Natural Earth cultural and physical data - version 1.4, August 2011

Natural Earth is a public domain map dataset available at 1:10m, 1:50m, and 1:110 million scales (1:10m version is stored in the EEA-SDI). Featuring tightly integrated vector and raster data, with Natural Earth one can make a variety of visually pleasing, well-crafted maps with cartography or GIS software. Natural Earth was built through a collaboration of many volunteers and is supported by NACIS (North American Cartographic Information Society), and is free for use in any type of project. The carefully generalized linework maintains consistent, recognizable geographic shapes at 1:10m, 1:50m, and 1:110m scales. Natural Earth was built from the ground up in order for all data layers align precisely with one another. For example, where rivers and country borders are one and the same, the lines are coincident. Most data contain embedded feature names, which are ranked by relative importance. Other attributes facilitate faster map production, such as width attributes assigned to river segments for creating tapers. Cultural vector data themes: + Countries + Disputed areas and breakaway regions + First order admin + Populated places + Urban polygons + Parks and protected areas + Pacific nation groupings + Water boundary indicators Physical vector data themes: + Coastline + Land + Ocean + Minor islands + Reefs + Physical region features + Rivers and lake centerlines + Lakes + Glaciated areas + Antarctic ice shelves + Bathymetry + Geographic lines + Graticules