SOLRIS : Version1_2 now Available

SOLRIS: Southern Ontario Land Resource Information System
The Southern Ontario Land Resource Information System (SOLRIS) is a landscape-level inventory of natural, rural and urban areas. Version 1_1 covering the GTA was released in 2007. Version 1_2 is now available for GTA plus part of southwestern Ontario.

SOLRIS was developed to support landscape-scale planning initiatives in southern Ontario such as Source Water Protection, Biodiversity Conservation, Natural Spaces, and State of Resources Reporting. The SOLRIS inventory is a compilation of data from various sources including topographic maps, aerial photos and satellite imagery. Computer modelling, visual interpretation and field validation were used to create a seamless inventory for Southern Ontario.

Inventory categories include, for example, shorelines, tallgrass savanah, coniferous forest, swamp, built-up area, and so on. A total of 23 categories.
Choice of shapefile and ESRI grid formats. Coordinate system: UTM zone 17, NAD83. Mapping of southern Ontario is due for completion in 2008.

Customizing Google Maps

You can easily create your own custom map for the world to see. Using KMZ files, I created a map of buildings on campus and highlights all the libraries. Click on the highlighted buildings to gain access to the library's website. For best results, view larger map and have your satellite image turned on.


View Larger Map

Orthoimagery Available

Sample image from GeoBase : City of Waterloo, 10 M panchromatic.

GeoBase Orthoimage 2005-2010. GeoBase Orthoimage 2005-2010 is made from SPOT 4/5 earth observation data covering Canada’s landmass south of the 81st parallel during the period 2005-2010. Orthoimages have a resolution of 10 metres for the panchromatic band and 20 metres for the multispectral bands.

Satellite StreetView : 60 cm resolution Quickbird satellite imagery for several cities in Canada, including Kitchener-Waterloo (30 cm). This product also includes CanMap street files.

General Information

Air Photo Digitization Project

The University of Waterloo Map Library is working an air photo digitization project that will place you on a 70-year old map. By using a third party resource that offers familiar streets and points of interests, you will be able to see how specific parts of towns looked like back in the 1930s and 1940s. Using Google Earth, you can find your home today and with a simple click find out how the land was used in 1930, and 1945-47. Combining the old and the new will place Tim Horton’s in the middle of a farmers field; will place the highway on top of an old stone school house and subdivisions on a gravel pit. Find the long lost forests, marshes, and small towns and make use of archival images that tell the story of time.In a few months the Map Library will provide access to these photos of Kitchener, Waterloo and surrounding areas in a variety of image formats for download: PDF, Tiff, GeoTiff and KMZ (for Google Earth). Providing these images in a georeferenced format will enable the GIS and non GIS users to use them in a variety of ways. Users can add the images into a GIS program such as ArcGIS and overlay their own datasets or they can open up the PDF and simply enjoy the photo for its natural quality. See article in News @ Your Library http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/newsatlib/080110/aerialphotography.html