The OpenGov OpenData Portal - GIS Data Tips and Open Resources: USA

Showing posts with label USA. Show all posts

Saturday, November 20, 2010

The Beauty of the Earth as Seen by Landsat

From the USGS… The Earth as Art 3 exhibit is the third in the series of award-winning USGS and NASA images now available online. Taken from the Landsat 5 and Landsat 7 satellites, Earth as Art 3 depicts an intricate beauty in Earth’s natural patterns. Forty satellite images were selected for the exhibit based solely on their aesthetic appeal. Cloud formations, coastlines, mountain ranges, islands, deltas, glaciers, and rivers seen from space take on patterns resembling abstract art with their striking textures and brilliant colors. Earth as Art 3 follows the Earth as Art 1 and Earth as Art 2 exhibits which have been shown in the Library of Congress, in the halls of Capitol Hill, and in museums and art centers around the country. Check out the Earth as Art 3 collection

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

US Topo A New Generation of Maps

An interesting update came our way via the USGS as more than 50% of the Nation is now "covered" by new USGS digital maps; either the US Topo or earlier released "Digital Map - Beta". The number of quads available for free download from the US Store is actually much more than half the contiguous US!

What Makes the USGS US Topo Different from Other Electronic Maps?

Richer content, multiple layers of data, more than a street map
Can be used on the computer or printed to scale
Looks and feels like legacy paper USGS topographic maps but has technical advantages
Nationally consistent data quality assured to high standards
Downloadable free from the USGS Store
Free, downloadable user tools
Users can select from various reference systems: Latitude/Longitude, UTM (Universal Transverse Mercator), and MGRS (Military Grid Reference System)
Direct "mash-up" capabilities with Google Maps®
Continuous evolution and incorporation of additional data layers

See more here

USDA Geospatial Gateway

A fine resource from the USDA - The Geospatial Data Gateway (GDG) is the One Stop Source for environmental and natural resources data, at anytime, from anywhere, to anyone. The Gateway allows you to choose your area of interest, browse and select data from our catalog, customize the format, and have it downloaded or shipped on CD or DVD. See http://datagateway.nrcs.usda.gov/

Thursday, August 19, 2010

A commitment to openness via Data.gov Provides Access to A Wealth of Geospatial Data

You may have heard about the data.gov web portal - a resource from the Feds designed to increase public access to high value, machine readable datasets. Data.gov increases the ability of the public to easily find, download, and use datasets that are generated and typically held by the Federal Government. Data.gov provides descriptions of the Federal datasets (metadata), information about how to access the datasets, and tools that leverage government datasets.

The site has a noticeable web2.0 flavor with numerous tools designed to help users share and communicate with others, for example, you'll notice the AddThis tool is used, providing a quick way for users to share details of data they find via many social networks and social bookmarking tools. Additionally, links to share via facebook, Twitter, and via email are also provided.

The Geo Tech user will be pleased to see that data can be searched/mined from several locations including a Raw data catalog (access to CSV, XML, KML, and SHP files) with instant access/download, a tool catalog with a wealth of documents, podcasts, widgets, and other useful documents (for example, access the USGS Global Visualization Viewer for Aerial and Satellite Data) ; and the GeoData Catalog with more than 100,000 data products currently held including Census data and products from FEMA, USGS, EPA, NOAA, BLM and many others - you can jump directly to the Data Catalog at http://www.data.gov/catalog/geodata

finally, if you happen to be looking for State data resources there's a handy State data link that will take you to http://www.data.gov/statedatasites - this area seems to be in development as many State links are not yet active. A reminder, is State data is on your plate you can also see the HUGE State Clearinghouse data catalog at (http://www.gisuser.com/content/view/16966/)

Monday, May 14, 2007

Automated Geographic Reference Center (AGRC)

Automated Geographic Reference Center (AGRC) - The Utah Automated Geographic Reference Center (AGRC) provides a wide range of Geographic Information System (GIS) support to the State of Utah. AGRC strives to facilitate coordination among Utah GIS users and effective, efficient use of GIS resources. http://agrc.its.state.ut.us/

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

USGS Data update re. National Land Cover Database (NLCD 2001)

The U.S. Geological Survey, on behalf of the interagency Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium (MRLC), is pleased to announce the availability of NLCD 2001 products for the conterminous United States. These products are web enabled for download from the MRLC website at www.mrlc.gov. NLCD 2001 products include 21 classes of land cover, percent tree canopy and percent urban imperviousness at 30 m resolution derived from Landsat imagery. NLCD 2001 will support a wide variety of users, institutional sectors and local- to national-scale applications with this updated land-cover data. Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico will be completed by December of 2007, which will then represent the first compilation of nationwide land cover ever produced at 30-meter resolution.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

DataPlace and My Geographies

DataPlace is a one-stop source for housing and demographic data about your community, your region, and the nation. The site provides easy access to data at geographic scales ranging from the neighborhood to the nation. DataPlace lets you assemble your own geographies by using the My Geography tool. This tool lets you aggregate multiple disparate location types - States, Metros, Cities, Counties, Zips, and/or Tracts - so that you can aggregate across statistics on DataPlace for a set of locations you choose. The site also provides a powerful yet simple mapping tool that allows you to produce colorful thematic maps with just a few clicks of the mouse. See http://www.dataplace.org

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Updated - State Data Centers and Clearinghouses

Follow this valuable list of pointers to State GIS Clearinghouse nodes... a nicely updated list compiled by the folks at Montana's NRIS... nice job! Most of these resources contain freely downloadable data products that include DRG, DEM, DOQ, soils data, census products, aerial photography, NED, and more.

Monday, October 09, 2006

USDA FSGeodata Clearinghouse

The FSGeodata Clearinghouse provides searching, viewing and downloading of geospatial datasets and metadata created and maintained by the USDA Forest Service over lands of the National Forest System. Access to datasets is provided through a user-driven geographic interface. Access various vector and raster data products as well as real-time and near real-time MODIS fire detection GIS data, MODIS fire detection maps, and MODIS imagery. CFF data available include: roads and trails, streams, water bodies, political and administrative boundaries, land ownership, and constructed features - all at 1:24k scale - See http://svinetfc4.fs.fed.us/

Sunday, September 17, 2006

GeoData.gov

The ultimate U.S map service. Use this spatial repository and web service to locate GIS data and data services including pretty much any data theme you can think of... hurricane tracks, wildfire info, census data, topography, etc... See http://geodata.gov/ or go directly to http://gos2.geodata.gov/wps/portal/gos

Saturday, September 16, 2006

MODIS, 16-Day NDVI

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) derived from MODIS data is provided here on a 16 day basis for the conterminous United States. The original band files used to derive the NDVI are also available and a band file with cloud information (for data from 2001 to the present). Data are in GeoTIFF and have been projected to Alber's. See http://glcfapp.umiacs.umd.edu:8080/esdi/product?productID=19

US Census Bureau FTP Access

NEed Census data... how about a simply FTP server to access them? US Census Bureau's FT site providing quick and easy access via FTP to a huge assortment of data products, categorized by decade (1980, 90, and 2000) http://www2.census.gov/

US Large Scale (24k) DLG data (ftp)

Need DLGs? Look no more! The 1:24,000-scale DEM data archived here at the EROS site is divided just like 7.5' paper maps into 7.5 x 7.5-minute sets indexed by the USGS quadrangle name. Use the FTP by Alphabetical List site if the name of the FTP via Graphics to search for the desired data. The data is registered using metric UTM values according to NAD27. Grid cell elevations are presented in meters. http://edcftp.cr.usgs.gov/pub/data/DLG/LARGE_SCALE/

Vector Shorelines for the U.S. Gulf of Mexico

There are nine GIS data layers offered for each state in the Gulf of Mexico. These include: four vector shorelines, an offshore baseline used for generating shore-normal transects, transects for long- and short- term shoreline change rates, transect/shoreline intersection positions, and a vector layer to show the spatial extents of beach nourishment projects. See http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2004/1089/gis-data.html

North American Transportation Atlas Data (NORTAD)

A comprehensive, free transportation database with data themes and layers for Canada, USA, and Mexico. Data layers include highways, airports, ports, rail, and other transportation routes. Order on CD or simply download for free.. translation routines are also available.
http://www.bts.gov/publications/north_american_transportation_atlas_data/

Libre Map Project - free DRG project

An effort to make the entire USGS DRG set freely available to the public via the Internet Archive. See http://libre.redjar.org/maps/

Monday, September 11, 2006

National Hydrographic database (NHD)

The National Hydrography Dataset is now available in a new database design that allows better web-based access and query, as well as truly seamless data that can be downloaded in various extents. The new database design provides a distribution format called NHDinGEO. Data requests in NHDinGEO can be extracted by subbasin, county, congressional district or by topographic map quad. Pre-staged personal geodatabases by subregion are now available on the ftp site ftp://nhdftp.usgs.gov/SubRegions. Select the High, Local, or Medium folder. See also http://nhd.usgs.gov/data.html

Friday, September 08, 2006

Washington state GIS Data - UW Geology Dept.

UW Geology is a fabulous resource providing simple and fast access to Washington State DRG, DOQ, clipped DRGs and 10m DEMs...

Washington DRG locator

The Washington DRG locator is a decent resource when users can easily go in, click on a map, and download a DRG. Simply click the keymap to reveal a lengthy listing of all the quads available for the sector you selected. Files are ZIP compressed and you can easily move up to the parent and grab all the data in one swoop.