10 Sources to Download Administrative Boundaries GIS Data
Source: monde-geospatial
An administrative boundary refers to subdivisions of areas/territories/jurisdictions recognized by governments or alternative organizations executive functions.
Administrative boundaries vary from giant teams of nation states right down to little body districts and suburbs, with a sign of this size/level of importance.
As GIS specialists, we know that administrative boundaries are the primary dataset every geospatial database should integrate. These administrative boundaries need to be correctly mapped and provided by valid sources in order to avoid any conflict of interest.
In this article we will provide you with 10 FREE great sources to download administrative boundaries in GIS format, ranging from non-commercial use to small scale dataset.
1. Natural Earth
As we already said, in the beginning, there are many sources that give you the opportunity to download small scale dataset for free. Natural Earth is by far one of the best, it’s a public domain map dataset obtainable at 1:10m, 1:50m, and 1:110 million scales, that includes tightly integrated vector and raster data, with Natural Earth you’ll be able to build a range of visually satisfying and reliable maps with cartography or GIS software. Take a look at http://www.naturalearthdata.com to download administrative boundaries GIS data for free!
2. GADM
GADM stands for Global Administration Boundaries, their aim is to map the administrative areas of all countries and up to four levels of internal administrative boundary (states, departments, counties etc.), using a high spatial resolution, and an extensive set of attributes. Visit their website to download free administrative boundaries in shapefile format.
https://gadm.org/maps/CHN.html
3. DIVA-GIS
DIVA-GIS is a free data source. Just click on ‘Global level’ at free spatial data and a zip file will download of all country boundaries. Under ‘Country level’ you’ll find administrative areas and a few other things that may interest you but you have to pick the country you want so it could take a little time if you want every country. Here you can download all the administrative boundaries data for free.
4. Thematic mapping
Thematic mapping is another good alternative that provides you a wide range of free data, such as world country borders with attributes including country codes (FIPS, ISO etc.), area and populations. The goal of this source is, to investigate and show how web browsers can be used for thematic mapping which displays the spatial pattern of a social or physical phenomenon, such as population density, life expectancy or climate change, get your free administrative boundaries GIS data from their website.
5. UNEP GEOdata
The Environmental Data Explorer is the authoritative provider for data sets utilized by UNEP and its partners within the Global Environment Outlook (GEO) report and different integrated environment assessments. Its online database holds over four hundred different variables, as national, subregional, regional and world statistics or as geospatial data sets (maps), covering themes like Freshwater, Population, Forests, Emissions, Climate, Disasters, Health and GDP. Display them on-the-fly as maps, graphs, raw values or download the data in different formats especially in Shapefile format. Free data available at their website.
6. UN Second Administrative Level Boundaries
Great alternative and rich source, UN was first Launched in 2001, the SALB initiative started under the urge of the United Nations Geographic Information Working Group (UNGIWG) and was initially ran and executed by the World Health Organization (WHO). It gives multi-level administrative boundaries data for the world, created in co-ordination with national mapping agencies and Contains information on historic changes since 1990. Take a look at their wonderful friendly website all administrative boundaries GIS data are downloadable for free under DATA tab
7. Koordinates
Koordinates is a paid source that gives free trial for all users, it’s a cloud-based platform that handles large, complex spatial datasets, ensuring that professionals can get the data they need for the projects that shape our planet – all in one place.
This platform enables organizations to publish their open data, share their private data, and build new products using out-of-the-box APIs. To get your free trial take a look at their website from here.
8. Marineregions.org
For marine data seekers, Marine Region is your bible, it’s an integration of the VLIMAR Gazetteer and the VLIZ Maritime Boundaries Geodatabase. The VLIMAR Gazetteer is a database with geographic, mainly marine names such as seas, sandbanks, seamounts, ridges, bays, or even standard sampling stations used in marine research. Their website is user friendly and gives you the opportunity to download tons of administrative boundaries GIS data for free, get there from here.
9. Geonetwork
Here we are, the last source of our list is GeoNetwork, it’s an opensource that has been developed to connect spatial information communities and their data using a modern architecture, which is at the same time powerful and low cost, based on the principles of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and International and Open Standards for services and protocols. Get your free administrative boundaries GIS data from their official website.