This page provides information on how to find geospatial data for:
Geospatial data for the United States may be acquired from a variety of sources, including:
ESRI's ArcGIS Resources site provides a variety of resources for use in developing ArcGIS models. Examples include:
Communities (focused on various ESRI user groups)
The Atlas of Historical County Boundaries is meant to be a resource for people seeking records of past events, and people trying to analyze, interpret and display county-based historical data like returns of elections and censuses, and for people working on state and local history projects. The special interests of those potential users range from history to demography, economics, genealogy, geography, law, and politics. While many of these goals can be achieved using the Atlas' Interactive Maps, the downloadable data can be used with various GIS (Geographic Information Systems) programs to create specialized projects.
The Atlas of Historical County Boundaries is meant to be a resource for people seeking records of past events, and people trying to analyze, interpret and display county-based historical data like returns of elections and censuses, and for people working on state and local history projects. The special interests of those potential users range from history to demography, economics, genealogy, geography, law, and politics. While many of these goals can be achieved using the Atlas' Interactive Maps, the downloadable data can be used with various GIS (Geographic Information Systems) programs to create specialized projects.
OnTheMap Version 6 is the sixth generation of OnTheMap, a web-based mapping and reporting application that shows where workers are employed and where they live. It also provides companion reports on age, earnings, industry distributions, race, ethnicity, educational attainment, and sex.
The Spatial Analysis Reseach Section released the 2009 Cropland Data Layer (CDL) for ALL Continental US States. All state products were issued in unsmoothed format, with the exception of Florida (i.e., citrus smoothing applied) with associated metadata. The file sizes are quite large and range between 13 - 100 megabytes per download.
Tabular and Statistical data from federal agencies
ERS's highly trained economists and social scientists conduct research, analyze food and commodity markets, produce policy studies, and develop economic and statistical indicators. The agency’s research program is aimed at the information needs of USDA, other public policy officials, and the research community. ERS information and analysis is also used by the media, trade associations, public interest groups, and the general public.
The U.S. Interagency Elevation Inventory displays high-accuracy topographic and bathymetric data for the United States and its territories. The project is a collaborative effort between NOAA and the U.S. Geological Survey, with contributions from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. This resource is a comprehensive, nationwide listing of known high-accuracy topographic data, including lidar and IfSAR, and bathymetric data, including NOAA hydrographic surveys, multibeam data, and bathymetric lidar. This inventory was completed May 2012 and will be updated annually.
The information provided for each elevation dataset includes many attributes such as vertical accuracy, point spacing, and date of collection. A direct link to access the data or information about the contact organization is also available through the inventory.
A large body of research has demonstrated that land use and the built environment can have a significant effect on travel behavior. An EPA-funded meta-analysis of this literature, "Travel and the Built Environment," summarized the measurable effects of built environment variables on residents’ travel behavior. It found that driving is most strongly related to measures of destination accessibility and street network design, while walking is most strongly related to measures of land use diversity, intersection density, and the number of destinations within walking distance.
These findings can help to inform travel demand studies as well as land use scenario impact analysis. However developing data about these built environment characteristics can be expensive and time consuming. EPA’s Smart Location Database makes such data more widely accessible.
Flood Rate Insurance Maps [FIRMs] on the Web
Raster and vector forest data, state and private forestry assessment data, maps, etc.
USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. This site includes county and state level data, including but not limited to: DRGs, DEMs, census data, land cover, quad indexes, digital orthophotos, etc.
(USGS) Provides public access to high-quality, geospatial data and information from multiple partners to help support decision making by resource managers and the public. The National Map is the product of a consortium of Federal, State, and local partners who provide geospatial data to enhance America's ability to access, integrate, and apply geospatial data at global, national, and local scales.
(NSDI) - Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC)
Digital wetlands data from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Branch of Habitat Assessment.
Quick links to many of the popular USGS raster datasets for direct downloading including Digital Elevation Models (DEMs), National Elevation Dataset (NED), National Land Use & Land Cover (LULC), and the National hydrology Dataset (NHD).
Download free USGS topographic maps at various scales. Use the "Map Locator" to select a site, view the quad boundaries and download a PDF.
Individual states maintain online "clearinghouses" providing access to geospatial data resources pertaining to their state. The District of Columbia also maintains an analogous clearinghouse.
International geospatial data may be obtained from a variety of sources:
The SCAR Antarctic Digital Database (ADD) is a seamless compilation of topographic data for the continent of Antarctica to 60°S. The SCAR ADD consists of geographic information layers including coastline, ice-shelf grounding line, rock outcrop, elevation data and human-presence features such as Research Station locations.
An interactive web GIS for the Congo Basin and the CARPE Data Explorer lets you search and browse CARPE-related data and metadata. You can search by defining an area of interest, or by specifying a content type and an optional keyword.
The China Historical Geographic Information System, CHGIS, project was launched in January 2001 to establish a database of populated places and historical administrative units for the period of Chinese history between 222 BCE and 1911 CE.
CIESIN works at the intersection of the social, natural, and information sciences, and specializes in on-line data and information management, spatial data integration and training, and interdisciplinary research related to human interactions in the environment.
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) is an information system designed to identify problems in the food supply system that potentially lead to famine or other food-insecure conditions in sub-Saharan Africa, Afghanistan, Central America, and Haiti.
GIS gateway to geosaptial resources within the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations.
Access the FAO GeoNetwork site to search and download spatial data.
Open Access Portal to French Government inforamtion.
GeoCommons is the public community of GeoIQ users who are building an open repository of data and maps for the world.
GeoGratis is a portal provided by the Earth Sciences Sector (ESS) of Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) which provides geospatial data at no cost via your Web browser.
Free GIS data downloads from the Australian government.
The GLCF is a center for land cover science with a focus on research using remotely sensed satellite data and products to assess land cover change for local to global systems. Direct download global land cover data for use in a GIS.
Natural Earth is a public domain map dataset available at 1:10m, 1:50m, and 1:110 million scales.
Direct access (via FTP) to soils, hydrology, climate, satellite imagery,vegetation and wetlands data for the southern Africa region.
The Second Administrative Level Boundaries (SALB) dataset is a dataset aiming at improving the availability of information about administrative boundaries down to the second subnational level.
SEDAC, the Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center, is one of the Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) in the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
International streets data and transportation networks from OpenStreetMap data.
Access to maps displaying the wide variety of data collected through the World Bank.
WorldClim is a set of global climate layers (climate grids) with a spatial resolution of about 1 square kilometer.