Research Guides: Statistics & Data: Geospatial Data & Maps

This page is a work in progress, check back for more complete links in the coming weeks!

Geo-Spatial Data

Geographic Information Systems - Forestry
Forestry GIS Section offers most of its data, free of charge for public download.
GeoNOVA
The GeoNOVA Portal is the Province of Nova Scotia's gateway to geographic information about Nova Scotia.
ExploreHRM
You can search a civic address, street, community, park, recreation center or zoom to a particular area (ie downtown Halifax, Bayers Lake Business park) or select a theme (ie garbage collection, living in HRM, zoning, etc)

Emergency Coastal Flooding Decision Support System

The Applied Geomatics Research Group of the Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC) has developed a web-based Emergency Coastal Flooding Decision Support System to present coastal flood risk from storm surges and long term sea-level rise in the Maritimes. Read about the project ,a href="https://agrgims.cogs.nscc.ca/CoastalFlooding/">here</a href> or go directly to the inteactive map, linked below.

Maritime Coastal Flood Risk Map - NS - NSCC

Atlas of Canada
Includes Toporama Mapping Tool - offers features for searching place names, zooming and panning, measuring distances, getting coordinates and more. Also included are Reference Maps, Thematic Maps and Map Archives.
Cartographic Boundary Files
Community Information Database (CID)
Provides communities, researchers, and governments with access to consistent and reliable socio-economic and demographic data and information for all communities across Canada (includes mapping capabilities).
Data – Canada Lands Surveys
Official survey plans, information on surveys in progress and geospatial representations of parcels of Canada Lands are all accessible online. Four methods are available to access survey documents and information, while various datasets usable in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are available for download. Using the Survey Plan Search and Survey Project Search tools one can enter known attributes (e.g. plan number) or filter using the provided options; Using the CLSS Map Browser or Canada Lands in Goggle Earth one can navigate and zoom to areas of interest and then link directly to the associated plans or projects in the Survey Plan Search or Survey Project Search tools respectively. See the page for particular information on accessing these files.
GeoGratis
GeoGratis is a portal provided by the Earth Sciences Sector (ESS) of Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) which provides geospatial data at no cost and without restrictions via your Web browser.
GeoSuite (software)
View Statistics Canada census geography and extract geographical codes.
Health Region Boundary Files
Open Data - Government of Canada
Data about Government of Canada services, financials, national demographic information, and high resolution maps.

National Geospatial Program
United States Geological Survey
Geospatial Resources at EPA
United States Environmental Protection Agency
GeoPlatform
Geospatial data, services, and applications for use by the public and by government agencies and partners.

Environmental Data Explorer (United Nations Environment Programme)
Database holds more than 500 different variables, as national, subregional, regional and global statistics or as geospatial data sets (maps), covering themes like Freshwater, Population, Forests, Emissions, Climate, Disasters, Health and GDP.

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Authoritative source for data sets used by UNEP and its partners in the Global Environment Outlook (GEO) report and other integrated environment assessments
GeoNetwork Portal (United Nations Spatial Data Infrastructure)
Find interactive maps, GIS datasets, satellite imagery and related applications across agencies and organizations.
GEOSS Portal
Earth Observation data from all over the world.

Tutorials - Learn to use QGIS software, provided by Statistics Canada GIS

QGIS Demo 1 - What is GIS, and why use QGIS
In this introductory tutorial we'll discuss what geographic information systems (GIS) are, their applications, and potential uses in your own areas of work and expertise.
QGIS Demo 2a - Categories, Sub-Types and Properties of Spatial Data
This tutorial covers the main categories and sub-types of spatial data used in GIS, as well as three properties that make datasets spatial: map projections, datums and coordinate reference systems.
QGIS Demo 2b - Downloading Spatial Datasets from Open Maps
This tutorial covers navigating and downloading spatial data from Canada's Open Maps platform, the integrated geospatial data archive for the federal government.
QGIS Demo 3 - Loading and Ordering Spatial Data in QGIS
In this introductory tutorial, you'll learn to navigate QGIS's user-friendly interface, procedures to load spatial datasets in to the program from the Browser Panel and how to order vector layers of different geometry types for visualization in the Map Canvas.
QGIS Demo 4 - Interacting with data in the Map Canvas
This QGIS tutorial demonstrates tools for interacting with spatial data in the map canvas.
QGIS Demo 5 - Exploring the Attribute Table and Layer Properties Box of Vector Data
Following up from interacting with spatial data in the map canvas, this introductory QGIS tutorial covers additional data and available functions in the attribute table and Layer Properties box of loaded vector layers.
QGIS Demo 6 - Creating Vector Data
In this QGIS tutorial you'll learn to create a new vector layer and delineate feature geometries.
QGIS Demo 7 - Selecting Features by Attributes in QGIS
This QGIS tutorial covers attribute-based selection tools, which are used to query, select and subset features in a vector layer by specific criteria, conditions or values of interest within fields of the attribute table.
QGIS Demo 8 - Adding Fields and Editing Feature Attributes with the Field Calculator
This QGIS tutorial introduces the Field Calculator, used to add or update fields within the attribute table and edit features.
QGIS Demo 9 - Visualizing Vector Data (Part 1) – Symbology Styles
In this QGIS tutorial we’ll cover the available symbology styles and explore their application to text and numeric field types in visualizing vector layers.