Map data sources

Map data sources is a wonderfully practical corner of INDEX for anyone who needs maps as raw material, research context, or something to build on. For application developers and GIS-minded teams, MapTiler brings together customizable basemaps, location search, SDKs, geospatial layers, upload and processing tools, plus hosted and on-premise options. If OpenStreetMap is your starting point, overpass turbo gives you a browser-based way to write and run Overpass API queries and view, style, share, save, load, or export the results, while Geofabrik’s Download Server offers free regional OSM extracts organized by continent and country for heavier local workflows like GIS analysis, routing engines, conversion pipelines, or self-hosted map services.

The subcategory also reaches beyond conventional basemap data into more specialized kinds of geographic discovery. The David Rumsey Historical Map Collection opens up a large digitized archive of maps, atlases, globes, and related cartographic images, with tools for browsing, searching, georeferencing, text-on-map search, interactive globes, and viewing in platforms such as Google Earth and Google Maps. WikiShootMe is especially handy for Wikimedia contributors, showing mapped Wikidata items and Commons images to identify nearby subjects that may need photographs. WiGLE, meanwhile, focuses on contributor-discovered wireless networks, with searchable maps, statistics, historical graphs, and upload options. Taken together, these listings are less a single type of map source than a small toolkit for exploring place-based data from several useful angles.