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://na.unep.net/datasets/datalist.php

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) / Global Resource Information Database (GRID) Spatial Data Clearinghouse offers a variety of global and international spatial datasets.

Datasets available are:

• Africa Population Distribution Database – years 1960, 70, 80, 90 & 2000
• Asia Population Distribution Database – year 1995
• Asia Administrative Boundaries – years vary
• Asia Towns/Cities point data with population – 1995 estimated & other pop years vary
• Latin America & Caribbean Population Distribution Database – years 1960, 70, 80, 90 & 2000
• Latin America & Caribbean Soil & Terrain Database
• Global Population Distribution Database – 1990
• Brazil Datasets – Soils & Vegetation

http://www.maplibrary.org/stacks/gadm/

“GADM is a database of the location of the world’s administrative areas. Administrative areas in this database are countries and lower level subdivisions such as provinces, departments, districts etc. GADM has been developed as part of the BioGeoMancer project. It was partly funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore foundation. The work was done at the Univeristy of California, Berkeley, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, and the International Rice Research Institute by Robert Hijmans, Nell Garcia, Julian Kapoor, Arnel Rala, Aileen Maunahan, and John Wieczorek.” – accessed on 5/27/09 – read more on the website above.

http://apps.who.int/whosis/database/gis/salb/salb_MDATA.aspx

*Not a complete set!*  SALB is a project of UN (accessible through WHO – but why WHO?), which has been launched in the context of the activities of United Nations Geographic Information Working Group (UNGIWG).

SALB not only collects current boundaries but also keeps track of historical changes (but don’t go back too far..) So, it’s great resource if data is available for your study area. Data are available in two formats: ArcInfo exchange (E00) or Shapefiles. Check also the data providers page – you may find other related GIS data files from the data providers’ websites.

http://www.ibge.gov.br/home/geociencias/default_prod.shtm

Our Ph.D student, Pedro, showed me this website! Though it’s in Portuguese, you can download quite a few administrative boundaries (municipalities) GIS data and also maps in the PDF format.

Additional large scale GIS data are (note: data availabilities vary depending on regions) :

• Base map – Vmap-like data including topography, hydrography, etc.
• Geology
• Soils
• Vegetation
• .. etc.

http://gis.chicagopolice.org/

Chicago Police Department’s GIS web tool based on the CLEAR (Citizen Law Enforcement Analysis and Reporting) system developed by the department for use by its police officers. Downloadable GIS data files (Police beat boundaries, etc.) and interactive mapping tools are available from this site.

http://www.uic.edu/depts/lib/documents/services/Neighborhoods1978.zip

1978 Chicago neighborhood boundaries was created based on a map published by the City of Chicago Planning Department in 1986. This is my fist digitization project.. now I am much better at digitization – I am digitizing Chicago historical wards boundaries.

The file is also available from GOS – Geospatial One Stop (http://www.geodata.gov).

http://www2.census.gov/cgi-bin/shapefiles/national-files

(or http://www2.census.gov/geo/tiger/TIGER2008/)

School district boundaries can be found from the Census cartographic boundary files sites for most, but not all, states. However, the levels of boundaries are kind of limited. For example, in Chicago, we have a large school district, Chicago Public Schools (CPS). However, within the CPS district, there are so called “attendance” areas or zones which determine which “neighborhood school” a child should attend, and such “attendance” zone boundaries determined by a local school district (this case, CPS) aren’t available from the Census site (I believe – but I haven’t checked all school district files, so I could be wrong!)

So, if you need more detailed school boundaries within a district, like the attendance/neighborhood school boundaries in Chicago, you need to obtain data from a local school district. In Chicago, CPS has developed a very nice interactive mapping site, School Locator (http://schoollocator.cps.k12.il.us/), where parents can find a neighborhood school and special schools, and small boundary/zone data can be obtained from the site (or ask them.)

Boundary Files from : http://www.aeroterra.com/d-argentinagral.htm (AEROTERRA, a private GIS company in Argentina. The note says that these data were taken from the Soil Atlas of Argentina.) – Also the image left

2001 Census Data : http://www.indec.gov.ar/webcenso/

I was looking for an Argentina boundary file at a department level (nation – province – department, about the size of U.S. counties, so my student explained..) so that my student can visualize 2001 census data she obtained from Argentina governmental website, and then I came across this AEROTERRA site.  Great – now we know we can visualize Argentina 2001 census data at a department level.

My patron was also interested in the past census data, which we don’t think is available from the INDEC (Argentina official census site.) So, we tred https://international.ipums.org/international/ to see if we can generate department level data using 1970, 1980, 1990 micro sample data. First, we compared the 2001 official census summary data from INDEC and the IPUMS micro sample-aggregate data to see how close the aggregated sample IPUMS data would be to the official INDEC data. We thought the resulted IPUMS 2001 aggregated data was close enough to the INDEC summary file. It’s so great that we don’t need to type in all data from the Argentina census books.. We love IPUMS! (Note: your research data request must be approved by IPUMS people first!)

I will add a map of AEROTERRA boundary plus IPUMS data map later -

http://www.oceanservice.noaa.gov/dataexplorer/

The NOS Data Explorer serves as a portal to obtain a variety of spatial datasets related to the National Ocean Service. Data Explorer offers interactive mapping tools that allow users to locate NOS products in any area in the United States and its territories through a metadata catalog.

Visit also this list of the Data Web Sites (http://www.oceanservice.noaa.gov/dataexplorer/datasites/welcome.html) to learn about more about the NOS spatial datasets. The data categories are here:

• Nautical charting
• Bathymetry/Topography
• Shoreline
• Geodetic/Global Positioning
• Tides/Currents
• Remotely sensed imagery/Photos
• Marine boundaries
• Hurricanes
• Environmental Monitoring

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://nmviewogc.cr.usgs.gov

The National Map Viewer is a collaborative effort among the USGS and other Federal, State, and local partners to improve and deliver topographic information.  Products and services of the National Map are easily accessible via two primary data viewers: The National Map Viewer and the Seamless Server.

The , National Map Viewer has the primary role of viewing distributed data sets from many contributing Federal State and Local Partners through dynamic web map services. It provides public access to high-quality geospatial data. Some, mostly basic, data layers are also available for downloading.

Data categories are  (again, primarily for viewing) :

• Biology
• Boundaries
• Climatology/Climate Change
• Coastal Studies
• Digital Atlases
• Elevation
• Environmental Monitoring/Assessment
• Geographic Names
• Geography
• Geology
• Gulf Coast Risk Assessment
• Hydrography
• Imagery
• Land Use/Land Cover
• National Grid
• Natural Hazards/Weather
• Public Land Records
• Structures
• Topographic Maps
• Transportation

http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/gpw/

Developed at CIESIN, GPW v3 is the third edition of a large-scale data product that demonstrates the spatial distribution of human population across the globe. GPWv3 depicts the distribution of human population across the globe. GPW is much like the ORNL Landscan dataset with fewer user restrictions.

GPW v3 population grids are available at various spatial (cell size: 1 degree – 2.5 arc-minutes) and temporal (1990-2015) resolutions.

GRUMP (Global Rural-Urban Mapping Project) population grids are available at 30 arc-seconds (approx. 1 km) and at various temporal resolutions (1990-2000.)

http://www.nga.mil/ (but the best way to find a link to the dataset is to Google using keywords “Prototype Global Shoreline Data”)

The NGA Office of Global Navigation, Maritime Division developed a prototype World Vector Shoreline (WVS). This new shoreline is an approximation of the High Water Line; it is NOT a Mean High Water Line.

The World Vector Shoreline (scale 1:250K) replaced by this dataset is still available from NOAA, http://rimmer.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/coast/wvs.html

http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2006/1179/

Another USGS Open File report, 06-1179. This site offers various GIS project data, presenting the results of a petroleum resource assessment of Northern Afghanistan, and other data used in the petroleum assessment. Geologic, structural, field, well, political, and other GIS layers covering Afghanistan, Northern Afghanistan and adjacent areas, along with associated geochemical and other data tables pertinent to a petroleum assessment are included.

(Image left from GeoCommunity.com)

http://geoengine.nga.mil/geospatial/SW_TOOLS/NIMAMUSE/webinter/rast_roam.html
(Official NGA site, Raster Roam)

http://www.mapability.com/info/vmap1_index.html (My favorite)

The NGA Raster Roam is an official site to access VMAP1 (Level 1, vectorized files based on 1:250K JOG map sheets) data. Level 1 data, like VMAP0 (Level 0, 1:1000K scale,)  includes basic map layers, such as boundaries, elevation, hydrography, and transportation. The coverage (availability) of this dataset is quite limited, but if a file is available for your study area, you would probably enjoy this large scale dataset. VMAP data are in the VPF (Vector Product Format.)  See the example below – Bogotá, Colombia (v1155).

Data categories are:

• Boundaries (bnd)
• Elevation (elev)
• Hydrography (hydro)
• Industry (ind)
• Physiography (Phys)
• Population (pop)
• Transportation (trans)
• Utilities (util)
• Vegetation (veg)

To download VMAP1 from the NGA Raster Roam, start with “VMAP Level1 Legend”, click on the area I need, and then download the files you need.. The alternative source for VMAP data is http://www.mapability.com/info/, which is much easier to use and also comes with good data description. I would choose this website over NGA Raster Roam.. VMAP1 is also available on sale from GeoCommunity.com (formerly known as gisdatadepot.com.)

http://professionnels.ign.fr/42/produits-gratuits/produits-gratuits-a-telecharger.htm
Free downloadable cartographic information from the Institut Geographique National of France.

Available datasets include:

• DTM (Digital Terrain Model)
• Drainage areas and lines
• Administrataive Boundaries
• Scanned road maps
• Coast line data

http://www.igeo.pt/e-IGEO/egeo_downloads.htm

Free (Gratuitos!) downloadable cartographic information from the Portuguese Geographic Institute (PGI).

Datasets included are:

• Administrative boundaries
• Topographic maps
• Landcover
• Geodetic data, etc.