This tag indicates questions about obtaining data
94
votes
47answers
6k views
What free programs should every GIS user have installed?
I'm not necessarily referring to ESRI extensions or open-source products, but others that increase your productivity and ability to handle GIS tasks.
For example, Notepad++ for writing code snippets ...
16
votes
7answers
1k views
GIS data for fast food industry
I am working a small project related to fast food industry. I am trying find GIS data for fast food chains like subway, MC Donald's, Arby's, etc in state of Ohio. Basically, I am looking for point ...
29
votes
6answers
4k views
Downloading OpenStreetMap Data
Is there a straightforward way to download data from OpenStreetMap (OSM)?
Using North America as an example, I realize Cloudmade (http://downloads.cloudmade.com/north_america) and geofabrik ...
23
votes
18answers
17k views
Are there any free administrative boundaries available as shapefiles?
After learning about the US Census's TIGERLines datasets I'm addicted to GIS :)
I've working with the following layers, from the USA data
Country boundaries
State boundaries
County boundaries
City ...
12
votes
3answers
2k views
Converting SimpleGeo Places GeoJSON file to shapefile?
SimpleGeo has recently made their "Places" data set freely available which is GREAT, because now we can use it for our own purposes, even offline. So I went about downloading the 2GB dataset, which ...
19
votes
3answers
2k views
Most Up-To-Date Source for US Zip Code Boundaries
I was just wondering what the most up-to-date source for US Zip Code boundaries would be. My first thought was TIGER, whenever that comes out, but then I thought that the Postal Service might be a ...
7
votes
11answers
1k views
Logging GPS and Accelerometer Data - Device Suggestion?
I am looking for a device that can track my location (lat,long) and speed all day long. Perhaps, I need GPS and accelerometer data bundled together.
What I want to do is to log my daily activities. I ...
1
vote
3answers
374 views
Where can I find the finest granularity of 2010 US census population information?
I am writing a re-districting application where I want to be able to create US voting districts based on geographic coordinate population data. In a perfect world, I would have the population for each ...
12
votes
8answers
364 views
List of US government free GIS data online
The US government publishes a plethora of useful, high-quality GIS data sources online.
The data includes:
Municipal and international boundaries
Classified points of interest
Geographic maps
...
19
votes
6answers
475 views
Open access repository of general GIS spatial data?
As a newcomer to using GIS for research, I am wondering if there are online repositories for spatial data, similar to package repositories for Linux distributions.
For instance, I would be able to ...
15
votes
6answers
760 views
Sources of realtime spatial data
I'm trying to set up a demo that serves up live spatial data, but am having trouble finding any suitable example data sources.
Ideally I'm looking for something that updates every few seconds; either ...
16
votes
3answers
550 views
Where to get street data in an importable format?
I don't want to use WMS layers, but to actually store the data in my local server, where can I find street data from the world?
13
votes
3answers
4k views
Where can I find building footprint data?
Are there any sources for free and distributable building footprint datasets for major cities around the United States?
Ideally, the data would also have the number of stories of each building; is ...
6
votes
6answers
4k views
Is there a comprehensive list of latitude and longitude values for cities around the world?
I'm developing an application that calculates the distance between cities using their respective Longitude and Latitude values.
But the problem is where to get a comprehensive list of latitude and ...
12
votes
5answers
948 views
Is there a source for historical shapefiles and tiles?
Is there a source for historical shapefiles and tiles? Like the ancient Greece/Rome, medieval Europe and Japan? Ideally with multiple snapshots during different periods in their development, since ...
8
votes
10answers
1k views
Need a Benchmark GPS Trajectory data-set? Anyone?
I'm looking for a benchmark GPS data set, available for research purposes for free. I've found GeoLife GPS Trajectories dataset from Microsoft Research but I find it a little incomplete.
What I need ...
7
votes
4answers
1k views
Site to download al USGS Topo Maps in bulk
I am trying to create seamless topomap WMS or TMS layer that covers the entire US (not interested in geo-pdfs). To do that, I need either the rasters (geo-tiffs, etc) or preferably vectors (whatever ...
4
votes
3answers
619 views
How can i transfer data from a spreadsheet into a shapefile?
I am looking at Deprivation in the UK and there is some good data in the form of spreadsheets on this website http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/corporate/statistics/indices2010
I would like ...
1
vote
2answers
749 views
POI Datasets for North America
I use foursquare because it contains a lot of POIs.
Which database do you use when you need a point of interest in North America?
15
votes
8answers
350 views
Are there sources for more esoteric data than streets worldwide?
Related to this question.
For example, things like:
political world map (as polygons)
cities of the world
geolocated climate data (avg temp, humidity, rain, as polygons),
earthquakes,
hurricanes ...
17
votes
3answers
392 views
How can we protect GIS data?
I have found a very interesting paper here related to this topic.
I just want to have views/ideas from other professional about how we can protect GIS data using Cryptography or Digital Watermarking?
...
11
votes
4answers
2k views
Simplifying adjacent polygons
I encountered a problem simplifying set of polygons that are adjacent. If I simplify each polygon separately with the Douglas–Peucker algorithm (which is used by many open source tools), the resulting ...
7
votes
7answers
7k views
Select distinct values from a single column of an attribute table (or layer)
Is there a way to select distinct values from a column in ArcMap?
I have the data in both GDB and SHP formats.
I have searched for ways to select using SQL, QueryLayers, ModelBuilder and individual ...
5
votes
4answers
2k views
Free sources of mapping data for France
We are moving to France soon, and are currently investigating a lot of areas. Does anyone know of good online/offline resources for French mapping? I am very interested in mapping, weather, ...
5
votes
5answers
274 views
Provincial Base Mapping Data Sources in Canada
I'm very familiar with the Ontario Base Mapping Data, and am looking for similar data for other Canadian Provinces. Perhaps we can start a list of resources here? I'm looking for something at a larger ...
5
votes
2answers
241 views
Available US State or National business (or employer) database lists?
This question dovetails with this post on geomarketing applications.
I am familiar with some of larger, paid-for business registry's like InfoUSA and Dunn & Bradstreet. While the detailed ...
5
votes
3answers
1k views
Does a national(USA) interstate rest stop/rest area dataset exist?
And I don't care about format--worry about that later! I found some maps in Google maps, usually per state. I also have one map made my someone else, that no longer appears in the Google Maps search ...
9
votes
2answers
84 views
Tools to compare unversioned copies of geospatial data
My office has about 100 GB of geospatial data of varying forms (imagery, feature classes in geodatabases, LIDAR, tables, etc) that have gone somewhat unmanaged for the decade during which they were ...
1
vote
1answer
1k views
Looking for vector data for the country Turkey
specifically roads, railroads, and rivers shape files.... no cost would be nice, but it needs to be more detailed and accurate than mapcruzin's free data. Something under $500 would also be ...
6
votes
4answers
240 views
Where can I get country, region, and city data?
I need the names of countries, country regions and cities of the world.
Where do I get that kind of information?
0
votes
4answers
397 views
Illinois Legislative Zip to District Match Data Set
I have the Zip +4 for the about 650 areas and I need to find Illinois Senator and Rep code,
address, name. How can I solve this issue. Did anyone solve this issue using any vendor data? We do not want ...
6
votes
1answer
286 views
Breakline detection algorithms for LIDAR dataset
I'm searching for algorithms or open source tools I could use to detect breaklines from a LIDAR dataset; more specifically, from the terrain points of the dataset. At the moment the only thing I've ...
15
votes
4answers
480 views
How to handle TIME in GIS?
Is there any way or any idea on how to handle Time attribute in GIS? For example, which are the ways to specify that an object is at a place at a given time interval and them it is in another place ...
13
votes
7answers
3k views
Where can I find China data?
I'm looking for good free online sources of vector data on China (shapefiles of cities, provinces, terrain etc). Would anyone be able to suggest where to look? Are there any open repositories of this ...
11
votes
2answers
2k views
Google Fusion Tables vs Amazon Web Services: which is better for GIS data?
What are the pros/cons for storing storing spatial data in Google Fusion Tables versus Amazon Web Services?
Factors would include: Cost, performance, ease of update.
14
votes
3answers
893 views
What is the wire format for Google's new vector map tiles?
Google recently released new vector cartography for their mobile maps. I'm curious if anyone here has any insight into the wire format they use for transmission? I've experimented with a few formats ...
10
votes
3answers
2k views
How to download the entire ASTER GDEMv2 dataset?
On October, NASA released the new ASTER GDEM global dataset (30m) and I have been wanting to get my hands on it. The only problem is that it takes forever to download and I do not feel like drawing ...
8
votes
2answers
286 views
PostGIS (2.0?) - Native Versioning of the Datastore
I recently have been surprised to see there are not too many solutions at all discussing the best methods of versioning datastores which are made available for editing.
I am looking for a robust, ...
9
votes
8answers
888 views
Where can I get Australian Spatial Data?
I need to start doing some GIS demos for Australian clients.
I have a few ideas on what I want to demo, but I have now realised I should find some data before thinking too hard.
In terms of basemap ...
14
votes
2answers
470 views
What is the best practice for data management? [duplicate]
I have always been curious how other folks are storing their spatial data. Outside of an enterprise environment where much data is stored in enterprise geodatabases, is it better to store data per ...
12
votes
2answers
461 views
Where is Wikipedia's coordinate information stored, and how can I retrieve it?
Background: I'd like to add icons to my map showing locations which have Wikipedia entries.
The WikiLocation API is a great resource for determining Wiki entries near an XY location, but it has ...
3
votes
3answers
296 views
What kind of datasets are necessary for geomarketing applications?
If you would have to create a data base for geomarketing applications yourself, what kind of datasets would you purchase/collect? The first goal would be to find new store locations. Another would be ...
19
votes
3answers
343 views
Why are Data Projections relevant?
Sorry for my ignorance - especially after being in this area for a long time.
Why is it useful to store data in unusual projections and datums? I understand the value of projections as output ...
10
votes
3answers
844 views
What is a good taxonomy or naming convention for files and folders containing GIS data?
My company has collected about 30 TBs of GIS data over the past 8 years, and I always find myself asking the following questions:
What type of data do we have for a given geographic area?
What are ...
8
votes
11answers
702 views
canvec: why so quiet? where are all the users?
It has now been a little over 3 years since Natural Resources Canada released CanVec, a national coast to coast to coast spatial dataset at 1:50,000 or better nominal scale. In the interverning time ...
7
votes
3answers
351 views
How is raw OSM data processed for openstreetmap.org
Can anyone provide insight into how OSM data is processed or rendered for www.openstreetmap.org?
A specific example... I extracted data from a recent planet.osm PostGIS dataset for an area in ...
7
votes
5answers
371 views
Where can I get neighborhood boundaries?
Besides Zillow's creative-commons licensed neighborhood boundaries shapefiles, what sources of neighborhood boundaries are there? Not just in the US, but all over the world.
Free/open source is ...
6
votes
1answer
1k views
Looking for ZIP+4 boundaries
I know where to find 5-digit ZIP code boundaries. Do 9-digit ZIP code boundaries exist? If so, where might I find them?
2
votes
1answer
417 views
Seeking shapefiles of business locations
Does anyone know where to find shapefiles of businesses such as grocery stores or gas stations?
Thanks!!
13
votes
4answers
1k views
Near real-time sources of lightning strike data
I am wondering if anyone has any suggestions on sources of near real-time lightning strike data available for download? For example, Intellicast.com has a map of strikes, but makes no mention of the ...
