---
title: Welcome to Data for Canada
toc: false
---

## Mission

Data for Canada exists to bridge the gap between open data availability and data usability. We curate, clean, and re-engineer high-value Canadian datasets into high-performance, analysis-ready formats for researchers, developers, and systems.

## The Problem

Canada creates incredible amounts of open data, from foundational road networks, federal census statistics, orthoimagery, and other. However, these datasets are often locked in legacy formats, fragmented portals, or structures that require significant engineering effort to normalize before they can be used. For a researcher or a system developer, the "time-to-insight" is often bottlenecked by data preparation.

## The Solution

We act as the transformation layer. We aggregate datasets with permissive licenses and process them into "digestible" standards optimized for modern downstream applications.

* **For Researchers and Developers:** Skip the cleaning phase. Access normalized, documented data ready for analysis.
* **For Systems:** Standardized data structures designed to feed directly into pipelines, data warehouses, and downstream services.

## High-Level Overview

```mermaid
flowchart TD
    subgraph ds [Data Sources]
        StatProducts@{ shape: lean-l, label: "Statistical Products"}
        Foundation@{ shape: lean-l, label: "Foundation"}
        Orthoimagery@{ shape: lean-l}
        FieldImagery@{ shape: lean-l, label: "Field Imagery"}
        EnvironmentClimate@{ shape: lean-l, label: "Environmental & Climate"}
        Elevation@{ shape: lean-l}
        WebCorpus@{ shape: lean-l, label: "Web Corpus"}
    end

    subgraph pp [Processing Pipeline]
        Raw@{ shape: rect, label: "Raw Data Ingestion"}
        Transform@{ shape: rect, label: "Transform and Optimize"}
    end

    subgraph df [Dissemination Formats]
        Parquet@{ shape: lean-l}
        FlatGeoBuf@{ shape: lean-l}
        PMTiles@{ shape: lean-l}
        COG@{ shape: lean-l}
        Zarr@{ shape: lean-l}
        JPEGXL@{ shape: lean-l, label: "JPEG XL"}
        AV1@{ shape: lean-l, label: "AV1"}
    end

    subgraph di [Distribution Infrastructure]
        ObjectStorage@{ shape: bow-rect, label: "Object Storage"}
        Metadata@{ shape: rect}
        HTTP@{ shape: rect, label: "Static Files & API"}
        DecentralizedDistribution@{ shape: rect, label: "Decentralized Distribution"}
    end

    subgraph ei [Experimental Infrastructure]
        GeoProcessingAPIs@{ shape: rect, label: "Geoprocessing APIs"}
        %%Martin@{ shape: rect}
        %%GeoServer@{ shape: rect}
        %%ZOOProject@{ shape: rect, label: "ZOO-Project"}
        %%BBOXServer@{ shape: rect, label: "BBOX Server"}
        %%Panoramax@{ shape: rect}
        %%Pelias@{ shape: rect}
    end

    subgraph "Consumption"
        DataSci@{ shape: rect, label: "Researchers & Developers"}
        Systems@{ shape: rect, label: "Systems"}
    end

    %% Relationships
    StatProducts a1@--> Raw
    a1@{animate: true, animation: slow}
    Foundation a2@--> Raw
    a2@{animate: true, animation: slow}
    Orthoimagery a3@--> Raw
    a3@{animate: true, animation: slow}
    FieldImagery a4@--> Raw
    a4@{animate:true, animation: fast}
    EnvironmentClimate a5@--> Raw
    a5@{animate: true, animation: fast}
    Elevation a6@--> Raw
    a6@{animate: true, animation: slow}
    WebCorpus a7@--> Raw
    a7@{animate: true, animation: fast}
    Raw a8@--> Transform
    a8@{animate: true, animation: slow}
    Transform a9@--> df
    a9@{animate: true, animation: slow}
    Parquet a10@--> FlatGeoBuf
    a10@{animate: true, animation: slow}
    Parquet a11@--> PMTiles
    a11@{animate: true, animation: slow}
    Zarr a12@ --> PMTiles
    a12@{animate: true, animation: slow}
    df a13@ --> di
    a13@{animate: true, animation: slow}
    COG a14@--> PMTiles
    a14@{animate: true, animation: slow}
    ObjectStorage a15@--> Metadata
    a15@{animate: true, animation: slow}
    Metadata a16@--> HTTP
    a16@{animate: true, animation: slow}
    HTTP a17@--> ei
    a17@{animate: true, animation: slow}
    HTTP a18@--> DecentralizedDistribution
    a18@{animate: true, animation: slow}
    HTTP a19@--> DataSci
    a19@{animate: true, animation: slow}
    DecentralizedDistribution a20@--> Systems
    a20@{animate: true, animation: fast}
    DecentralizedDistribution a21@--> DataSci
    a21@{animate: true, animation: fast}
    Systems a22@ --> DataSci
    a22@{animate: true, animation: fast}
    ei a23@ --> DataSci
    a23@{animate: true, animation: slow}

    %% URLs
    click Foundation "/docs/processes/foundation/" _blank
    click StatProducts "/docs/processes/statistical_products/" _blank
    click Orthoimagery "/docs/processes/orthoimagery/" _blank
    click FieldImagery "/docs/processes/field_imagery/" _blank
    %%click EnvironmentClimate "/docs/processes/environmental_climate/" _blank
    %%click Elevation "/docs/processes/elevation/" _blank

    click Parquet "https://github.com/apache/parquet-format/" _blank
    click FlatGeoBuf "https://flatgeobuf.org/" _blank
    click COG "https://cogeo.org/" _blank
    click Zarr "https://github.com/zarr-developers/geozarr-spec/" _blank
    click PMTiles "https://github.com/protomaps/PMTiles/blob/main/spec/v3/spec.md" _blank
    click JPEGXL "https://jpeg.org/jpegxl/" _blank
    click AV1 "https://aomedia.org/specifications/av1/" _blank
    click DecentralizedDistribution "/docs/dissemination/" _blank
    click Metadata "https://stac-utils.github.io/stac-geoparquet/latest/spec/stac-geoparquet-spec/" _blank
    click Martin "https://martin.maplibre.org/" _blank
    click GeoServer "https://geoserver.org/" _blank
    click ZOOProject "https://zoo-project.org/" _blank
    click BBOXServer "https://www.bbox.earth/" _blank
    click Panoramax "https://gitlab.com/panoramax" _blank
    click Pelias "https://pelias.io" _blank
```