MalaGIS

Sharing GIS Technologies, Resources and News.

In a previous article "Practical Application of Geo Hound: Extracting Wuhan's Unified Planning Map Services for GIS Analysis", I demonstrated using Geo Hound to access Wuhan's planning map data in QGIS. A key objective was comparing land-use planning attributes against reality to identify discrepancies. While I mentioned using layer swipe for this comparison, many readers inquired about implementing swipe functionality in QGIS.

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Share an official ESRI ArcGIS Pro tutorial book. The book uses ArcGIS Pro version 3.1. If you need this version, you can download it from our site. Refer to "Share ArcGIS Pro 3.1 'Learning Edition' Complete Installation Package (Includes Chinese Language Pack, Updated to 3.1.7)".

This PDF comes from the MalaGIS WeChat group. It is not a scanned copy but a high-quality original, making it an excellent resource for learning both GIS technology and English.

Book Introduction

GIS Tutorial for ArcGIS Pro 3.1 is a widely acclaimed introductory textbook on Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Co-authored by Wilpen L. Gorr and Kristen S. Kurland, renowned educators from Carnegie Mellon University, and published by Esri Press, this fifth edition was released in June 2023. Designed specifically for ArcGIS Pro 3.1, it provides a systematic and practical learning path for beginners with no prior GIS experience.

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Following my previous article "This Certification is Highly Valuable for GIS Job Seekers, Yet Overlooked by Many", which helped numerous GIS professionals advance their careers, a middle school geography teacher recently requested vector data for China's geographic regional partitions for classroom presentations. After research, I'm sharing this valuable dataset.

Data Specifications

• Geographic Coordinate System: GCS_Krasovsky_1940
• Projected Coordinate System: Krasovsky_1940_Albers

• Regions Included:

  • Tarim and Turpan Basins
  • Qaidam Basin
  • Central Shanxi-Northern Shaanxi-Eastern Gansu Plateau
  • Eastern Qinghai-Qilian Mountains
  • Liaodong-Jiaodong Hills
  • Central Shandong Hills
  • Southern Shanxi-Guanzhong Basin
  • Ngari Mountains
  • Qiangtang Plateau Lake Basin
  • Western Sichuan-Eastern Tibet High Mountains
  • Sichuan Basin
  • Jiangnan and Nanling Mountains
  • Guizhou Plateau
  • Jiangnan Hills
  • Yunnan Plateau
  • Qiong-Lei Hills
  • Sanjiang Plain
  • Northeastern Mountain Region
  • Northeastern Piedmont Plain
  • Central Songliao Plain
  • Southern Greater Khingan Range
  • Sanhe Piedmont Hills
  • Southwestern Songliao Plain
  • Eastern Inner Mongolia High Plain
  • Western Inner Mongolia High Plain
  • Northern Kunlun Mountains
  • Junggar Basin
  • Altai Mountains and Tacheng Basin
  • Ili Basin
  • North China Plain
  • Southern Himalayas
  • Fujian-Guangxi-Guangdong Hills and Plains
  • Kunlun Alpine Plateau
  • Central-Northern Taiwan Mountains and Plains
  • Golog-Nagqu Hilly Plateau
  • Alxa and Hexi Corridor
  • Qiong-Lei Lowlands
  • South Tibet Mountains
  • Qiong-Lei Lowlands and Dongsha Islands
  • Southern Yunnan Valleys and Hills
  • Southern Qinghai Plateau Wide Valleys
  • Hanzhong Basin
  • Huainan and Middle-Lower Yangtze Plains
  • North China Hills
  • Southern Taiwan Lowlands
  • Greater Khingan Range

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Following my previous article on extracting Wuhan's planning map services using Geo Hound, the original Wuhan data source implemented access restrictions. For a recent leadership demonstration, I identified an alternative: Shanghai's Detailed Planning Map service.

Note: While workarounds exist for Wuhan's restricted data, this article focuses on ethically accessible sources.

Shanghai Detailed Planning Map

Shared by members of the MalaGIS community (special thanks!), this official platform provides comprehensive urban planning data:
https://shanghai.tianditu.gov.cn/xg/map.html

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Author: An anonymous GIS professional specializing in astronomy, geography, remote sensing, and geomancy.

Tianditu (National Platform for Common Geospatial Information Services), hosted by the Ministry of Natural Resources, provides public online geospatial services and promotes geospatial data sharing. For GIS professionals, a common requirement is loading various online basemaps. Tianditu offers convenient services for desktop software like ArcMap and QGIS. While QGIS has mature plugins, this guide focuses on ArcMap users.

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Following my previous article "GIS Data: Global Time Zone Boundary Data (SHP Format)", several readers requested global continent boundary datasets. Surprisingly, this data proved readily available. Below is a comparative overview of three authoritative sources.

Data Preview:

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Geo Hound is a browser extension that automatically captures map service links from web pages and centralizes their management. In a previous article, I introduced this tool using a Japanese map service example. To demonstrate its practical value, I'll showcase its application with Wuhan's Unified Planning Map.

Wuhan Unified Planning Map

This platform integrates legally approved regulatory plans, including:

• Detailed Control Plans for Wuhan Main Urban Area (65 zones)
• New Town Group Control Plans (155 zones)
• East Lake Scenic Area Master Plan
• Municipal infrastructure corridor plans

Managed by Wuhan Planning Bureau, it dynamically updates per national/local regulations.

Access:
http://whonemap.zrzyhgh.wuhan.gov.cn:8020/
(Note: The site uses HTTP instead of HTTPS)

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A reader recently noted that my earlier guide on purchasing licensed ArcGIS Pro is outdated. Upon review, I confirmed this—Esri no longer offers ArcGIS Desktop 10.8.2 for personal purchase, leaving only ArcGIS Pro available. Essentially, individual users can no longer legally acquire Desktop versions.

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When working on data processing projects with ArcGIS Desktop (non-Pro version), extending arcpy functionality often requires installing third-party libraries. Since Python 2 doesn't include pip by default, this guide outlines the installation process.

Prerequisites

1. Install ArcGIS Desktop
2. Add Python path to environment variables (e.g., C:\Python27\ArcGIS10.X)
3. Remove other Python paths from system variables
   

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We're introducing the Global Age Mapping Integration (GAMI) dataset—a high-resolution global forest age distribution resource for 2010 and 2020.

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