Free GIS Data Downloads

Hand‑picked links to authoritative open datasets across South Africa. Use the search below to filter by keyword and region. All links open in a new tab.

Curated Direct links By theme Satellite LULC Global + Regional Free to access
Tip: Try keywords like zoning, wetlands, health facilities, land cover, cadastral.

Showing all datasets. Use Search and filters to refine.

Administrative Boundaries

Municipal Demarcation Board — Official Admin Boundaries

Municipal Demarcation Board (wards, municipalities, provinces)
SHPGPKGWMS
Visit / Download

Stats SA Census 2011 — National Boundary Layers

Statistics South Africa (EA, Small Areas, Subplaces, Main Places, Wards)
SHPFGDB
View/Download (mirror) Stats SA GIS CD

HDX — COD Administrative Boundaries (Levels 0–4)

OCHA HDX (compiled from official sources)
SHPGeoJSON
View on HDX

Zoning & Planning

City of Cape Town — Zoning (Open Data)

City of Cape Town (zoning layers & viewer)
Feature ServiceSHP
Dataset Viewer

City of Johannesburg — Online Maps (incl. Zoning)

City of Johannesburg CGIS (viewer; some downloads by request)
Viewer
Open Viewer

Census & Socio‑economic

Wazimap SA — Census & Elections

OpenUp/Wazimap (profiles, indicators; downloads available)
CSVGeoJSON
Explore

Biodiversity & Conservation

SANBI BGIS — Biodiversity GIS Portal

SANBI (Vegetation Map, Threatened Ecosystems, wetlands, more)
SHPKMLServices
Browse BGIS

Protected & Conservation Areas — SAPAD / SACAD

DFFE EGIS (official protected & conservation area boundaries)
SHPCSV
Data Download

GBIF — Species Occurrence Records (ZA)

GBIF / SANBI (filter country=South Africa)
CSVGeoJSON
Browse ZA Data

Freshwater Priority Areas (NFEPA) & National Wetland Map

SANBI / Partners (NFEPA rivers & wetlands, National Wetland Map 5)
SHPServices
NFEPA Rivers Wetlands Map

Land Cover & Environmental

South African National Land Cover (SANLC 2022)

SANSA / SAEOSS (national land‑cover classes)
GeoTIFFVectors
Dataset

DFFE EGIS — Environmental GIS & Screening Tool

Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment
DownloadsViewers
EGIS Portal

Hydrology & Water Resources

DWS — Rivers, Catchments & Monitoring Points

Department of Water & Sanitation (GI&A / IWQS)
SHPKMZ
IWQS GIS Data GI&A Portal

Elevation & Imagery

CD:NGI — National Mapping, Aerials & Elevation

Chief Directorate: National Geo‑spatial Information
RasterVectorServices
Geospatial Portal NGI Resources

SANSA — Earth Observation (SAEOSS)

SANSA (imagery & EO datasets)
ImageryGeoTIFF
SAEOSS Portal

Geology & Soils

Council for Geoscience — Geology Data

Council for Geoscience (maps & datasets)
SHPPDF
Downloads

ARC — Land Type & Soils

Agricultural Research Council (ISCW)
SHPDocs
Info/Downloads

Transport, Addresses & OSM Extracts

OpenStreetMap Extract — South Africa & Lesotho

Geofabrik (roads, buildings, landuse, more)
PBFSHPGeoJSON
Download

South Africa GeoPortal — Ready‑to‑use Layers

Esri South Africa (roads, schools, dams, rivers, land cover)
Feature Services
Browse

Cadastral & Parcels

Chief Surveyor‑General — Cadastral Spatial Data

CSG (parcels, servitudes, townships; per‑province downloads)
SHPCSV
Downloads

Health & Facilities

Master Health Facility List (South Africa)

National/CSIR (directory of health facilities)
CSVWeb
Portal

HOT OSM — Health Facilities (ZA)

Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (export)
SHPGeoJSONCSV
HDX Dataset

Energy & Infrastructure

Eskom — Transmission Lines & Substations

Eskom / NTC (transmission network datasets)
SHPKML
Guide to Shapefile Eskom Data Portal

Satellite Imagery

15 sources

USGS Earth Explorer

Landsat optical, declassified (CORONA), hyperspectral (Hyperion)
Open Global

Sentinel / Copernicus Browser

Sentinel-2 (optical), Sentinel-1 (SAR)
Open Global

NASA Earthdata Search

Earth science products: land, atmosphere, biosphere, cryosphere
Open Global

NOAA Data Access Viewer

Satellite & aerial imagery, coastal LiDAR
Open Coastal

Maxar Open Data Program

High-res optical for disasters; samples & derived data
Open Events

Geo-Airbus Defense

SPOT, Pléiades (optical), TerraSAR-X, WorldDEM
Open Samples

NASA Worldview

Scientific satellite product layers (hazards, climate, atmospheric)
Open Viewer

NOAA CLASS

GOES/POES imagery and environmental products
Open Global

Bhuvan (ISRO)

IRS, Cartosat, ResourceSat, OceanSat; NDVI and CartoDEM
Open India

JAXA Global ALOS 3D World

Global DSM (≈30 m) via ALOS L-band radar
Open Global

NOAA Digital Coast

Imagery, elevation, land cover & coastal datasets
Open Coastal

PROBA-V MEP (GeoViewer)

PROBA-V, SPOT-Vegetation, METOP – global vegetation patterns
Open Global

Satellite Land Cover (GLCF etc.)

Global land cover / land use maps (various sources)
Open Global

UNAVCO (SAR Archive / Geodesy)

SAR data, geodesy & tectonic datasets
Open Global

INPE (Brazil)

CBERS, ResourceSat, UK-DMC imagery (catalog)
Open Brazil & beyond

Land Use / Land Cover (LULC)

7 sources

Esri Land Cover 10m

Global 10 m land cover
Open Global

Global Land Survey (GLS)

Global land cover composites (Landsat-based)
Open Global

ESA WorldCover

Global land cover @ ≈10 m (Sentinel-1/2)
Open Global

OSM Land Use Data

OpenStreetMap derived land use polygons
Open Global

USGS – Global Land Cover Characterization (GLCC)

Global land cover datasets (historic)
Open Global

UN FAO – GLC-SHARE

Global Land Cover Network
Open Global

TerraPop

Integrated population & environment data
Open Global

Notes

Always review each provider’s licence/terms. Some municipal viewers offer downloads by request only. If a link is broken, please contact us so we can update it.