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 email the GIS Librarian or Maps Librarian from your @ucsd email account and we will email the data to you. 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.
GIS Data Links
To facilitate your search, we have sorted our GIS data links into the categories of:
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!
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California State GeoportalThe 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.
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CGIAR-CSI Consortium for Spatial InformationAn 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.
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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.
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DIVA GIS - DataA 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.
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GeoData Portal - United NationsSupply 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.
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GeoNetwork - The portal to spatial data and informationA 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.
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Marine/Coastal GIS ResourceFrom 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.
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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.
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SanGISOne 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.
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SimplyAnalyticsSimplyAnalytics 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).
