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Geography and Environmental Studies: Websites

Arctic and Cold Regions
  • ADA (Arctic Discovery & Access): a portal providing "access to scientific research publications, research projects derived from license and permit information, K-12 educational resources, data management resources for researchers, virtual exhibits, and the Arctic Institute of North America's online archives and special collections. Also contains the records of the Arctic Science and Technology System (ASTIS) database.
  • Arctic Portal: A "comprehensive gateway to the Arctic on the internet" that includes an integrated document library and project directory, interactive mapping, and on-demand webcasts. Sponsored by various organizations including the IPY and numerous academic institutions.
  • Arctic Theme Page "provides access to widely distributed Arctic data and information for scientists, students, teachers, academia, managers, decision makers and the general public."
Environment
  • EarthTrends: The Environmental Information Portal. Offers searchable databases, data tables, country profiles, maps, and articles in ten topical sections.
  • Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN) This data set is composed of annual temperature, precipitation and pressure reading covering a period from 1880 to 1998.
  • National Geophysical Data Center is operated by the US Dept. of Commerce-NOAA-NESDIS. This site provides environmental data in the fields of marine geology and geophysics, paleoclimatology, solar-terrestrial physics, solid earth geophysics, and glaciology. Each discipline includes links to the World Data Center.
  • National Wildlife Federation "is the USA's largest member-supported conservation group, uniting individuals, organizations, businesses and government to conserve and protect wildlife, natural resources, and the Earth's environment upon which we all depend, in order to achieve a peaceful, equitable and sustainable future."
  • United Nations Environment Programme. Brings together environmental information based on themes and regions.
  • U.S. Climate at a Glance . The data provided is intended for the study of climate variability and change throughout the USA.
Geography
  • Current Geographical Publications (CGP): an "open access, non-profit service to the scholarly community initiated in 1938 by the American Geographical Society of New York. Index produced in print between 1938 and 2003. It was available online for a short while but access to that was suspended. Beginning in 2006, the format changed to include the tables of contents (TOC) only. Formerly Online Geographical Bibliography (GEOBIB).
  • Earth Observatory. Provided by NASA. It is a freely accessible Internet publication which reproduces new satellite images and information about the planet earth.
  • Earth Science Photographic Archive from the U.S. Geological Survey Photo Library. Contains over 21,000 photos which can be viewed and downloaded free of charge.
  • Geography Topics from the Librarians' Index to the Internet. Well annotated and organized directory of resources.
  • Geography and Travel prepared by BUBL (Bulletin Board for Librarians). Selected resources organized according to the Dewey classification system.
  • Internet Resources for Geographers produced by the University of Colorado as part of their Virtual Geography Department, this site provides links to a wide range of geography topics.
  • National Geographic Society (NGS) Publications Index . Provides easy to use indexing service to the Society's magazines, books, films & videos.
  • Scirus: For Scientific Information Only. Scirus is a science-specific search engine which examines over 167 million science related Web pages.
Geology
  • Geologist's Lifetime Field List provides the geologist or traveler with a listing of essential or desirable locations to visit. In addition, the site links to information on many geological wonders of the world. The site is heavily illustrated with quality photographs.
  • Selected Web Sites for Geoscientists. This site provides direct links to: guides to the Internet for earth sciences; data sources; index to journal articles & technical reports; abstracts & table of contents from journals; library catalogues; choice web sites; directories; selected government agencies; associations and universities with geology departments & schools.
  • U.S. Geological Survey: a bureau of the US Dept. of the Interior, which provides reliable and impartial information to describe & understand the Earth. This web site provides highlights into current new releases as well as links to a variety of educational topics in the areas of biology, geology, mapping and water.
  • Vents Program "conducts research on the impacts and consequences of submarine volcanoes and hydrothermal venting on the global ocean."
  • Volcano World claims to be the Web's premier source for volcano information. The site relies heavily on photographs, satellite images and illustrations. There are multiple links within the text of each volcano's description
Hydrology

Hydrology Web provides a list of hydrology and related resources on the Internet. The site is maintained by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Maps and GIS
  • Canadian County Atlas Digital Project. A "searchable database of the property owners' names which appear on the township maps in the county atlases. Township maps, portraits and properties have been scanned." Search by people's names or county names.
  • Canada's Geographical Names Website provides access to 500,000 geographical names in Canada. The reference service provides basic locational information including maps which can be downloaded.
  • CartoMundi offers more than 5,000 digital map reproductions of Europe and the Mediterranean, as well as over 50,000 references to cartographic documents. Coverage is 195 countries held in about 20 different map libraries.
  • GeoGratis is an initiative of the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing. This site provides a wide variety of geospatial data, without charge, for geographic areas across Canada.
  • Geospatial Data Resources: University of Waterloo Map Library.
  • National Atlas of Canada is responsible for the development and maintenance of an authoritative synthesis of the geography of Canada. The site provides an index to the base maps, thematic maps. and digital services, reflecting social, economic, environmental & cultural elements of Canada.
  • Ontario Historical County Maps Project: Scanned images of historical county maps of Ontario; also includes a searchable web database mapping application. From University of Toronto.
  • Ontario Historical Map Digitization Project: an OCUL project that provides digital access to over 1000 early topographic maps of Ontario at the 1:25,000 and 1:63,360 (one inch to one mile) scales, covering towns, cities, and rural areas in Ontario over the period of 1906 to 1977.
  • Perry-Castaneda Library Map Collection has over 2000 map images for all parts of the world.
  • Population Index, 1986-1999. A reference tool to the world's population literature. It provides an annotated bibliography of books, journal articles, working papers and other material.
  • Scholars GeoPortal: a web-based tool to access geospatial datasets licensed by your university library. The GeoPortal includes land-based vector data (water, cultural features, etc.), census geography, orthophotography, and more.
  • Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) is an offshoot of NASA and "focuses on human interactions in the environment" by matching population data with earth science data sets, as well as environmental science information.
  • University of Waterloo Geospatial Centre, Digital Projects page. Many projects covering areas of local interest, including digitized historical air photos, Region of Waterloo historical streets, City of Kitchener Fire Insurance Plan (1908).
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