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Basemap updates for Canada – October 2017

Numerous communities in Canada have had their imagery and topographic basemaps updated in ArcGIS Online this week. Find out what and where.

The basemaps in ArcGIS Online were updated this week with content from many Canadian contributors. Five communities from across the country contributed updated imagery and another eight provided topographic basemap updates.

Imagery supplied by the city of Cambridge, ON (shown on the right) replaces older black and white imagery of the area.

The following communities provided imagery updates:

  • Nanaimo, BC (20 cm imagery from 2016)
  • Squamish, BC (10 cm imagery from 2016)
  • Dufferin County, ON (20 cm imagery from 2015)
  • Central Elgin, ON (20 cm imagery from 2015)
  • Cambridge, ON (12 cm from 2014)

Data provided by the 407EDG, City of Oshawa and Durham Region have helped improve the map and keep it updated. The map on the left displays the area using only federally available data. The map on the right includes contributions from all three participants as well as the Province of Ontario.

For the topographic basemap, several long-time contributors provided updates, and three new participants in the Community Maps program had their content published for the first time:

  • White Rock, BC (update)
  • Prince George, BC (update)
  • Regina, SK (update)
  • Milton, ON (update)
  • Durham Region, ON (new)
  • Oshawa, ON (new)
  • 407 East Development Group, ON (new)
  • Ottawa, ON (update)
  • Quinte West, ON (update)

Data taken from the City of Ottawa’s open data site included building footprints, adding important details to the topographic basemap. What the map used to look like appears on the left; the updated map appears on the right.

For a complete list of current Community Map participants in Canada, visit the Participant Map.

About the Author

Paul Heersink is a cartographer and Program Manager of Esri Canada’s Roads & Addresses Program: an initiative that is aiming to build a seamless topographic basemap using contributor data. He has over 25 years of cartographic experience, working in both the public and private sectors. Paul has always been interested in mapping and drew his own atlas at the age of 10. He took a detour in his career through the fields of psychology and social work before returning to cartography.

Profile Photo of Paul Heersink