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://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://www.greenmapping.org/

Click on MAP DATA ARCHIVE to download a variety of geospatial data files for the metropolitan Chicago area from this very comprehensive data clearinghouse. This is a collaborative effort by non-profit organizations and local government to share the natural resources related spatial data for anybody who is interested in environmental analysis.

http://nhd.usgs.gov/

“The NHD is a comprehensive set of digital spatial data representing the surface water of the United States using common features such as lakes, ponds, streams, rivers, canals, and oceans. These data are designed to be used in general mapping and in the analysis of surface-water systems using geographic information systems (GIS).”

You can also download NHD data from USDA Geospatial Data Gateway (my preference for downloading NHD) Note: This is actually a quite complicated dataset – be aware! You may want to use other simplified hydrography data instead, such as US Census TIGER derived data or data from the National Atlas Raw Data download website.

http://www.wri.org/publication/content/9291

Download GIS dataset on poverty and ecosystem services from the World Resources Institute (WRI) website. I believe these are the files used to produce this beautiful Atlas of Kenya (also available from the WRI website – here, download the PPT atlas!)

GIS Data categories are the followings:

• Population and poverty
• Agriculture
• Land cover and land form
• Base data
• Elevation
• Rainfall
• Biodiversity and wildlife
• Tourism
• Water, irrigation and hydropower
• Other data

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://hydrosheds.cr.usgs.gov/index.php

HydroSHEDS (Hydrological data and maps based on SHuttle Elevation Derivatives at multiple Scales) are international river and watersheds data, derived from SRTM DEM. The datasest provides hydrographic information for regional and global-scale applications in a consistent format.

Click on “DATA DOWNLOAD” on the left to access the files.

Included in this geospatial dataset (vector and raster) are:

• River networks
• Watershed boundaries
• Drainage directions
• Flow accumulations.

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://edc.usgs.gov/products/elevation/gtopo30/hydro/

HYDRO1k is a geographic database developed to provide comprehensive and consistent global coverage of topographically derived data sets, including streams, drainage basins and ancillary layers derived from the USGS’ 30 arc-second digital elevation model of the world (GTOPO30).

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.aims.org.af

The AIMS project is building information management capacity in government and delivers information management services to organizations across Afghanistan. Visit also this GIS/Mapping Services website to obtain geospatial data in shapefiles.

Data files included are:

• Political and adminitrative boundaries
• Hydrography (rivers, lakes and watersheds)
• Transportation
• Landocver
• Settlements
• Health facilities, etc.

http://www.met.gov.na/programmes/nnep/

This site contains environmental information and maps for north-central Namibia, collected from various sources across several sectors, both government and non-government. The GIS layers range from infrastructure data such as roads, settlements and utilities to thematic data on various aspects of the physical environment such as land use, soils, vegetation and water, and are available in the shapefile format.

http://www.africover.org/system/africover_data.php

Africover lets a user access metadata and geospatial data produced by the Africover project and the participating countries. The Multipurpose Africover Databases on Environmental Resources (MADE) includes a main geographic information layer (i.e. land cover) and several additional layers that vary for each country (e.g. roads, rivers and water bodies, etc.)

http://earlywarning.usgs.gov/adds/mapdata.php

U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET) is an information system designed to identify problems in the food supply system that potentially lead to famine, flood, or other food-insecure conditions, in sub-Saharan Africa. Administrative boundaries are the main available data. Other additional data layers availabilities vary for countries. Please visit http://earlywarning.usgs.gov/adds/index.php for more information.

http://geogratis.cgdi.gc.ca/

GeoGratis is a portal provided by the Earth Sciences Sector (ESS) of Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) which provides geospatial data at no cost. GeoGratis uses both File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to distribute geospatial data via its portal. To access data files, click on “Download Directory” on the left, select data types (vecor, raster, tabular), select geographic levels, select subjects/themes, and then files.

Data available from GeoGratis include:

• Administrative boundaries
• Protected areas
• Hydrography
• Tail and toad netowrks (?)
• VMAP0
• CanVec (50K, sort of like DLG and VMAP)
• NTDB (National Topographic Data Base, older version of CanVec)
• Land inventory (250K & 50K)
• Electoral districts
• Census data
• Ecosystems data
• AVHRR land cover data
• Satellite Imagery
• Scannded maps
• Airborne data
• DEM
• Conservation area database

http://www.geobase.ca

GeoBase is a federal, provincial and territorial government initiative that is overseen by the Canadian Council on Geomatics (CCOG). Through the GeoBase portal, users have access to quality geospatial information at no cost and with restricted use.

Current datasets include:

• Canadian Digital Elevation Data (CDED)
• Geodetic Network
• Geographical Names
• Geopolitical Boundaries
• National Hydro Network (NHN)
• National Road Network (NRN)
• Satellite Imagery

http://www.depha.org/

DEPHA maintains an archive of GIS data for public distribution. The data has been compiled from a wide variety of sources. Click on “GIS Data” on the left for more information about this website, and to access data files. See also this DEPHA GeoPotal.

http://mapserver.inegi.gob.mx/data/inf1m/?c=720

The National Institute of Statistic, Geography and Informática (INEGI) provides with various vector geospatial data in the shapefiles format.  To access files, you must be a registered user on our site. Registration is free.

Data files available from the site are (translated from Spanish):

• Municipal/administrative boundaries
• Data relief
• Utilities (Power & pipelines)
• Water infrastructure
• Towns
• Hydrographic features
• Tourist sites
• Communications (airports, roads, faro, puente, boat routes, railroads)
• Reefs, perpetual snow ans salt (??)
• Climates
• Physiography
• Geology
• Soils
• Vegetation
• Mud, flood, sand and marsh areas
• Natural protection areas

http://datagateway.nrcs.usda.gov/

The Geospatial Data Gateway or Geo-Data Gateway provides easy and consistent access to natural resource data. Users can search for available data by geographic area or by theme, and also view and download the data via FTP, or by ordering data media, such as CD.  Click on “Get Data” to start make a data request.

Datasets included are:

• Orthophotos
• DEM
• DRG (scanned topographic maps)
• Hydrologic data (watersheds, rivers, etc.)
• National Land Cover Dataset
• National Cropland Data Layer
• Soils (SSURGO & STATSGO – you should get a MS Access template from USDA Soil Data Mart..)
• Climate (precipitation & temperature)
• Geographic names
• ..etc.