Victoria area spatial vector data

[Gerry Tychon]

I am a bit out of the loop these days and so I will quickly ask the
folks in Victoria if they know of “good quality” administrative
spatial (map) data covering the region and which is also “open”. I am
thinking of civic boundaries and also community/neighbourhood
boundaries. This has to be in usable vector format and not “backdrop”
data.

I think this kind of information can be used with other data to help
with awareness of local community issues.

For example, an article based on the work of Reid Ewingab & Robert
Cerverocde (Travel and the Built Environment) discusses how our built
environment influences whether we walk or drive. Surprisingly,
intersection density influences us more than many other factors in
making us decide to walk to our destination or not.

On a whim, I determined intersection density for the neighbourhoods in
Edmonton using the City’s open data for neighbourhoods and Open Street
Map for the road network.

An image of that exercise is here:

http://datatogo.xspatial.com/sites/default/files/files/COE_NeighbourhoodIntDensityLG.jpg

Thanks to anyone for any information they may have regarding the
Victoria region.

… gerry tychon

[Kevin McArthur]

Gerry,

Check out the fed308 and pd308 datasets from the feds. They're electoral
districts and polling districts respectively, but they do give shapes
for key lines (and contours) and could be used to build a quality, open
dataset. These two sets are mostly-open data and can be obtained from
geogratis.

I don't know of a provincial opendata equivalent and a quick search on
data.gov.bc.ca for political boundaries doesn't turn up much -- though
there are sets for environment regions, watersheds, etc that may also
have useful lines.

--

Kevin

On 12-01-13 10:20 AM, Gerry Tychon wrote:
> I am a bit out of the loop these days and so I will quickly ask the

> folks in Victoria if they know of �good quality� administrative
> spatial (map) data covering the region and which is also �open�. I am

> thinking of civic boundaries and also community/neighbourhood

> boundaries. This has to be in usable vector format and not �backdrop�

> data.
>
> I think this kind of information can be used with other data to help
> with awareness of local community issues.
>
> For example, an article based on the work of Reid Ewingab & Robert
> Cerverocde (Travel and the Built Environment) discusses how our built
> environment influences whether we walk or drive. Surprisingly,
> intersection density influences us more than many other factors in
> making us decide to walk to our destination or not.
>
> On a whim, I determined intersection density for the neighbourhoods in

> Edmonton using the City�s open data for neighbourhoods and Open Street

> Map for the road network.
>
> An image of that exercise is here:
>
> http://datatogo.xspatial.com/sites/default/files/files/COE_NeighbourhoodIntDensityLG.jpg
>
> Thanks to anyone for any information they may have regarding the
> Victoria region.
>

> � gerry tychon

[Gerry Matte]

The best source for data that is region-wide in scope would be the Capital Region District's CRD Atlas at
http://crdatlas.ca/geospatial-data.aspx

The disclaimer on that web page contains the text "The Capital Regional District does not permit the user to rent, sell,
distribute, transfer, or grant any rights to this product or service, in whole or in part, to another person or
organization." which seems to categorically state that the data is not Open Data.

However, if you see data that you feel should be available as Open Data why not pass your request to the IT Director
David Henningan ? Contact info is at http://www.crd.bc.ca/about/departments/it-gis.htm .

Gerry Matte
ge...@gerrymatte.ca

http://datatogo.xspatial.com/sites/default/files/files/COE_NeighbourhoodIntDensityLG.jpg

. gerry tychon

[Herb Lainchbury]

James McKinney and Michael Mulley (and others?) are working on something that would likely be useful that they started on ODHD.

Not sure if it's available yet but it's something like this but based on a different codebase : http://mapit.mysociety.org/

James?

H

On Fri, Jan 13, 2012 at 10:37 AM, Kevin McArthur <ke...@stormtide.ca> wrote:

Gerry,

Check out the fed308 and pd308 datasets from the feds. They're electoral
districts and polling districts respectively, but they do give shapes
for key lines (and contours) and could be used to build a quality, open
dataset. These two sets are mostly-open data and can be obtained from
geogratis.

I don't know of a provincial opendata equivalent and a quick search on
data.gov.bc.ca for political boundaries doesn't turn up much -- though
there are sets for environment regions, watersheds, etc that may also
have useful lines.

--

Kevin

On 12-01-13 10:20 AM, Gerry Tychon wrote:
> I am a bit out of the loop these days and so I will quickly ask the

> folks in Victoria if they know of “good quality” administrative
> spatial (map) data covering the region and which is also “open”. I am

> thinking of civic boundaries and also community/neighbourhood

> boundaries. This has to be in usable vector format and not “backdrop”

> data.
>
> I think this kind of information can be used with other data to help
> with awareness of local community issues.
>
> For example, an article based on the work of Reid Ewingab & Robert
> Cerverocde (Travel and the Built Environment) discusses how our built
> environment influences whether we walk or drive. Surprisingly,
> intersection density influences us more than many other factors in
> making us decide to walk to our destination or not.
>
> On a whim, I determined intersection density for the neighbourhoods in

> Edmonton using the City’s open data for neighbourhoods and Open Street

> Map for the road network.
>
> An image of that exercise is here:
>
> http://datatogo.xspatial.com/sites/default/files/files/COE_NeighbourhoodIntDensityLG.jpg
>
> Thanks to anyone for any information they may have regarding the
> Victoria region.
>

> … gerry tychon

--
Herb Lainchbury
Dynamic Solutions Inc.
www.dynamic-solutions.com
http://twitter.com/herblainchbury

[James McKinney]

We are currently focusing on boundaries for which we elect officials, so: municipal wards, municipal boundaries, provincial electoral districts, and federal electoral districts.

What Gerry is looking for (community/neighborhood boundaries) isn't currently in the scope of the project, and I'm not aware of good sources for this information. Electoral boundaries rarely fall along lines that are relevant to analysis of local community issues. If Gerry can provide more detail on what shapes he's looking for, I may be able to suggest some datasets.

As for the project (still needs a name), we have all elected representatives and boundaries for the federal and provincial levels (the territories have been uncooperative/understaffed for providing spatial data). We'll be adding major cities next. We are going to make it publicly available in the coming weeks.

James

[Michael Mulley]

For civic boundaries, StatsCan's census subdivisions map directly to municipal boundaries and are open.

[Greg Lawrance]

All the BC Municipal Boundaries are available as ShapeFiles 

https://apps.gov.bc.ca/pub/geometadata/metadataDetail.do?recordUID=50339&amp;recordSet=ISO19115

They are referenced in the BC Open Data Catalogue so subject to the BC Open Government License

http://www.data.gov.bc.ca/dbc/search/detail.page?recorduid=173842&title=TANTALIS%20-%20Municipalities

Greg

[Jason Birch]

Just be aware that those boundaries are not current or authoritative. 

For instance, the north end of the City of Nanaimo is way off (see attached). One of the changes was fairly recent (within the last 5-7 years) but the other is either a mis-alignment or way before my time.

Jason

[James McKinney]

For municipal boundaries, StatCan Census subdivisions, as Michael Mulley mentioned, is best, I think:

http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2011/geo/bound-limit/bound-limit-eng.cfm

We use these for provincial electoral boundaries:

http://www.elections.bc.ca/index.php/voting/electoral-maps-profiles/geographic-information-system-spatial-data-files-2011/

None of the BC municipalities I checked have ward boundaries.

<boundary.png>

[Greg Lawrance]

Thanks Jason - followed up with the data steward for the BC municipal
boundaries - referenced in the metadata record. He addressed the
boundary mis-alignment you mentioned. Here is a note from him...

" The municipal boundary for Nanaimo has been corrected and is
available for download. These boundaries are based on the Order in
Council legal descriptions and maps. We would appreciate being advised
of any errors that you may come across.
Thanks
Scott Macphail
Scott.M...@gov.bc.ca "

I found this pretty encouraging - especially the part about being open
to further advice - as I believe these boundaries to be the
authoritative source for municipalities in the province. I think
they are managed for the Ministry responsible for Local Government
(Ministry of Community, Sport and Cultural Development) by this
group.

Cheers,

Greg

On Jan 14, 4:56 pm, Jason Birch <ja...@jasonbirch.com> wrote:
> Just be aware that those boundaries are not current or authoritative.
>
> For instance, the north end of the City of Nanaimo is way off (see
> attached). One of the changes was fairly recent (within the last 5-7 years)
> but the other is either a mis-alignment or way before my time.
>
> Jason
>

> On 14 January 2012 07:18, Greg Lawrance <greg.lawra...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > All the BC Municipal Boundaries are available as ShapeFiles
>

> >https://apps.gov.bc.ca/pub/geometadata/metadataDetail.do?recordUID=50...<https://apps.gov.bc.ca/pub/geometadata/metadataDetail.do?recordUID=50...>

>
> > They are referenced in the BC Open Data Catalogue so subject to the BC
> > Open Government License
>

> >http://www.data.gov.bc.ca/dbc/search/detail.page?recorduid=173842&tit...

>
> > Greg
>
> > On Fri, Jan 13, 2012 at 11:36 AM, Michael Mulley <
> > mich...@michaelmulley.com> wrote:
>
> >> For civic boundaries, StatsCan's census subdivisions map directly to
> >> municipal boundaries and are open.
>

> >> On Fri, Jan 13, 2012 at 1:20 PM, Gerry Tychon <gg.tyc...@gmail.com>wrote:
>
> >>> I am a bit out of the loop these days and so I will quickly ask the
> >>> folks in Victoria if they know of “good quality” administrative
> >>> spatial (map) data covering the region and which is also “open”. I am
> >>> thinking of civic boundaries and also community/neighbourhood
> >>> boundaries. This has to be in usable vector format and not “backdrop”
> >>> data.
>
> >>> I think this kind of information can be used with other data to help
> >>> with awareness of local community issues.
>
> >>> For example, an article based on the work of Reid Ewingab & Robert
> >>> Cerverocde (Travel and the Built Environment) discusses how our built
> >>> environment influences whether we walk or drive. Surprisingly,
> >>> intersection density influences us more than many other factors in
> >>> making us decide to walk to our destination or not.
>
> >>> On a whim, I determined intersection density for the neighbourhoods in
> >>> Edmonton using the City’s open data for neighbourhoods and Open Street
> >>> Map for the road network.
>
> >>> An image of that exercise is here:
>

> >>>http://datatogo.xspatial.com/sites/default/files/files/COE_Neighbourh...

>
> >>> Thanks to anyone for any information they may have regarding the
> >>> Victoria region.
>
> >>> … gerry tychon
>
>
>

>  boundary.png
> 5KViewDownload

[James McKinney]

Have you compared this data to the Census subdivisions mentioned previously? I'd be curious to know, as Census subdivisions cover all of Canada, so for a national project it's preferable to use them instead of collecting each province's municipal boundaries.

[Greg Lawrance]

Hi James,
I haven't compared to the StatsCan data and would tend to agree if what one is looking for is a harmonized national dataset that goes beyond municipal boundaries (ie including neighbourhoods) and you are good with the licensing and it not being authoritative StatsCan might be a better fit.

[Dave O'Neil]

You should think about speaking with Natalie Work at BC Stats.  She has been working with a lot of these datasets for quite some time now.
Cheers
Dave O'Neil

[James McKinney]

On 2012-01-22, at 5:59 PM, Greg Lawrance wrote:

I haven't compared to the StatsCan data and would tend to agree if what one is looking for is a harmonized national dataset that goes beyond municipal boundaries (ie including neighbourhoods) and you are good with the licensing and it not being authoritative StatsCan might be a better fit.

Are you saying StatCan is not authoritative? I wasn't aware StatCan had neighborhood boundaries. I was talking about its municipal boundaries dataset (its census subdivisions). The license is quite open, too, so I'm not sure what reservations you might have about it: http://www12.statcan.ca/census-recensement/2011/geo/bound-limit/license-eng.cfm?lang=_e&year=11&type=csd000a&format=a

[Dave O'Neil]

The purpose of the STC spatial data is (mostly) to facilitate census enumeration, assist with Elections Canada, and to assist with geocoding for surveys.  BC was the first province to have it's spatial fabric adopted by STC, but STC must have national coverage for their programs, so release updating is not as frequent as some would like and their data may not fit perfectly with some other provinces standards.  'Neighborhoods' have no legal standing, so although STC doesn't recognize them (except through Census Tracts, which often don't match a community's 'definition') they can build requested geos through collapsing Census Tracts, Enumeration Areas or Dissemination Areas (the latter two are not guaranteed to remain static from census to census, but STC was trying to freeze them where possible).
Cheers
Dave

[Greg Lawrance]

I would say that Statistics Canada is the authority on census boundaries - because they define them while the BC Government is the authority on municipal boundaries.

Depending on the use Itry to get a boundary from the authority - expecting it to be the most accurate and up-to-date - however it really depends on your currency and accuracy requirements and how much hassle it is to reconcile them if you need a national version.  Also just b/c it is the authoritative one doesn't mean it is free from errors - as Jason just pointed out. ;-)

Regarding the license Stats Can license - it does look like a pretty good  - again I guess it depends on your application.

I found this clause interesting ...

"not merge or link the Information with any other databases for the purpose of attempting to identify an individual person, business or organization; and"

Having worked for StatsCan I certainly understand the intent .... and having watched the NetFlix analysis contest go wrong ... I understand the Federal Government concern - but  I thought some of the value in this data would be in identifying companies and "organizations" that are "outliers" by combining /linking databases. 

On Sun, Jan 22, 2012 at 6:11 PM, James McKinney <oxford...@gmail.com> wrote: