Python Geopandas: World map with higher resolution

Pieter-Jan 0
Viewed 46

I am looking for a way to easily plot a world map with a higher resolution compared to the built in resolution of Geopandas. To my knowing the built in dataset for a world map is only in low resolution:

import geopandas
world = geopandas.read_file(geopandas.datasets.get_path('naturalearth_lowres'))
world.plot()
plt.show()

I already read this page but couldn't find an answer: https://geopandas.org/en/stable/docs/user_guide/mapping.html#

I am not looking for google maps precision, but I would appreciate a map where if I zoom in, Belgium for example is plotted by a polygon which has a bit more than 14 points (see screenshot). (Let's say 100 to 1000 points.)

(I need the full map of the world as I am plotting data in different countries and would like to zoom in.)

low resolution map

geopandas gis maps pandas python
1 Answers

That's a limitation of the data that built-in polygons have. Vectors represent the map as it is, regardless of zooming in on the map.

As the number of points that make up a polygon increases, a more precise map requires more capacity.

You will be able to use a variety of sources.

https://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/182944/seeking-polygon-shapefile-of-countries-states-and-islands

The sites listed in the answers above will help.
Get and load world borders from OSM or GADM. I haven't checked the size of the data, but the closer the boundaries are to reality, the larger the size of the data and the memory requirements to load the file.

Urban870
Related