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Archive for the 'geocoding' Category

kmlfactbook – The CIA World Factbook In Google Earth Format

Published by
Leszek Pawlowicz
at November 18, 2009 in 3DEM, blogkeeping and geocoding. 0 Comments

The CIA World Factbook …

provides information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 266 world entities. Our Reference tab includes: maps of the major world regions, as well as Flags of the World, a Physical Map of the World, a Political Map of the World, and a Standard Time Zones of the World map.

In short, it’s the go-to source for current world demographic, economic, social and political data. David Tryse has taken data from the Factbook and created an online application, the kmlfactbook, that generates thematic maps in KML format for use with Google Earth. Select a dataset:

factdataset

Then choose a chart type, coloring scheme and other options:

charttype

2D charts are flat choropleths:

2dchoro

3D add scaling based on height:

3dchoro

And “Chart” creates a pie chart:

piechart

There’s a Google Earth plugin view that lets you preview the appearance, and when you’re happy, you can export a KMZ file. And you’re not limited to CIA World Factbook data; if you register on the site, you can upload your own data to convert it to a thematic KMZ file.

The one thing that seems to be missing is the ability to create a map legend to show what the color codes represent (or at least I couldn’t find it); you can click on placemark icons on each country to get the data, but it’s not the same. Hopefully, legends will be added soon.

Via Google Earth Blog.




Georeferencing A General Textual Location With BioGeomancer

Published by
Leszek Pawlowicz
at July 8, 2009 in Google Maps, cartography and geocoding. 0 Comments

In the good old days, before 1994 or so, when commercial handheld GPS units first came onto the market, locations were often described in general textual terms, like “28 miles NNW of Gila Bend”, or “5 kilometers east of Mount Whitney”. BioGeoMancer Classic and BioGeomancer Workbench can parse these kind of textual descriptions, and convert them to a set of geographic coordinates.

The older Classic version has a text-only interface with limited options:

classic

And gives a text output:

results

matching

The “Map” option in Classic doesn’t seem to work, but the XML option does. Since the Classic version is no longer under development, it’s likely to stay in this format

The newer BioGeomancer Workbench version, still under development, has a Google Maps based interface. Enter a locality like “5 kilometers east of Mount Whitney”, and get a list of localities with their locations plotted in Google Maps:

WhitneyList

In this case, I was looking for Mount Whitney in CA, but it came up with an additional one in NY. By using “5 kilometers east of Mount Whitney, CA” as the location reference, the NY locality would be dropped:

CAWhitney

The more general geographic info you can add, the better you will be able to narrow down the possibilities. It looks like you need commas to delimit geographic data, since “5 kilometers east of Mount Whitney CA” won’t return any results.

Zooming in on the northern localities shows them plotted, along with the location uncertainty as a darker circle:

closeup

Clicking on a placemark brings up options to change the uncertainty radius, delete the placemark, delete all the other placemarks, or zoom in:

bgbubble

The only way to save the data now is to copy it from BioGeomancer and paste it into a different application. The help page indicates that in the future, you’ll have the option to save the data in spreadsheet format, and also do batch text georeferencing.




Digipoint, Export Of Google Maps Point Coordinates, Upgraded To Version 3

Published by
Leszek Pawlowicz
at March 11, 2009 in DEM, DXF, GPX, Google Maps, KML, Web apps, geocoding and shapefile. 3 Comments

I’ve posted before about Digipoint (version 1 and version 2), a web app that lets you select points in a Google Maps interface, then export their coordinates in a variety of formats. Version 3 of Digipoint is now out, with some modest improvements:

  • A new interface, a bit easier to use, and which works better in browsers where the default font size has been modified
  • Fly-to: Specify an address, country, or location, and the map will automatically go there. There are also a limited number of pre-specified country/region links, where  clicking on the link takes you to the area automatically
  • In previous versions, you had to copy/paste text for a particular export format like CSV or KML; you can now download the file automatically
  • For exported shapefiles, a corresponding prj file is also created to specify the coordinate system (your choice of geographic or UTM; WGS84)
  • Help section added

Still supports the same export formats as before: CSV, TXT, TAB, BLN (Surfer), GPX, KML, DXF and shapefile. Versions one and two are still available if you want them, but there’s no good reason to use them anymore.




Online Geocoding, Address Verification And Shortest Path Utilities From the USC GIS Research Laboratory

Published by
Leszek Pawlowicz
at February 10, 2009 in geocoding. 0 Comments

The USC GIS Research Laboratory offers a number of online geographic applications and Web APIs. You have to register for the services, and you’ll get 5000 use credits. After those are used up, the services are free for non-profit and non-commercial enterprises, as long as you cite/reference their use somewhere. For commercial use, if you post an attribution to the service on your website, and also allow them to use your name/logo on their website, you can also use it for free; if not, you can also buy processing credits from them. See this page on usage costs for more info.

Continue reading ‘Online Geocoding, Address Verification And Shortest Path Utilities From the USC GIS Research Laboratory’




Tiny Geocoder

Published by
Leszek Pawlowicz
at December 8, 2008 in Google Maps and geocoding. 2 Comments

Tiny Geocoder is a small, simple web geocoder; type in an address or geographic location, and get back the approximate latitude/longitude for that location, and a Google Map view with that location plotted:

12-1-2008-10.03.26 AM

If you have a Google Map API key (free), you can generate code to create a static link to this map (static meaning just the image itself, not scrollable or zoomable).

And for web gearheads, there’s a simple and free API available for geocoding and reverse geocoding. Here’s an example of geocoding for Provo, Utah, and reverse geocoding for 37,-110.




Batch Geocoding And Reverse Geocoding With MicroPath Geocode

Published by
Leszek Pawlowicz
at November 20, 2008 in geocoding and spreadsheet. 3 Comments

5/2/2009: Doesn’t appear to be available anymore, but you can always check the MicroPath website. Otherwise, click on the “geocoding” category on the right for more options.

A few days ago, I covered the free gMapExplorer from Micropath, a stand-alone augmented Google Maps and Google Earth browser. Micropath has another useful stand-alone program called Geocode that can geocode an address (convert it to latitude/longitude), as well as reverse geocode (take a latitude/longitude position and find the nearest address). And you can do this either one address or coordinate set at a time, or in batch mode by creating a comma-separated value (CSV) file with the required data. Read the included PDF help file to make sure you put the data in the correct format, and also name the file correctly and put it into the program directory. The program comes with sample CSV files for both batch geocoding:

11-16-2008-9.35.15 PM

And reverse geocoding:

11-16-2008-9.37.15 PM

Output CSV files with this information are generated, and can be found in the program directory under a specified name. If you need to convert them to KML format, I’ve posted before about a program that can do that. Double-click on an address line to open your default browser and plot the address/position in Google Maps.

One oddity, at least in Windows Vista – every time you start up the program, the install program window comes up. But it doesn’t seem to affect the actual program startup time significantly, nor interfere with functionality.




Get A Postal Address By Clicking In Google Maps

Published by
Leszek Pawlowicz
at October 28, 2008 in Google Maps and geocoding. 0 Comments

Know where a building is, but don’t know the street address? This Digital Inspiration page lets you click on a location in Google Maps, and brings up the nearest street address (“reverse geocoding”):

Reverse geocoding in Google Maps

Via Lifehacker.




Worldwide Reverse Geocoding With Google Maps

Published by
Leszek Pawlowicz
at August 17, 2007 in Google Maps and geocoding. 0 Comments

Via the Mapperz Blog, Nico Goeminne has created a reverse geocoder using the Google Maps API that brings up the closest street to a point of interest. Select a country/area that Google Maps supports geocoding for, zoom to the area in that country you’re interested in, and click on the map at your location of interest to create a marker. You’ll get the latitude/longitude of the point you clicked on, the name of the closest street, and the reference latitude/longitude for that street. A maximum of three markers on the map at one time, and a limit of 10,000 lookups a day if you use the source code for your own purposes.

For the US, more address-specific reverse geocoding is available at both the Reverse Geocoder for the United States and the Geonames Reverse Address Geocode.




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