Geospatial Data Resources

Alabama Geological Survey and Oil & Gas Board Data

Alaska State Geospatial Data

Alaska's state geospatial data clearinghouse.

American Fact Finder

Downloadable data from the Census Bureau.

ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World

The ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World is the foremost collection of geographic information from around the globe. It includes maps, apps, and data layers to support your work.

Arizona Land Resource Information System

Awesome Public Datasets Collection

This list of a topic-centric public data sources in high quality. They are collected and tidied from blogs, answers, and user responses. Most of the data sets listed below are free, however, some are not. Other amazingly awesome lists can be found in sindresorhus's awesome list.

Big 10 Academic Alliance GeoPortal

The resources, curated by librarians and geospatial specialists at twelve research institutions in the Big Ten Academic Alliance, include GIS datasets, web services, and digitized historical maps.

City of Sioux Falls GIS Open Data

Welcome to the City of Sioux Falls Open Data. This is our public platform for accessing, exploring and downloading data and applications. Please put our data to work. The City of Sioux Falls provides open data licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Cornell University Geospatial Information Repository

CUGIR provides free and open access to geospatial data for New York State, as well as worldwide geospatial data created by Cornell researchers.

Data.gov

This is the home of the US Government's open data.  Here you will find data, tools, and resources to conduct research, develop web and mobile applications, design data visualizations and more.

EarthWorks

Explore geospatial data, scanned maps, census data, California data and more. EarthWorks is Stanford University Libraries discovery tool for Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data. It combines data sources from many institutions allowing users to search through tens of thousands of geospatial datasets.

Esri GeoInquiries

Since 2014, GeoInquiries™ have been used to integrate ArcGIS Online technology to support subject matter content teaching. Lessons include learning objectives, technical “how-to’s”, textbook references, and formative whole-class assessment items – all packed into one page. These activities are technology agnostic and can be delivered in a classroom with as little as a tablet and a projector. Any teacher can use a GeoInquiry, regardless of their prior experience with digital mapping tools. They are free, Creative Commons licensed activities that do not require any logins or special software beyond an internet browser. For questions or concerns, email geoinquiries@esri.com.

Esri Maps for Public Policy

Policy maps clearly show where there are opportunities to intervene.This site is dedicated to raising the level of spatial and data literacy used in public policy. We invite you to explore curated content, training, best practices, and datasets that can provide a baseline for your research, analysis, and policy recommendations.

European Space Agency's Sentinal Satellite Data

The Copernicus Open Access Hub (previously known as Sentinels Scientific Data Hub) provides complete, free and open access to Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3 user products, starting from the In-Orbit Commissioning Review (IOCR).

Free GIS Datasets Collection

We have links to everything from arctic permafrost maps to gridded population data - simply scroll through the list, or use the dropdown menus above to jump to a specific section of interest. See the FAQ for more information on the what, who, how and why of the list.

GADM maps and data

GADM wants to map the administrative areas of all countries, at all levels of sub-division. We use a high spatial resolution, and of a extensive set of attributes. This is a never ending project, but we are happy to share what we have. You can write us with questions and suggestions, using this contact form.

GeoPlatform - Geospatial Platform

The GeoPlatform provides shared and trusted geospatial data, services, and applications for use by the public and US government agencies and partners to meet their mission needs. Geospatial Platform is an FGDC initiative that provides shared and trusted geospatial data, services, and applications. 

Geoportal of Wallonia

In just a few clicks, view on an interactive map the geographical data of Wallonia and interact with the map thanks to powerful tools.

GeoQuery

Integrate satellite, conflict, aid, economic, health and more subnational data, from anywhere in the world, into a single simple-to-use file compatible with Excel, STATA, or your own favorite program.

GeoSeer

Search over 1 million distinct spatial WMS, WFS, WCS, and WMTS layers hosted on over 160,000 services from around the world.All of these results are spatial datasets based around OGC web-services. Specifically they're (with links to Wikipedia that open in a new window):WMS (Web Map Service) - basically, a mapWFS (Web Feature Service) - raw vector dataWCS (Web Coverage Service) - raw raster dataWMTS (Web Map Tile Service) - a pre-rendered basemap

Global Health Observatory Data

The Global Health Observatory theme pages provide data and analyses on global health priorities.

Hawaii Statewide GIS Program Data Portal

Historical GIS Research Network

This list is not exhaustive but we aim to include all of the major historical GIS websites plus additional relevant websites. Other portals are also available such as those from: the GeoHumanities Special Interest Group of the Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations, the Humanities GIS Zotero Library, and the University of Saskatchewan's HGIS Lab.Resources are classed under: National Historical GISsOther online Historical GIS projectsHistorical map servers and other data sourcesOrganisationsSoftwareOther useful sites

IndianaMAP

IndianaMAP is the largest publicly available collection of Indiana geographic information system (GIS) map data. It is made possible by an alliance of partners from federal, state, local organizations and agencies, and universities. You can:Access easy-to-use interactive web maps from a computer or mobile deviceSelect from a gallery of predefined maps to view or customizeDownload free GIS data and metadataLearn about IndianaMap GIS projects, initiatives, and news

INSIDE Idaho

Interactive Numeric & Spatial Information Data Engine - Idaho's Geospatial Data Clearinghouse

Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation - US Data

Download US county-level data on life expectancy, alcohol use, obesity, physical activity, and diabetes. Data are available for each state, the District of Columbia, and the US as a whole.

Iowa Department of Transportation Open Data

Welcome to the Iowa Department of Transportation's public platform for exploring and downloading open data. The Iowa DOT is committed to providing the traveling public, lawmakers and partners with easy to understand information that demonstrates how we are managing the state’s transportation infrastructure. We are working hard to maximize the performance of our existing structures, minimize costs and improve the public’s experience when traveling in Iowa. We are continuously developing new tools to help our stakeholders clearly see how we are performing.

IPUMS Terra

IPUMS Terra integrates population and environmental data across disciplinary scientific domains, enabling research into dramatic transformations of human populations, the environment, and their interactions.

Louisiana State Data

Wide collection of data for Louisiana

MARCO Data Portal

The Mid-Atlantic Ocean Data Portal is an online toolkit and resource center that consolidates available data and enables state, federal and local users to visualize and analyze ocean resources and human use information such as fishing grounds, recreational areas, shipping lanes, habitat areas, and energy sites, among others.

Marine Cadastre National Viewer

The MarineCadastre.gov National Viewer provides interactive mapping of data available through the MarineCadastre.gov Data Registry that have compatible Esri REST services associated with them. This document is a quick reference for how to use the viewer.

Mau Mara Serengeti Sustainable Water Initiative

This is an open source platform for sharing geospatial data and maps, deployed for Mau Mara Serengeti Sustainable Water Initiative developed by Upande Ltd.For more information visit MaMaSe WebsiteNeed help Getting Started?

Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environment for the Government of Spain

Mapping resources from the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environment in Spain.

Minnesota Geospatial Commons

The Minnesota Geospatial Commons is a collaborative space for users and publishers of Minnesota's geospatial resources. The Commons is used by researchers, cartographers, web and application developers, planners, journalists, and other citizens who need GIS data for a project.

Montana State Library

The Montana State Library Data List searches a few fields in metadata records and returns results in priority order based on the following metadata fields (in order of priority): title, theme keywords (including ISO keywords), and finally a full text search of the metadata record.Montana Digital Library DivisionThe Montana Digital Library Division maintains a professionally catalogued and supported collection, brokered by highly trained information science specialists and content specialists. The following statutory programs are managed by the Digital Library Division.Geographic Information provides comprehensive access statewide geospatial information and consulting services. The program includes the Natural Resource Information System (NRIS) which provides information about Montana's natural resources through the acquisition, storage and dissemination of that information in meaningful form.The Natural Heritage Program is the state's source for information on the status and distribution of our native animals and plants, emphasizing species of concern and high quality habitats.The Water Information System, (WIS) a program of NRIS, provides a starting point for access to information relating to Montana's water resources.The State Publications Center (SPC) maintains a comprehensive collection of state agency publications safeguarding one of our state's most critical traditions – the public's right to know.

Mozam-Agua

MOZAM-AGUA is an open source platform for sharing geospatial information. MOZAM-AGUA é uma plataforma de fonte aberta para compartilhar informação geoespacial.

NASA Earth Observations

NEO strives to make global satellite imagery as accessible as possible.

National Gap Analysis Program - Core Science Analytics and Synthesis

How well are we protecting common plants and animals?  Gap Analysis is the science of answering this question. Developing the data and tools to support that science is the mission of the USGS Gap Analysis Program (GAP). GAP works to ensure that common species – those that are not officially endangered – remain common by identifying those species and plant communities that are not adequately represented in existing conservation lands. Learn more about Gap Analysis >>They work with a wide range of government, academic, non-profit and private partners, providing them with essential data and analyses that they can use to protect the habitats on which the survival of common species depends.

National Transportation Atlas Database

The National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD), published by BTS, is a set of nationwide geographic databases of transportation facilities, transportation networks, and associated infrastructure. These datasets include spatial information for transportation modal networks and intermodal terminals, as well as the related attribute information for these features. There are approximately three dozen point, line and polygon “data themes,” comprising of about 60 total datasets that make up the NTAD. Metadata documentation, as prescribed by the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC), is also provided for each database. These data support research, analysis, and decision-making across all modes of transportation. They are most useful at the national level, but have major applications at regional, state, and local scales throughout the transportation community. The current NTAD databases are designed for use within a geographic information system (GIS); however, the attribute data for each dataset can be accessed in any database, spreadsheet, or other software package.  In 2016, NTAD switched from an annual update to updates on a continuous basis. The BTS is interested in providing different distribution approaches and developing additional datasets.

Natural Earth

Data themes are available in three levels of detail. For each scale, themes are listed on Cultural, Physical, and Raster category pages.

Natural Resources Canada

Open Government Search, Geospatial Product Index, Toporama Interactive Map, Geospatial Data Extraction, Paper Map, feeds

New Zealand Geospatial Data

NationalMap Data Service for New Zealand includes free and paid resources.

Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority - GIS Open Data Portal

Welcome to the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority (NPCA) GIS Open Data community, where users can discover and download spatial data, use apps to explore and understand local natural resource management issues, and analyse associated information to share with the community. NPCA appreciates the broader community value of the spatial information assets critical to the function of its watershed-based program and services, and supports the idea that certain data should be freely available to everyone to use and republish as they wish, without restrictions.

Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library

The Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library offers a customized discovery experience for its map collection. This unique application combines GeoBlacklight with the ability to georeference maps and create custom map sets for instruction.

North American Environmental Atlas

The North American Environmental Atlas combines and harmonizes geospatial data from Canada, Mexico and the United States to allow for a continental and regional perspective on environmental issues that cross boundaries. It is a unique tool to analyze and raise awareness of our shared environment and ecosystems across the continent, to demonstrate their value, and to help us see what needs to be done to protect them.The dozens of map layers of the Atlas are unique in that they harmonize geographic information across North America’s political boundaries. By comparing these map layers, we can better understand and quantify critical trends and interrelationships at the North American level.

NYU Spatial Data Repository

Explore many data sources available in their collection. The NYU Spatial Data Repository is a search and discovery platform for geospatial data created by NYU's Data Services. The application is the entry point for discovering and accessing NYU's spatial data collections.

Open Data Inception Collection

Open Data Inception - 2600+ Open Data Portals Around the WorldFrom their website:When building the best Open Data portals, the same question always comes up:Where can I find clean and usable data?Our answer is usually: “Did you search on existing Open Data portals?”But the truth is, some Open Data portals can be hard to come by.We decided to put together a resource that would be truly useful for all the data geeks out there (and we know we are plenty ). We called this project: Open Data Inception.We rolled up our sleeves and started aggregating all of the Open Data portals we could get our hands on. We are thrilled to present you the first version of our comprehensive list of 2600+ Open Data portals around the world.To facilitate your search, we decided to geotag intergovernmental organization portals on their parent organization headquarters.The table of contents will give you a summary of all countries represented on this list. Simply click on a country’s name and the page will bring you to the correct section.If you are curious about how we created this list, we wrote an article about it.We hope that you will find solace in your data quest with this list. Don’t hesitate to send us feedback through the form at the bottom of the page or at @opendatasoft.

OpenStreetMap

The files found here are regularly-updated, complete copies of the OpenStreetMap.org database, and those published before the 12 September 2012 are distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license, those published after are Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0 licensed.   https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Processed_data_providers 

Open Topography

OpenTopography facilitates community access to high-resolution, Earth science-oriented, topography data, and related tools and resources.

Oregon Imagery Explorer

Imagery and elevation data are the most important and frequently used Framework data, however, they also require expansive amounts of disk storage space. The Oregon Imagery Explorer enables users to view, compare, stream, and download National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) Orthoimagery from multiple epochs since 1995. In addition to the Imagery Explorer Application, the same imagery can be accessed through web services in your web or desktop client of choice, allowing you to access the data without having to download and store it. For more information on the imagery web services, click here. The Imagery Framework is helping realize the vision of navigatOR with state-of-the-art accessibility to common data themes that geographic data users need.You might also be interested in https://www.oregon.gov/geo/Pages/imagery.aspx.

Rhode Island GIS

The Rhode Island Geographic Information System (RIGIS) distributes open geographically-referenced datasets that represent a wide range of topics, including transportation, infrastructure, and the environment.

Sao Paulo's Spatial Data Infrastructure (Infraestrutura de dados espaciais de São Paulo)

Twelve state public agencies joined the Space Data Infrastructure Program for the State of São Paulo, IDE-SP,  http://www.idesp.sp.gov.br , whose main objective is to consolidate an integrated network of geospatial databases of government instances.The information is from Companhia Paulista de Planejamento Metropolitano (Emplasa), manager of IDE-SP, which expects to have a total of 30 accessions in the second half of 2018."IDE-SP has been showing its benefits, with the organization, systematization, standardization and dissemination, in a more agile and secure way, of geospatial information, as established by the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (INDE)", emphasizes the director-president of Emplasa, Luiz José Pedretti.He explains that since the establishment of Decree 61.486 / 2015, the SD-SP has centralized the access to geospatial data of the various public institutions, integrating the state collection and promoting the dissemination of this information. "According to article 6 of the Decree, the organs and entities of the public administration are responsible for the mandatory sharing of their geospatial data," he reinforces.Emplasa manages and is responsible for the implementation, coordination, administration and execution of the actions related to IDE-SP, which since 2017 is part of INDE. Last year, IDE-SP was a finalist for the Mario Covas Award, which highlighted public management projects for the benefit of citizens.With a new face, IDE-SP presents its new visual identity this month, developed from an exclusive brand. The platform has also been reconstructed visually, adding the same standard already used in other digital products of Emplasa.Already on the platform homepage, the user finds quick access to the metadata catalog. The viewer has been modernized and now has a smart menu that can be moved by the user. The navigation space of the maps has been enlarged, facilitating the visualization of the content. 

SNIEAU Benin - National Water Information System of Benin

SNIEAU est une plateforme open source de partage de cartes et données géospatiales.Besoin d'aide pour commencer?

Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center

A Data Center in NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) — Hosted by CIESIN at Columbia University

Stanford Libraries - Data Portal

Branner Earth Sciences Library and the Stanford Geospatial Center host a comprehensive set of base and thematic spatial data as well as a large collection of static maps. Please contact us to get a tour of the SGC data collection or set up a data research reference appointment.

State of Michigan GIS Open Data

Here you can browse, search, preview, and download a variety of Michigan geospatial datasets. Browse by category or enter key words in the search box to locate a dataset of interest. You can then read its description to learn more and explore attributes before downloading. A variety of formats exist when downloading such as ESRI shapefile, spreadsheet, KML, or API.

The U.S. Wind Turbine Database & Viewer

The United States Wind Turbine Database (USWTDB) provides the locations of land-based and offshore wind turbines in the United States, corresponding wind project information, and turbine technical specifications. The creation of this database was jointly funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO) via the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) Electricity Markets and Policy Group, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Energy Resources Program , and the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). The database is being continuously updated through collaboration among LBNL, USGS, and AWEA. Wind turbine records are collected and compiled from various public and private sources, digitized or position-verified from aerial imagery, and quality checked. Technical specifications for turbines are obtained directly from project developers and turbine manufacturers, or they are based on data obtained from public sources.

United States Census Bureau - Census Business Builder Tool

The Census Business Builder (CBB) is a suite of services that provide selected demographic and economic data from the Census Bureau tailored to specific types of users in a simple to access and use format.Read more about it in a recent interview with Andrew Hait of the United States Census Bureau.

University of California - DASH

Dash is an open source, community driven project that takes a unique approach to data publication and digital preservation. Dash focuses on search, presentation, and discovery and delegates the responsibility for the data preservation function to the underlying repository with which it is integrated. The service is based at the University of California Curation Center (UC3), a CDL program that aims to develop interdisciplinary research data infrastructure.

US Census Bureau

The newest data portal from the Census Bureau includes new search tools and more.

U.S. Data by State at Purdue

A concise list of important resources available to you on the web and at Purdue.

US Geological Survey

Data and information is presented both spatially and geographically including The National Map, Earth Explorer, GloVIS, LandsatLook, and much more.

USGS TopoView

TopoView highlights one of the USGS's most important and useful products, the topographic map. In 1879, the USGS began to map the Nation's topography. This mapping was done at different levels of detail, in order to support various land use and other purposes. As the years passed, the USGS produced new map versions of each area. The most current maps are available from The National Map. TopoView shows the many and varied older maps of each area, and so is useful for historical purposes—for example, the names of some natural and cultural features have changed over time, and the 'old' names can be found on these historical topographic maps.This interface was created by the National Geologic Map Database project (NGMDB), in support of topographic mapping program managed by the National Geospatial Program (NGP). Geologic mapping and topographic mapping at the USGS have a long tradition together (see 1888 report). The NGMDB project is proud to assist the NGP in bringing these maps to the Web.

Utah State Geographic Information Database

The State Geographic Information Database (SGID) provides a one-stop access point to hundreds of data layers that were developed, aggregated, or acquired by Utah state government.

VecNet

The Vector-Bourne Disease Network (VecNet) uses GeoBlacklight for spatial discovery of data, tagged citations, articles, and reports that support malaria eradication.

Virginia Tech Geo-Data

GeoData provides information about geospatial data that Virginia Tech Libraries has pledged to serve on behalf of local government organizations and data that has been acquired through research.

Virgo GIS

Virgo GIS is the discovery application for GIS datasets from the U.Va Library collections.

Visual Crossing Weather Data

Visual Crossing’s Weather Data Download Services is a highly accurate historical & forecast weather engine.  Users can generate datasets through direct download of CSV, URL links, Web Services API or via an Excel Add-in.  Users simply provide location data and dates for historical lookups.  The Weather Data Download Service will reach to NOAA, NWS and ICON model from DWD to provide an international source of data for all of your weather needs.  The data is retrieved, cleansed and intelligently interpolated to provide an accurate source of weather data for your GIS and mapping needs.

Washington State Data

Discover, explore, and download open data from Washington State.  The open data bridge provides access to geospatial and tabular data.

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If you have a suggestion for a data resource you'd like us to add or you've noticed an error, please email us at editors@directionsmag.com.

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