Introduction to basemaps

What is a basemap?

A basemapA basemap is the foundational layer and data that provides the overall visual and geographic context for a map or scene. It typically includes geographic features and labels for land, water, roads, buildings, cities, places, and administrative boundaries, but can also include raster data such as satellite and areal images.Learn more is the foundational layer and data that provides the overall visual and geographic context for a map or scene. It allows you to easily see where geographic features are located and understand the spatial relationships between them. It typically includes features and labels for land, water, roads, buildings, cities, places, and administrative boundaries, but can also include satellite and aerial image data. Basemaps provide context for maps at global and local scales.

Basemaps are categorized by the type of data they support and the type of cartographic design they represent. This is known as the basemap styleA basemap style is a definition that controls the visual appearance of how geographic data in a basemap are displayed. It includes colors, backgrounds, outlines, labels, and other visual elements. Each basemap style emphasizes a specific type of cartographic theme and data.Learn more. In ArcGIS, there are two main families of basemap styles based on data provider type: ArcGIS Basemap stylesArcGIS Basemap styles are the family of basemap styles that use authoritative data from Esri and partners such as TomTom, Garmin, FAO, NOAA, USGS, OpenStreetMap contributors, and the GIS User Community.Learn more and Open Basemap stylesOpen Basemap styles are the family of basemap styles that use open source data from Overture Maps, which includes data from OpenStreetMap (OSM), Microsoft, Esri Community Maps, and other open data sources.Learn more. Examples of basemap styles in these families are are arcgis/streets, arcgis/navigation, arcgis/outdoor, arcgis/imagery (satellite), open/osm-style, and open/streets.

The data and styles for basemaps are provided by data sources known as ArcGIS Basemap servicesArcGIS Basemap services, also referred to as Basemap services, are location services hosted by Esri that provide data sources for building mapping applications. It includes the ArcGIS Basemap Styles service and ArcGIS Static Basemap Tiles service. Each service provides a specific type of basemap data and set of styles.Learn more.

How a basemap works

A basemap is displayed with a basemap layerA basemap layer is the layer in a map or scene that displays basemap data. The data source for a basemap layer is typically a basemap service.Learn more. A basemap layer references a data source that it uses to access data and/or styles. The availability of data and styles depends on the type of data source and its capabilities. A basemap layer is typically the first layer added to a map or scene. When a view displays a map or scene, it is the first layer to draw, followed by data layersA data layer is a layer that references geographic data from a file or a service and is used to visualize the data in a map or scene.Learn more, and then graphicsA graphic is a visual element composed of a geometry, symbol, and attributes that is displayed on a map or scene.Learn more (if present).

Figure 1: A basemap is displayed with a basemap layer in a map or scene.

What's next?

Learn about the different types of data sources you can use for basemaps.