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BC Basemap Viewer


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Those interested in modern digital high-resolution on-line mapping should check out the BC Basemap Viewer. The entire province has been mapped with aerial surveys at 20m data-point spacings; the results are excellent. See:

http://maps.gov.bc.ca/imf/imf.jsp?site=bc_basemap

 

The viewer is quite intuitive; remember to turn "ON" the layers. Turning "OFF" the 3rd "Grids and Images" tab ("TRIM Orthomosaic") removes photo-overlays which interfere with visibility in some areas.

 

48,000 scale (anything sub-50,000) is good for "cruising", as it includes most point elevations. Zooming "OUT" to 96,000 shows 100m contouring and key placenames. Zooming "IN" shows ever-greater detail.

 

Have fun!

 

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Spectacular! If i ever needed a reason to buy a 22" monitor... here it is.

 

What a resource, thanks for pointing it out Don.

 

[edit]Dru! I can't believe you never told me about this! You holding out on me???[/edit]

Edited by snoboy
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  • 5 months later...
Don_Serl said:

Those interested in modern digital high-resolution on-line mapping should check out the BC Basemap Viewer.

 

I discovered this about a month or two ago myself. You can also email maps to yourself as attachments and save them locally. I used that for my "Wapiti Valley Guide" site at http://members.shaw.ca/eseedhouse/wapiti/.

 

 

 

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  • 3 months later...

New location for BC basemap viewer:

Go to http://maps.gov.bc.ca/

Then click open the "Provincial Basemap" hotlink.

 

The operation of the viewer has changed a bit, and is a touch less user-friendly. You need to click the "Layers" tab at the top, then click open the "Base Map Layers" folder, then select the info you want added to the view. The thing is, you generally want EVERYTHING in the "Base Map Layers" section, but because the info is scale-sensitive, you can't access it all until you're in to about 1:100,00 scale or tighter. Hassle... But you can get to "tight" scale quickly by clicking on the map at about the location you want [to save moving a lot afterwards], then (after it reloads) re-entering the scale at (say) 1:96,000 in the box lower left and clicking to "GO" button, and making your complete selections after the re-load finishes.

 

Reminder: keep the 3rd "Grids and Images" tab ("TRIM Orthomosaic") OFF so as to remove photo-overlays which interfere with visibility in some areas.

 

Cheers,

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  • 4 weeks later...

I'd just like to add that there is a nice server for worldwide sattelite pics down to 1/2" per pixel at http://onearth.jpl.nasa.gov/

 

I find zooming in on Vancouver Island is fun, but I obviously have a location bias. The Nomash valley is quite prominent and the whole geography of the area becomes quite plain - including the bright green clearcuts.

 

Also, nice pics of Mt Ranier from space.

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I'd just like to add that there is a nice server for worldwide sattelite pics down to 1/2" per pixel at http://onearth.jpl.nasa.gov/

 

I find zooming in on Vancouver Island is fun, but I obviously have a location bias. The Nomash valley is quite prominent and the whole geography of the area becomes quite plain - including the bright green clearcuts.

 

Also, nice pics of Mt Ranier from space.

Wow, that's a pretty cool time waster there! Seems very useful for checking out exactly actual existence of spur roads and differentitating between forest (dark green) and alder (light green!). However, it shows all rock as red madgo_ron.gif and is shot from the south for this area, so all the SUPPPERSECRETE north aretes are in shadow frown.gif

Still, nice to dream about where you might have been this week if everything had gone according to plans mad.gif

5a1a559566f37_379864-compd.jpg.cac843f849e4747621bee9dc7ae0d6fa.jpg

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>Seems very useful for checking out exactly actual existence of

> spur roads

 

Well, in areas I happen to know fairly well the roads I hapen to know are there are not really very prominent, but if you *can* see it you are pretty sure it's really there. But the fact that it's faint or nearly invisible doesn't necessarily seem to mean it isn't there and passable, on foot at least.

 

 

> However, it shows all rock as red

 

And not all that is red is rock.

 

> and is shot from the south for this area,

 

You wanna see something weird, zoom in on Baffin Island. confused.gif

 

Ed

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  • 4 weeks later...
I may go through with my evil plans to scan in a bunch of topos and stitch them together.

Save yourself the effort, if not some $, and check out Fugawi. C$100 gets you every topo map in the province, and their software (C$150) lets you stitch them together seamlessly. Good for hours of trip plannning fun!

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  • 1 month later...
I'd just like to add that there is a nice server for worldwide sattelite pics down to 1/2" per pixel at http://onearth.jpl.nasa.gov/

 

I find zooming in on Vancouver Island is fun, but I obviously have a location bias. The Nomash valley is quite prominent and the whole geography of the area becomes quite plain - including the bright green clearcuts.

 

Also, nice pics of Mt Ranier from space.

 

"The onearth WMS server has been restricted to NASA only due to overload. We are working on server improvements and will have the server open again for public access as soon as possible." But Terraserver's better anyway Geek_em8.gif

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