The Atlas of Canada’s OGC (Open GIS Consortium) Web Map Service (WMS) is an Internet-based service designed to provide developers of on-line WMS compliant mapping tools access to the Atlas of Canada’s base layers.
By using this service, developers will have access to our most current and accurate base data for rendering customized maps. Our OGC-compliant WMS technology is provided free of charge and does not require a contract or license agreement. WMS client software is also required to render maps based on layers obtained from various server sources.
Using the Atlas WMS, there are 25 individual base layers with English titles (a separate WMS exists with French layer titles and descriptions).
The following 25 national scale base layers are currently available through the Atlas WMS:
1. Regions outside Canada (1:2 000 000)
2. Regions outside Canada (1:7 500 000)
3. Regions outside Canada (1:15 000 000)
4. Water areas (1:2 000 000)
5. Water areas (1:7 500 000)
6. Water areas (1:15 000 000)
7. Water areas (1:60 000 000)
8. Drainage (1:2 000 000)
9. Drainage (1:7 500 000)
10. Drainage (1:15 000 000)
11. Drainage (1:60 000 000)
12. Road network (1:2 000 000)
13. Road network (1:7 500 000)
14. Road network (1:15 000 000)
15. Provincial and Territorial Boundaries
16. Boundaries
17. Landmass outline (1:7 500 000)
18. Populated Places (symbols 1:2M)
19. Populated Places (labels 1:2M)
20. Populated Places (symbols 1:7.5M)
21. Populated Places (labels 1:7.5M)
22. Populated Places (symbols 1:15M)
23. Populated Places (labels 1:15M)
24. Capital Cities (symbols)
25. Capital Cities (Canada)
When requesting a map from the Atlas WMS, users can obtain the resulting image in any of up to 36 pre-defined EPSG (European Petroleum Survey Group) projections.
Example WMS
Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure Viewer. Users can add layers from a number of services including Canadaian geographical names, GeoArctic, Naturewatch etc… Additionally, services can be added from a web url or existing ArcIMS server.
OWS View Viewer Client – See
http://cgdi-dev.geoconnections.org/prototypes/owsview/index.html
The Atlas of Canada offers users over 1400 thematic, reference and archive maps. Numerous map themes are conveniently displayed by category at http://atlas.gc.ca/site/english/maps/index.html.
The interactive mapping tool helps the user to read informative map descriptions, zoom in and out and print them easily. Functionality and queries help to answer where a city, town or lake is located in Canada,
and a new Search Tool provides enhanced user query results.
See also the following weblinks: