Overview

HectaresBC was a geospatial data platform for British Columbia. This repository does not try to recreate the old service exactly. It preserves the recovered data assets and rebuilds access around reproducible catalog metadata, a DataLad/git-annex data repository, and small user-facing tools.

Current capabilities include:

  • catalog lookup, search, and filtering through the Python API;

  • a thin Typer CLI over the same API;

  • local path resolution, content-status checks, backend diagnostics, and dry-run retrieval planning;

  • a static browser catalog with stable detail and map-preview routes;

  • a DataLad-backed source-derived browser preview publication covering 2,183 recovered catalog records, with 2,163 preview PNGs and 20 records marked not_previewable;

  • a recovered administrative reference layer that can be used as map context behind preview overlays.

Important current limits:

  • raw HectaresBC payloads live outside this repository in a DataLad submodule;

  • browser previews are static PNG overlays, not a tile service or full GIS renderer;

  • custom AOI masking, tile selection, and download-request processing are future service work, not implemented app behavior yet.