| What kind of information is available in the Portal? |
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The GeoSUR Portal provides spatial information on South America (digital maps, satellite images, aerial photos and the like) set up by national organizations such as geographical institutes, environmental ministries and other national and regional agencies participating in this initiative.
The Portal provides information on topics such as the following:
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Political-administrative divisions
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Soils
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Topography
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Ecosystems
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Hydrography
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Biodiversity
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Water bodies
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Geology
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Cities and towns
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Elevation models
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Land cover
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Aerial photos
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Ecological regions
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Satellite Images
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Infrastructure
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Regional spatial information can also be obtained from the GeoSUR Regional Map Service or from the Condor System
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| How often is the data contained in the Portal updated? |
| The Portal is a metadata database, to a large extent. The maintenance of the metadata in the portal is the responsibility of participating institutions, who register their local metadata database with the portal and arrange for the portal to harvest these metadata periodically to update the portal information. |
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| Which institutions link up their data to the Portal? |
| The bulk of the information contained in the Portal is made up of metadata (spatial data descriptive files) generated by participating institutions such as geographic institutes and environmental ministries of South America and Panama. |
| Do users have free access to all the maps available in the GeoSUR GeoPortal? |
| The Portal users can view and download all the metadata in the portal and can also view the digital maps produced by partner agencies that are linked to the portal. Spatial data can be downloaded directly from the map services developed and operated by partner agencies. |
| What type of metadata does the Portal contain? |
| There are two types of metadata in the Portal: |
| 1) Metadata that describe spatial data. These make up the majority of the metadata in the Portal. The metadata standard used to develop this metadata records is ISO19115/19139. |
| 2) Metadata that describe geoservices. Mostly created with the ISO19119 standard, these metadata describe the map services, WMS services, spatial gazetteers and metadata catalogues associated to GeoSUR. |
| Is the information available in the different GeoSUR geoservices centralized? |
| No. The data available through these geoservices is decentralized. An institution operating one - or several - of these services has total control over the data they make available and the level of access they offer. The GeoSUR Portal basically allows for viewing the data available in these services. |
| How can I check the characteristics of the maps available in GeoSUR? |
| Detailed information about a given spatial dataset is found through the metadata associated to it. A metadata records is just a file card, much like a book reference card in a library describing the contents and basic features of a spatial dataset. The GeoSUR Portal has a search engine to locate metadata and to look up digital maps. |
| What is the quality of the geospatial information I can access through GeoSUR? |
| Information quality in GeoSUR can vary considerably because of the quantity and diversity of available data and the heterogeneity of the data-generating participating institutions. To ascertain data quality for a particular dataset and to determine whether it conforms to certain uses or not it is best to look up the quality section of its associated metadata. |
| Some of the information available in the GeoSUR network is generated by national geographic institutes and it constitutes the official geographic information of the participating countries. |
| Which institutions operate and maintain the GeoSUR Portal? |
| The Portal was developed with the technical support of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). At present it s being operated and maintained by the Andean Development Bank (CAF) and the Panamerican Institute of Geography and History (PAIGH). |
| What technologies were used to set up the GeoSUR Portal? |
| The Portal's current release operates under the GIS Portal Toolkit 9.3, an ESRI tool. |
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