From the Open Geodata Blog:

Check out a unique use for Open Street Map data: music! From the artist's, French Letter, site on Band Camp: "This is Washington, DC and the surrounding highways remapped in audio. It is an east-west sweep of the city, so it begins with the slow creep of the Potomac River heading southeast and then hits the chaos of the city. North-South values are mapped to pitch."

Open Street Map data is freely available for many uses and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license. 

Also, take a look at a previous Open Street Map post on this blog.

Open Street Map is "an editable map of the whole world, which is being built largely from scratch using GPS traces, and released with an open content license." The map is created primarily from gps data posted by users who do field surveys in their areas and use wiki-style collaborative software to create the map. Yahoo! aerial imagery is also a source the project uses to derive mapping data.

Anyone can browse the map and export data, including image formats and vector data. To get started, there is a Beginner's Guide as well as a frequently asked questions page (FAQ).

A related source of geospatial data is the Public Geospatial Data Project. If you're looking for free gis data, the Public Geospatial Data Project is a valuable clearinghouse. The project's goals include:

• Promote the use of open geospatial formats

• Promote public access to state-collected geodata

• Run a repository of open geodata

• Present and explain licenses for public geodata

The San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) is responsible for, among other health-related issues, environmental health in the City of San Francisco. A portion of the organization's environmental health program is to monitor and abate noise pollution. Various departments within the City are responsible for different aspects of noise pollution enforcement. From the SFDPH site:

To illustrate street noise levels, the DPH has created a city-wide noise map for San Francisco. The map is in pdf format and not georeferenced, but is a good place to start an investigation into environmental health and noise issues in San Francisco.

Both Street Atlas USA 2009 Plus and Topo USA 7 are now available for use in the Earth Sciences and Map Library. The software has been loaded onto the library's two GIS workstations. These computers are available for use whenever the library is open.

Street Atlas USA 2009 Plus allows users to import data, customize maps, and locate 150 million U.S. residential and business phone listings and addresses. The software features searchable data, a drawing function, routing functions, and compatibility with GPS units.

Topo USA 7 features detailed topographic and DeLorme Street Network maps, access to a variety of map, chart, and imagery choices from USGS, NOAA, and other sources. The software allows users to create 3-D flyovers, geo-tag photos, and created detailed trip plans.

Are you looking for subject maps for a specific area, location, or city? Are you working on research for architecture, urban planning, or landscape design projects that require maps and atlases? This guide will help you find maps of a location in subjects that might be of interest.

You can find thematic or subject maps and atlases in Pathfinder, the UC Berkeley online catalog. All of the maps and atlases in the Earth Sciences and Map library are cataloged and accessible through Pathfinder. Other libraries on campus that may have maps of interest include the Bancroft Library and the Environmental Design Library.

The most effective search in Pathfinder is the subject keyword(s) search. The Earth Sciences and Map Library web site has a very helpful page that lists many commonly used subject headings for maps and atlases. For example, if you're looking for zoning maps of San Francisco, your search would be, "zoning california san francisco." Make sure to limit your search to publication format "maps":

One way to expand your search when looking for maps is to include the word "maps" in the subject keyword search. In this example, the search is for real estate maps of San Francisco. The search is "real property california san francisco maps":

Notice in the results that there are call numbers that begin with, for example, "G1529 ..." and "fG1529..." The difference is that call numbers that begin with "f..." are folios and are most likely atlases.

Some other useful subject keyword searches you might want to use include:

Population
[Place] population density maps ("maps" is optional in the subject keyword search. You can leave it out and limit your search by publication type).

Real estate
real property [Place]

Transportation
street-railroads [Place]

Zoning
zoning [Place]

For the above searches, replace [Place] with a city name (e.g. Oakland California).

Other resources for California cities are the Sanborn fire insurance maps and the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) maps.

If you're having problems finding resources, please feel free to contact the Earth Sciences and Map Library online, on the phone, or in person during the library's open hours.