WFS services from CUGIR
web servicesWFS (Web Feature Service) is an open standard for serving geographical features across the web using platform-independent calls. Linking from applications such as QGIS or ArcGIS to a WFS server makes it possible to directly add a data layer to a map without first having to download a shapefile or other data file. Unlike WMS which only provide images representing a visualization of the source data, WFS allows querying and retrieval of the geospatial feature data itself, as well as their attributes.
Many CUGIR data sets are made available as a WFS, via a Web services link displayed in the Tool section of each data page. While CUGIR does not provide support or advocate for any particular application, we have developed basic instructions for accessing our WFS layers via QGIS and ArcGIS.