Natural Earth Vector
Nathaniel Vaughn Kelso | nathaniel@kelsocartography.com
Tom Patterson | pattert@verizon.net

naturalearthmaps.com

Natural Earth Vector (NEV) is a public domain, vector dataset available at
1:10, 1:50, and 1:110-million scales. At NACIS 2009 in Sacramento, thegoal is to give cartographers an off-the shelf solution for creating small-scaleworld, regional, and country maps.
Natural Earth Vector builds on Tom Patterson’s Natural Earth raster data
first introduced in 2005. With NACIS backing, we are launching a newwebsite, naturalearthmaps.com, where you can download Natural EarthVector and updated versions of Natural Earth Raster imagery of NaturalEarth I and II raster imagery in perfect registration with the linework. Bothpolitical and physical features are included in Natural Earth Vector.
Natural Earth Vector solves a problem that many NACIS members face:finding vector data for making publication-quality small-scale maps. In atime when the web is awash in interactive maps and free, downloadable
vector data, such as Digital Chart of the World and VMAP, mapmakers areforced to spend time sifting through a confusing tangle of poorly attributed
data. Many cartographers working under tight project deadlines must use
manually digitalized bases instead.
Cartographic Perspectives, Number 64, Fall 2009

Natural Earth Vector - Kelso & Patterson | 45

Small-scale map datasets of the world do exist, but they have their problems.
For example, most are crudely generalized—Chile’s fjords are a noisy mess,the Svalbard archipelago is a coalesced blob, and Hawaii has disappeared
into the Pacific two million years ahead of schedule. They contain few
data layers, usually only a coast and country polygons, which may not be
in register. The lack of good small-scale map data is not surprising. Large
mapping organizations that release public domain data, such as the US
Geological Survey, are not mandated to create small-scale map data fora small user community that includes mapmaking shops, publishers, web
mappers, academics, and students—in other words, typical NACIS members.
Natural Earth Vector fills this oft-overlooked but important niche.

C o l l a b o r at i o nNatural Earth Vector is a collaboration of many volunteer NACIS members.
Nathaniel Vaughn Kelso and Tom Patterson began working on the projectin late 2008. Following the path of least resistance, the idea was to repurpose
existing data that we already had as an integrated world dataset at threemap scales. The 1:50 million and 1:110 million-scale data comes frombases developed by Dick Furno and additional staff at the Washington
Post for quick turnaround newspaper mapping. The Washington Post Legal
Department kindly granted us permission to use these data. The kernel forthe 1:10 million data was a compilation by Patterson for the “Physical Mapof the World,” consisting of coastlines, rivers, lakes, and physical featurelabels. Expanding and improving on this foundation has been our chiefactivity. The core team has now grown to include Tanya Buckingham, whocoordinates data attributing by Ben Coakley, Kevin McGrath and Sarah
Bennett at the University of Wisconsin Cartography Lab; Dick Furno
as populated places guru; Nick Springer as the website developer; andLou Cross as NACIS liaison. A cast of consultants, many regulars on theCartotalk.com discussion forum, is assisting with place names for various
world regions. They include Leo Dillon, Hans van der Maarel, Will Pringle,Craig Molyneaux, Melissa Katz-Moye, Laura McCormick, Scott Zillmer
and fellow staff at XNR Mapping. Work continues apace on Natural Earth
Vector as we write this article.

Large mapping
organizations that
release publicdomain dataare notmandated to create
small-scale map
data. Natural Earth
Vector fills this niche.

D ata f o r c a r t o g r a p h y
We developed a world base map data suitable for making a variety of visuallypleasing, well-crafted maps. Unlike other map data intended for scientificanalysis or military mapping, Natural Earth Vector is designed to meet theneeds of mainstream production cartographers. Maximum flexibility was agoal. For example, Natural Earth Vector comes in ESRI shapefile format, theGeographic projection, and WGS datum, which are de facto standards forvector geodata.
Neatness counts with Natural Earth Vector. The carefully generalized
linework maintains consistent, recognizable geographic shapes at 1:10m,1:50m, and 1:110m scales. As Natural Earth Vector was built from the46 | Natural Earth Vector - Kelso & Patterson

Cartographic Perspectives, Number 64, Fall 2009

ground up, you will find that all data layers align precisely with one another.
For example, where rivers and country borders are one and the same, thelines are coincident.
Natural Earth Vector, however, is more than just a collection of pretty lines.
What lies beneath the surface, the data attributes, is equally importantfor mapmaking. Most data contain embedded feature names, which areranked by relative importance. Up to eight rankings per data theme allow
easy custom map “mashups” to emphasize your map’s subject while deemphasizing reference features.
Other attributes facilitate faster map production. For example, width
attributes assigned to rivers allow you to create tapered drainages with ease.
Assigning different colors to contiguous country polygons is another task
made easier thanks to data attribution.
O t h e r k e y f e at u r e s :• Vector features include name attributes and bounding box extent so you
know the Rocky Mountains are larger than the Ozarks.
• Large polygons, such as bathymetric layers, are split for more efficient
data handling.
• Projection friendly—vectors precisely match at 180 degrees longitude.
Lines contain enough data points for smooth bending in conic
projections, but not so many that processing speed suffers.
• Raster data include grayscale-shaded relief and cross-blended
hypsometric tints derived from the latest NASA SRTM Plus elevation
data and tailored to register with Natural Earth Vector.
• Optimized for use in web mapping applications, such as Google orYahoo, with built-in scale attributes to direct features to be shown atdifferent zoom levels.

1 : 1 0 m i l l i o n d a t a l ay e r s
G e og r a p h i c l i n e s

Polar circles, Tropical circles, International dateline, and EquatorG r at i c u l e s

1-, 5-, 10-, 15-, 20-, and 30-degree increments
G l a c i at e d a r e a s

Polygons derived from DCW, except for Antarctica derived fromMOA. Includes name attributes for major polar glaciers.
A n ta r c t i c i c e s h e l v e s
Vector coastlines and drainages registerwith Natural Earth 2 raster data.
Cartographic Perspectives, Number 64, Fall 2009Derived from 2003-2004 MOA. Reflects recent ice shelfcollapses.
Natural Earth Vector - Kelso & Patterson | 47B at h y m e t r y

Nested polygons at 0, -200, -1,000, -2,000, -3,000, -4,000,-5,000, -6,000, -7,000, -8,000, -9,000, and -10,000 meters.
Created from SRTM Plus.
RiversRanked by relative importance. Includes name and line width
attributes.
Lakes

Ranked by relative importance, coordinating with river ranking.
Includes name attributes.

Disputed boundaries, Kashmir region.

Lake Centerlines

Segments for creating continuous rivers without reservoirand lake interruptions. Don’t want minor lakes? Turn on theircenterlines to avoid unseemly data gaps.
Co a s t l i n e

Ocean coastline, including major islands. Coastline is matched toland and water polygons.
Islands

Additional small ocean islands ranked to three levels of relative
importance.

Brazil drainages with reservoirs (left) and without (right).

Reefs

Major coral reefs from WDB2.
U r b a n p o l y go n s

Derived from 2002-2003 MODIS satellite data.
Po p u l at e d p l a c e s

Point symbols with name attributes. Includes capitals, major
cities and towns, plus significant smaller towns in sparsely
inhabited regions. We favor regional significance over population
census in determining rankings.

Pacific nation boundaries.

Co u n t r i e sMatched boundary lines and polygons with names attributes.
Includes disputed boundaries and areas, breakaway regions,
subnational territories, dependencies, and transnational
cultural regions.
Pa c i f i c n a t i o n g r o u p i n g s

Boxes for keeping these far-flung islands tidy.
Wa t e r bo u n d a r i e s

200-mile nautical limits, plus disputed, treaty, and median lines.
Urban areas, Korean Peninsula.

48 | Natural Earth Vector - Kelso & Patterson

Cartographic Perspectives, Number 64, Fall 2009

First order admin( p r o v i n c e s , d e pa r t m e n t s , s tat e s , e t c . )Internal boundaries and polygons for all but a few tiny island
nations. Includes names attributes and some statistical groupingsof the same for smaller countries.
P h y s i c a l f e at u r e s

Polygon and point labels of major physical features.

First order administrative areas.

D ata deve l o p m en t
Since Natural Earth Vector is for visual mapmaking, we prepared the baselayers in Adobe Illustrator in conjunction with Avenza MAPublisher importand export filters. Illustrator offered us flexible tools for editing lines andpolygons, organizing data on layers, and inspecting the final data in a maplike form. A variety of third-party plug-in filters and scripts, some written byKelso, were essential for linework generalization and other tasks.
World Data Bank 2 was the primary vector data source that required
significant modifications. For example, we found that the entire West Coastof the United States was about seven miles west of its true position andadjusted it accordingly. Slight adjustments to river positions better matchedthem to shaded relief derived from recent satellite data. For Antarctica, we
completely abandoned World Data Bank 2. Here, the coast, glaciers, andice shelves derive from 2003-2004 NASA Mosaic of Antarctica, a MODIS
product. We also updated the data to reflect recent ice shelf collapses.
Contributors from around the globe researched additional feature names
beyond those original to Patterson’s Physical Map of the World. Attributing
the data was performed in Arc GIS by the team at the University ofWisconsin.

Future activity
We regard the initial release of Natural Earth Vector as a starter dataset thatwill be periodically updated. With any project as complex as this, flaws andomissions are bound to emerge, requiring our attention. One proposal is toform a Natural Earth map data committee to incorporate information andcoordinate updates from users, perhaps using a Wiki model. Rivers, lakes,and first-order admin are components still in need of refinement. Possible
data for future updates include transportation (roads and railroads), timezones, and terrestrial hypsography. If you have ideas for Natural EarthVector, please drop us a line.
Cartographic Perspectives, Number 64, Fall 2009

Natural Earth Vector - Kelso & Patterson | 49

Natural Earth Data web site

50 | Natural Earth Vector - Kelso & Patterson

Cartographic Perspectives, Number 64, Fall 2009