 1:500 000 - Southern Africa (181 maps) 2)South African topographic maps (courtesy of CDSM - Chief Directorate of Surveys & Mapping ) SA250k - South Africa - scale 1:250 000 (70 maps) SA50k - South Africa - scale 1:50 000 Eastern Cape - South Africa - Eastern Cape - scale 1:50 000 (299 maps) Free State - South Africa - Free State - scale 1:50 000 (226 maps) Gauteng - South Africa - Gauteng - scale 1:50 000 (40 maps) KZN - South Africa - Kwazulu Natal - scale 1:50 000 (167 maps) Limpopo - South Africa - Limpopo - scale 1:50 000 (217 maps) Mpumalanga - South Africa - Mpumalanga - scale 1:50 000 (152 maps) North West - South Africa - North West - scale 1:50 000 (209 maps) Northern Cape - South Africa - Northern Cape - scale 1:50 000 (618 maps) Western Cape - South Africa - Western Cape - scale 1:50 000 (247 maps) B) AFRICAN DATA ACCESSIBLE FOR BROWSING FROM MadMappers Tileservice: 1) MadMap viewer The viewer lists a number of layers which are accessible also by WorlWind and other clients (e.g. OpenLayers). Aerial photography is available for Johannesburg. 2) Somalia Water and Land Information Management  viewer Somap was originally aimed as quick reference tool for planning of relief efforts in times of floods. On the aftermaths of the Somali conflict it became widely used by NGO's and international organizations for planning relief efforts of displaced population. The but incidentally became. floodings t set up by MadMappers to monitor for SWALIM C) WORLDWIND AFRICA LAYERS FROM MadMappers and WorldWindCentral Tileservice: 1) South African Space Organization WorlWind South Africa portal The South Africa add-on is a set of topographical maps covering Southern Africa, in addition a few areas also have othophotos. 2) Add-on:ZoomIt! This add-on provided by World Wind Central gives access to up to date high resolution imagery for various parts of the world. In particular: South Africa - 10 meter natural-color SPOT 5 mosaic (2005) Copyright Madmappers and SpotImage Robben Island - 0.5 meter natural-color mosaic Copyright Madmappers Johanesburg - 2.5 meter natural-color mosaic Copyright Madmappers 2) Add-on:Somalia-SWALIM The Somalia add-on is a set of topographical maps covering Somalia in 100k and 200k resolution, vector data of Mogadishu streets and general data, and displays areas affected by flooding. 3) Add-on:Mogadishu Refugee Migration Add-On This add-on is based on data gathered from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). An equivalent add-on for Google earth is also available. D) Requested Datasets: NASA/MM can make available DVDs of the Geocover 2000 dataset of the African continent for uploading to a FOSS4G server (we are unable to upload to our server ... although we have both spare storage and banwidth). Coverage is complete. Description of this 6 DVDs Landsat 7 false colour mosaics dataset can be found at http://www.madmappers.com/htm/Zulu7.htm This is a great set and no cost is involved although it would be nice if you were able to add the NASA meatball somewhere on the opening page with a link to the World Wind website http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/ .... after all what is a bigger contribution to FOSS4G than free and open source world class virtual globe technology? ;)

= DataSets =

Requested Datasets
If there is a particular South African dataset that you would like to see be available at FOSS4G2008, add your request to this section. Please include the following information:
 * Dataset information:
 * dataset name
 * link to dataset information (e.g. metadata)
 * link to dataset location (if publicly available)
 * Your information:
 * your name (and optionally organization), and a way to contact you
 * your role in the FOSS4G2008 conference (e.g. attendee, workshop/lab instructor, sponsor, etc.)
 * why you are requesting the dataset

Request by jlivni (Josh Livni, a workshop presenter) for the following datasets for use in FOSS4G workshops. Datasets should cover, as applicable, the Western Cape at least, but preferably all of SA. In order of my personal preference/importance * Province Boundaries * Municipalities * Capetown suburbs, subcouncils, and wards * 2006 Census shapes and attributes (preferably all, but as above, Wards at the least) * Streets / Other transportation (bus lines?) * Any aerial imagery * Informal Settlements * Any spatial data related to urban renewal programme

Dataset Sources
While the authoritative source for a dataset is the dataset's custodian, for FOSS4G2008 the goal is to have copies of datasets, or partial datasets, on local servers at the conference. To accomplish that, local people will have to do the work of obtaining those copies and loading them onto the local servers.

If you can help with this by providing the conference organizers with a copy of all or part of one or more of the Requested Datasets, add your information to the section below.