LibGuides: GIS &amp; Geospatial Technologies: Sorted by Geography

Aid Data - GeoQuery
Choose a country and a unit of analysis, select and customize satellite and other spatial datasets from across disciplines, and download the data for use in Excel, STATA, R, or your favorite program as soon as it is ready.
Airports and Runways
OurAirports, a community-assisted project that began in 2007, provides bulk data detailing 55,000+ airports and 41,000+ runways, plus listings of airport radio frequencies and global navigation aids. In addition to standard airports, the records include 23 balloonports, 1,000+ seaplane bases, and 11,000+ heliports.
Allen Coral Atlas
The Allen Coral Atlas is built by a dedicated team of scientists, technologists, and conservationists, using one-of-a-kind methodologies. The Allen Coral Atlas utilizes high-resolution satellite imagery and advanced analytics to map and monitor the world’s coral reefs in unprecedented detail. Data includes: visual imagery, benthic data, geomorphic data, quarterly turbidity, and composite bathymetry data.
ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World
This is another avenue to obtain GIS data while working with ArcGIS. 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 globally and locally.
ASTER Global DEM - 15 meter resolution
You can download, for free, from NASA, the global ASTER DEM data here. You must register to do so!
Atlas of Urban Expansion
The Atlas of Urban Expansion is an open-source online resource with maps, satellite images, and data on spatial changes in a sample of 200 cities around the world.
AtoZ Maps Online
Political, physical, outline, population, climate, historical, and many other types of maps available for downloading and printing for educational purposes only. Maps available in a variety of file formats. New maps are added monthly. Off the home page, you can go to GIS data and find links to downloadable data.
Carbon Capture and Storage Database (CCS)
National Energy Technology Laboratory’s (NETL) Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Database, includes information on active, proposed, and terminated Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) projects worldwide. The data includes more than 30 countries across 6 continents.
Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) - CGIAR
The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), a member of the CGIAR Consortium, the world’s largest partnership of agricultural research-for-development organizations. Research data produced by CIAT and its Partners related to reducing hunger and poverty and improving human nutrition in the tropics, is available on the Harvard’s Dataverse platform.
Climate Data Online (CDO)
Climate Data Online (CDO) provides free access to National Climatic Data Center (NCDC's) archive of global historical weather and climate data in addition to station history information. These data include quality controlled daily, monthly, seasonal, and yearly measurements of temperature, precipitation, wind, and degree days as well as radar data and 30-year Climate Normals.
Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia (CRU)
CRU data are one of the most widely used observed climate datasets and are produced by the UK’s National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS) at the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit (CRU). CRU TS provides monthly data on a 0.5° x 0.5° grid covering land surfaces (except Antarctica) from 1901 to 2020. There are ten variables, all based on near-surface measurements: temperature (mean, minimum, maximum and diurnal range), precipitation (total, also rain day counts), humidity (as vapour pressure), frost day counts, cloud cover, and potential evapotranspiration.
CIESIN & SEDAC & WDC (from Columbia University)
A very rich website with lots of GIS data from Columbia University portals such as CIESIN (Center for International Earth Science Information Network), SEDAC (Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center), and the World Data Center for Human Interactions.
CShapes
Provides historical maps of state boundaries and capitals in the post-World War II period. The dataset is coded according to both the Correlates of War and the Gleditsch and Ward (1999) state lists, and is therefore compatible with a great number of existing databases in the discipline. They also supply a CShapes package for the R statistical toolkit.
DataONE
DataONE is a community driven project providing access to data across multiple member repositories, supporting enhanced search and discovery of Earth and environmental data.
DIVA GIS - Data
A comprehensive and great starting point for files on administrative boundaries, water, roads, railroads, elevation, landcover, population, climate and a gazetteer for almost every country in the world.
EarthStat - Global Crop Yields and Harvested Areas
Global Earthstat geotiffs that contain Harvested Area and Yield for 175 Crops. The resulting land use data sets depict circa the year 2000 the area. The spatial resolution is 5 minute by 5 minute resolution (~10km x 10km at equator). Crops include bananas, coffee, maize, potato, soybean, and many more.
Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net)
The Famine Early Warning Systems Network is a leading provider of early warning and analysis on food insecurity. Created by USAID in 1985 to help decision-makers plan for humanitarian crises, FEWS NET provides evidence-based analysis on approximately 30 countries.
GADM - Global administrative areas/boundaries
GADM is a database of the location of the world's administrative areas (boundaries) and lower level subdivisions. GADM datasets include some attributes, foremost being the name and in some cases variant names. Administrative areas in this database are countries and lower level subdivisions such as provinces, departments, bibhag, bundeslander, daerah istimewa, fivondronana, krong, landsvæðun, opština, sous-préfecture, counties, and thana.
GEOFABRIK (OpenStreetMap Data Extracts)
Downloadable OpenStreetmMp data for world regions, updated almost daily (select Region, then country).
GeoNetwork - The portal to spatial data and information
A product of the UN FAO, this site is a great place to look for data on political boundaries, agriculture, climate, fisheries, forestry, water, land cover/use, population data, soil info and topo info.
Global Flood Database
The Global Flood Database combines over 15 years of flood data to create the first comprehensive satellite-based resource for global flood risk management and mitigation. The flood events mapped in this database represent major events recorded by the DFO Flood Observatory since the beginning of the satellite records.
Global Historical Climatology Network monthly (GHCNm)
Global Historical Climatology Network database provides monthly climate summaries. The initial version was developed in the early 1990s, and subsequent iterations were released in 1997, 2011, and most recently in 2018. The period of record for each summary varies by station, with the earliest observations dating to the 18th century. Some station records are purely historical and are no longer updated, but many others are still operational. The current version (GHCNm v4) consists of mean monthly temperature data, as well as a beta release of monthly precipitation data. Can access the data through FTP. Can also view the CHCNd or daily observations and data.
GISFish
A Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations website focused on aquaculture and inland fisheries. Contains a listing of links to GIS data.
Global Freshwater Quality Database GEMStat
At present, the growing database contains more than 4 million entries for rivers, lakes, reservoirs, wetlands and groundwater systems from 75 countries and approximately 4000 stations. Overall, data is available for the time period from 1965 to 2017 and about 250 parameters (see data section for more information).
Global Mangrove Watch
The Global Mangrove Alliance (GMA) launched in 2018 and provides historical and current data of global mangroves. Can download habitat extent, mangrove net change, mangrove alerts, blue carbon, and habitat change.
Global Map Data archives from ISCGM
The International Steering Committee for Global Mapping (ISCGM) took the central role in conducting the Global Mapping Project to develop and provide country level global datasets. Coverage varies by country, but datasets include:
Transportation, Boundaries, Drainage, Population Centres, Elevation, Vegetation, Land Cover and Land Use.
Global Map of Human Impacts to Marine Ecosystems
This site provides download links to data used in the creation of "A Global Map of Human Impacts to Marine Ecosystems", by the The National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) for 2008 and 2015. Data available for download include: Artisanal Fishing, Inorganic Pollution, Invasive Species, Nutrient Input, Ocean Acidification, Benthic Structures (Oil Rigs), Organic Pollution, Ocean-Based Pollution, Population Pressure, Commercial Activity (Shipping), Climate Change (SST), and Climate Change (UV).
Globcover - European Space Agency (ESA)
This satellite imagery dataset produced by a variety of global partners provides "the highest resolution land cover map that has been completely validated" with an overall accuracy of 73% and classified into 22 land cover classes.
Intact Forest Landscapes
Intact Forest Landscape (IFL) is a seamless mosaic of forest and naturally treeless ecosystems within the zone of current forest extent, which exhibit no remotely detected signs of human activity or habitat fragmentation and is large enough to maintain all native biological diversity, including viable populations of wide-ranging species. The IFL map is a spatial database (scale 1:1,000,000) that shows the extent of the intact forest landscapes (IFL) for years 2000, 2013, 2016, and 2020.
Humanitarian Data Exchange
The Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX) is an open platform for sharing data across crises and organizations for countries around the world. Search by country to see what datasets are available.
Hyde (History database of the Global Environment)
HYDE is and internally consistent combination of updated historical population (gridded) estimates and land use for the past 12,000 years. Categories include cropland, with a new distinction into irrigated and rain fed crops (other than rice) and irrigated and rain fed rice. Also grazing lands are provided, divided into more intensively used pasture, converted rangeland and non-converted natural (less intensively used) rangeland. Population is represented by maps of total, urban, rural population and population density as well as built-up area.
HydroSHEDS
This site allows you to download hydrography GIS data for regional and global scales in vector & raster. This includes river networks, watershed boundaries, drainage directions, and flow accumulations.
Inequality Project [University of Texas] (UTIP)
UTIP is a small research group concerned with measuring and explaining movements of inequality in wages and earnings and patterns of industrial change around the world. You will find several country inequality datasets in spreadsheet format. [non-native spatial]
IPUMS International
This site has Census microdata to be used for social and economic research. It also has GIS boundary files to use in conjunction with its microdata. Created by University of Minnesota's Minnesota Population Center, this is a great resource. Note that it requires free registration that can take up to 3 working days.
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. Data includes microdata and aggregate population data for more than 80 countries and use / land cover and climate data.
LandScan - Gridded Global Population
This dataset is a 30x30 arc-second (approximately 1 km) gridded population of the world. You must request access to it through the creators, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Geographic Information Science & Technology section.
Mobile Coverage Explorer - Collins Bartholomew
Mobile Coverage Explorer is a representation of the area covered by mobile networks around the world. It is supplied as polygon vector (2007-2018) and raster (starting in 2019) data which has been created from submissions made directly to Collins Bartholomew or the GSMA from network operators who provide roaming detail for inclusion in the GSMA’s Network Coverage Maps (GSM or 2G, 3G, and 4G). This data is available in the Data & GIS Lab.
NASA Earthdata
Earthdata from NASA holds more than 35,000 Earth science data set and service descriptions, which cover subject areas within the Earth and environmental sciences. NASA's former Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) was rolled up into this. You can switch between various Distributed Active Archive Center (DAACs). Data and information are filtered by nine key topics: Atmosphere, Biosphere, Cryosphere, Human Dimensions, Land Surface, Ocean, Solid Earth, Sun-Earth Interactions, and Terrestrial Hydrosphere. Explore the datasets within your topic of interest.
NASA Earth Observations (NEO)
Here you can browse and download imagery of satellite data from NASA's constellation of Earth Observing System satellites. Over 50 different global datasets are represented with daily, weekly, and monthly snapshots, and images are available in a variety of formats including JPEG, PNG, Google Earth, and GeoTIFF.
National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) from NOAA
This is a great listing of projects and available products from Ecological and Biogeographic Assessments from the Marine Spatial Ecology department. This includes benthic mapping and data products from various regions around the world including Palau, Marshall Islands, Hawaiian Islands and others.
NatureServe - species and ecosystems
NatureServe can provide both non-spatial and spatially explicit information for species and ecosystems either regionally or nationally. Data includes distribution of birds and mammals of the western hemisphere, amphibians of the world, and U.S. fishes by watershed. Data products are offered in a variety of formats from simple Excel spreadsheets, map images, or GIS layers, to more complex relational Access databases, Geodatabases, or custom Map Services.
NOAA Climate Data Online (CDO)
Provides access to NCDC's archive of global historical weather and climate data in addition to station history information. These data include quality controlled daily, monthly, seasonal, and yearly measurements of temperature, precipitation, wind, and degree days as well as radar data and 30-year Climate Normals.
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI)
Hosts and provides public access to one of the most significant archives for environmental data on Earth. Through the Center for Weather and Climate and the Center for Coasts, Oceans, and Geophysics, they provide over 37 petabytes of comprehensive atmospheric, coastal, oceanic, and geophysical data.
Open Topography
Provides access to high-resolution topographic and bathymetric data for scientific, environmental, engineering and planning purposes. A great resource for accessing global LiDAR, DEM products. You can also generate derivative products such as hillshade and slope. You can also clip the data to return only an area of interest.
Pacific Disaster Center - DisasterAWARE
The Pacific Disaster Center conducts global assessments of risk and vulnerability, comparing key drivers of disaster risk between nations. You can register for an account and access risk and vulnerability information through DisasterAWARE®.
PRIO - Peace Research Institute Oslo
The Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) conducts research on the conditions for peaceful relations between states, groups and people. PRIO concentrates both on the driving forces behind violent conflict and on ways in which peace can be built, maintained and spread. You can find replication data from publication and datasets from various PRIO projects around conflict and arms data.
ReefBase
ReefBase gathers available knowledge about coral reefs into one information repository. It is intended to facilitate analyses and monitoring of coral reef health and the quality of life of reef-dependent people, and to support informed decisions about coral reef use and management. ReefBase is the official database of the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN), as well as the International Coral Reef Action Network (ICRAN).
Renewable Energy Data Explorer (International)
Provides analytic tools to facilitate renewable energy decision-making, investment, and deployment in the following countries/regions: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Central Asia Region, Colombia, Ghana, Haiti, India, Kenya, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, Pakistan, Peru, and Southeast Asia Region.
Soil Maps and Databases of the World
From the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN Soils Portal, view a collection of Soil Maps and Databases. Includes Harmonized World Soil Database among other internationals and regional soil databases.
SRTM 30-Meter Tile Downloader (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission)
This interface attempts to ease the pain of downloading 30-meter resolution elevation data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. Click on yellow tiles to download their corresponding data. A NASA Earthdata login is required to download the files.
SRTM 90m DEM Digital Elevation Database
The NASA Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) has provided digital elevation data (DEMs) for over 80% of the globe. The SRTM data is available as 3 arc second (approx. 90m resolution) DEMs. A 1 arc second data product was also produced but is not available for all countries. The SRTM 90m DEM’s have a resolution of 90m at the equator, and are provided in mosaicked 5 deg x 5 deg tiles for easy download and use. All are produced from a seamless dataset to allow easy mosaicking. These are available in both ArcInfo ASCII and GeoTiff format to facilitate their ease of use in a variety of image processing and GIS applications. Data can be downloaded using a browser or accessed directly from the FTP site.
United Nations Global Resource Information Database
An excellent list of global products from the UNEP spatial data clearinghouse. There is Africa, Asia, Latin American, Caribbean, global, Brazilian and US specific population datasets on this page. Use the Related Links, Clearinghouse to find more GIS data.
USGS Mineral Resources Online Spatial Data
USMIN Mineral Deposit Database offers interactive maps and downloadable data for regional and global geology, geochemistry, geophysics, and mineral resources for the U.S. and international.
USGS World Petroleum Assessment 2000 & 2012
U.S. Geological Survey World Petroleum Assessment 2000 and 2012 of oil and gas reserves.
World Bank DataBank
DataBank is an analysis and visualisation tool that contains collections of time series data on a variety of topics. You can create your own queries; generate tables, charts, and maps; and easily save, embed, and share them. Includes World Development Indicators...
more...less...
Statistical Capacity Indicators, Education Statistics, Gender Statistics, Health Nutrition and Population Statistics, Poverty and Equity, Doing Business, IDA Results Measurement System, Millennium Development Goals, Quarterly Public Sector Debt, Joint External Debt Hub, Job, Global Economic Prospects, Africa Development Indicators, Population estimates and projections, Health Nutrition and Population Statistics by Wealth Quintile, Landmine Contamination Casualties and Clearance (LC3D), Enterprise Surveys, Global Economic Monitor (GEM), Exporter Dynamics Database, Arica Development Entrepreneurship, Remittance Prices Worldwide, Sustainable Mobility for All, PPPs Regulator Quality, Human Capital Index, World Bureaucracy Indicators, Logistics Performance Index (LPI), Health Equality and Financial Protection Indicators (HEFPI), Global Financial Inclusion and Consumer Protection Survey, Economic Fitness, Environment Social and Governance (ESG) Data, MIX Market, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), International Comparison Program (ICP) 2011, Wealth Accounts, Economic Fitness, Africa Infrastructure, International Debt Statistics (formerly Global Development Finance), Global Bilateral Migration, UNCTAD - Trade Analysis Information System (TRAINS), International Comparison Program (ICP) 2005, Global Financial Inclusion, The Atlas of Social Protection: Indicators of Resilience and Equity, Country Policy and Institutional Assessment, Global Partnership for Education, Global Financial Development, G20 Financial Inclusion Indicators, ESCAP World Bank: International Trade Costs, Sustainable Energy for All, Service Delivery Indicators, Adjusted Net Savings, Indonesia Database for Policy and Economic Research, Subnational Malnutrition, LAC EQUITY LAB, India Power Sector Review Database, Country Partnership Strategy for India (FY2013-17), Agriculture in Africa – Telling Facts from Myths, National Poverty Line - Subnational Poverty, Quarterly External Debt Statistics GDDS, Quarterly External Debt Statistics SDDS, Subnational Population
World Database on Protected Areas (WCPA)
This database allows you to download "all the GIS and attribute data for nationally designated marine and terrestrial protected areas with and without IUCN Protected Area Management Categories assigned, non-designated national protected areas and areas defined under international conventions and agreements."
World Port Index
The World Port Index (Pub 150) contains the location and physical characteristics of, and the facilities and services offered by major ports and terminals world-wide (approximately 3700 entries)
World Resources Institute
WRI produces maps, charts, data sets, infographics, and other visual resources for countries and globally. Topics include: water, forests, climate, energy, INDCs, forests and other. Browse all or search by type, topic, or geography.
World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLN)
University of Washington in Seattle operates a network of lightning location sensors that are used to produce regular maps of lightning activity over the entire Earth. WWLLN archival data are copyrighted by the University of Washington and are available to the public at nominal cost.
WorldClim
Spatially interpolated monthly climate data for global land areas at a very high spatial resolution (approximately 1 km2). Data grids include monthly temperature (minimum, maximum and average), precipitation, solar radiation, vapour pressure and wind speed, aggregated across a target temporal range of 1970–2000, using data from between 9,000 and 60,000 weather stations
Back to Geographic Regions A-Z

Africa

AfricaMap
This Harvard-based online resource offers a way to interact and download datasets with respect to Africa. Their stated goals are to allow you to "interact with the best available public data for Africa, see the whole of Africa yet also zoom in to particular places, accumulate both contemporary and historical data supplied by researchers and make it permanently accessible online, and work collaboratively across disciplines and organizations with spatial information about Africa"
Africa: Map Library
The Map Library is a source of public domain basic map data concerning administrative boundaries in Africa. The data is broken down into manageable chunks to make it easier to download for those with poor internet connections.
Africover Data Downloads - Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
This geographic data site for Africa is made possible by the UN FAO and contains data on Burundi, DR Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. Please read the site carefully to see what you can download and the restrictions of use for the data.
Central Africa Regional Program for the Environment (CARPE)
The CARPE Open Data Portal is a collection of spatial datasets relevant to conservation activities within the Congo Basin. The data portal is curated by CARPE implementing partners, as well as national government agencies.
CIESIN & SEDAC & WDC (from Columbia University)
A very rich website with lots of GIS data from Columbia University portals such as CIESIN (Center for International Earth Science Information Network), SEDAC (Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center), and the World Data Center for Human Interactions.
IGAD LPI Online Data Portal : Country Data
This site has data for Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda for download.
International Livestock Research Institute
A site created by many international partners which focuses on livestock and land resource issues primarily in Africa. There are several downloadable GIS layers on Kenya, Uganda, Somalia and other countries.
Land cover of Liberia
This land cover data set is derived from the original raster based Globcover regional (Africa) archive. It has been post-processed to generate a vector version at national extent with the LCCS regional legend (46 classes). This database can be analyzed in the GLCN software Advanced Database Gateway (ADG), which provides a user-friendly interface and advanced functionalities to breakdown the LCCS classes in their classifiers for further aggregations and analysis.
Southern African Regional Science Initiative Project (SAFARI)
Is an international science initiative to study the linkages between land and atmosphere processes in the southern African region.
Tanzania: Zanzibar Social and Environmental Atlas
Zanzibar Social and Environmental Atlas for coastal and marine areas. ZANSEA-Geonode is an open source platform for sharing geospatial data, interactive maps and best practices in GIS. It is part of the Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) developed under the ZANSEA project
more...less...
State University of Zanzibar
United Nations Global Resource Information Database
An excellent list of global products from the UNEP spatial data clearinghouse. There is Africa, Asia, Latin American, Caribbean, global, Brazilian and US specific population datasets on this page. Use the Related Links, Clearinghouse to find more GIS data.
Back to Geographic Regions A-Z

Antarctica

Antarctic Digital Database
The Antarctic Digital database (ADD) is a compilation of medium scale topographic data for the continent of Antarctica. It is derived from a wide variety of sources, and aims to provide the best currently available data in all areas.
Antarctica GIS Resources : GIS Lounge - Geographic Information Systems
A list of resources for GIS in Antarctica. Includes where to find coverage files for regional sea ice analysis, aerial imagery and topographic data as well.
Back to Geographic Regions A-Z

Asia

China Dimensions Collection (SEDAC)
Offered by Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) at NASA. Include a variety of socioeconomic data, including GIS databases that cover the administrative regions of China.
China Geo-Explorer
China Geo-Explorer (CGE) fully integrates different data sources from government statistics, population census and economics census of China at different levels (province, city, county, township and ZIP code) into a spatial system with more than 6,000 comparable variables for easy access.
China in Time And Space (CITAS)
China in Time and Space (CITAS) is a project to create and maintain databases of spatially- and temporally-referenced data on China. CITAS aims to provide access to a wealth of contemporary and historical information on China.
China: HE, GANG 何钢 GIS datasets
Contains LULC, DEM, desert, protected and urban land shapefiles. Independent researcher.
China Historical GIS Data, Version 6
CHGIS V6 [China Historical Geographic Information System] is a free database of placenames and historical administrative units for the Chinese Dynasties. CHGIS provides a base GIS platform for researchers to use in spatial analysis or to visualize the historical divisions of China as digital maps. Contains time series data for the period beginning 222 BC and ending 1911 CE, as well as data from 1820.
India Rural Facilities
India’s Ministry of Rural Development has gathered data on 700,000+ rural facilities, which has been organized into state-level CSV files. The information includes each facility’s name, category (e.g., education, medical, etc.), subcategory, state, district, block, address, and geocoordinates.

Indiastat.com
- This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive portal to economic, social, political, and related statistics about India. Over half-a-million pages of statistical data are presented in a user-friendly Web format. Our subscription permits two (2) concurrent user connections.

Japan: GIS, Map and Statistics
This research guide from the University of Michigan provides geospatial data, maps, and statistics resources related to Japan. Includes Historical links.
Singapore: Data.gov.sg
Data.gov.sg was launched as the government's one-stop portal to its publicly-available datasets from 70 public agencies.
Singapore Land Transport Data Mall
LTA publishes a wide variety of land transport-related datasets (static and dynamic / real-time) on DataMall. Find shapefiles, KML, and non-native spatial data.
Thailand GIS Data
This site has downloadable GIS data for Thailand, including DEMs at varying resolutions, meteorological data from 1981-2001 by month, by station or district, land use and forest cover from 2000, and stream information.
All data are free for scientific use with proper attribution and credit to Marc Souris, IRD.
Vectorized base maps of China
This site, China In Time and Space, provides ftp access to "digital base maps representing China's administrative boundaries in 1990, 1986, and 1982", and "DCW China Set", which is "a set of 1:1,000,000 scale GIS coverages containing several physical and man-made features (including roads, railroads, drainage system, populated places, urbanized areas, and contours), as well as attribute and textual data".
Back to Geographic Regions A-Z

California

California Coastal Records Project -- Aerial Photographs of the California Coastline
This site has over 40,000 images of the California coast from Oregon to Mexico. Some sites have historic images from 1972 and there is a feature on the site to do a time comparison. May be useful in coastal GIS projects as a supplement rather than image analysis source.
California County and City GIS sites
A great resource from Cal State University Northridge that links out to all California County GIS pages and a select number of California City pages.
California Department of Fish and Game - Biogeographic Data Branch GIS Unit
The GIS clearinghouse hosts data on the marine and terrestrial resources of California. The site is easy to use and has great information, including web mapping services for California imagery and NDVI analysis.
California Farmland Mapping & Monitoring Program
GIS data is available for California land cover, soil quality, irrigation and viability as farm land from 1984 to the present. This includes urban/natural land cover.
California Healthy Places Index (HPI)
The California Healthy Places Index (HPI) is a powerful tool that can be used to explore and change those community conditions that predict life expectancy. It contains user-friendly mapping and data resources at the census tract level across California. The HPI also provides scores based on community conditions to allow for comparisons between areas, as well as deeper dives on conditions in any given area.
California Highway Patrol - Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System (SWITRS)
The Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System (SWITRS) is a database that collects and processes data gathered from a collision scene. The Internet SWITRS application is a tool that leverages this database to allow California Highway Patrol (CHP) staff, members of its Allied Agencies, as well as researchers and members of the public to request various types of statistical reports in an electronic format. The application allows for the creation of custom reports requested by the user based on different categories including, but not limited to locations, dates, and collision types.
California Natural Resources Agency
Search more than 19,000 datasets and maps from across California related to conservation, natural hazards, wildlife, climate, oceans, water, energy, and land management.
California Seafloor Mapping Project (CSMP)
The California Seafloor Mapping Project (CSMP) has high-resolution geologic and habitat base map series covering all of California's 14,500 km2 state waters out to the 3 mile limit,
California State Geoportal
The California State Geoportal is a centralized geographic open data portal, which includes authoritative data and applications from a multitude of California state entities. These State entities cover many topics including Water, Health, Energy, Environment, Transportation, Land Use, Boundaries, Geology, Wildlife, Education, Economy and Fire.
California Statewide Parcel Boundaries
A geodatabase with parcel boundaries for 51 (out of 58) counties in the State of California. The original target was to collect data for the close of the 2013 fiscal year.
City of Los Angeles - ZIMAS - Zoning Information and Map Access System
This is an online mapping resource for the City of Los Angeles, created by their Department of City Planning. It is designed to provide zoning related information for specific properties. You CANNOT download data from here.
LA County eGIS Program
The LA County eGIS Program is committed to promoting the efficiency, acquisition, and dissemination of GIS data and technology for Los Angeles County.
Historical Aerial Photos - Cal State University San Bernardino
This online web GIS will allow you to find watersheds in California with some historic aerial photographs. Zoom in (but not too close) to your area of interest and then use the Query tool to see what results are in your area.
Metropolitan Transportation Commission - (MTC) - San Francisco Bay Area
MTC is the transportation planning, financing and coordinating agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area.
Mojave Desert Ecosystem Program - a GIS data clearinghouse
Just what it says! Here you can download GIS data for the Mojave Desert including elevation data, satellite imagery, landcover data, transportation data and science-related data.
Pacific Institute: Sea Level Rise Data
Free & downloadable GIS data for California sea level rise analysis.
Sea-Level Change GIS Data - USGS - California Coast
From the Western Coastal and Marine Geology site of the USGS, this is where you can download GIS data layers for shoreline change in California.
Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) - GIS & Data Services
The Data & GIS Services Program promotes data sharing and updating to enhance southern California region-wide GIS data standardization and helps SCAG maintain effective working relationships with its member cities and key stakeholder agencies. Currently 79 local jurisdictions and two partner agencies.
T-RACES - Testbed for the Redlining Archives of California's Exclusionary Spaces
A project with interactive maps of historical redlining. Holdings are at the National Archives and Records Administration but it's a great example of using GIS to show our history and ethnic treatment in the United States.
USGS Topographic Maps of California
This site, by the University of California Santa Barbara, has links to the indexes and scans of California topographic maps.
Western Aerials Corporation
Oregon based vendor selling aerial imagery coverage of California from 1984 - the early 2000s.
Back to Geographic Regions A-Z

Canada

Canadian Census Geography
The official Statistics Canada site for Canadian Census boundary files and statistics.
Canadian National Land and Water Information Service
Detailed soil survey GIS data for Canada from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's National Land and Water Information Service. The detailed soil surveys come from the CanSIS' National Soil DataBase (NSDB).
Canadian National Land and Water Information Service - Canada Land Inventory
This site provides access to GIS coverage files for Canada that rate agricultural land capability.
Canadian Open Data and Free Geospatial Data Resources
We started this page in 2010 as a way to collaborate links to all Canadian Open Data (sites that offer data downloads at no cost and without restrictions), free geospatial data, online web mapping applications and other sources of geospatial information (including National, Provincial and Municipal levels).
Canadian Wind Energy Atlas
Offers GIS files in MapInfo format or RPN format only - note there are no ESRI formats available for direct download. Covers the entire country of Canada.
Geobase - Canada
An excellent resource for Canadian data. "GeoBase is a federal, provincial and territorial government initiative that is overseen by the Canadian Council on Geomatics (CCOG)". Data provided includes DEMs, the Canadian Geodetic Network, Geographical Names, geopolitical boundaries, the National Hydro Network (NHN), the National Road Network (NRN), and satellite imagery.
GeoConnections
A portal to find GIS data, studies, imagery and services related to geospatial information. Heavily focused on Canada, but also contains links to data and geospatial information in other countries.
Geographical Names of Canada
This site allows you to query approximately 350,000 Canadian geographic place and physical feature names by name, coordinates or other unique codes.
Geogratis - Canada
Free access to the 1:50000 and 1:250000 scale topographic data as well as other national datasets in GIS format. It is operated by the Earth Sciences Sector (ESS) of Natural Resources Canada.
GIS Data Downloads - Forestry in Nova Scotia
This site offers free GIS data downloads pertaining to forestry in Nova Scotia, including a forest inventory, wet areas, land use, forest fire fuels, and ecological land classification.
GIS Data Downloads - Mines and Minerals in Nova Scotia
This site offers extensive amounts of GIS data on mining and minerals, including information on land use, geology, geochemistry, and mineral rights.
Government of Canada Open Data Portal
Explore the Government of Canada’s geospatial data, services, and applications and create customized maps. Data themes include: Agriculture, Economics and Industry, Nature and Environment, Persons, Transport, and many more.
Prince Edward Island GIS Data Layers
Free GIS data for Prince Edward Island created by either the Department of Provincial Treasury, Dept. of EEF - Department of Environment, Energy and Forestry, or the Dept. of TPW - Department of Transportation and Public Works.
Service New Brunswick Geographic Data & Maps
New Brunswick's avenue into GIS data. Contains GIS data available for download in numerous formats pertaining to topography, provincial themes, indexes, orthophotos, an address database, and digital property maps.
Service Nova Scotia - Geographic Information
The homepage for Nova Scotia's GIS information. Some data is available through this website for free; other data is available for a fee. The site also offers access to the GeoNova portal which is Nova Scotia's online portal to geospatial information.
Back to Geographic Regions A-Z

Caribbean

Haiti Earthquake GIS Data | Haiti Earthquake Data Portal
Created by Harvard, this data portal will get you free access to much GIS data and imagery for Haiti during the relief/crisis period following the January 2010 earthquake.
Servir Data Portal for Central and South America, the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico
This site allows you to utilize data from Central and South America, the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico.
United Nations Global Resource Information Database
An excellent list of global products from the UNEP spatial data clearinghouse. There is Africa, Asia, Latin American, Caribbean, global, Brazilian and US specific population datasets on this page. Use the Related Links, Clearinghouse to find more GIS data.
Back to Geographic Regions A-Z

Central America

CGIAR-CSI Consortium for Spatial Information
An excellent portal into data regarding climate change, natural disasters, Latin America, the Hindu Kush area and poverty mapping/data. Take some time to explore their spatial data servers and databases as there is excellent information there.
GEOSUR
The GEOSUR Program is an initiative of the CAF (Development Bank of Latin America), in coordination with the Pan American Institute of Geography and History (PAIGH), whose objective is to promote the use and dissemination of relevant geospatial information produced in the region for planning and sustainable development. You will find some environmental, infrastructure, and other select datasets. (Spanish)
Pan American Institute of Geography and History
This link is to the listing of each Pan American country's main geographic organization.
Servir Data Portal for Central and South America, the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico
This site allows you to utilize data from Central and South America, the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico.
Sistema de Informacion Ambiental - Guatemala GIS Data
This is the portal into free basemap GIS data for Guatemala, with layers such as departments, municipios, contour lines, airports, and more.
United Nations Global Resource Information Database
An excellent list of global products from the UNEP spatial data clearinghouse. There is Africa, Asia, Latin American, Caribbean, global, Brazilian and US specific population datasets on this page. Use the Related Links, Clearinghouse to find more GIS data.
Back to Geographic Regions A-Z

Europe

Atlas of Rural Settlement in England GIS
An Atlas of Rural Settlement in England is a key point of reference for understanding the development of rural settlement in England. The maps in the original, printed Atlas were produced digitally, but were created as graphics files which cannot be used in GIS or similar software.
EuroCrops
EuroCrops is a dataset collection combining all publicly available self-declared crop reporting datasets from countries of the European Union. The project is funded by the German Space Agency at DLR on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK). Currently EuroCrops only includes vector data, but stay tuned for a version that includes satellite imagery.
Historic County Borders Project (UK)
The Historic County Borders Project digitized the borders of the historic counties of the UK and has made them freely available for public and commercial use.
Historical Geographic Information System of Europe - HGISE
This site is a product of the University of Lleida in Spain, and contains historical maps (and possibly GIS data if you contact them!) of Europe from 1880 to 2000. The content includes borders, population, urbanization, railways, inland water and roads.
INSPIRE GEOPORTAL - Enhancing access to European spatial data
The INSPIRE Geoportal is the central European access point to the data provided by EU Member States and several EFTA countries under the INSPIRE Directive. The Geoportal allows: monitoring the availability of INSPIRE data sets; discovering suitable data sets based on their descriptions (metadata); and accessing the selected data sets through their view or download services.
OS OpenData - Increasing innovation and supporting Making Public Data Public
This site has open access GIS data for Great Britain. You can also browse by other license agreements.
Back to Geographic Regions A-Z

Mediterranean

Aquae·Urbis·Romae
An interactive map showing the historic water system (aqueducts) of Rome. Aquae urbis romae maps not accessible at this time because Adobe Flash has been discontinued. However their SEARCH engine will provide access to their database.
MAGIS - Mediterranean Archaeology GIS
"An inventory of regional projects in the greater Mediterranean region" in order to help scholars learn of projects in the area and to shared data and GIS data.
Back to Geographic Regions A-Z

Mexico

Atlas of Indigenous Towns of Mexico (pueblos)
This atlas contains maps and ethnographic descriptions of the indigenous languages and peoples of Mexico. Created by the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples (INPI) and the National Institute of Indigenous Languages.
CONABIO
GIS portal for information related to biodiversity. Lots of downloadable GIS data.
Georeferenced Population Data sets of Mexico (CIESIN / SEDAC)
A population data collection for Mexico: State boundaries, place names, geographic coordinates of urban and metropolitan places, and elevation data for more than 700 urban places, with census data.
Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI)
The official mapping and GIS agency of Mexico. Their website is in Spanish and offers links to census products and GIS data. If you are a part of UC San Diego, we have own a digital collection of Mexico topo maps that you can use, so just contact us in the Geisel Library building!
Mexico Government Data Portal
A data portal for Mexican datasets. Pulls data from different Mexico agencies
Mexico Homicides (2006 – 2011)
Geo-referenced yearly data at the municipal level on homicides reported in death certificates from 2006 to 2011. The certificates are issued by local offices of the Attorney General's Office.
Servir Data Portal for Central and South America, the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico
This site allows you to utilize data from Central and South America, the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico.
USMEX Mortality Map
UCSD's Center for US-Mexican Studies has mapped mortality data in Mexico, by location and cause. Data available for download.
Back to Geographic Regions A-Z

Middle East

Doc Savage's Old World Archaeology Page
From the Arizona State University archaeologist Doc Savage, this site has downloadable free GIS data for the southern Levant as well as three programs specific to the Middle East and archaeology.
Back to Geographic Regions A-Z

North America

2 Countries 1 Forest-Data Basin
A project of Two Countries, One Forest (2C1Forest), this site has GIS data covering the Northern Appalachian/Acadian ecoregion (Canada/US). Data addresses the human footprint, growth trends, slopes, hydrology, and habitat to support the conservation and restoration of the diverse flora and fauna of this forest ecosystem, and to inform sustainable land use planning.
Geologic Map of North America
A collection of geospatial files, map images, publication documentation, and informational resources in support of the Geologic Map of North America.
Landcover products from the USGS
Landcover products include: National Land Cover Dataset 1992 (NLCD 92), MRLC2001 (Multi-Resolution Land Cover Data (LULC), Global Land Cover Characterization (GLCC), and AVHRR NDVI Composites.
Maps and GIS of the Great Lakes Region
This site provides data for the Great Lakes area. The data are organized by ISO 19115 Topic Category.
Maps: Exploration, Resources, Reserves, and Production
Spatial data depicting oil and gas fields in the US from the Energy Information Administration.
Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC)
The Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) consortium is a group of federal agencies who coordinate and generate consistent and relevant land cover information. A 30m resolution land cover product termed, the National Land Cover Database (NLCD) offers 7 integrated epochs of land cover for years 2001, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2011, 2013, and 2016. Additional products include land cover, rangeland, tree canopy and urban imperviousness datasets.
National Data Sets - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Migratory Bird Flyways shapefile for US.
North American Land Change Monitoring System (NALCMS)
The maps produced under this initiative represent land cover in 2005, 2010, and 2015, and are based on either Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite imagery monthly composites at 250 m spatial resolution; Landsat-7; or RapidEye satellite imagery at 30 m spatial resolution.
NOAA/NGDC Hosted Digital Elevation Model (DEM)
Coastal NC 6 M DEM. NOAA's National Ocean Service (NOS) has created a digital elevation model of North Carolina to begin studying the impacts of long-term sea level rise on the coastal ecosystems in the sounds and estuaries of North Carolina.
North American Environmental Atlas
This collaboration between Canada, Mexico and the United States provides environmental, human, marine and terrestrial ecosystem data that provides for a continental and regional perspective that crosses boundaries.
Spatial Data Sets Available on the WRD NSDI Node
List of data available from the WRD NSDI node. Links to metadata, where you can download the data. Includes many layers including Physiographic divisions of the conterminous U. S. and climate divisions.
Back to Geographic Regions A-Z

Oceania

Fagatele Bay National Marine Sanctuary GIS Data Archive (American Somoa)
This site hosts lots of data for American Samoa.
Geoscience Australia
This is the portal from the Australian Government (Geoscience Australia in particular) where you can download free GIS data for the country or explore online tools and interactive maps.
Land Information New Zealand
This site has links to hydrographic services, topography, GIS, place names and streets, and other general information about land in New Zealand.
New Zealand Topographic Data
This site offers New Zealand topographic data at a 1:50,000 scale for free download.
NZ Topo Map
NZ Topo Map is an interactive topographic map of New Zealand using the official LINZ's 1:50,000 / Topo50 and 1:250,000 / Topo250 maps.
Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System (PacIOOS) Voyager
An interactive map interface for visualizing and downloading oceanographic observations, forecasts, and other geospatial data and information related to the marine environment and beyond. Primary geographic focus at PacIOOS is on Hawaiʻi and other U.S.-affiliated Pacific Islands throughout Polynesia and Micronesia: American Samoa, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Hawaiʻi, Republic of the Marshall Islands, and Republic of Palau. U.S. Minor Outlying Islands are also included.
Back to Geographic Regions A-Z

Russia

Russia Land Resources GIS Data
In their own words: " These data have been adapted from the latest available sources and centered on three major themes: socioeconomics (statistics and infrastructure); natural conditions (climate, hydrology, permafrost, relief, lithology, vegetation, soils, biodiversity, ecosystems, and land cover); and land endowment (land use, agriculture, forest use, land productivity, desertification, and land degradation). "
Back to Geographic Regions A-Z

San Diego GIS Data Sources

SANDAG / SanGIS - GIS & Data Warehouse
SANDAG and SanGIS have teamed up to provide a single source of authoritative publicly available GIS data. This Regional Data Warehouse covers everything from addresses to zoning and includes such layers as roads/freeways, property and official city boundaries, freeways and major roads, census areas and statistics, community planning areas, lakes, streams, business zones, and many other geospatial topics. Also check out their interactive mapping applications. For historical datasets, check with the Data & GIS Lab.
San Diego Open GIS Data Portal
This is the San Diego region's public platform for exploring and downloading open spatial data. Discover our Open Datasets, GIS services and web mapping applications. Most of the data found here is also found in the SanDAG/SanGIS Regional Warehouse.
City of San Diego Community Profiles - Planning Department
The City of San Diego Planning Department offers an easy way to get summary information about San Diego communities here. Simply click on the neighborhood and get a snapshot of it.
Quality of Life - San Diego Region
From Telesis Corp. in San Diego, this is a page of Excel and text documents that relate to measures of quality of life in San Diego County. You can easily link these documents to GIS data files for visualization and analysis.
Resource Conservation District of Greater San Diego County Aerial Photos
This site offers access to aerial photos of San Diego County in 1953 and 1978. You need to contact them rather than simply download the information, but it is a great resource!
SANDAG Annual Demographic Estimates, 1990-2000
Easily obtained Census figures in Excel spreadsheets for San Diego County and various subsets of San Diego County.
San Diego County Bird Atlas Project
A project of the San Diego Natural History Museum, this bird atlas offers access into Google Earth KML files for birds within San Diego County.
San Diego County Sheriff's Department - Open Data Portal
Publicly released data or publicly requested data from the San Diego County Sheriff's Department--new open data portal (GovQA).
San Diego Mammal Atlas - San Diego Natural History Museum, Birds and Mammals Department
A product of the San Diego Natural History Museum, the Mammal Atlas uses GIS data to show mammal occurrence records.
San Diego Plant Atlas Species Mapping
A product of the San Diego Natural History Museum, this online mapping site allows you to pick a plant and map it using a Google Maps application.
San Diego Regional Crime MAPS
An online crime mapping website from ARJIS (Automated Regional Justice Information System. The crime mapping application allows you to select a location, incident type and time period to map. Map can be exported and data can be copied/pasted into a table to then be used in a GIS.
San Diego Solar Map
The San Diego Solar Siting Survey data spreadsheet (Excel) contains details for each site that are used to create the Solar Siting Survey map, a Google Maps mashup shows the location of solar installations in San Diego County.
San Diego Wildfire GIS Resources (2007 Firestorm)
A StoryMap of the 2007 wildfires in San Diego County. The San Diego County 2007 Firestorm burned 373,777 acres.
San Diego Wildfires Wiki 2007 Firestorm
This was a key resource during the 2007 wildfires in San Diego. There is GIS data here for download - and wildfire data is also available for download at www.sangis.org.
T-RACES - Testbed for the Redlining Archives of California's Exclusionary Spaces
A website with interactive maps of historical redlining. Users can click on the designated category and read the descriptions of the areas from a redlining perspective. Very very interesting commentary. Uses GIS to manage this data and present it.
UCSD FacilitiesLink
This site is maintained by the Planning Data & Systems Department of Campus Planning at UC San Diego. There is building information, GIS campus maps, 'neighborhood' plans of campus, CAD drawings, and GIS campus maps. Much content needs a password so contact them directly for access.
Back to Geographic Regions A-Z

South America

Ecuador GIS Data
This downloadable data includes finer resolution DEMs, provinces, cities, volcanos, landscape and erosion. All data are free for scientific use with proper attribution and credit to Marc Souris, IRD.
Instituto Geografico Militar de Ecuador
Ecuador's Geographic Military Institute provides access to a number of geospatial datasets.
Servir Data Portal for Central and South America, the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico
This site allows you to utilize data from Central and South America, the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico.
United Nations Global Resource Information Database
An excellent list of global products from the UNEP spatial data clearinghouse. There is Africa, Asia, Latin American, Caribbean, global, Brazilian and US specific population datasets on this page. Use the Related Links, Clearinghouse to find more GIS data.
Back to Geographic Regions A-Z

United States

Atlas of Historical County Boundaries (AHCBP)
Here you can find historical county boundaries for the United states as free, downloadable shapefiles created from the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries by the Newberry Library.
BTS Bureau of Transportation Statistics
National Transportation Atlas Database from BTS. A set of nationwide geographic databases of public spatial information for transportation facilities and networks.
Bureau of Labor Statistics - Quarterly Census of Employment & Wages Map Application
Quarterly count of employment and wages reported by employers covering more than 95 percent of U.S. jobs, available at the county, MSA, state and national levels by industry. No shapefile, but can get the data and join to an existing gis file.
Bureau of Transportation Statistics - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
This site has transportation tables that are included in the Census Transportation Planning Package (CTPP). Tables are downloadable and then usable in GIS with the FIPS identifier.
Cartographic Boundary Files - U.S. Census Bureau
Cartographic boundary files are simplified representations of selected geographic areas from the Census Bureau’s MAF/TIGER geographic database. These boundary files are specifically designed for small scale thematic mapping. Available formats include shapefile and KML for 1990, 2000, 2010 - 2018
CDC - National Center for Health Statistics Homepage
This page is your first stop in getting data on US health statistics that could be turned into GIS data.
CensusScope: Census 2000 Data, Charts, Maps, and Rankings
Just as the title says, this online mapping and trend visualization tool helps to investigate US demographic trends.
Coastal Digital Elevation Model (DEM) [NCEI]
Coastal digital elevation models (DEMs) that integrate ocean bathymetry and land topography. Spatial resolution ranges from 1/9 arc-second (~3 meters) to 3 arc-seconds (~90 meters). Distributed by NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).
CropScape - NASS CDL Program
This site contains cropland data layers from 1997 to 2010. Data is downloadable and the interface is user-friendly. Enjoy it and thanks to the USDA folks for providing it.
EarthExplorer - USGS
This is a good place to look for imagery from the USGS including Landsat, AVHRR and aerial photography from now and the past.
Ecoregions - Rocky Mountain Research Station - US Forest Service
U.S. Forest Service Ecoregions Center portal to the description, evaluation and mapping of large areas where similar ecosystems recur in predictable patterns. Links to other resources, maps and GIS data downloads are available here.
EnviroAtlas - EPA
EnviroAtlas is part of an ongoing commitment to sustainable and healthy communities and safe and sustainable water resources. EnviroAtlas was developed collaboratively by EPA in partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and other federal and non-profit organizations, universities, and communities including state, county, and city-level stakeholders.Data coverage includes the contiguous U.S. as well as some data for Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
ePodunk - City & County Information, Town & Community Information
In their own words: "We believe in the power of place.
ePodunk provides in-depth information about more than 46,000 communities around the country, from Manhattan to Los Angeles, Pottstown to Podunk. Our listings also include geocoded information about thousands of parks, museums, historic sites, colleges, schools and other places across America. "
Esri ZIP Code Lookup
This ESRI site allows you to look up demographic data by zipcode and runs through their Business Analyst Online product. It's free but requires an updated version of Silverlight to be installed so do keep that in mind!
Food Environment Atlas
A product of the USDA, this food atlas also has a downloadable Excel document so you can create your own foodshed maps and documents.
GAPServe Maps, Data, & Reports from the GAP Analysis Program
Download spatial data from the GAP Analysis program.
GNIS - United States Board on Geographic Names
This gazetteer is a key resource to find the official name, latitude and longitude of domestic, foreign, Antarctic or undersea features. Note that if you are looking for foreign names, the link on the GNIS will take you to the GNS (also available as a link on this guide).
GOS - Geospatial One Stop [Geodata.gov]
A US government portal for geospatial data and information. Can sometimes download GIS files, sometimes only do online mapping. Good for finding the agencies that do GIS data for a particular topic, but can be a little bit frustrating if you are wanting
Health Resources & Service Administration (HRSA) Geospatial Data Warehouse
HRSA is a part of the US Dept. of Health & Human Services. This site allows you to download GIS data for HPSA, primary care service areas and the RN national survey data.
HistoricAerials.com
Historic aerial imagery of some areas of the United States ranging from the 1960s to 2005. There is a tool to compare imagery across multiple years. This is free imagery, but comes with an extensive watermark on it.
Historic TIGER/Line Files from ICPSR
Download TIGER/Line Files from ICPSR from 1990, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005, and 2006.
Homeland Infrastructure Foundation-Level Data (HIFLD)
This site provides U.S. national foundation-level geospatial data within the open public domain that can be useful to support community preparedness, resiliency, research, and more. The data is available for download as CSV, KML, Shapefile, and accessible via web services to support application development and data visualization.
Index to Digital USGS 15 Minute Topographical Maps
This guide was put together by librarians at the Illinois State Library to help you find scans of USGS 15 minute topo maps. Enjoy it!
Land Cover Characterization and Change Shape Files, US EPA
Estimated and Projected Impervious Cover in the Southeastern United States- zipped shapefiles for download by state, from the EPA
Land Cover Institute (LCI) - USGS
A good starting point for GIS data on land cover, particularly in North America.
Landcover products from the USGS
Landcover products include: National Land Cover Dataset 1992 (NLCD 92), MRLC2001 (Multi-Resolution Land Cover Data (LULC), Global Land Cover Characterization (GLCC), and AVHRR NDVI Composites.
Maps: Exploration, Resources, Reserves, and Production
Spatial data depicting oil and gas fields in the US from the Energy Information Administration
National Climatic Data Center Online Document Library
Access climate data.
National Data Sets - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Migratory Bird Flyways shapefile for US.
National GAP Analysis Program Data
This USGS site offers downloads in geodatabases or shapefiles of the USGS National GAP data on species and landcover by region, state or land cover class.
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
The NGA is focused on imagery and map based resources for US national defense and security. While much of the site is restricted, there is good information on NGA products such as imagery, geographical names or DEMs.
National Park Service
Aggregation of data resources used by and for management of the US National Parks.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory GIS
This is the home page for NREL GIS. From here, you can click through to the National Wind Resource Atlas & Solar Atlas. GIS data is available for download with a brief, free registration.
National Weather Service (NWS) GIS Data Links
The NWS GIS data page links to KML and shapefile data for watch/warning advisories, grid and operational forecasts, flashflood and precipitation data and more.
National Wetlands Inventory (NWI)
The Wetlands Data Layer is the product of over 45 years of work by the National Wetlands Inventory (NWI), established by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFSW) and its collaborators and currently contains more than 35 million wetland and deepwater features. This dataset, covering the conterminous United States, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, the major Northern Mariana Islands and Alaska, continues to grow at a rate of 50 to100 million acres annually as data are updated. The data layer is updated twice a year and these changes are reflected on the mapper and in the data downloads.
NatureServe - species and ecosystems
NatureServe can provide both non-spatial and spatially explicit information for species and ecosystems either regionally or nationally. Data includes distribution of birds and mammals of the western hemisphere, amphibians of the world, and U.S. fishes by watershed. Data products are offered in a variety of formats from simple Excel spreadsheets, map images, or GIS layers, to more complex relational Access databases, Geodatabases, or custom Map Services.
NOAA Shoreline
The purpose of this site is to eliminate confusion about vector shoreline data by providing information about and access to shorelines that are generated by federal agencies. The site was developed and designed by the NOAA Office for Coastal Management.
PRISM Group
Parameter-elevation Regressions on Independent Slopes Model climate mapping system. "PRISM is a unique knowledge-based system that uses point measurements of precipitation, temperature, and other climatic factors to produce continuous, digital grid estimates of monthly, yearly, and event-based climatic parameters."
more...less...
"Continuously updated, this unique analytical tool incorporates point data, a digital elevation model, and expert knowledge of complex climatic extremes, including rain shadows, coastal effects, and temperature inversions. PRISM data sets are recognized world-wide as the highest-quality spatial climate data sets currently available. PRISM is the USDA's official climatological data." If you have questions on how to use this in ArcMap, ask your GIS Librarian."
Open Topography
Provides access to high-resolution topographic and bathymetric data for scientific, environmental, engineering and planning purposes. A great resource for accessing global LiDAR, DEM products. You can also generate derivative products such as hillshade and slope. You can also clip the data to return only an area of interest.
Pan American Institute of Geography and History
This link is to the listing of each Pan American country's main geographic organization.
Railroads and the Making of Modern America
Historical Railroad Systems GIS Files in America from 1840-1870.
Renewable Energy Spatial Data from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Follow "downloading data and tools" link. Data includes: Biomass, Other (Transmission Line Data), Solar (average solar resource potential), and Wind (Annual average wind resource potential, NC is in the Mid-Atlantic States file)
Social Explorer
Online mapping tool for US census data from 1940 to current day. Very easy to use.
Soil Data Viewer - Home
This is an excellent extension for Arcmap. Get the most out of SSURGO (detailed soils) data with ease.
Spatial Data Sets Available on the WRD NSDI Node
List of data available from the WRD NSDI node. Links to metadata, where you can download the data. Includes many layers including Physiographic divisions of the conterminous U. S. and climate divisions.
The National Map
The National Map is an online tool to visualize, inspect, and download current topographic base map data in and products in vector and raster format for the United States.
TopoView (USGS)
TopoView allows you to search, view, and download topographic maps from both US Topo and the Historical Topographic Map Collection (HTMC). It offers free downloads in multiple formats, including JPEG, KMZ, GeoPDF, and GeoTIFF. The collection continues to grow.
TIGER/Line Shapefiles (US Census Bureau)
The core TIGER/Line Files and Shapefiles do not include demographic data, but they do contain geographic entity codes (GEOIDs) that can be linked to the Census Bureau’s demographic data, available on American FactFinder. TIGER/Line ASCII format for 2006 and earlier and Shapefiles for 2007-present
United Nations Global Resource Information Database
An excellent list of global products from the UNEP spatial data clearinghouse. There is Africa, Asia, Latin American, Caribbean, global, Brazilian and US specific population datasets on this page. Use the Related Links, Clearinghouse to find more GIS data.
United States/Mexico Border - GIS
US Department of Interior website which has links to GIS data and data sources pertaining to border issues and environment health initiatives. If you do not end up on the correct page, go to http://borderhealth.cr.usgs.gov/datalayers.html.
US Census Bureau: American FactFinder
Typically the first place to go to for US Census information for 1990 and 2000. Can download Census data in a variety of ways. Not suitable for Census data other than 1990 or 2000 (NHGIS is a resource geared towards historical census data and is far better for this use.)
US General Soil Map (STATSGO) & Soil Data Mart
Downloadable vector data for the United States soils from the US Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service. Also has a link to the Soil Data Mart which has downloadable GIS soil data by county for the United States.
USDA Economic Research Service Data Sets
This data set site covers subjects such as animal product, all matter of agriculture, food, policies, research, rural economy and trade and international markets.
USDA Forest Service GIS Clearinghouse for the Pacific Southwest, Region 5
Easy to use website with downloadable GIS data pertaining to forestry, recreation and environmental topics.
USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Geospatial Data Gateway
Here you can choose to download natural resource data for the United States from the USDA. Data is free for the most part if downloaded.
USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map (PHZM)
USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map (PHZM) is the standard by which gardeners and growers can determine which plants are most likely to thrive at a location. The most recent revision was prepared by the PRISM Climate Group at Oregon State University, and was released by USDA in 2023. Based on the mean annual extreme minimum temperature over a 30-year period, the map divides the country into zones representing a spread of 10°F (zones 1-13), each subdivided into two half-zones with 5°F spreads (e.g., zone 1a and 1b).
USGS Water Resources NSDI Node
Metadata for "Physiographic divisions of the conterminous U.S." from the USGS (physiographic regions). Download link provided. data is zipped, in e00 format.
Utility-Scale Solar from Berkeley Lab
Berkeley Lab’s “Utility-Scale Solar, 2021 Edition” presents analysis of empirical plant-level data from the U.S. fleet of ground-mounted photovoltaic (PV), PV+battery, and concentrating solar-thermal power (CSP) plants with capacities exceeding 5 MWAC.
WESTCARB Carbon Atlas
A project of 7 states and one province of the west looking at carbon sequestration. This page is the link to actual GIS shapefiles of potential geologic CO2 sinks and CO2 point sources.
Zillow Neighborhood Boundaries | Zillow Real Estate
This site has shapefiles for neighborhoods for each state in the United States. You have to download each state individually, and there IS NO METADATA for these files. They may be helpful for reference information and are geared more towards real estate than anything else.
Back to Geographic Regions A-Z