User:Oceanflynn/Maps

This user page is a personal shareable research tool by a non-expert in cartography, a field that is constantly changing. Good maps improve Wikipedia articles and most of the really good maps are proprietorial and do not conform to Wikimedia or Wikipedia's policies regarding Creative Commons licensing.

There is a WikiProject Map page that offers "advice, tools, links to resources, and recommended conventions. If you are serious about making maps for Wikipedia these are the experts, not the writer of this page of notes.

This user page is about making layered maps based on open source online .jpg, .psd layers using a raster graphics editor—GIMP for example—to manipulate and layer images with the ultimate goal of producing a useful customized map for specific Wikipedia articles, that do not violate any of Wikimedia Commons or Wikipedia's copyright laws.

While the base map must be open source, other non-free maps can be used to gather localized data including changes to place names—those that changed over time and the use of indigenous languages.

Basically, the process involves finding useful base maps that are already open source with clear CC licensing, then adding layers with specific labels, icons, lines, colors, and/or shapes to produce a customized map to improve a Wikipedia article without violating any of Wikimedia Commons or Wikipedia's copyright laws.

Once a map is completed, uploading it can be challenging as the fields for ensuring no protocols have been abused, can be a bit overwhelming. There are some experienced editors whose files have very complete data that proved useful, such as Hwy43 and NordNordWest.

Cite map template
The cite map template includes the title parameter, which if published in an atlas, book, or journal, may be wikilinked or may use map-url, but not both.

Examples include


 * E.T. Seton Park (Map)

Creative Commons licenses
Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons accept the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

Basic relief map of Canada
This Basic relief map of Canada November 2020 relief and bathymetry map from ETOPO1 was made by User:MapGrid with Generic Mapping Tools (GMT).

World Geodetic System WGS84


 * SVG development
 * source code of this SVG is valid.
 * This map was created with perl.
 * This SVG map uses embedded raster graphics to show its topographic structures

This is one of the maps I would like to have.

User:MapGrid included the detailed

User:MapGrid also created this map!

Basic Canadian locator map
This Canadian political map was drawn and adapted from Atlas of Canada by E Pluribus Anthony on 11 March 2006. See details

This administrative map was made on 7 February 2007 by User:Styx. It has labels in French with labels in French, was created with Inkscape, a "free and open-source vector graphics editor used to create vector images, primarily in Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format. Other formats can be imported and exported." The 2008 locator map resized and removed all labels from this map pour la géolocation du Canada. Inkscape coordinates are est x=80px, y=166px, height=920, width=1084. This map was improved or created by the Wikigraphists of the Graphic Lab (fr). You can propose images to clean up, improve, create or translate as well.

This made by User:Yug in July 2008 with this description "Version recadrée et épurée de

In 2011 used Yug's map to create a High Arctic Relocation map. Inuit families were relocated in 1953 from Inukjuak, Québec 2000 km north to Resolute Bay (left arrow) and Grise Fiord (right arrow), both Nunavut.


 * Canada location map.svg:
 * derivative work: Yug
 * Canada (geolocalisation).svg: STyx
 * derivative work: Elektryk4

This Canada location map, which was made on 15 November 2020 by User:MapGrid, includes all the major rivers.

Basic location map of Nunavut
This Nunavut location map was made by User:Flappiefh on August 6, 2012. It uses the Lambert conformal conic projection.

This pushpin location map is used in most articles on Nunavut. It was made on September 8, 2010 by User:Algkalv and User:Dr. Blofeld based on original by User:Yug with an inset map by User:EOZyo. The two maps were put together by Ruhrfisch.

This SVG location map of Nunavut is a derivative map by NordNordWest. It uses the Lambert conformal conic projection.

Data derived from
When uploading an image to Wikimedia Commons the sources of the data used to create the image can be listed, as in this example: "Data derived from NASA SRTM, Natural Resources Canada, US Geological Survey, and Natural Earth"

An excellent example of how to cite references for "data derived" can be found and this one by  and this one

Natural Earth
Natural Earth is a "public domain map dataset available at 1:10m, 1:50m, and 1:110 million scales. Featuring tightly integrated vector and raster data, with Natural Earth you can make a variety of visually pleasing, well-crafted maps with cartography or GIS software."

File formats
The Workshop Project recommends .svg and .png.

Non-free maps with copyright licensing
These maps can inform but cannot be used in Wikipedia or Wikimedia Commons:


 * detailed maps series from the University of Guelph. I am in the process of finding and/or creating archive urls for this older website so the content will continue to be available.

Geo boxes for geographical features
It is helpful to learn how to use coordinates, pushpin map, map size, and map captions properly with lots of opportunities for error. Geobox | River }}
 * country = United States
 * country_flag = 1
 * state = Alaska
 * district_type = Borough
 * district = North Slope
 * name              = Ipnavik River
 * name_native       = Ipnavik
 * name_native_lang  = Iñupiat
 * location = Alaska (USA)
 * length            = 68
 * length_unit       = mi
 * length_note       =
 * pushpin_map        = USA Alaska
 * pushpin_map_size   = 300
 * pushpin_map_caption =
 * source_coordinates         =
 * source           =  Brookskette
 * source_region = US-AK
 * mouth_name                 = Colville River
 * mouth_location             = Howard Pass
 * mouth_district = National Petroleum Reserve
 * mouth             = Mouth of the Ipnavik River in Colville River
 * mouth_coordinates =
 * river_system      = Colville River

Coordinates
{{coord|38.88922|-77.04858|US_type:event|display=title

38.88929, -77.04855 Geohash styles

38.88929 -77.04855 exact spot

N 38.88929 W 77.04855

38.88929° -77.04855°

N 38.88929° W 77.04855°

38°53.357' -77°2.913'

N 38°53.357' W 77°2.913'

38°53'21.44" -77°2'54.78"

N 38°53'21.44" W 77°2'54.78"

Closer to Washington Memorial 38.88922, -77.04858

Learning from mistakes
I added this image in September 2018 to the article I wrote on the IPCC. It is from NASA. User:Pierre cb told me that its license should be based on the template PD-USGov-NASA {{PD-USGov-NASA and its categories should only be Category:Atmospheric rivers Category:Satellite pictures of mid-latitude storms. User:Pierre cb added that he does not want to answer any more questions.

Learning from pros
NordNordWest has some very helpful suggestions. Apparently in a map project on India, Pakistan and Bangladesh is national maps "line up correctly with the coastlines in these regions in a way not done by any current location map for subnational divisions there, so I'm assuming they are accurate boundaries". User C1MM asked NordNordWest where their data come from. C1MM said "US national imagery data is very vague, I looked and it seems you have to have some special login in order to access it. Is that how you get the data?" NNW said "Data usually used for my country maps is en:Vector Map Level Zero. But this data is outdated or even incorrect so I often grab a satellite image and update/correct it. I think that's the main difference to other map contributors: most of them don't check their free data." NNW 13:51, 30 January 2021 (UTC) C1MM asks "Ah, that makes sense. What about information about administrative boundaries such as provinces, states etc?" NNW says, "I simplified layering for India location map (no nested layers inside groups like there is now) and merged all international provinces/subdivisions in the other countries layer into a single path and reduced the document size to ~1.3 MB. Is it best if I upload this now under a different name and then some administrator can grab it and update the actual file and delete the placeholder?"

Random resources
public Access to Public Data manifold.net is committed to supporting public access to public data.



Maps made by this user
I added Duncan Lake (Amazay Lake) to the existing map below of the 2010 Map of the Finlay River, a tributary and headwater of the Peace River, in BC, Canada. 8 March 2010. Background and river course data from authored by Shannon. Shannon's description is "Map of the drainage basin of Finlay River, a tributary of the Peace River in Northern BC. Data derived from NASA SRTM, Natural Resources Canada, US Geological Survey, and Natural Earth." She lists the Source as Own work.

A map of the Finlay River, a tributary and headwater of the Peace River, in BC, Canada. 8 March 2010.

Examples of maps by others
"Map of the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea" "by PHGCOM - self-made, background topographical map from Wikipedia Commons Image:Topographic30deg N0E60.png. Licensed under GFDL via Wikimedia Commons"

This image in the public domain taken from 1888 American Bible Society publication, available freely at: www.sacred-texts I had cropped this map and added a placename Beersheba. I have to establish location coordinates, categories, caption, information before uploading it to Wikimedia Commons. This town is on ancient trade routes.

"This view is featuring the southeastern Mediterranean and the borders of the region between Egypt, Sinai Peninsula and Israel. In 2003 On February 1, 2003, the seven crew members of the Space Shuttle Columbia STS-107 were lost over North Texas. An STS-107 crew member on board the Space Shuttle Columbia took this picture. The roll of unprocessed film was later discovered by searchers in the are from the Space Ship debris.

This is a detail or derivative of the full view image featuring the southeastern Mediterranean and the borders of the region between Egypt, Sinai Peninsula and Israel. This image or video was catalogued by one of the centers of the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under Photo ID: STS107-393-014. This map is used in Timeline of the history of the region of Palestine.