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Geospatial Data: Data on the Web

This guide describes how to find and use the DREAM Lab's spatial data, as well as data that is available freely online.

Getting Started

Most often, you will look for GIS data on the web using Google, but you will rarely find specific datasets.  Instead, you will find repositories of data that you will then search for your specific needs.

When searching for data, choosing a repository at the right scale is a major issue.  For example: if you are looking for country-by-country demographic information, choose a global repository, such as the United Nations or the World Bank.

EarthWorks

Part of the OpenGeoPortal consortium, Stanford's EarthWorks allows you to search the digital data and scanned map libraries of several different institutions.  Because this project is at Berkeley, it is especially useful when looking for California data.  However, Tufts and Harvard are two partners, therefore you may get lots of results from Massachusetts when conducting searches.  Make sure to limit your search to the extent that you want to compute on.  While each OGP instance theoretically searches the entire corpus all of the instances, in practice there are differences.  Other very useful nodes include:

 

Cal-Atlas GeoSpatial Clearinghouse (formerly CaSIL)

The official repository of several different California state agencies.  Especially useful for statewide data.  You wouldn't look here for data about Oregon.

GeoData.gov

The US federal government's main GIS repository.  This is an ongoing effort:  while the search engine is robust, you may still need to search at an individual agency when looking for more specific data.  For example: while you can search for census data here, if you need to see a list of individual census datasets, you would be better off using American FactFinder.

Region 5 (Pacific Southwest) Geospatial Data

Our local Los Padres National Forest does not have its own spatial data web page, therefore you want to look at the regional level, where the Forest has 3 datasets available for download.  Don't be fooled by the link in this sentence:  "Other GIS data sets may be found on the Los Padre National Forest's Geospatial Data website."  There's no data there.

A note about references to ADL:

   The Alexandria Digital Library project conducted research throughout the 1990s on how to describe and provide access to spatially referenced information.  The catalog produced by these efforts has largely fallen offline.  The Library is strongly interested in reviving this research program with interested campus partners, and is currently creating back-end infrastructure in support of an eventual GIS data discovery and distribution tool.

Finding Data on the Web

If you are looking for GIS data that is outside the scope of the Library's collection, you may find it useful to refer to the resources below. 

Should you decide to turn to Google in your search for GIS data, keep these tips in mind:  

    • Add GIS- and data-specific keywords to your Google search (e.g., “GIS Data”, “shapefile”, “cadastral”, “digital elevation model”, etc…)
    • Always inspect metadata (descriptive information) for any data sets you find. Pay particular attention to collection date, scale and update frequency.  If these items are not available, contact the source of the data to confirm.
    • Always obtain explicit permission to use data that is not expressly labeled as "public" or "open."

Source: Yale University Library

Southern California

We define Southern California as the coastal region from San Luis Obispo County on the north to the Mexican border and includes the greater metropolitan areas of Los Angeles and San Diego and the inland counties (Kern, San Bernadino, Riverside, and Imperial)

Santa Barbara County
Our local county has removed its GIS information from its public web pages.  The UCSB Library has several iterations of SBCo data dating back to the early 2000's.

Los Angeles County Enterprise GIS

Los Angeles County Data Portal

Southern California Association of Governments
Provides access to spatial data as well as an Interactive Atlas and a list of existing maps that are available from SCAG publications or have been created for other planning activities.

California GeoPortal
Includes the California Coastal GeoPortal, interactive map viewers, live map services, and links to many departmental data sites at the state level.

Cal-Atlas
Hierarchical lists of statewide data by theme from the California Resources Agency, facilitating data accesss to watershed and landuse planning. 

OpenTopography

Open Topography is based at the San Diego Supercomputer Center at University of California, San Diego. Open Topography provides access to high-resolution topography data acquired with lidar and other technologies. 

 

 

Northern California

Western US

United States: State-level data

General data by state

   A drop-down list of geospatial clearinghouses state-by-state from the MIT Libraries

Geospatial and attribute links for each U.S. state.

Data & Mapper Sources for U. S. States
http://researchguides.dartmouth.edu/content.php?pid=14880&sid=99903

United States: country-wide data

GeoPlatform.gov
"Geospatial One-Stop" U.S. Maps and Data Hosts U.S. federal, state, and local geographic maps and data. The self-proclaimed "one stop for Federal, State, and Local Data", this portal provides search capability across multiple government bodies producing GIS data.  You can search or browse by category, as well as save your searches and datasets.

ArcGIS Online
"Provides maps and data for ArcGIS users and the capability to find and share geographic information. The free ArcGIS Online Web application makes it easy to find content published by ESRI, ArcGIS users, and other authoritative data providers as well as upload and share content of your own."

NationalAtlas.gov
Use the "Map Maker" to create a map online with the map layers or download the raw data for your own analysis. Map layers include agriculture, biology, boundaries, climate, environment, geology, history, people, transportation and water. Not downloadable?

National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS)
Provides, free of charge, aggregate census data and GIS-compatible boundary files for the United States 1790 to 2000? Present?

Census TIGER Shapefiles
TIGER Line files for legal and statistical areas in shapefile format, updated annually. A collection of various Census shapefiles (boundaries and geographic features) in TIGER form.

US Census Cartographic Boundary Files
Generalized extracts of the bureau's TIGER Line files for several administrative, legal, and census areas in the US

National Land Cover Database
Land use and land cover data for the entire US

Libre Map Project
Topographic maps (DRGs) for the entire US, 2003 TIGER Line data, and SVG maps for several administrative areas

GeoFRED 
Provides a map display for economic data, with download capability.

UDSA Geospatial Gateway
A collection of GIS data on natural resources.

The US Geological Survey (USGS) provides many GIS data resources:

  • EarthExplorer 
    Allows browsing for GIS data and imagery.
  • GIS Data Map Studio (See "Find Data")
    A new clearing house, but the left hand column has useful links to the various USGS services and data sets.
  • The National Map 
    USGS's online, interactive map service.  It also includes data from partners such as the National Park Service, the US Forest Service, and the Bureau of Land Management, as well as state datasets. USGS The National Map Viewer - http://viewer.nationalmap.gov/viewer/
  • Water Resources Maps and GIS Data
    The first link on the page includes a large list of various GIS data sets regarding water resources.

International

UNEP Environmental Data Explorer

United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) online database holds more than 500 different variables, as national, subregional, regional and global statistics or as geospatial data sets (maps), covering themes like Freshwater, Population, Forests, Emissions, Climate, Disasters, Health and GDP. Display them on-the-fly as maps, graphs, data tables or download the data in different formats. Click "Advanced Search," select "Geospatial Data Sets" under the 1st drop down box, and hit the red "Search" button for a list of global or continental GIS files

GeoNetwork
United Nations Spatial Data Infrastructure (UNSDI), Netherlands Coordinating Office

GeoNetwork (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations)
Provides searchable and browsable access to International GIS data.

 

gData
Project at UC Berkeley that provides boundary files and imagery for every country in the world, tied to the DIVA GIS project

USGS Global Visualization Viewer
US federal agency that provides LANDSAT data (global satellite imagery) for the world

 

Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN)
Hosted by Columbia University. Includes links to datasets for the world, various countries, and the US

 

University of Arkansas Libraries 
Provides excellent links for country-level GIS repositories.

ICSU World Data System Portal
Network of data repositories for worldwide GIS data. A project of the International Council for Science.

Foreign Countries

Global

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