Geospatial Data Providers - A Sampling New data such as orthorectified satellite imagery, hazardous or contaminated area maps, are now available as mass market products. By David B. Davis Writing a report about geospatial data providers is about like trying to write a short, concise report about the field of biology or a history of the last ten years of computer science. There is so much geospatial data available for purchase or at no cost that it is impossible to list every source in an article of this size or any size for that matter. It seems that every day some company or government agency has something new to offer or at the very least an updated or more accurate version of some previous data. Because the entire menu can't be covered here we'll just have to try a piece of these and a bite of that. The paradigm of many organizations for data acquisition has been changing over the last few years. New data such as orthorectified satellite imagery, hazardous or contaminated area maps, and georeferenced vector data are all now available on the mass market. Often times in the past the only option an organization had for getting the digital data they needed for their area of responsibility was to contract for new data or try converting their existing data themselves. This can still be the best route to take in many cases but now it is not the only method available. A couple of scenarios illustrate the possibilities now available for getting the data you need. Scenario 1. - Obtain new 1-meter resolution aerial imagery of your city. This could require submitting RFP's (request for proposal) to numerous companies, selecting a contractor, waiting for good flying days, waiting for the imagery to be processed, and waiting for the imagery to be orthorectified. If traditional methods are used this could all take months or even years if you are trying to get cloud free coverage in an area such as Hawaii or many of the tropical regions of the earth. A newly emerging option is to obtain the data from one of the companies now offering prepackaged, orthorectified aerial imagery. This imagery is generally available either by square kilometer or in some cases already in a city based coverage. Many of the larger cities in the USA and several other countries are already available or soon will be in this format. Companies offering these services include: Orbital Imaging Corporation , AirPhotoUSA , and Space Imaging. Scenario 2. - Find and obtain topographic maps from several different countries. Up until a few years ago this was quite a daunting task. It required searching through library sources, trying to write letters or talk on the telephone with someone in another language, submitting an accurate order, and trying to set up an acceptable method of payment. About seven years ago I had to go through much of this just to obtain a map and several aerial photographs of a city in Uruguay. Even with the help of several friends and in-laws in Uruguay it was still a difficult task. www.giscafe.com/TechPapers/Papers/paper019/GISproj.htm Fortunately trying to obtain maps and related data for locations outside of the USA has become much easier thanks to the Internet and some helpful websites. You can now go to a number of locations on the Internet that enable you to search for your data, place the order, and pay for it all in a few easy steps. A couple of sites that offer maps from just about everywhere in the world are Omnimap and Netstoreusa . For me, ClearingHouse Nacional de Datos Geograficos would have sure come in handy back when I was trying to get the maps and aerial photography I needed in Uruguay. This particular site offers data in both hard copy and digital format for Uruguay. There is a very good chance that one of these or other similar sites will have the maps you need no matter what corner of the world you are looking for.