MalaGIS

Sharing GIS Technologies, Resources and News.

In a previous article "Geo Hound: A Tool to Automatically Fetch Website Map Service Addresses", I introduced the powerful Geo Hound tool. Follow-up articles like "Get Hidden Government Map Data in 2 Steps (Geo Hound + Wuhan One Map)" and "Shanghai One Map Data (Trial)" shared practical experiences. Many readers subsequently asked: Can this map data be downloaded for offline use? While various methods exist, I'll share my two most-used approaches.

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Recently in the Mala GIS group, someone raised an interesting question: Can GIS be used to analyze which province in China has produced the most leaders? Previously, you might have had to search via a search engine, but the data might not be up-to-date, and quantitative analysis would be cumbersome, requiring tedious data cleaning. However, in the AI era, we can easily accomplish this task using AI + GIS.

P.S.: This article is purely technical, and the data may not be entirely accurate. Corrections are welcome if any issues are found.

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Extracting river/canal centerlines is a common task in GIS data processing. Users of ArcMap or ArcGIS Pro likely find it straightforward. Recently, many colleagues have started exploring QGIS, someone in My GIS Group asked about this, making it a good time to document the process.

PS: The author will focus on introducing methods to achieve ArcGIS-equivalent functions in QGIS. If you have specific needs in this area, feel free to leave a comment.

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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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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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QGIS 3.44 has now been officially released. I downloaded and tried it out immediately. For Windows users, QGIS 3.44 offers both a test version with Qt6 support ("Latest Version for Windows (3.44) with Qt6 (experimental)") and the standard 3.44 version ("Latest Version for Windows (3.44)").

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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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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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As Mac gains popularity among professionals, many GIS users inquire about its suitability for geospatial work. While Windows remains the preferred platform for comprehensive GIS workflows, Mac + QGIS handles basic to intermediate geospatial tasks effectively.

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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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