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Mapping Toolbox Data Sets

Mapping Toolbox™ includes several files that contain data sets for the world and the United States. This topic summarizes useful data sets, but is not a comprehensive list.

World Data

FilenameDescriptionHow to Load

landareas.shp

World map with land areas in blue

Shapefile containing low-resolution world land areas. The file stores the shapes as polygons with coordinates in latitude and longitude. The shapes have one attribute: Name.

This data is useful for providing geographic context on small-scale maps.

Data Size: 537 rows, 2 variables

For more information, see landareas.txt.

edit landareas.txt

GT = readgeotable("landareas.shp");
geoplot(GT)

worldcities.shp

World map with populated places in blue

Shapefile containing world populated places. The file stores the shapes as points with coordinates in latitude and longitude. The shapes have one attribute: Name.

Data Size: 318 rows, 2 variables

For more information, see worldcities.txt.

edit worldcities.txt

GT = readgeotable("worldcities.shp");
geoplot(GT)

worldrivers.shp

World map with rivers in blue

Shapefile containing low-resolution world rivers. The file stores the shapes as lines with coordinates in latitude and longitude. The shapes have one attribute: Name.

Data Size: 128 rows, 2 variables

For more information, see worldrivers.txt.

edit worldrivers.txt

GT = readgeotable("worldrivers.shp");
geoplot(GT)

worldlakes.shp

World map with lakes in blue

Shapefile containing low-resolution world lakes and inland seas. The file stores the shapes as polygons with coordinates in latitude and longitude. The shapes have one attribute: Name.

Data Size: 37 rows, 2 variables

For more information, see worldlakes.txt.

edit worldlakes.txt

GT = readgeotable("worldlakes.shp");
geoplot(GT)

coastlines.mat

World map with coastlines in blue

MAT file containing low-resolution global coastlines. The file stores the latitude coordinates in coastlat and the longitude coordinates in coastlon.

Data Size: Two column vectors with 9865 elements

load coastlines.mat
geoplot(coastlat,coastlon)

naturalearth.mbtiles

World map with land areas in yellow and water areas in blue

Vector MBTiles file containing low-zoom levels of region and land boundaries.a The file was created using data from Natural Earth.

Maximum Zoom Level: 5

addCustomBasemap("naturalearth","naturalearth.mbtiles",Style="streets")
geobasemap naturalearth

usgsimagery.mbtiles

World map of satellite imagery

Raster MBTiles file containing low-resolution USGS imagery.

Maximum Zoom Level: 4

addCustomBasemap("usgsimagery","usgsimagery.mbtiles")
geobasemap usgsimagery

a Alignment of boundaries and region labels are a presentation of the feature provided by the data vendors and do not imply endorsement by MathWorks®.

United States Data

FilenameDescriptionHow to Load

usastatehi.shp

World map with the United States in blue

Shapefile containing moderate-resolution outlines of the United States and the District of Columbia. The file stores the shapes as polygons with coordinates in latitude and longitude. The shapes have three attributes: Name, LabelLat, and LabelLon.

Data Size: 51 rows, 4 variables

For more information, see usastatehi.txt.

edit usastatehi.txt

GT = readgeotable("usastatehi.shp");
geoplot(GT)

usastatelo.shp

World map with the United States in blue

Shapefile containing low-resolution outlines of the United States and the District of Columbia. The file stores the states as polygons with coordinates in latitude and longitude. The shapes have three attributes: Name, LabelLat, and LabelLon.

Data Size: 51 rows, 4 variables

For more information, see usastatelo.txt.

edit usastatelo.txt

GT = readgeotable("usastatelo.shp");
geoplot(GT)

See Also

Functions

Related Topics