Living Atlas of the World

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The ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World is the foremost collection of geographic information from around the globe. It includes maps, apps, and data layers to support your work.

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Explore items recently added to the ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World, learn about GIS events, and discover ways to use content.

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Q & A

Frequently Asked Questions

As a community-fueled effort, thousands of contributors have shared their best work and authoritative content with the world. Feel free to browse their work, and when you are ready, start your journey as a contributor today!

What is the ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World?

The ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World—available through the ArcGIS Platform—is the foremost collection of geographic information from around the globe. It includes maps, apps, and data layers to support your work. Curated by Esri with contributions from its partner and user communities, the Living Atlas contains valuable maps, data layers, tools, services, and apps for geographic analysis. Organized by theme, this content strengthens the diverse and significant work of the GIS community at-large to address global and regional challenges. The Living Atlas is continually growing and evolving, featuring items such as weather, traffic, elevation, demographics, oceans, urban systems, and imagery, that impact people’s lives.

How do users access this information?

The Living Atlas website contains a gallery that displays all of the content currently in the Living Atlas. Users can view this gallery on the Browse page. It is also available throughout the platform, meaning users of ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS Enterprise, and ArcGIS Desktop (ArcGIS Pro and ArcMap) can take advantage of this wealth of resources. The types of Living Atlas items that are available are dependent upon where you are accessing the Living Atlas in each part of the ArcGIS Platform. The items can be used on their own, or combined with other Living Atlas items or the user’s data, to complete visualization and analysis tasks.

Where can I get more information on the types of items available through the Living Atlas?

Get a more in depth explanation of maps, layers, scenes, apps, and tools from the ArcGIS Online Help. For Story Maps visit the Story Maps page. Also check out the ArcGIS Blog where you can search topics and browse articles written by GIS experts.

How much does it cost to use or contribute to the Living Atlas?

While a majority of the items in the Living Atlas are free, some items are considered subscriber and premium content. It is free to contribute your ArcGIS Online items to the Living Atlas.

Can I contribute to the Living Atlas?

Yes! You can contribute maps, layers, scenes, apps, and tools to the Living Atlas that cover a wide variety of themes. To see all of the themes, navigate to the Browse tab.

To contribute your content, sign in to this site using your ArcGIS Online credentials and navigate to My Contributions > My Content. Here you will see a list of all of your content in ArcGIS Online that can be contributed to the Living Atlas. The item's score is calculated from the item’s metadata. The item must have a score of 80 or better to be nominated. Click on the item to see the properties you can edit to improve the score. Click Edit to edit the item details page on ArcGIS Online. Once all of the properties have been edited to your satisfaction, return to My Content and you will see the score refresh. Once your item reaches a score of 80 or above, click Nominate Now.

I nominated an item for the Living Atlas. What happens now?

Your nominated item will be reviewed by a curator at Esri. If they have any questions regarding your item they will contact you. Once both of you agree that the item is ready, it will be accepted into the Living Atlas. Depending on how much collaboration takes place, your item could be accepted into the Living Atlas in as little as a week.

My item has been accepted into the Living Atlas. How do I find it?

Navigate to the Living Atlas Website and simply search to find your item. There is syncing that needs to occur behind the scenes, so your item might not appear immediately. Also, depending on the type of item, it might also be available through other parts of the ArcGIS Platform.

Why would I want to contribute?

Contributing to the Living Atlas means that your item will be placed among the best content in ArcGIS Online. This helps the larger GIS community by creating a centralized location where authoritative, curated, ready to use content can be utilized. This same content may be available through separate data silos and sites, making it virtually impossible for GIS users to discover. Contributing to the Living Atlas means the public will be able to easily find and use the content you’ve provided.

What is the Community Maps Program?

The Community Maps Program is an effort to develop a suite of authoritative maps for use globally by the public in a wide variety of applications. It's how data is contributed to the Living Atlas. With Community Maps your contributed data is hosted online as part of ArcGIS Online layers and basemaps, enriching the data available to the wider GIS community.

How do I contribute data to Community Maps?

Navigate to the Community Maps Contributor App and sign in using your ArcGIS Online credentials. After providing some information regarding your organization and yourself, you will be asked to upload your data. The steps then vary based on the type of data provided. Please click on the hyperlinks in the question below to see the specific steps for each theme. Depending on the amount of data review and collaboration that needs to occur, your data could be published in as little as six weeks.

What types of data does Community Maps accept?

The Community Maps accepts basemap layers, imagery, land elevation and bathymetry, hydrology and stream gauges and Urban Observatory layers. To find specific information related to each theme, please click on the hyperlink.

Is there any pre-processing that needs to happen before the data is accepted for Community Maps?

Please click on the hyperlinks in the question above to determine what pre-processing steps need to be completed.

How much does it cost to use the layers and basemaps or to contribute to Community Maps?

It’s free to use most of the ArcGIS Online items that contain the contributed content, however, just like the Living Atlas, some items are subscriber and premium content. It is also free to contribute to Community Maps.

Do I retain control over my data?

Yes, you will retain ownership of your data at all times, even after it is published in the basemaps. Before you contribute your data you will need to sign the G-181 participation agreement. This agreement defines how the data will be used. Your agency is asked to grant Esri the rights to use the data, and to attest they have the authority to grant those rights. You can request that your data be removed from the basemaps at any time. Simply e-mail communitymaps@esri.com with your request.

Does Esri redistribute my contributed data?

No. Esri doesn’t redistribute any user contributed data, only the derivative work that Esri creates and publishes using the data, such as raster and vector tile basemaps. Many organizations generate revenue or recover costs by licensing their GIS data; Esri doesn’t want to interfere with this. In fact, cities and counties that sell their data can view Community Maps as free advertising for their data.

How is Community Maps different from ArcGIS Open Data?

Community Maps and ArcGIS Open Data are alike in that data is contributed to each and hosted by Esri. However, the data that is contributed to Community Maps is used to enhance the layers and basemaps in ArcGIS Online, while the data in ArcGIS Open Data is used to easily share raw data with the public. Many organizations contribute to both, contributing raw data to ArcGIS Open Data and pre-processed data to Community Maps.

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