University of Guelph Library
Provider
Natural Resources Canada
CANVEC
Description
CanVec is a digital cartographic reference product produced by Natural Resources Canada. CanVec originates from the best available data sources covering Canadian territory and offers quality topographic information in vector format that complies with international geomatics standards.
CanVec is a multi-source product coming mainly from the National Topographic Data Base (NTDB), the GeoBase initiative (www.geobase.ca) and the data update using Landsat 7 imagery coverage. CanVec product contains more than 90 topographic entities thematically organized into 11 distribution themes: Administrative Boundaries, Buildings and Structures, Energy, Hydrography, Industrial and Commercial Areas, Places of Interest, Relief and Landforms, Toponymy, Transportation, Vegetation and Water Saturated Soils.
CanVec aims to have standardized and actualized representation of topographic phenomenon for the entire Canadian landmass. Various topographic entities coming mainly from the NTDB are not up to date. These entities are included in CanVec product only to answer topographic reference needs.
The CanVec product will be maintained in partnership with the organizations providing the data.
CanVec is scheduled to be published by edition (or release) twice a year. The CanVec product is free and is distributed via GeoGratis portal (www.GeoGratis.gc.ca) in output file formats GML (Geography Markup Language) and SHAPE (ESRI).
Metadata & Documentation
Access
Through the Geogratis Web site.
The National Topographic Data Base (NTDB)
Description
Note: Actual users of the National Topographic Data Base (NTDB) should plan to make the transition towards CanVec product. CanVec is the new flagship product replacing the NTDB. and is the new digital cartographical reference product generated by Natural Resources Canada (NRCan). NTDB will remain a static product while CanVec is a precise and update product that offers a complete Canadian coverage by consolidating data from the best available sources. CanVec is a quality vector data that complies with international Geomatics standards.
The National Topographic Data Base (NTDB) comprises digital vector data sets that cover the entire Canadian landmass. The NTDB includes features such as watercourses, urban areas, railways, roads, vegetation, and relief. NTDB data files are vector topographic data files. They are available as unprojected (geographic) files and at scales of 1:50,000 or 1:250,000.
This product is no longer available in UTM coordinates or DXF format.
Metadata
Documentation
Access to NTDB
- Geogratis
Search by place names, postal code, NTS map sheet or by geographic location using an interactive map.
Citation
Simple Example
Natural Resources Canada. National Topographic Data Base, tile 40P09. [machine readable data file]. Ottawa: Natural Resources Canada, Centre for Topographic Information, [year]. (http://geogratis.gc.ca/;[insert date])
Individual Layers Example
Natural Resources Canada. National Topographic Data Base,40P09_contour_l.shp, edition 3: version 2. [Electronic resource]. Natural Resources Canada, Geomatics Canada. (http://geogratis.gc.ca/;[insert date])
Data Access
Contact
519–824–4120 ext. 56417
Visit
The DRC is located behind the Research Help desk in the McLaughlin Library.