Sources, licenses & map limitations
India Atlas datasets
Educational map layers retain their source attribution and historical context. Downloaded geometries use WGS84 coordinates. They are not legal boundaries, farm surveys, forecasts or emergency guidance.
FAO soil mapping units
632 features · Legacy FAO/UNESCO DSMW · 1:5,000,000
- Source & creator
- FAO / UNESCO · Digital Soil Map of the World
- Reuse license
- CC BY 4.0 (FAO catalogue)
632 mapped units survive clipping of the 634-unit India subset to the atlas boundary. Legacy 1:5,000,000 soil associations, not modern farm-level soils. FAO dominant soil classes are not identical to NCERT soil categories. Simplified at 0.008° with topology preserved; selecting a class highlights every available unit in that class.
ESA WorldCover cropland
49 features · 2021 · v200 · class 40
- Source & creator
- ESA WorldCover 2021 v200 · Zanaga et al. (2022)
- Reuse license
- CC BY 4.0
2021 class 40 (cropland), majority-resampled from 10 m COG tiles to 0.05° (~5 km) cells, polygonized and clipped to the atlas boundary. 49 tiles contain surviving cropland. Coarsening loses small fields; absence is not proof of no cultivation. No crop species, production, irrigation or current-season claims. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7254221.
India Flood Inventory
1,006 features · Historical events · 1960s–2020
- Source & creator
- Saharia et al. (2021) · HydroSense Lab, IIT Delhi
- Reuse license
- CC BY 4.0
1,006 historical flood-event footprints from India Flood Inventory v3, distributed by India-geodata. Original dates, districts, causes and identifiers preserved; geometry simplified at 0.01° with topology preserved. Reported event areas may be administrative footprints, not observed water extent everywhere. Not a forecast, risk probability or evacuation map. DOI: 10.1007/s11069-021-04698-6.
Natural Earth mountain ranges
15 features · Generalized 1:10 million physical geography
- Source & creator
- Natural Earth · geography regions polygons
- Reuse license
- Public domain
15 source Range/mtn features intersect the atlas boundary. Whole generalized regions are clipped to that boundary and simplified at 0.005°. Mountain-range extents are educational approximations, not surveyed geological boundaries; adjacent transboundary parts are omitted.
Historical districts
735 features · 2021 snapshot
- Source & creator
- geoBoundaries · Pathways Data / Local Government Directory
- Reuse license
- ODbL 1.0
735 features in the downloaded 2021 snapshot; provider metadata advertises 736. State associations are derived by maximum overlap with the separate state map. Historical boundaries, not current district administration.
River basins
25 features · Source-defined historical drainage inventory
- Source & creator
- India-WRIS · DataMeet / Indian Open Maps
- Reuse license
- Publisher-distributed CC0 1.0
25 basin features, including three unnamed source records. Original source labels and state lists may reflect older administrative geography; not a legal border map.
River sub-basins
99 features · Source-defined historical drainage inventory
- Source & creator
- India-WRIS · DataMeet / Indian Open Maps
- Reuse license
- Publisher-distributed CC0 1.0
99 sub-basins; source-derived drainage divisions simplified for educational display.
Köppen–Geiger climate classes
19 features · 1991–2020 climate normals
- Source & creator
- Beck et al. (2023) · Köppen–Geiger
- Reuse license
- CC BY 4.0
1991–2020 classification, 0.1° raster polygonized and clipped to the sourced state extent. 19 classes occur here. Climate normals, not current weather or hazard probabilities.
River reaches & tributary relationships
45 features · Natural Earth · 1:10 million
- Source & creator
- Natural Earth
- Reuse license
- Public domain
45 generalized named reaches, retaining the source’s upstream context. The atlas groups available tributaries using NCERT Drainage relationships. Main reaches and available tributaries use different colours. This is not a complete hydrological network: small tributaries, headwaters and foreign reaches may be absent.
Reservoir outlines
8 features · Natural Earth · 1:10 million
- Source & creator
- Natural Earth
- Reuse license
- Public domain
Eight generalized reservoir outlines. Not live water levels or an exhaustive inventory.
State & Union Territory boundaries
36 features · geoBoundaries source snapshot
- Source & creator
- geoBoundaries
- Reuse license
- CC BY 2.5 IN
Source depiction of administrative boundaries. Claims and disputed areas are not universally recognized; not a legal boundary map.
River relationships
The main river is highlighted separately from available tributaries. Connections follow drainage references, not inferred proximity. All mapped reaches of the selected name are included; the source does not contain every tributary.
NCERT · Drainage System