GADM, the Database of Global Administrative Areas, is a high-resolution database of country administrative areas, with a goal of "all countries, at all levels, at any time period."[2] Although it is a public database, GADM has a higher spatial resolution than other free databases,[3] and also higher than commercial software such as ArcGIS.[4] Those sources are commonly use to complete data analysis with data visualisation such as data plots, choropleth map, etc.[5][6]

Original author(s)Robert J. Hijmans
Initial release2009; 15 years ago (2009)
Stable release
4.1 / 16 July 2022; 2 years ago (2022-07-16)[1]
Written inGeoPackage
TypeGeographic Information Systems, Data visualization
LicenseCopyrighted with academic friendly policy
Websitegadm.org

Format

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The database is available in a few export formats, including shapefiles that are used in most common GIS applications.[7] Files for use with the data analysis language R are also available.

License

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GADM is not freely available for commercial use. The GADM project created the spatial data for many countries from spatial databases provided by national governments, NGO, and/or from maps and lists of names available on the Internet (e.g. from Wikipedia).

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "GADM data". Gadm.org. Retrieved March 23, 2023.
  2. ^ Main GADM website
  3. ^ Free Geography Tools website
  4. ^ Kelly Center blog
  5. ^ chloropleth map of deforestation in Africa
  6. ^ Swiss canton languages
  7. ^ Marine Life Mapping & Visualisation