The Digital Compilation of Geographical Names activity consists of defining the geometry of all official names in Northern Canada stored in the Canadian Geographical Names Data Base (CGNDB) by using the National topographic data sets (NTDB file) as the geospatial base. The geographical names are associated to their respective geographical feature by attaching a distinctive toponymic key from the CGNDB. If a geographical name doesn't have a correspondent feature in the data set, the a corresponding geometry is created and compiled. For visualization purposes, an automatic text placement software is used to read keys and place the names in the appropriate places.

This product is a more technically advanced version of the analogue NTS Amendment Map prepared by the Geographical Names Board of Canada Secretariat. It will eventually be used to create the toponymy layer in GeoBase, as well; it will become the main source for recording any updates to geographical names in the future.

The output generated is a graphic file that can be used for plot on demand purposes.

Digital Compilation of geographical names

For more information about this activity, please contact John Donner