Canada Topographic Maps

How to access digital topographic maps (replacements for paper copies)

Topo map image

How to find and download topographic maps of Canada

Part A: Finding the map sheet of interest

  1. Go to TOPORAMA https://atlas.gc.ca/toporama/en/index.html

  2. In the search bar, enter “Niagara”. The map zooms to the Niagara area.

  3. Zoom in and out using the mouse scroll wheel. To pan the map, click and drag.

  4. Click the red target beside “Get coordinates from map”.

  5. Click the map to see a pop-up of information including Geographic Coordinates, UTM Coordinates, NTS Map sheet, UTM Elevation and Magnetic declination.

Note the NTS map sheet number and name (i.e. 030M03 - NIAGARA)

Part B: Downloading maps and data

  1. Expand the Toporama menu and click on the “Downloaded Maps and Data”

  2. Click under Raster Maps “Get all maps for all of Canada”. This will bring you to the Open Government Portal web page.

  3. In the search box, enter “Digital Topographic Raster Maps”

    DigitalTopoRasterMaps

  4. Click the first entry then scroll down to see the file options. To access a print-ready PDF, click download directory for 1:50,000 scale product:

    PrintReady

    NOTE: For various other scales and collections, go directly to https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/d248b5be-5887-4cfb-942f-d425d82e6ea9/resource/9ca5525b-8527-40ec-9711-a2d744cf1ec0

  5. Click the URL to access the FTP directory for download. The number of the 50k map is 030M03.

  6. Locate the folder with “030” and click it. Each click may take a few seconds to activate and load the FTP site.

  7. Find the folder with “m” and click it.

  8. Find the folder with “03” and click it.

  9. Rest the cursor over each file to see the filename at the bottom of the window and make an appropriate selection. For example, a filename ending with “prtpdf” will download a print ready PDF. If you can’t see the file names, click each one to download and see the files. Look in your DOWNLOADS directory for the files.

HINT: the second file in the listing for 30M03 is the print-ready PDF.

This tutorial is brought to you by the Brock University Map, Data & GIS Library E-mail us at maplib@brocku.ca

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