LibGuides: GIS & Geospatial Technologies: GIS Data

Browse Library geospatial data holdings: "The X drive"

If you are a UC San Diego affiliate, you can browse the Library's geospatial data holdings that are located on what is known as the X Drive. The data is organized geographically, roughly by continent, with topical data arrangement inside each folder.

If you need a particular dataset, please request remote access to the Data & GIS Lab from your @ucsd email account. Pending approval, you will be granted remote access to the computers where you can access the data holdings. The Library geospatial data holdings can be browsed from this GitHub page of X drive data until we are able to publish the data into an online portal.

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.

Browse the GIS data holdings

GIS Data Links

To facilitate your search, we have sorted our GIS data links into the following categories:

Data by Geographic Region

Data by Topic

Data by Type

Data by Source

Online GIS Data Sites (a select few)

Below are some of the top resources for finding good GIS data online. If you find a good source that isn't on one of our lists, please contact us and we'll be sure to evaluate it and add it on so others can benefit from your work!

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.
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.
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.
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.
GeoData Portal - United Nations
Supply of data sets used by UNEP- has 450+ variables with national, subregional, regional and global statistics and geospatial data sets. Themes include Freshwater, Population, Forests, Emissions, Climate, Disasters, Health and GDP. Dynamic searches for many different nations, regions, cities, etc.
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.
Marine/Coastal GIS Resource
From OSU's Davey Jones' Locker, this is a great place to start any marine/coastal GIS project. Here you will find the full spectrum of links for agencies, bibliographies, conferences, data, labs, software tools and more.
NASA - Global Change Master Directory (GCMD)
The GCMD from NASA holds more than 35,000 Earth science data set and service descriptions, which cover subject areas within the Earth and environmental sciences. Offers access to portals for data on agriculture, atmosphere, biosphere, climate, human dimensions, oceans, earth, and more.
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
SimplyAnalytics is a web-based mapping application that lets users quickly create professional-quality thematic maps and reports using demographic, business, and marketing data for the United States. Access limited to 5 simultaneous users. Try again later if refused. Includes EASI/MediaMark Research Incorporated (MRI) and Simmons LOCAL data packages. (formerly known as SimplyMap).