Digital Chart of the World

Data Description | Data Location

The Digital Chart of the World is a comprehensive 1:1,000,000 scale vector basemap of the world. The charts were designed to meet the needs of pilots and air crews in medium-and low-altitude en route navigation and to support military operational planning, intelligence briefings, and other needs.

The primary source for this database is the US Defense Mapping Agency's (DMA) Operational Navigation Chart (ONC) series produced by the the United States, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The data currency varies from place to place, ranging from the mid 1960s to the early 1990s. The database is divided into 2,094 tiles that represent 5-degree by 5-degree areas of the globe.

Digital Chart of the World thematic layers are:

• Political/Ocean (country boundaries)
  
• Populated Places (urbanized areas and points)
  
• Roads
  
• Railroads
  
• Aeronautical Structures
  
• Utilities (electrical, telephone, pipelines)
  
• Drainage System
  
• Hypsographic Data
  
• Land Cover
  
• Ocean Features
  
• Physiography
  
• Cultural Landmarks
  
• Transportation Structure
  
• Vegetation

The DCW Dataset is part of the ESRI Site License and is available for borrowing from Branner Library. See the DCW User's Guide. You will need it as a reference when copying tiles from the DCW CDs.

The dataset is also available already clipped to the country level from Penn State University.