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Essencial

An open atlas of Brazil

Essencial: Maps of Brazil to view, download and cite.

Essencial is the collection of maps and cartography made by Lucas Nakamura Cerejo at NIPE/UNICAMP. Each map comes with its layers ready for QGIS, the method explained and a DOI to cite. A new collection every week.

How to use it

  1. 01 View Open the plate and zoom into the detail. Each map has a paragraph explaining what it shows.
  2. 02 Download Layers come in GeoPackage, already styled for QGIS, with the plate in high resolution.
  3. 03 Cite Each map has a Zenodo DOI and a ready-made citation in ABNT, APA and BibTeX.
maps published
92
collections
17
themes
7
free to reuse
CC BY 4.0

First time here? Read the guide: how to read a plate and what each acronym means.

Latest published

Published on 3 Nov 2026.

  1. No. 115 · Small, gas-rich and on their own
  2. No. 114 · Manure far from who spreads it
  3. No. 113 · Eucalyptus against the forest
  4. No. 112 · The diesel biomethane could cover
  5. No. 111 · Cane in the tank

Start with a question

Each question leads to the collections that answer it, in reading order.

  1. Where do rubbish and sewage go?

  2. How much biomethane could São Paulo make?

    See all 9 plates together
  3. Where does the electricity come from?

  4. What does the countryside produce, and what is left over?

    See all 14 plates together
  5. Where and how do people live?

    See all 11 plates together
  6. What goes up in smoke and carbon?

    See all 9 plates together
  7. What is the ground beneath all this like?

    See all 42 plates together

Collections

Series on a single theme, to read in sequence.

The map of maps

Where each plate’s area lies. Pick a state, or an area in the São Paulo inset.

All of Brazil 3 plates

plates no plate yet

State boundaries: IBGE, simplified · Albers

All maps

Newest first. Click to open the plate, the data sheet and the downloads.

Read them one by one, as a feed

Coming next

A new collection goes live every Tuesday at 12:00 UTC.

  1. More cattle than people Brasil
  2. Electricity from biomass Brasil
  3. The crop in charge Brasil

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