Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

Finding geospatial data may be easier than you think. Many city, county, and state governments have dedicated data repositories for GIS data; if not, they may have a GIS employee/team that can be contacted to obtain data. The federal government, through its many agencies, also manages several popular data repositories containing a vast amount of geospatial data. 

If you can't find the specific data you're looking for below, don't fret. Read the following to continue your search for data online: 

• When searching the web for data, a good place to start is simply your topic/area of interest + "GIS data" (e.g., Lockhart TX GIS data" or "Houston crime GIS data"). 
• Make sure you are getting data from a reputable source. Ensure it's coming from a trusted organization or authority (government, NGO, credible business organization, etc.) and review the metadata to ensure that it fits your needs. 
• Filter through large datasets by date, area of interest, or other attributes you are interested in. For example, if you are looking for a state road shapefile for nearby Caldwell County, it may be inefficient to download a complete road shapefile for the entire state. Instead, filter it down to Caldwell and only include state-level roads to avoid downloading a lot of redundant data. 
• Take advantage of ArcGIS Online. You can search for all content anyone has ever publicly published (turn off the Only Search in Texas State University option when you search) or search through Living Atlas to find authoritative, high-quality datasets curated by Esri.

You are also welcome to schedule a consultation with our team if you need assistance finding data. 

Imagery can be more difficult to find than other data types. Thankfully, there are many free online databases that allow users to find, select, and download different types of images.