External Geoportals

Each portal provides specific geospatial datasets available for download. Please refer to the respective terms of use policies and licensing requirements (where applicable). To search the portals listed here, please make use of your browser's built-in search functionality.

Geospatial Information Portal

Link/URL

Description

Descriptions from the respective sources were used to describe each portal. 

Featured datasets

 

 

Chief Directorate: National Geo-spatial Information

Instructional Video

More than ninety five years ago National Geo-spatial Information (NGI), a component of Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (DRDLR) commenced with the establishment of an integrated survey system and provision of extensive mapping and aerial imagery coverage of the country.

Historical aerial photography, National digital aerial imagery coverage

 

 

 

 

SANBI

Biodiversity GIS

Here users will find a comprehensive list of spatial datasets freely available for download. Each dataset is accompanied by metadata, providing users with useful details on projection, scale, and date of creation, giving a user valuable insight into the accuracy and reliability of the dataset.

Vegetation map, Western Cape landcover, small pelagic tracks, Free State terrestrial CBAs, Marine monitoring areas, North West planning units

 

 

OpenStreetMap

Instructional Video

OpenStreetMap provides map data for thousands of web sites, mobile apps, and hardware devices. OpenStreetMap is built by a community of mappers that contribute and maintain data about roads, trails, cafés, railway stations, and much more, all over the world.

Street, River, Road, Boundary, Points of interest, Suburbs, Towns

 

 

Tshwane e-GIS Viewer

The Tshwane e-GIS Viewer is an online map viewer and data portal showcasing the various geographic datasets of The City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality.

Roads, Imagery, Contours, Points of interest

 

 

Nelson Mandela Bay Metro

The Nelson Mandela Bay Metro Web Map allows users to navigate through the wards, allotments, and other map features within the metro.

Contours, Cadastral, Streets, Allotments, Wards

 

 

eThekwini

Geographic Information is at the heart of what eThekwini Municipality does. Free access to map viewers and spatial data is provided.

Property, Building footprint, Contours, Dams, Municipal boundary, Land cover, Parcel, Roads, Railway

 

 

City of Ekurhuleni

This interactive website provides access to maps for the citizens of Ekurhuleni, public and private sector. Online users may query/view maps and data available in the City’s Geographic Information Systems.

Aerial Imagery, Environmental data, Hillshade, Property data, POI, Transportation

 

 

USGS Earth Explorer

Instructional Video

From the USGS EarthExplorer about information: The USGS EarthExplorer (EE) tool provides users the ability to query, search, and order satellite images, aerial photographs, and cartographic products from several sources.

Imagery: Landsat archive up to Landsat 8, Sentinel 2, IKONOS-2, Orbview-3

DEM: STM 1-arc, GOTOPO30, ASTER

Land cover: GLLC

 

 

Copernicus Open Access Hub

The Copernicus Open Access Hub (previously known as Sentinels Scientific Data Hub) provides complete, free and open access to Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2, Sentinel-3 and Sentinel-5P user products, starting from the In-Orbit Commissioning Review (IOCR).

Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2, Sentinel-3 and Sentinel-5P Imagery

 

 

JAXA ALOS

ALOS World 3D - 30m (AW3D30) is a global digital surface model (DSM) with horizontal resolution of approximately 30 meters by the Panchromatic Remote-sensing Instrument for Stereo Mapping (PRISM), on board the Advanced Land Observing Satellite "ALOS".

30m global DEM, Raster data, Imagery, Mosaic data

 

 

Earthdata Worldview

The Worldview tool from NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) provides the capability to interactively browse over 900 global, full-resolution satellite imagery layers and then download the underlying data.

Imagery, Sentinel-2, Clouds, Bushfires, Dust storms, Hurricanes, Sunlight, Cyclones, Volcanoes, Swath gaps

 

 

Earthdata

NASA provides earth science data that are available fully, openly, and without restrictions.

Satellite imagery, Earth observation, Land, Ocean, Atmosphere, Radiance, Crysosphere

 

 

UNEP Environmental Data Explorer

The Environmental Data Explorer is the authoritative source for data sets used by UNEP and its partners in the Global Environment Outlook (GEO) report and other integrated environment assessments.

Themes: Freshwater, Population, Forests, Emissions, Climate, Disasters, Health and GDP

 

 

SA Risk and Vulnerability Atlas

The South African Risk and Vulnerability Atlas is an open access platform that unites data to solve complex interconnected problems. SARVA is a living collection of global change resources.

South African Census of Commercial Agriculture, Daily air quality estimates for urban centers in Africa, South African hazardous events mortalities data

SDG 1: Indicator 1.5.1D, COVID-19 Vulnerability Metrics for South Africa

 

 

Department of Water and Sanitation geospatial data

The Department of Water and Sanitation is the custodian of South Africa's water resources. The DWS strive to provide access to clean water and dignified sanitation, and effective and efficient water resources management.

Monitoring points, Rivers, Drainage regions, Ecoregions, Water resources

 

 

Department of Environmental Affairs EGIS

The Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) provides access to baseline environmental geospatial data, map services, printable maps and relevant documents.

SA Protected and Conservation Areas (PACA), SA Renewable Energy EIA Application Database (REEA), South African National Land Cover (SANLC) 2018, REDZs & Associated Transmission Corridors Data

 

 

DIVA-GIS

DIVA-GIS is a free computer program for mapping and geographic data analysis (GIS). They provide free spatial data for the whole world that you can use in DIVA-GIS or other programs.

Administrative areas, Inland water, Roads, Railroads, Elevation, Land cover, Population, Climate, Gazetteer

 

 

City of Cape Town Spatial Data

Instructional Video

The City of Cape Town makes data available that has been approved for use in terms of the Open Data Policy. Access to City information helps to increase transparency, as well as benefit the wider community and other stakeholders.

Roads, Streets, Health, Human Settlements, Imagery, Boundaries

 

 

City of Johannesburg Spatial Data

e-Services is an initiative from the City of Johannesburg and is fully accessible online through the web and mobile. The City of Johannesburg offers spatial data maps and online maps that can be accessed free-of-charge once you have registered.

Stand and township information, Proposed townships, Aerial photography, Street addresses, Zoning information, Administrative boundaries, Topographical information​

 

 

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Municipal Demarcation Board

Instructional Video

Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB) provides public access to spatial (GIS-related) data produced by MDB for municipalities and wards.

District municipality, Local municipality, Wards

 

 

Council for Geoscience

The Council for Geoscience (CGS) serve as the national custodian of geoscientific information relating to the earth and marine environment in South Africa. This site provides the public with access to spatial (GIS-related) data produced by CGS. The CGS Portal features data and maps in several areas: mapping, geological hazards, mineral resources and water & environment. All data published by CGS is subjected to the CGS License Agreement.

Geological maps and polygons, Tectonic contact and fault lines, Structural lines, Structural points, Dykes, Geological points

 

 

Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development

Equitable access to land, integrated rural development, sustainable agriculture and food security for all.

Food Security, Livestock numbers, Statistics on Fresh Produce Markets, Crops and Markets, Agriculture.

 

 

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Our goal is to achieve food security for all and make sure that people have regular access to enough high-quality food to lead active, healthy lives.

Food Security and Nutrition, Agriculture, Food Production, Global data, Climate Change.

 

 

South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON)

The SAEON Data Portal provides meta-data-driven search and discovery facilities, and also serves as a repository for data contributed by stakeholders and providers.

Eragrostis curvula, Groundnuts Yield Estimation, Kikuyu Yield Estimation, Smuts Finger Grass Yield, Sunflower Seed Yield Estimation, Acocks Veld Types.

 

 

Natural Earth

Instructional Video

Natural Earth is a public domain map dataset available at 1:10m, 1:50m, and 1:110 million scales. Data themes are available in three levels of detail. For each scale, themes are listed on Cultural, Physical, and Raster category pages.

Boundaries, Places, Roads, Railroads, Airports, Ports, Urban, Parks.

 

 

 

Chief Surveyor General The Chief Surveyor General is responsible for all of the cadastral data within South Africa. This includes the curation and maintenance of the SG diagrams for each property. Land parcels with erf/stand numbers, SG diagrams

CSIR Geospatial Analysis Platform The CSIR Geospatial Analysis Platform (GAP) is designed to facilitate the assembly, analysis and sharing of economic, development and demand information. Municipal demarcations, main economic sectors, employment sectors, settlement typology

Gauteng City-Region Observatory The Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO) is a research organisation funded by the Gauteng provincial government. The GCRO is responsible for publishing reports and datasets relating to the fast growing and dynamic urban region of Gauteng. A major output of the GCRO is the biennial Quality of Life survey. Bizcount geocoded business layer, gated communities, provincial land cover, urban land cover, land use per building, growth indicators, land use change, deeds transfers and property valuations per enumeration area

Gauteng City Region Integrated Geospatial Data Platform The Gauteng City Region Geospatial Data Platform can be used to find authoritative data regarding the province. This includes datasetsfrom performance monitoring, to infrastructure locations, imagery and basemaps. Education districts, health facilities, railway stations, land use change, bus stops, taxi ranks, education centers, land parcels, zoning

Planet GIS Planet GIS is not the original source of the datasets accessible through their website, however these datasets can be downloaded and viewed using the PlanetGIS Explorer software available on their website. Administrative boundaries, SA OpenStreetMap extract, cadastral data, 1:50 000 topographic data, 5m contour lines, 20m contour lines, land cover

Statistics South Africa Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) is responsible for the collection, production and dissemination of official and other statistics relating to the population and economic state of South Africa. Census datasets, community survey datasets, household surveys, living condition surveys

SuperWeb (powered by Stats SA) SuperWeb is the online, lightweight version of Statistics South Africa's SuperCross software. One can cross tabulate variables from various datasets for download using SuperWeb. Census datasets, community survey datasets, household surveys, living condition surveys

World Population World Population (WorldPop) develops open and high-resolution geospatial data on population distributions, demographic and dynamics, with a focus on low and middle income countries. Administrative areas, age and sex structures, development indicators, global flight data, global settlement growth, migration flows, population counts, population density, pregnancies, urban change

National Oceans and Coastal Information Management System The National Oceans and Coastal Information Management System (OCIMS) is a platform developed by the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries (DEFF) and the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI). Its focus is to unlock the economic potential of South Africa's oceans and coastlines by providing decision support tools.  

INSPIRE Geoportal The INSPIRE geoportal is the central European access point to data provided by EU member states and several EFTA countries under the INSPIRE directive. Addresses, administratice units, cadastral parcels, geographical names, hydrology, protected sites, transport networks, elevation, geology, land cover, orthoimagery, atmospheric, energy resources, buildings, mineral resources

Microsoft ML Building Footprints Bing Maps has released building footprints around the world. 856 million buildings have been detected from Bing Maps imagery between 2014 and 2021 including Maxar and Airbus imagery. The data is freely available for download and use under the ODbL. Building footprints (download per country)

NCAR Climate Data Guide Access to over 125+ observational data sets, download links, expert insights, related publications. Data analysis tools and methods for observations and model output, measuring Earth systems model performance relative to observations. Atmospheric InfraRed Sounder, Trace Gases, Tropospheric air temperature and specific humidity, Amundsen Sea Low Indices

TERRA CLIMATE

Instructional Video

 

The raw TerraClimate netcdf files are available for download. TerraClimate is a dataset of monthly climate and climatic water balances for global terrestrial surfaces from 1958 - 2019. These data provide important inputs for ecological and hydrological studies at global scales that require high spatial resolution and time-varying data. Actual Evapotranspiration, Climate Water Deficit, Precipitation, Runoff, Soil Moisture, Surface Shortwave Radiation, Snow Water Equivalent, Max and Min Temperatures, Vapour Pressure, Wind Speed, Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI)

CHIRPS Climate Data

Instructional Video

Rainfall Estimates from rain guages and satellite observations. Numerous resources have been pooled together to build high resolution (0.05 degrees) gridded precipitation technologies. The creation of CHIRPS has supported drought monitoring efforts by the USAID Famine Early Warning System Network. InfraRed Precipitation with Station Data (annualy, monthly, daily, 6-hourly), Climate Hazards center IMEreg with stations, Centennial Trends

FAO GeoNetwork

The FAO GeoNetwork provides Internet access to interactive maps, satellite imagery and related spatial databases maintained by FAO and its partners. FAO facilitates multidisciplinary approaches to sustainable development and supports decision making in agriculture, forestry, fisheries and food security. Climatology, Meteorology, Atmosphere, Environment, Farming

Open Topography

OpenTopography facilitates community access to high-resolution, Earth science-oriented, topography data, and related tools and resources. Point cloud data, Raster data

ESRI Open Data Hub

ArcGIS Open Data allows organizations to use the ArcGIS platform to provide the public with open access to their authori- tative data. Organizations configure a website with their own look and feel and specify open data groups to share specific items. Vector data, Raster data

NASA Earth Observations (NEO)

Browse and download imagery of satellite data from NASA's constellation of Earth Observing System satellites. Over 50 different global datasets are represented with daily, weekly, and monthly snapshots, and images are available in a variety of formats. Atmosphere, Average land surface temperature, Average sea surface temperature, Population, NDVI

Terra Populus

IPUMS Terra integrates population census data from around the world with global environmental data, allowing users to obtain customised datasets that incorporate data from multiple sources in a single coherent structure. Population, Landcover, Climate

ENERGYDATA.INFO

ENERGYDATA.INFO is an open data platform providing access to datasets and data analytics that are relevant to the energy sector. Diffuse Horizontal Irradiance, Direct Normal Irradiation, Terrain Elevation Above Sea Level, Global electricity transmission and distribution lines

Digital Earth Africa

Our continental-wide service Water Observations from Space (WOfS) allows anyone to better understand water availability anywhere in Africa. It translates years of satellite imagery of surface water into easy to consume information on the presence, location and recurrence of water within Africa. This allows users across Africa to map, assess, visualise, and manage water resources and understand trends over time The ratio of wet to clear observations per calendar year, he ratio of wet to clear observations over all time

Climate Engine

Cloud Computing of Climate and Remote Sensing Data Maximum temperature, minimum temperature, precipitation, NDVI, NDWI, Fire Weather Index

Open Buildings

The dataset contains 1.8 billion building detections, across an inference area of 58M km2 within Africa, South Asia, South-East Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. Polygons describing building footprint on the ground, a confidence score indicating how sure we are that this is a building, and a Plus Code corresponding to the centre of the building

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