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Geographical & Country Resources

General Resources

UNESCO World Heritage List
url: http://www.unesco.org/whc/heritage.htm

World Monuments Fund 100 Most Endangered Sites
url: http://wmf.org/a/watchlist.htm

Country at a Glance
Vital statistics for UN member Nations.
url: http://www.un.org/Pubs/CyberSchoolBus/infonation/e_glance.htm

InfoNation
Infonation allows you to view and compare statistical data for all UN member states.
url: http://www.cyberschoolbus.un.org/infonation/info.asp

Timezone Converter
url: http://www.timezoneconverter.com/

State of the World's Forests 2003
FAO report on World's Forests "...presents information on the current status of the world's forests, major developments over the reporting period (1995-2001), and recent trends and future directions in the forestry." sector. Available for downloading in PDF format.Can be navigated by country or subject. Earlier reorts also available from this website.
url: http://www.fao.org/forestry/FO/SOFO/sofo-e.stm

Global Environment Outlook
Web Version of the United nations Environment Programme Global State of the Environment Report 2000. Full report available.
url: http://www.unep.org/GEO/geo3/english/index.htm

The CIA World Factbook 2005
Produced by the US Central Intelligence Agency, profiles the countries of the world.
url: http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html

Library of Congress-Country Studies
A Series of online books prepared by the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress under the Country Studies/Area Handbook Program sponsored by the United States Department of the Army. This online series presently contains studies of 91 countries.
url: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cshome.html

United States. Dept. of State Background Notes.
Background Notes provide information on geographic entities and international organizations and are updated periodically. Background Notes for some countries are currently unavailable.
url: http://www.state.gov/countries/

Country reports
Comprehensive source for locating key geographical, political and historical facts for many countries
url: http://www.countryreports.org/

Economist Country Briefings
News, country profiles, forecasts, statistics.
url: http://www.economist.com/countries/

Cities

Cities in a Globalizing World: Global report on Human Settlements 2001
United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat),
url: http://www.unchs.org/Istanbul+5/globalreport.htm

Flags

Flags of the World
url: http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/

Gazetteers & Maps

Australian Geographic Place Names (Gazetteer)
Australia. Dept. of the Environment, Sport and Territories (ERIN).
url: http://www.auslig.gov.au/mapping/names/natgaz.htm

A Gazetteer of Australian Cities, Towns and Suburbs.
Part of the Monash University Australian Readers Guide Homepage, search alphabetically or by region.
url: http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/ncas/multimedia/gazetteer/

Geographic Name Server/Xerox Map Server
url: http://tiger.census.gov/cgi-bin/mapsurfer

Australian Coastal Atlas.
Interactive Atlas from the Australian Department of the Environment and Heritage.
url: http://www.environment.gov.au/marine/coastal_atlas/index.html

United Nations Cartographic Section.
Maps and Geographic Information Resources from the United Nations. More than 100 General Maps are currently available. Maps are in PDF format. Maps can be selected from a clickable map or from a menu of different world regions. Maps are also available for United Nations Peacekeeping Missions.
url: http://www.un.org/Depts/Cartographic/english/index.htm

U.S. Gazetteer
U.S. Census Bureau.
url: http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/gazetteer

Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
The Thesaurus of Geographic Names allows users to "..search for place names and retrieve records for places, including venacular and historical names, coordinates, place types and other relevant information.
url: http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabulary/tgn/

Atlapedia Online
Physical and political maps, key facts and statistics for the countries of the world.
url: http://www.atlapedia.com

Making Maps Easy to Read
Includes explanations of map symbols and typography.
url: http://richardphillips.org.uk/maps/

How Far is it?
"This service uses data from the US Census and a supplementary list of cities around the world to find the latitude and longitude of two places, and then calculates the distance between them (as the crow flies). It also provides a map showing the two places, using the Xerox PARC Map Server."
url: http://www.indo.com/distance/

Perry-Casteneda Library Map Collection
Compiled and maintained by the Perry-Casteneda map Library at the University of Texas at Austin. Includes Electronic Cartographic Reference Resources, time zones, map projections, glossaries & guides, electronic maps of topical interest and links to many other electronic maps.
url: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/Map_collection/Map_collection.html

Maps in the News
Links to maps of places currently in the news compiled by the John R. Borchert Map Library, University of Minnesota.
url: http://map.lib.umn.edu/news.phtml

Australian Electoral Commission
Information relating to Elections and Electoral Divisions in Australia.
url: http://www.aec.gov.au/

International Boundaries Research Unit. Boundary related links.
Website compiled and maintained by the International Boundaries Research Unit (IBRU) at the University of Durham. Many useful links to resources and information on international boundaries on land and at sea, including their delimitation, demarcation and management. This website also includes the searchable International Boundary News Database containing "...over 10,000 boundary-related reports from a wide range of news sources around the world dating from 1991 to approximately six months before the current date. For the most up-to-date published information on international boundaries, see the Boundary and Security Bulletin."
url: http://www-ibru.dur.ac.uk/links.html

Tourism

Tourism Offices Worldwide Directory.
"The TOWD is your guide to official tourism information, an index listing only official government tourism offices, convention and visitors bureaus, and similar agencies. No travel agents, no tour operators, no hotels."
url: http://www.towd.com/

World Tourism Highlights 2000.
Highlights in World Tourism trends produced by the World Tourism Organisation and available for downloading in Adobe Acrobat Format.
url: hhttp://www.world-tourism.org/market_research/facts&figures/menu.htm

Weather

Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology (Australia)
BOM website includes state weather warnings and forecasts, satellite images, commentary on climate and climate averages.
url: http://www.bom.gov.au/

ABC Weather
Links to weather warnings and information on Australian weather.
url: http://www.abc.net.au/news/australia/weather/

CNN Weather
Forecasts for over 8,000 cities worldwide.
url: http://www.cnn.com/WEATHER

World Weather 2010 Project
"Comprehensive earth sciences related web site based at the University of Illinois. It features current weather data and detailed explanatory/instructional material as well as curricular materials, archived products and case studies."
url: http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/home.rxml

WeatherPost
Weather from the Washington Post includes weather forecasts from around the world.
url: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/weather/

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Comprehensive United States governmental website includes over 12,000 images and weather maps.
url: http://www.noaa.gov/

Weather Images
Comprehensive collection of weather data and images.
url: http://www.weatherimages.org/