Have you tried the public domain Natural Earth dataset? <a href="http://www.naturalearthdata.com/downloads/10m-cultural-vectors/10m-populated-places/">http://www.naturalearthdata.com/downloads/10m-cultural-vectors/10m-populated-places/</a><br>
<br>It might not be detailed enough for you, but should be of better quality that <a href="http://geonames.org">geonames.org</a> and co.<br><br>-Francis<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On 15 November 2010 14:01, Peter <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:webwiz@pl.net">webwiz@pl.net</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">Its an almagamation of the sources i named, geonames, linz electoral, and google geocoder for the coords, with a bit of stuff patched in (when i had any doubts) from statnz interactive boundary viewer (ambiguous regions, some populations). Where spelling disagreed i tended to go with the electoral dataset <a href="http://www.linz.govt.nz/placenames/electoral-streets-places/" target="_blank">http://www.linz.govt.nz/placenames/electoral-streets-places/</a> Just beware there was a lot of hand editing involved, hence errors are a real possibility.<br>
<br>
QGIS: i tried both installers, both had the same error. It wasnt the Program Files thing becasue i put it in Program-Files the second time to be safe. As far as i got in the documentation suggested it was the absence of a windows library. I ran out of time and patience. Given your guys recommendation ill try it again soon. Failing that ill try it on a linux box, thatd probably, yeah, be easier... The thought of all that FOSS sql, python, etc running on windows gives me the willys.<br>
<br>
METADATA: Yes, No. The reason being the same as why i was reliant on such half baked sources, lack of GIS knowhow.<br>
<br>
Peter<br>
<br>
<br>
<a href="mailto:pcreso@pcreso.com" target="_blank">pcreso@pcreso.com</a> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;"><div><div></div><div class="h5">
Hi Peter,<br>
<br>
Thanks for that, a useful dataset. Before I use it, can you give me some<br>
idea of where it was derived from, & what licence the content is<br>
available under? If there are several sources, then identifying the<br>
source of each record would be useful, as most licences have an<br>
attribution requirement.<br>
<br>
& QGIS is worth persevering with & have a look at Postgis for spatial<br>
data management :-)<br>
<br>
Thanks,<br>
<br>
Brent Wood<br>
<br>
<br>
--- On *Mon, 11/15/10, Peter /<<a href="mailto:webwiz@pl.net" target="_blank">webwiz@pl.net</a>>/* wrote:<br>
<br>
<br>
From: Peter <<a href="mailto:webwiz@pl.net" target="_blank">webwiz@pl.net</a>><br>
Subject: Re: [Aust-NZ] NZ Towns<br>
To: <a href="mailto:aust-nz@lists.osgeo.org" target="_blank">aust-nz@lists.osgeo.org</a><br>
Date: Monday, November 15, 2010, 2:01 PM<br>
<br>
Indeed, i eventually concluded that the secondary sources that are<br>
freely available are all unreliable. The geographic placename<br>
register from linz is two years out of date, and its regions are not<br>
TLA regions but land districts. LINZ also has an up to date<br>
electoral districts file, which i was able to use to get tla<br>
districts from for some 6000 odd places. The geonames dataset is<br>
based on the geographic placenames dataset, and has the region field<br>
mostly empty. It has partial population fields, ( about a quarter<br>
maybe), and approx coords. I found the google geocoder coords to be<br>
quite a bit more accurate. I suspect the geonames coords are<br>
someones attempts to shift the linz place label coords by half the<br>
label width or something.<br>
<br>
Anyway the only real solution is as you say is go back to the<br>
primary GIS data. Attempts to bodge together old secondary sources<br>
only introduces yet more noise into the dataset.<br>
<br>
FWIW my excel spreadhsheet is here if its any use to anyone.<br>
<a href="http://www.zoneblue.org/files/nz-towns.zip" target="_blank">http://www.zoneblue.org/files/nz-towns.zip</a><br>
<br>
Which served my immediate purpose, but i do need to get more<br>
organised GIS wise.<br>
<br>
I have no real fondness for large java or .NET frameworks which are<br>
needed for the main GIS packages. As for open source, QGIS would not<br>
install, Grass did (brought a bucket load of stuff with it too), so<br>
i guess ill try learning it.<br>
<br>
Thanks for your help guys.<br>
<br>
Peter<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Gavin Treadgold wrote:<br>
> On 2010-11-12, at 13:16 , Robert Coup wrote:<br>
>> On Fri, Nov 12, 2010 at 11:12 AM, Peter <<a href="mailto:webwiz@pl.net" target="_blank">webwiz@pl.net</a><br></div></div>
</mc/compose?to=<a href="mailto:webwiz@pl.net" target="_blank">webwiz@pl.net</a>><div class="im"><br>
>> <mailto:<a href="mailto:webwiz@pl.net" target="_blank">webwiz@pl.net</a> </mc/compose?to=<a href="mailto:webwiz@pl.net" target="_blank">webwiz@pl.net</a>>>> wrote:<br>
>><br>
>> I have blown an inordinate amount of time trying to merge various<br>
>> online sources to get a listing of towns in NZ. Ideally this list<br>
>> would have town , district/city/unitary council, region, and<br>
>> population or area. This would allow me filter by towns above<br>
>> certain sizes for various web app uses.<br>
>> GPS coords would also be good but i can get those from google<br>
>> geocoder.<br>
>><br>
>> Getting area or boundaries will be harder. Possibly the Fire Service<br>
>> suburbs dataset (available for $0 but under onerous terms) will<br>
help,<br>
>> or look at meshblocks/area-units and their populations from the<br>
census<br>
>> database and try and derive from that?<br>
><br>
> Much of the boundaries you should be able to get from Statistics New<br>
> Zealands digital boundaries.<br>
><br>
><br>
<<a href="http://www.stats.co.nz/browse_for_stats/people_and_communities/geographic-areas/download-digital-boundaries.aspx" target="_blank">http://www.stats.co.nz/browse_for_stats/people_and_communities/geographic-areas/download-digital-boundaries.aspx</a>><br>
><br>
> Cheers Gav<br>
><br>
<br>
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