Map Sources

The Atlas maps are composed of several layers of which there are two broad categories: thematic and base layers. Find below a description of each of the map layers. The layer source is included in the metadata.

Thematic Map Layers

Air Transportation Infrastructure

Natural Resources Canada. 2006 (June). Designated Airspace Handbook.

Transport Canada. 2003-2006. Aerodromes. Database.

Transport Canada. 2006. Flight Origin-Destination Pairs: Major Carriers. Database.

Transport Canada. 2006. Regional Air Origin-Destinations Pairs. Database.

Foreign Areas

The administrative area abbreviations use the International Organization for Standardization two letter country codes (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2).

The sources of geographic information (drainage, ice, transportation networks) for the countries surrounding Canada are:

Kalaallit Nunaat (Grønland), Denmark:
* Danish Ministry of the Environment, National Survey and Cadastre. Web site: www.kms.dk

United States:
* National Atlas of the United States. Web site: http://nationalatlas.gov

All other countries:
* Natural Resources Canada, Atlas of Canada Base Maps. Web site: www.geogratis.icdg.gc.ca
* National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, Vector Map (VMap) Level 0. Web site: http://geoengine.nga.mil/
* Alternate Access for Vector Map (VMap) Level 0. Web site: www.mapability.com or http://gis-lab.info

VMAP Level 0 Copyright Notice
*As an agency of the United States government, NIMA makes no copyright claim under Title 17 of the United States Code with respect to any copyrightable material compiled in these products, nor requires compensation for their use. When incorporating the NIMA maps into your product, please include the following:
a. "this product was developed using materials from the United States National Imagery and Mapping Agency and are reproduced with permission",
b. "this product has neither been endorsed nor authorized by the United States National Imagery and Mapping Agency or the United States Department of Defense".
* Certain features in the Boundaries Coverage and the Reference Library contain the intellectual property of Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI) and its licensors. Copyright (C) 1992-2000 ESRI and its licensors. All rights reserved.
(a) Permitted Uses Licensee may use, copy, reproduce, archive, alter, modify, merge, prepare derivative works, publicly display, redistribute, and retransmit the Data for any internal or noncommercial purpose.

Populated Place Names, Canada and surrounding countries

This layer provides names and population ranges for a selection of places in Canada and surrounding countries. The sources of toponymic and demographic information by country are:

Canada:
* Geographical Names Board of Canada. Web site: http://geonames.nrcan.gc.ca
* Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, First Nation Profiles. Web site: www.ainc-inac.gc.ca

Føroyar, Denmark:
* Statistics Faroe Islands. Web site: www.hagstova.fo

Iceland:
* Statistics Iceland. Web site: www.statice.is

Jan Mayen, Norway:
* Jan Mayen research station. Web site: www.jan-mayen.no/

Kalaallit Nunaat (Grønland), Denmark:
* Gazetteer of Greenland, Compiled by Per Ivar Haug, Number 15, August 2005. Web site: www.ub.ntnu.no
* Statistics Greenland. Web site: www.stat.gl

Russia:
* Geographic Names Data Base, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. Web site: www.nga.mil
* Russian Census, 2002. Web site: www.perepis2002.ru
* Government of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. Web site: www.chukotka.org

Saint-Pierre et Miquelon, France:
* National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies. Web site: www.insee.fr

Shetland Islands, United Kingdom:
* Shetland Islands Council. Web site: www.shetland.gov.uk

United States of America:
* United States Board on Geographic Names. Web site: http://geonames.usgs.gov
* U.S. Census Bureau. Web site: www.census.gov
* National Atlas of the United States. Web site: http://nationalatlas.gov

Rail Transportation Infrastructure

Railway Association of Canada. 1996. Canadian Railway Atlas, 2nd Edition.

Railway Association of Canada. 2003. Canadian Railway Atlas, 4th Edition.

Railway Association of Canada. Web site: http://www.railcan.ca/

Road Transportation Infrastructure

Statistics Canada. 2001. Census of Population.

Natural Resources Canada. 7.5 and 1 Million Road Frameworks.

Natural Resources Canada. GeoBase. National Road Network.

Base Map Layers

Atlas of Canada Framework Layers

Base map components are features that provide a geographic context for the thematic data shown on Atlas of Canada maps. These features include rivers, lakes, administrative boundaries, populated places, roads and rail lines. All of the Atlas of Canada base map components are available for immediate free download in five scales and in a number of data exchange formats. The 1:7 500 000 and the 1:1 000 000 scale data are the primary base frameworks used for all Atlas of Canada 6th Edition online maps. You can download Atlas of Canada data from this Web page on GeoGratis.