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Administrative boundaries — available datasets#

The admin catalog ships the dataset ids below across four public providers. Pass one (or more) as variables=. Every dataset returns a pyramids.feature.collection.FeatureCollection of polygons in EPSG:4326.

List them live at any time:

from earthlens.earthlens import EarthLens

EarthLens.list_datasets("admin")

geoBoundaries (gbOpen, CC-BY-4.0)#

Per-country administrative boundaries. Needs country= (ISO3). Columns: shapeName, shapeISO, shapeID, shapeGroup, shapeType, geometry.

dataset id selector description
geoboundaries:adm0 country= National boundary for one country
geoboundaries:adm1 country= First sub-national level (states / provinces)
geoboundaries:adm2 country= Second sub-national level (districts / counties)
geoboundaries:adm3 country= Third sub-national level
geoboundaries:adm4 country= Fourth sub-national level
geoboundaries:adm5 country= Fifth sub-national level

CGAZ (Comprehensive Global Admin Zones, CC-BY-4.0)#

Single seamless global layers (every country in one file). No selector.

dataset id selector description
cgaz:adm0 Seamless global ADM0 (national boundaries)
cgaz:adm1 Seamless global ADM1 (first sub-national level)
cgaz:adm2 Seamless global ADM2 (second sub-national level)

Natural Earth (public domain)#

Global cultural admin layers by scale. Optional scale= (10m / 50m / 110m); each dataset has a default.

dataset id selector default scale description
natural_earth:countries scale= 110m Admin-0 countries
natural_earth:states scale= 50m Admin-1 states / provinces

US Census TIGER/Line (public domain)#

Generalized cartographic-boundary (cb_) files; native NAD83, reprojected to EPSG:4326. Optional year= (defaults to 2023); tiger:tract is per-state and needs state= (FIPS code).

dataset id selector description
tiger:nation year= US nation outline (5m)
tiger:state year= US states (500k)
tiger:county year= US counties (500k)
tiger:tract year=, state= Census tracts for one state (500k, per-state)

Why GADM is absent#

GADM is intentionally excluded — its no-commercial / no-redistribute license is incompatible with redistribution. The four shipped sources are all CC-BY-4.0 or public domain. See the Introduction.