GEOSPATIAL DATA REPORT : Finding and Using GIS Data

http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/tgrshp2009/tgrshp2009.html
(or directly from http://www2.census.gov/geo/tiger/)

2009 version just came out on 10/1/09! Previous versions are also linked from this site.

The TIGER/Line Shapefiles are extracts containing selected geographic and cartographic information from the Census Bureau’s MAF/TIGER® database. Unlike the previous Cartographic Boundary Files site, this site includes block boundary files as well as hydrography, transportation/streets and landmark data files. Users can also download multiple TIGER/Line Shapefiles at a time via this FTP site.

Again, these files contain no demographic information but are designed to be used with decennial census population and housing data as well as other related federal datasets.

http://datawarehouse.hrsa.gov/

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)’s health service related geospatial data download and map viewing website. Datasets include: Primary Care Service Area (PCSA) boundaries, registered nurses database (down to county), Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) data (I haven’t checked this one yet.)

Another related popular dataset is HRSA Area Resource File (http://www.arfsys.com/) – county level health service related data (health care facilities, professionals and demographic data)  but this isn’t available online. Find a library that provides access to this dataset. Our library, the Northwestern University Library has this 2001-2005 & 2007 dataset, but the access is limited to the Northwestern affiliated members only.

[Image above: from the HRSA map tool help site, http://datawarehouse.hrsa.gov/DWOnlineMap/Help/]

http://wireless.fcc.gov/geographic/

[Image left: showing all sites/location data]

“This website gives you the tools to create, view, query and print customized maps showing FCC licensing data, regulated towers and market area boundaries. These maps can be extremely helpful in conducting analysis on current service and need/feasibility studies for new services.” Accessed on 1/22/09.

Three data categories available from this site are:

• FCC licensing database extracts
• FCC licensing market boundaries
• US boundaries/features

http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/csdl/ctp/cm_vs.htm

“The main purpose of the Vector Shoreline Project is to provide public access to recently charted coastline data. The project is targeted at map scales between 1:10,000 and 1:80,000 with emphasis on high spatial resolution. The derived Mean High Water and Mean Lower Low Water lines were originally processed from binary raster files that were concurrently used in NOAA nautical chart production, though the derived outlines may not always correspond to these well-defined shoreline datums. The derived shorelines are referenced to geographic coordinates and imported to the ESRI shapefile format that is used in many GIS applications.” Accessed on 1/20/09.

Merged Vector Shoreline shapefiles is also available, which was created from the Vector Shoreline series, a topologically clean derivation of the charted Mean High Water line at the best scale
for the entire US and U.S. territories.

http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/plue/cenguide.html

I prefer to use block data for community analysis as long as data is available. You probably know you can obtain 1990 & 2000 census block level data (SF1/STF1 and also boundary files) quite easily, but if you want to map 1980 data at a block level, you need this CIESIN’s archival dataset!

The Archive of Census Related Products is a collection of georeferenced data files containing census information. 1980 Census boundary files, including blocks, are available from here in the BNA format – see under “Boundary Files“. Once you download BNA files, you can convert the BNA files to MapInfo MIF format files using BNA2MIF.exe (DOS executable – download from ftp://ftp.ciesin.org/pub/census/usa/contrib/bna2mif/), and then convert MIF to Shapefiles using ArcView tool, MIF to Shape (available in ArcView 3.x or ArcCatalog’s ArcView 8x Tools set.)

Here is how the BNA2MIF.exe works:

1. Save bna2mif.exe and input files (.bna file) in the same directory.
2. Open a command prompt (cmd.exe), change directory (cd) to the directory where bna2mif.exe and input files reside.
3. Run (syntax: start) the executable using the following syntax:

Syntax: (program)   (input)             (output)
bna2mif     bxxxxx.bna     bxxxxx

4. This will generate:  bxxxxx.mif and bxxxxx.mid, MapInfo import files. Note: Input and output files do not necessarily need to have the same name.

<Example>
C:\>cd C:\thedirectory
C:\thedirecoty>start bna2mif bxxxxx.bna output

Once you have the 1980 block boundary files, all you need is accompanying attribute data. Obtain 1980 block statistics attribute data, Census of Population and Housing 1980 Summary Tape File 1B, from ICPSR, http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR07975

http://www.nhgis.org/

Download historical census data & cartographic boundary files (states, counties & tracts.) The National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS) is a project to create and freely disseminate a database incorporating all available aggregate census information for the United States between 1790 and 2000.  Registration (free!) is required to access files.

Census tract data was first collected in 1910 for selected cities only (NYC, Chicago, Philadelphia, Cleveland, St. Louis, Baltimore, Boston, and Pittsburgh) and was later expanded to the whole nation in 1940 (still urbanized areas only.) [Reference - learn more about the Census tract data history from this Census's history website or from the following book: Bulmer, Martin. 1986. The Chicago School of Sociology. P. 157-.]

http://www.esri.com/data/download/census2000_tigerline/

Another resource for GIS census data. TIGER base line data, streets & railroads, and also detailed boundary files, blocks, (not available from the US Census boundary files site above) are available. Users can also download accompanying basic demographic and housing data from the 2000 Census Summary File 1 for various geographic levels.

Click on “Preview and Download” on the left to access the files.

http://www.census.gov/geo/www/cob/

“The boundary files available here are selected generalized extracts from the Census Bureau’s TIGER geographic database and are designed for use in a Geographic Information System (GIS) or similar mapping system. These are not map images. They have been developed for various internal Census Bureau projects and have been made available here to the general public on an “as is” basis.”

These files do not contain any demographic information but are designed to be used with decennial census population and housing data as well as other US federal datasets.

See also the U.S. Census 2007 TIGER/Line® Shapefiles page (new!)

http://dcrp.ced.berkeley.edu/research/footprint/index.php

“The Berkeley/Penn Urban and Environmental Modeler’s Datakit consists of a series of viewable and downloadable ESRI shapefiles and grids describing many of the physical, administrative, transportation, demographic, economic, land use and land cover, and environmental characteristics of the 48 contiguous United States. This website and the accompanying data were constructed as part of the URBAN & ENVIRONMENTAL FOOTPRINT 2050 PROJECT at the Institute of Urban and Regional Development (IURD) at the University of California, Berkeley under a grant from the National Science Foundation.  “

http://seamless.usgs.gov/

The USGS Seamless Server, like the National Map Viewer, is a collaborative effort among the USGS and other Federal, State, and local partners to improve and deliver topographic information.  Seamless Server is the primary site for downloading USGS imagery, elevation and land cover data. Data downloading is limited up to 3 Gbytes of data in 250 MB files in one request.

Currently available datasets include:

• Orthoimagery (DOQ, NAIP, Urban High-resolution)
• Elevation (NED & SRTM)
• Land Cover (NLCD)
• Satellite Imagery (MODIS, Landsat Mosaic)
• Scanned topographic maps (DRG)
• Transportation (BTS)
• Various data map layers from National Atlas

http://www.nationalatlas.gov/atlasftp.html

Nationalatlas.gov™ provides a comprehensive, maplike view into the enormous wealth of geospatial and geostatistical data collected for the United States. Nearly all data available in the National Atlas Map Maker can be downloaded at no cost.

The data categories posted are:

• Agriculture: Agriculture Census 2002 – Crops, Expenses, Farmland…
• Biology: Bat Ranges, Butterflies, Forests, Invasive Species, Land Cover…
• Boundaries: Congressional Districts, Counties, Federal lands, States…
• Climate: Precipitation, Hazard Events, Hurricanes, Sea Temperature…
• Environment: Air Releases, Hazardous Waste, Toxics Release…
• Geology: Earthquakes, Landslides, Shaded Relief, Volcanoes…
• History: Presidential General Election 2000 County and State Results.
• Map Reference: Cities and Towns, Urban Areas…
• People: Census, Crimes, Energy Consumption, Mortality…
• Transportation: Airports, Parkways and Scenic Rivers, Railroads, Roads…
• Water: Aquifers, Dams, Watersheds, Streams and Waterbodies…