GIS & Geospatial Technologies: GIS Data

Online GIS Data Sites (a select few)

Below are some of the top resources for finding good GIS data online.

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.
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.
Data is Plural
Data is Plural is a weekly newsletter of useful/curious datasets, published by Jeremy Singer-Vine. You can browse the full data listings in a Google Spreadsheet of random datasets. A great find!
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.
EarthWorks - Stanford University
Discover and download GIS data and maps from various universities. Set the Access to Public to ensure you can download the data or maps.
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.
Living Atlas
The ArcGIS Living Atlas is an ever-growing collection of curated and authoritative geographic information from around the globe. It includes maps, apps, and data layers you can use, adapt, and analyze in your projects.
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.

Planet
This resource is brought to you by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO). Planet provides daily satellite images of the Earth’s land surfaces and coastal areas. Natural color, near infra-red, and other multi-channel imagery products are available with 5m, 3.7m and 50cm ground pixel resolution. Images are exportable to GIS systems or can be viewed and analyzed using Planet's website and tools. PlanetScope (3.7m) satellite images are available daily, starting in 2014. SkySat (50cm) images are available for selected areas and time periods, starting in 2016. RapidEye (5m) is from 2009-2020.
New users must first complete registration form
PolicyMap
Note: Institution-wide access ends 6/30/25. PolicyMap is a U.S. national data and mapping tool that combines a curated, comprehensive geographic data library with simple, robust mapping and analytics tools. University faculty, researchers, and students use it to create maps of up to five layers, export trend charts with key benchmarks, download data for use in other tools, generate on-the-fly reports and upload your own data to view it with ours.

SanGIS
One of the best sites to get GIS data for San Diego. Almost 100 free GIS data layers available for public download. Majority of these, including historical dates, are available through the Geisel Library Data & GIS Lab with improved metadata.

SimplyAnalytics
An easy to use mapping, analytics, and data visualization app with 100,000+ data variables, including demographic data from the US Census, and the American Community Survey (ACS), consumer spending data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CEX), 2020 Election Data, and D&B's Points-of-Interest business directory providing access to over 5 million US business profiles. The included MRI-SimmonsLOCAL consumer behavior dataset contains data on over 8,000 brands, 450 categories, the MOSAIC segmentation system, and detailed lifestyle information. Community Lifestages presents data based on Householder Age, Income and Household Family Status. Users also have access to the CDC PLACES health dataset which includes 27 diverse health measures, such as Health Outcomes, Prevention, Risk Behaviors, and Health Status. Data is largely available down to the block group level, and custom locations can be created. Includes EASI/MediaMark Research Incorporated (MRI) and Simmons LOCAL data packages. Data is downloadable in GIS-ready shapefiles. Users may log in as a Guest, or create an account to save their work. Access limited to 5 simultaneous users. Try again later if refused. (formerly known as SimplyMap).

UNEP - World Environment Situation Room (WESR)
The World Environment Situation Room (WESR) is the new United Nations (UN) Environment Programme data platform that provides federated environmental data access at the global, regional, national and local levels for sustainable development and national planning needs. The WESR data system brings together over 45 data platforms and 70 data sources. Regions: Africa, Asia & Pacific, Latin American and Caribbean, Europe, North America, and global.

Library Geospatial Data Holdings: "The X drive"

UC San Diego affiliate can browse the Library's geospatial data holdings that are hosted on the X drive in our Data & GIS Lab. You must be connected to UCSD VPN in order to browse. This is for BROWSING ONLY. You CANNOT DOWNLOAD any files. You must visit the Lab to access files until we are able to publish the data into an online portal (currently in development)

The data is organized geographically, roughly by continent, with topical data arrangement inside each folder.

Remember, if you are looking for data on a smaller area of geography, be sure to check the folder with the larger geography first. An example would be if you are looking for data for only one of the states in the United States, you would want to look in the United States Data folder as well as the North America data folder.

X:\ Drive Geospatial Data

UCSD VPN

You can access thousands of e-journals, e-books, databases, and more through UC San Diego Library.

For on-campus access, make sure that you are connected to the UCSD-Protected wifi.

To access library resources from off-campus:

Option 1: Connect through UC Library Search

Option 2: Sign in at a Publisher or Resource Site

Look for 'Sign in Through My Institution' or 'Access via OpenAthens'.
Select 'University of California San Diego' and choose OpenAthens Federation if prompted.

Option 3: Connect through Campus VPN

Download and open the VPN AnyConnect
Select "2- Step-Secured - all thru UCSD" when prompted for connection type
Approve your sign-in through Duo

For help with troubleshooting, visit our Connect to Library Resources page.

X Drive - Types of Geospatial Data
Africa_Data	GIS_Workshop_Data
Asia_Data	Global_Data
A_Datacruncher_Data	Mexico_Data
Business_Analyst_Data 2008, 2010, 2016	North_America_Data
California	Oceania_Data
Canada_Data	San_Diego_Data
ESRI_Data_for_Workbooks	South_America_Data
Europe_Data	UCSD_Campus_Data
GIS_Tools	United_States_Data