A collaborative collation of geospatial data of Zimbabwe.
Geospatial data on Zimbabwe is largely scattered all over the web and efforts by the national data custodians to implement distribution infrastructure/ initiatives are minimal if existent. One usually finds this data embedded in pdfs, spreadsheets or images. Making any use of the same requires converting to the appropriate format of which time one may not have.Additionally there is lack of contextual exposure of data resulting in stifled innovative use of this data. Try finding Murerekwa Primary School for instance on an online map..[now that you're back, from GeoNames or OpenStreetMap, if you tried hard enough), now, read on!
In case you're here by accident but would stay, Zimbabwe is a nation in Africa. The map below should (hopefully) help you get oriented.
Each repository contains a set of files which are intended to serve varying purposes. The list below gives an insight into each file's contents and what purpose each file serves. Notice that there are similar file names but different file extensions.
README.md :: Contains the metadata about the repository. To be used for checking on data currency and attribution.filename.geojson :: For geographic view of data :: Is the spatial data. To be used for previewing the data within the github repository and for manipulation with tools such as GeoJson.io - a quick, simple tool for creating, viewing, and sharing maps and GitSpatial - a spatial API that fronts and syncs GeoJSON hosted by GitHub. The popular QGIS can also be used to further exploit the data.filename.zip :: For data manipulation in GIS software:: This is the spatial data in zipped (compressed) ESRI shapefile. The shapefile is supported natively by many GIS softwares. QGIS can even open zip file for viewing purposes without the need to decompress its contents first.filename.csv :: For tabular view of data:: This format is useful for searching using the GitHub CSV and TSV search functionality say you just want to find out if an entry you are interested in exists in the dataset.A note on the spatial data: The data is in unprojected WGS84 format. Emphasis has been put on making the data topologically sound viz when you overlay any two or more datasets, common boundaries should line-up properly. In achieving this minimal sacrifice was made to the original data's topology.
If you want to quickly peruse the entire dataset collated for this project visit The Searcheable Data Catalog
You're welcome to consume and edit datasets. We're particularly interested in having up-to-date data and correct attributes, spellings e.t.c. Be sure to feedback via email (zimgeospatial [at] gmail.com] or twitter @zimgeospatial
Data hosted here is in no way authoritative and has not been endorsed by the Zimbabwean government or any of its departments. Considerable effort has been made to ensure temporal and spatial accuracy. Some of the data has been adopted as is from government departmental publications. Use this data therefore with discretion. The publishers will not be held accountable for any consequencies from the use thereof.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.