Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Services: Data by Subject

A to Z Maps Online

• For downloadable political, physical, population, climate, historical etc. maps for different parts of the world. Maps come in different formats and are solely for educational purposes.

California State Government

• Provides links to other state government GIS repositories that contain datasets on topics such as healthcare, public health, fish and wildlife, natural resources, and census.

CIESIN &SEDAC & WDC (from Columbia University)

• CEISIN Georeferenced Population Data Sets of Mexico  

China Data Center

• A resource hosted by the University of Michigan which provides free statistical data and other data about China on topics like hydrography, relief maps, landuse, and census.

China Dimensions

• Hosted by Columbia University's Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) at the Earth Institute. It provides a variety of socioeconomic data, including Geographic Information System (GIS) databases that cover the administrative regions of China, presented at a scale of 1:1,000,000. These databases may be integrated with agricultural, land use, environmental, and socioeconomic data to track China's economic growth, population increases, and environmental change.

China Historical GIS Data Archive

• A database of populated places and historical administrative units for the period of Chinese history between 221 BCE and 1911 CE

ESRI Free GIS Data

• Census TIGER line shapefiles and other free data.

GIS2GPS

• Includes many links on where to find GIS data including census data, water resources, etc.

Houston-Galveston Area Council - GIS Data Clearinghouse

• Provides GIS data for census boundaries, regional boundaries, statewide boundaries, cultural features, environmental, hazards, hydrologic datasets, land features, land cover datasets, transportation, water quality Aerial photos, Lidar, Census, Land Use/Cover datasets etc.

Map NY (SUNY Albany)

• A map-based information system developed with ArcIMS, connects communities with helpful information using data from the census as well as state and federal agency reports. It provides city, town and tract level information and, in a separate mapping page, county level data as well.

National Historic GIS

• Historical agricultural and census data since 1790.

New York State Data Center

• A valuable source for economic and demographic information in New York State.

Princeton Empirical Studies of Conflict (ESOC)

• Provides various data on Mexico including Demographic/Socio-economic data, Administrative boundaries, Transportation, Public Opinion on Security and Crime data.

SACOG Info Center

• SACOG creates and maintains a tremendous quantity of data, including maps about the Sacramento region which covers El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba Counties and the cities within each county. Examples of datasets provided include demographics, and administrative boundaries.

SimplyAnalytics (On-Campus Access)

SimplyAnalytics (Off-Campus Access; find SimplyAnalytics under "S" Databases then log in with you TXState ID and password)

• A web-based mapping application that  provides users the ability to interact with complex datasets, create maps and download data.

Social Explorer

• “Current and historical US Census data available for download through a map viewer”.

Texas State Data Center and Office of the State Demographer

• Provides census data including population estimates and projections for Texas, as well as other information from the federal government, state government, and other sources.

Texas Natural Resources Information System

• "TNRIS archives, maintains, and distributes the largest collection of current and historical geospatial data sets on environmental, geological and administrative issues for the State of Texas."

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

• “The authoritative source for data sets used by UNEP and its partners in the Global Environment Outlook (GEO) report and other integrated environment assessments. It holds more than 500 different variables, as national, sub-regional, regional and global statistics or as geospatial data sets covering themes like Freshwater, Population, Forests, Emissions, Climate, Disasters, Health and GDP”.

University of Arizona - Mexico GIS Data

• Provides access to geospatial data for Mexico such as Administrative boundaries, census, rivers, archaeological sites etc.

US Census - American Factfinder

• US Census website with links to Decennial and American Community Survey data.

US Census Bureau

• US Census website with links to various Census Boundary datasets.

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

• Provides access to data sets developed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development such as data on housing discrimination, and the public housing population.

Boulder County, CO GIS

• Boulder County provides maps and data for topics including land use, transportation, open space and trails, and a range of health issues.

Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS)

• Find geospatial data that is part of the BTS National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD) such as flows of people, goods, vehicles, and craft over the transportation networks; and social, economic, and environmental conditions that affect or are affected by the transportation networks as well as Bridge Inventory.
• Alternative link: https://www.bts.gov/maps 

Cal-Atlas GeoSpatial Downloads

• The Cal-Atlas site coordinates the development, maintenance, licensing and sharing of geospatial data and web map services by California government agencies, partners and stakeholders. The following are some datasets made available: elevation, biota, agriculture, transportation, administrative boundaries, health etc.

California Department of Transportation

• A great source for Statewide Transportation data.

Capital Area Council of Governments, Texas

• "CAPCOG provides vector data (e.g. point, line, or polygon) as an ESRI geodatabase and an ESRI shapefile; and raster data (e.g. orthoimagery, digital elevation models, etc.) as a MrSID file for the Capital Area / Central Texas area". Data covers topics like hydrology, geology, political boundaries, land cover, transportation etc.

CIESIN &SEDAC & WDC (from Columbia University)

• An online repository hosted by Columbia University that offers GIS data on topics like transportation, climatic conditions and biophysical conditions.

City of Austin              

• Shapefiles and Raster Files on the following themes: Address Points, Subdivision boundaries, City Grid, Facilities, Hospitals, Zipcodes, Electrical Service Areas, MUD's, Water Service Lines, Contour Lines, City Parks Creeks and Lakes, watersheds, Land use, City Zones etc.

City of Pflugerville, Texas                  

• Provides geospatial datasets for the Pflugerville area including City Limits, Subdivisions, Streets, Transportation Plan, Zoning etc.

City of Round Rock                 

• Provides geospatial datasets for the Round Rock area including Address Points, Buildings, City Limits, Contour Lines, Drainage Basins, Land Use Layers, Parcels, Rail Roads, Streets, Subdivisions, Zoning

Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT)

• Road networks, boundaries etc.

Colorado Spatial Reference Network

• Global Positioning System (GPS) reference stations and networks Information.

CORRD: Colorado Renewable Resource Database

• An interactive map of wind classes, transmission lines, and federal lands in Colorado.

DIVA GIS - Data

• GIS data covering different topics like administrative boundaries, water, roads, landcover, population, and climate for almost all countries in the world.

ESRI North America Detailed Streets

• The site provides U.S. and Canada Detailed Streets which represents detailed streets, interstate highways, and major roads within the United States and Canada. The data could be used for both geocoding and vector-based network analysis.

Fort Bend County GIS             

• For various GIS Datasets like roads, DEM etc. for Fort Bend, TX

Harris County Appraisal District                    

• For Roadways, highways, utilities, emergency, easements, county borders

Houston-Galveston Area Council - GIS Data Clearinghouse

• Provides GIS data for census boundaries, regional boundaries, statewide boundaries, cultural features, environmental, hazards, hydrologic datasets, land features, land cover datasets, transportation, water quality Aerial photos, Lidar, Census, Land Use/Cover datasets etc.

National Bridge Inventory (NBI)

• A database comprising the Nation's bridges located on public roads including Interstate Highways, U.S. highways, State and county roads, as well as publicly-accessible bridges on Federal lands.
• Alternative links: ArcGIS Hub; ArcGIS Online

Ordnance Survey (Great Britain)

• Provides various GIS datasets such as topography, road networks, imagery, DEM etc. on the UK.

Texas Association of Counties

• A central clearinghouse for Texas county-related information and datasets. Datasets include both tabular and geospatial data on agriculture, economy, financial, health, natural resources, redistricting, and transportation in Texas.

Texas Department of Transportation

• Obtain various transport/traffic related GIS datasets for Texas.

Texas General Land Office

• Provides a variety of data on Texas including political boundaries, hydrography, transportation, topography, ecology, parks, energy resources, and coastlines, coastal leases, oil spill/coastal response data, and coastal management program data.

Texas Natural Resources Information System

• "TNRIS archives, maintains, and distributes the largest collection of current and historical geospatial data sets on environmental, geological and administrative issues for the State of Texas."

SCAG Mapping and GIS

• Map and geospatial data from the Southern California Association of Governments. The SCAG Region covers Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside, Ventura and Imperial counties. Available datasets include administrative boundaries, transportation networks, flood data, traffic analysis etc.

"Shapefiles of Mexico"

• A blog handled by Diego Valle-Jones providing data and metadata (in Spanish) about Mexico. Datasets include Administrative boundaries, Places, Transportation etc.

Bureau of Economic Analysis

• Regional, national, international economic data.

Bureau of Labor Statistics

• Regional, national, and international labor and business data.

China Dimensions

• Hosted by Columbia University's Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) at the Earth Institute. It provides a variety of socioeconomic data, including Geographic Information System (GIS) databases that cover the administrative regions of China, presented at a scale of 1:1,000,000. These databases may be integrated with agricultural, land use, environmental, and socioeconomic data to track China's economic growth, population increases, and environmental change.

CIESIN &SEDAC & WDC - Columbia University

• A web resource hosted by Columbia University which provides GIS data focused on human interactions in the environment. The data are supplied from these portals: Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC), and the World Data Center for Human Interactions.

City of Houston Planning Data

• "The P&D Department has developed an enterprise level GIS to serve the entire City of Houston. The goal of the GIS division is to serve the geographic information system and geospatial needs of the City of Houston across departments and among all staff and citizens."

Growth Watch

• A great resource for obtaining data on physical development in the Austin, TX area. The site provides GIS datasets, spreadsheets, and maps on development activity. See Growth Watch Data by Year for georeferenced building permits.

Hays County   

• For various GIS Datasets for Hays County, TX like addresses, appraisal value etc.

SimplyAnalytics (On-Campus Access)

SimplyAnalytics (Off-Campus Access; find SimplyAnalytics under "S" Databases then log in with you TXState ID and password)

• A web-based mapping application that  provides users the ability to interact with complex datasets, create maps and download data.

Travis Central Appraisal District                   

• For datasets such as address and value of house

Texas Association of Counties

• A central clearinghouse for Texas county-related information and datasets. Datasets include both tabular and geospatial data on agriculture, economy, financial, health, natural resources, redistricting, and transportation in Texas.

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

• Provides access to data sets developed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development such as data on housing discrimination, and the public housing population.

Cal-Atlas GeoSpatial Downloads

• The Cal-Atlas site coordinates the development, maintenance, licensing and sharing of geospatial data and web map services by California government agencies, partners and stakeholders. The following are some datasets made available: elevation, biota, agriculture, transportation, administrative boundaries, health etc.

China Dimensions

• Hosted by Columbia University's Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) at the Earth Institute. It provides a variety of socioeconomic data, including Geographic Information System (GIS) databases that cover the administrative regions of China, presented at a scale of 1:1,000,000. These databases may be integrated with agricultural, land use, environmental, and socioeconomic data to track China's economic growth, population increases, and environmental change.

CUGIR (Cornell University)

• An active online repository in the National Spatial Data Clearinghouse program that provides geospatial data and metadata for New York State, with special emphasis on those natural features relevant to agriculture, ecology, natural resources, and human-environment interactions.

European Environment Agency

• Datasets cover the entire continent and are about topics like emissions, agriculture, land use, natural resources etc.

International Livestock Research Institute

• A resource dedicated to documenting livestock and land related issues pertaining to Africa. Available data are primarily limited to East African countries.

National Historic GIS

• Historical agricultural and census data since 1790.

Texas Association of Counties

• A central clearinghouse for Texas county-related information and datasets. Datasets include both tabular and geospatial data on agriculture, economy, financial, health, natural resources, redistricting, and transportation in Texas.

The Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS)

• A voluntary partnership of governments and international organizations that aims at creating a unified body that will link Earth observation resources world-wide across multiple Societal Benefit Areas - agriculture, biodiversity, climate, disasters, ecosystems, energy, health, water and weather.

Boulder County, CO GIS

• Boulder County provides maps and data for topics including land use, transportation, open space and trails, and a range of health issues.

Cal-Atlas GeoSpatial Downloads

• The Cal-Atlas site coordinates the development, maintenance, licensing and sharing of geospatial data and web map services by California government agencies, partners and stakeholders. The following are some datasets made available: elevation, biota, agriculture, transportation, administrative boundaries, health etc.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Cancer Data & Statistics

• Access and analyze high-quality population-based cancer incidence data on the entire United States population.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/ Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry

• CDC Social VuInerability Index (SVI) Data and Documentation Download. 
  • Obtain shapefiles, reports and other files about Social Vulnerability in the USA.
• CDC Social VuInerability Index (SVI) Interactive Map.
• Geospatial Research, Analysis, and Services Program (GRASP) Map Gallery.

City of Austin Public Health Data              

• Shapefiles and other files on the following themes: Food Establishment Inspection Scores, Health and Community Services, Health and Human Services Locations etc.

California State Government

• Provides links to other state government GIS repositories that contain datasets on topics such as healthcare, public health, fish and wildlife, natural resources, and census.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

• EPA has good information on the science and population health that relates to the environment.

National Institutes of Health Cancer Data

• Find interactive maps and downloadable tabular and spatial datasets on Cancer in the USA. 

Texas Association of Counties

• A central clearinghouse for Texas county-related information and datasets. Datasets include both tabular and geospatial data on agriculture, economy, financial, health, natural resources, redistricting, and transportation in Texas.

The Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS)

• A voluntary partnership of governments and international organizations that aims at creating a unified body that will link Earth observation resources world-wide across multiple Societal Benefit Areas - agriculture, biodiversity, climate, disasters, ecosystems, energy, health, water and weather.

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

• “The authoritative source for data sets used by UNEP and its partners in the Global Environment Outlook (GEO) report and other integrated environment assessments. It holds more than 500 different variables, as national, sub-regional, regional and global statistics or as geospatial data sets covering themes like Freshwater, Population, Forests, Emissions, Climate, Disasters, Health and GDP”.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services -Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)

• Use the Behavioral Health Treatment Services Locator (Online Map Engine) to obtain data about treatment facilities (for substance use/addiction and/or mental health) in the United States or U.S. Territories.

Fort Worth Crime Data

• This data comes from the police department and includes crime data sorted by offense.

Open Data DC

• Great source for varied datasets for the District of Columbia government including crime data.

Princeton Empirical Studies of Conflict (ESOC)

• Provides various data on Mexico including Demographic/Socio-economic data, Administrative boundaries, Transportation, Public Opinion on Security and Crime data.

Princeton - Empirical Studies of Conflict - Mexico Homicides (2006 – 2011)

• Geo-referenced yearly data at the municipal level on homicides reported in death certificates from 2006 to 2011.

Police Data Initiative

• Crime and law enforcement related datasets for various metropolitan/municipality law enforcement agencies across U.S.A.

Cal-Adapt

• Provided by California Energy Commission. Datasets available include climate change risks within specific geographic areas of California.

New York State Museum

• A great resource to find data on topics like geology, oil and gas, and boundaries.

Railroad Commission of Texas

• "This geographic information system combines detailed information and location coordinates for oil wells, gas wells, and pipelines from the Commission's files with base map data captured from U.S. Geological Survey 7.5 minute quadrangle maps."

Texas Association of Counties

• A central clearinghouse for Texas county-related information and datasets. Datasets include both tabular and geospatial data on agriculture, economy, financial, health, natural resources, redistricting, and transportation in Texas.

Texas General Land Office

• Provides a variety of data on Texas including political boundaries, hydrography, transportation, topography, ecology, parks, energy resources, and coastlines, coastal leases, oil spill/coastal response data, and coastal management program data.

The Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS)

• A voluntary partnership of governments and international organizations that aims at creating a unified body that will link Earth observation resources world-wide across multiple Societal Benefit Areas - agriculture, biodiversity, climate, disasters, ecosystems, energy, health, water and weather.

A to Z Maps Online

• For downloadable political, physical, population, climate, historical etc. maps for different parts of the world. Maps come in different formats and are solely for educational purposes.

Ancient maps of Africa

• The site has downloadable historic maps of Africa.

Atlas of Historical County Boundaries

• Find GIS data, maps etc. showing the creation and subsequent boundary changes of counties in the U.S.A over the past years.

Austin Historical Survey Web Tool Maps & GIS Data

• For data related to historic preservation in the Austin, TX area.

China Historical GIS Data Archive

• A database of populated places and historical administrative units for the period of Chinese history between 221 BCE and 1911 CE

City of Austin Planning Data

• Provides GIS maps of historic districts, land use, future land use, neighborhood planning, and more.

City of Galveston                    

• Floodplain, landmarks, voting districts, subdivisions, school districts

Geodata.gov

• The US government clearinghouse of geographic data held by government agencies.

National Historic GIS

• Historical agricultural and census data since 1790.

Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection – University of Texas Libraries

• Find historical maps of Texas, USA and other countries around the world.

Social Explorer

• “Current and historical US Census data available for download through a map viewer”.

United States (US) Army Corps of Engineers

• Provides free access to GIS data related to Corps projects nation-wide.

USGS - National Geospatial Program

• Part of the USGS website where you can find a national gazetteer, maps of America, base maps, etc.

A to Z Maps Online

• For downloadable political, physical, population, climate, historical etc. maps for different parts of the world. Maps come in different formats and are solely for educational purposes.

Cal-Adapt

• Provided by California Energy Commission. Datasets available include climate change risks within specific geographic areas of California.

City of Boulder

• Data on Flood hazards

Data Catalog of the U.S. Government

• Includes over 75,000 datasets that covers most topics in natural hazards, environmental geography, water, and weather. 

DIVA GIS - Data

• GIS data covering different topics like administrative boundaries, water, roads, landcover, population, and climate for almost all countries in the world.

CIESIN &SEDAC & WDC (from Columbia University)

• An online repository hosted by Columbia University that offers GIS data on topics like transportation, climatic conditions and biophysical conditions.

GIS in Ecology

• Site contains a multitude of external sources for terrestrial/climatic/marine data.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

• NOAA is a good place to start when searching for climate data such as heat waves, drought, hurricanes, tornadoes, etc. 

Pacific Disaster Center - Global Hazards Information Network (GHIN)

• Downloadable data on disaster-related issues in Asia and other parts of the world.

NOAA

• Contains International Weather Hazards Assessment Weekly Updates.

SCAG Mapping and GIS

• Map and geospatial data from the Southern California Association of Governments. The SCAG Region covers Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside, Ventura and Imperial counties. Available datasets include administrative boundaries, transportation networks, flood data, traffic analysis etc.

Stanford Geospatial Center

• Various GIS Datasets for Mexico and Central America such as Climate, Conservation, Bathymetry and elevation. 

Texas Water Development Board                 

• Includes GIS datasets on natural features, such as major aquifers, annual precipitation, river basins, administrative boundaries of Texas and water info pertaining to wells, basins, rivers, aquifers etc.

The Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS)

• A voluntary partnership of governments and international organizations that aims at creating a unified body that will link Earth observation resources world-wide across multiple Societal Benefit Areas - agriculture, biodiversity, climate, disasters, ecosystems, energy, health, water and weather.

Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research

• A Database for Climate Change research.

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

• “The authoritative source for data sets used by UNEP and its partners in the Global Environment Outlook (GEO) report and other integrated environment assessments. It holds more than 500 different variables, as national, sub-regional, regional and global statistics or as geospatial data sets covering themes like Freshwater, Population, Forests, Emissions, Climate, Disasters, Health and GDP”.

World Resources Institute

• Free GIS data covering various topics like water issues and climate change on selected countries in Africa.

African Marine Atlas

• A web-based portal that provides easily downloadable data on various key themes relevant to the marine and coastal environment of Africa. It also serves as an online mapping platform.

Australian Government

• A variety of free data on Australia including maps, ecological and environmental datasets.

Bureau of Land Management (BLM) - California

• Statewide environmental datasets

Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Colorado

• Statewide environmental datasets

Boulder County, CO GIS

• Boulder County provides maps and data for topics including land use, transportation, open space and trails, and a range of health issues.

Cal-Atlas GeoSpatial Downloads

• The Cal-Atlas site coordinates the development, maintenance, licensing and sharing of geospatial data and web map services by California government agencies, partners and stakeholders. The following are some datasets made available: elevation, biota, agriculture, transportation, administrative boundaries, health etc.

California Biogeographic Data (California Department of Fish and Game)

• Fauna and Flora datasets.

California GAP

• This resource is controlled by California GAP Analysis Project and provides local and statewide datasets on topics like landcover, land stewardship and ownership, ecological region boundaries, biodiversity etc.

California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection

• Statewide datasets covering a range of topics particularly on fire hazards, forest cover and vegetation, land use, and facilities.

California State Government

• Provides links to other state government GIS repositories that contain datasets on topics such as healthcare, public health, fish and wildlife, natural resources, and census.

Capital Area Council of Governments, Texas

• "CAPCOG provides vector data (e.g. point, line, or polygon) as an ESRI geodatabase and an ESRI shapefile; and raster data (e.g. orthoimagery, digital elevation models, etc.) as a MrSID file for the Capital Area / Central Texas area". Data covers topics like hydrology, geology, political boundaries, land cover, transportation etc.

China Dimensions

• Hosted by Columbia University's Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) at the Earth Institute. It provides a variety of socioeconomic data, including Geographic Information System (GIS) databases that cover the administrative regions of China, presented at a scale of 1:1,000,000. These databases may be integrated with agricultural, land use, environmental, and socioeconomic data to track China's economic growth, population increases, and environmental change.

CIESIN &SEDAC & WDC - Columbia University

• A web resource hosted by Columbia University which provides GIS data focused on human interactions in the environment. The data are supplied from these portals: Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC), and the World Data Center for Human Interactions.

CIESIN &SEDAC & WDC (from Columbia University)

• Central American Vegetation/Land Cover Classification and Conservation Status.

City of Austin              

• Shapefiles and Raster Files on the following themes: Address Points, Subdivision boundaries, City Grid, Facilities, Hospitals, Zipcodes, Electrical Service Areas, MUD's, Water Service Lines, Contour Lines, City Parks Creeks and Lakes, watersheds, Land use, City Zones etc.

Colorado Division of Wildlife's Natural Diversity Information Source

• Available datasets include species maps, vegetation, hydrography, and CDOW boundary data. The site also provides link to the Natural Diversity Information Source for interactive maps and data such as land use, development, hunting, and more.

CUGIR (Cornell University)

• An active online repository in the National Spatial Data Clearinghouse program that provides geospatial data and metadata for New York State, with special emphasis on those natural features relevant to agriculture, ecology, natural resources, and human-environment interactions.

DIVA GIS - Data

• GIS data covering different topics like administrative boundaries, water, roads, landcover, population, and climate for almost all countries in the world.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

• EPA has good information on the science and population health that relates to the environment.

European Environment Agency

• Datasets cover the entire continent and are about topics like emissions, agriculture, land use, natural resources etc.

Geocommunity-Mexico

• Various Data on Mexico including Landuse/cover and Digital Terrain Model.

Hays Geospatial One Stop                 

• United States Omernik, EPA Cleanup sites, NOAA Raster Nautical, Administrative, USA Soil Survey, U.S. Transit Lines and, National Land Cover, Geology, NOAA Weather Radar

Houston-Galveston Area Council - GIS Data Clearinghouse

• Provides GIS data for census boundaries, regional boundaries, statewide boundaries, cultural features, environmental, hazards, hydrologic datasets, land features, land cover datasets, transportation, water quality Aerial photos, Lidar, Census, Land Use/Cover datasets etc.

Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI) (National Institute of Statistic and Geography)

• An online database for national geospatial and statistical datasets for Mexico.

International Boundary & Water Commission

• Various sources of GIS Data for areas along the US-Mexico Border.

Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium

• A group of federal agencies who coordinate and generate consistent and relevant land cover information at the national scale for a wide variety of environmental, land management, and modeling applications. Visit this site to obtain landcover datasets dating back to 2001.

National Park Services

• Includes National Park System maps and links to other GIS sites.

Stanford Geospatial Center

• Various GIS Datasets for Mexico and Central America such as Climate, Conservation, Bathymetry and elevation. 

Texas Association of Counties

• A central clearinghouse for Texas county-related information and datasets. Datasets include both tabular and geospatial data on agriculture, economy, financial, health, natural resources, redistricting, and transportation in Texas.

Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ)

• "See links for available TCEQ spatial data, raster data, geographic data viewers, Administrative Boundaries, Hydrology Aquifer, Land Use/ Cover, TCEQ GIS standards, and useful GIS links."

Texas General Land Office

• Provides a variety of data on Texas including political boundaries, hydrography, transportation, topography, ecology, parks, energy resources, and coastlines, coastal leases, oil spill/coastal response data, and coastal management program data.

Texas Natural Resources Information System

• "TNRIS archives, maintains, and distributes the largest collection of current and historical geospatial data sets on environmental, geological and administrative issues for the State of Texas."

Texas Parks and Wildlife                   

• Provides many shapefiles of natural features such as river basins, ecoregions, bays, parks, borders, vegetation, and Biological provinces

The Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS)

• A voluntary partnership of governments and international organizations that aims at creating a unified body that will link Earth observation resources world-wide across multiple Societal Benefit Areas - agriculture, biodiversity, climate, disasters, ecosystems, energy, health, water and weather.

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

• “The authoritative source for data sets used by UNEP and its partners in the Global Environment Outlook (GEO) report and other integrated environment assessments. It holds more than 500 different variables, as national, sub-regional, regional and global statistics or as geospatial data sets covering themes like Freshwater, Population, Forests, Emissions, Climate, Disasters, Health and GDP”.

United States Geological Survey

• Land Cover, NED, Orthoimagery

United States Fish and Wildlife Service - Geospatial Data

• Find regional and national data related to habitats, ecosystem regions, bird conservation and migration, wildlife refuges, and more.

USGS - National Atlas Raw Data Download

• Current and historical social and environmental data for the United States.

USGS - The National Map Seamless Server

• Environmental data on US and other countries in a different formats downloadable through a map viewer.

ArcGIS - Central America River Network

• Provides hydrographic information in a consistent and comprehensive format for Mexico, Central America and Caribbean region.

ArcGIS - CRP5, Water/Land/Ecosystems, Central America (Mexico excl.)

• Contains water, land and ecosystem data for Central America.

Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment (CCMA)  

• Provides free, high quality geospatial data produced through coastal environmental monitoring and research studies. Other data available include satellite/aerial imagery, digital maps, and habitat data.

China Data Center

• A resource hosted by the University of Michigan which provides free statistical data and other data about China on topics like hydrography, relief maps, landuse, and census.

City of Austin              

• Shapefiles and Raster Files on the following themes: Address Points, Subdivision boundaries, City Grid, Facilities, Hospitals, Zipcodes, Electrical Service Areas, MUD's, Water Service Lines, Contour Lines, City Parks Creeks and Lakes, watersheds, Land use, City Zones etc.

City of Galveston                    

• Floodplain, landmarks, voting districts, subdivisions, school districts

City of Round Rock                 

• Provides geospatial datasets for the Round Rock area including Address Points, Buildings, City Limits, Contour Lines, Drainage Basins, Land Use Layers, Parcels, Rail Roads, Streets, Subdivisions, Zoning

City of San Antonio                

• Here you can download GIS data for the San Antonio area that includes parks, viewsheds, boundaries, city hall, corridor plans, aerial imagery and more.

City of San Marcos                 

• City Boundaries, flood plains, elevation, contours,

Colorado's Decision Support Systems

• Data generated by the Colorado Water Conservation Board and Colorado Division of Water Resources.

Colorado Division of Wildlife's Natural Diversity Information Source

• Available datasets include species maps, vegetation, hydrography, and CDOW boundary data. The site also provides link to the Natural Diversity Information Source for interactive maps and data such as land use, development, hunting, and more.

Data Catalog of the U.S. Government

• Includes over 75,000 datasets that covers most topics in natural hazards, environmental geography, water, and weather. 

DIVA GIS - Data

• GIS data covering different topics like administrative boundaries, water, roads, landcover, population, and climate for almost all countries in the world.

GIS in Ecology

• Site contains a multitude of external sources for terrestrial/climatic/marine data.

Houston-Galveston Area Council - GIS Data Clearinghouse

• Provides GIS data for census boundaries, regional boundaries, statewide boundaries, cultural features, environmental, hazards, hydrologic datasets, land features, land cover datasets, transportation, water quality, Aerial photos, Lidar, Census, Land Use/Cover datasets etc.

Natural Earth

• Coastline data of several Caribbean countries.

NOAA Shoreline Website

• Federal shoreline data.

San Antonio river authority               

• For Lidar, DEM, floodplains, streams, creeks etc. datasets.

Travis County             

• For various GIS Datasets for Travis County, TX like Travis county maps, water, wastewater, bridges, districts, jurisdictions, etc.

Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ)

• "See links for available TCEQ spatial data, raster data, geographic data viewers, Administrative Boundaries, Hydrology Aquifer, Land Use/ Cover, TCEQ GIS standards, and useful GIS links."

Texas General Land Office

• Provides a variety of data on Texas including political boundaries, hydrography, transportation, topography, ecology, parks, energy resources, and coastlines, coastal leases, oil spill/coastal response data, and coastal management program data.

Texas Natural Resources Information System

• "TNRIS archives, maintains, and distributes the largest collection of current and historical geospatial data sets on environmental, geological and administrative issues for the State of Texas."

Texas Parks and Wildlife                   

• Provides many shapefiles of natural features such as river basins, ecoregions, bays, parks, borders, vegetation, and Biological provinces

Texas Tech University GIS Repository           

• A great resource for geospatial datasets such as roads, rivers, lakes, reservoirs, census, DEM, Landsat tm imagery, populated places boundary etc. for Texas and other parts of USA.

Texas Water Development Board                 

• Includes GIS datasets on natural features, such as major aquifers, annual precipitation, river basins, administrative boundaries of Texas and water info pertaining to wells, basins, rivers, aquifers etc.

The Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS)

• A voluntary partnership of governments and international organizations that aims at creating a unified body that will link Earth observation resources world-wide across multiple Societal Benefit Areas - agriculture, biodiversity, climate, disasters, ecosystems, energy, health, water and weather.

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

• “The authoritative source for data sets used by UNEP and its partners in the Global Environment Outlook (GEO) report and other integrated environment assessments. It holds more than 500 different variables, as national, sub-regional, regional and global statistics or as geospatial data sets covering themes like Freshwater, Population, Forests, Emissions, Climate, Disasters, Health and GDP”.

United States Geological Survey (USGS)

• USGS has many GIS maps of water and water data, watersheds, groundwater, aquifers, surface waters, water quality, floods, etc.

University of Arizona - Mexico GIS Data

• Provides access to geospatial data for Mexico such as Administrative boundaries, census, rivers, archaeological sites etc.

Water Data for Texas            

• The Texas Water Development Board obtains lake levels from partner organizations including the United States Geological Survey (USGS), International Boundary Water Commission (IBWC),

World Resources Institute

• Free GIS data covering various topics like water issues and climate change on selected countries in Africa.

Capital Area Council of Governments, Texas

• "CAPCOG provides vector data (e.g. point, line, or polygon) as an ESRI geodatabase and an ESRI shapefile; and raster data (e.g. orthoimagery, digital elevation models, etc.) as a MrSID file for the Capital Area / Central Texas area". Data covers topics like hydrology, geology, political boundaries, land cover, transportation etc.

Colorado Geologic Map Data (USGS)

• A GIS database of geologic units and structural features in Colorado: lithology, age, data structure etc.

GeoNetwork - Digital Soil Map of the World

• Provides Soil Maps of the World for download in various formats. The original data comes from UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

New York State Museum

• A great resource to find data on topics like geology, oil and gas, and boundaries.

Texas Natural Resources Information System

• "TNRIS archives, maintains, and distributes the largest collection of current and historical geospatial data sets on environmental, geological and administrative issues for the State of Texas."

U.S. Department of Agriculture/Natural Resources Conservation Service Soil Data

• The number one stop shop for all free US Soils data, both general soil association units (STATSGO) and detailed units (SSURGO).

ASTER Global DEM  

• Free 30m DEMs for the World. Requires user registration.

Cal-Atlas GeoSpatial Downloads

• The Cal-Atlas site coordinates the development, maintenance, licensing and sharing of geospatial data and web map services by California government agencies, partners and stakeholders. The following are some datasets made available: elevation, biota, agriculture, transportation, administrative boundaries, health etc.

California Geographical Survey

• Includes DEM data for California.

CGIAR-CSI SRTM 90m DEM Digital Elevation Database

• A geoportal that provides SRTM 90m Digital Elevation Data for the entire world.

Capital Area Council of Governments, Texas

• "CAPCOG provides vector data (e.g. point, line, or polygon) as an ESRI geodatabase and an ESRI shapefile; and raster data (e.g. orthoimagery, digital elevation models, etc.) as a MrSID file for the Capital Area / Central Texas area". Data covers topics like hydrology, geology, political boundaries, land cover, transportation etc.

City of San Marcos                 

• City Boundaries, flood plains, elevation, contours,

ColoradoView

• Available datasets include Remote Sensing and geospatial data such as Landsat, MODIS, aerial photos, Digital Elevation Model (DEM)

Fort Bend County GIS             

• For various GIS Datasets like roads, DEM etc. for Fort Bend, TX

Eurogeographic

• It represents the European National Mapping, Cadastral and Land Registry Authorities. Available datasets include DEM, Boundary maps etc.

GeoCommunity                      

• DOQQ, DEM, Land Use  and other data for Travis County, Texas

Geocommunity-Mexico

• Various Data on Mexico including Landuse/cover and Digital Terrain Model.

Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI) (National Institute of Statistic and Geography)

• Mexico Elevation data available for download. 

NASA Topographical Data

• Provides links to NASA Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) data and other global elevation data at up to 30m resolution.

National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON)

• The National Ecological Observatory Network provides open data including liDAR and weather-related data to understand changing ecosystems.

Ordnance Survey (Great Britain)

• Provides various GIS datasets such as topography, road networks, imagery, DEM etc. on the UK.

San Antonio river authority               

• For Lidar, DEM, floodplains, streams, creeks etc. datasets.

Stanford Geospatial Center

• Various GIS Datasets for Mexico and Central America such as Climate, Conservation, Bathymetry and elevation. 

Texas Natural Resources Information System

• "TNRIS archives, maintains, and distributes the largest collection of current and historical geospatial data sets on environmental, geological and administrative issues for the State of Texas."

Texas Tech University GIS Repository           

• A great resource for geospatial datasets such as roads, rivers, lakes, reservoirs, census, DEM, Landsat tm imagery, populated places boundary etc. for Texas and other parts of USA.

United States Geological Survey                    

• A National Elevation Dataset including 1 - 30 meter spatial resolution DEMs.

United States Geological Survey

• Land Cover, NED (1 - 30 meter spatial resolution DEMs), Orthoimagery, aerial photography, avhrr, cal/val reference sites, ikonos, declassified data, digital line graphs, digital maps, eo-1, forest carbon sites, global land survey, hcmm, land cover, radar etc.

United States Geological Survey (USGS) - Earth Explorer                 

• Satellite imagery, multiple landsat scenes  and DEM

ArcGIS Online Services

• A great resource to access free GIS data like global imagery or other global data. The imagery though have a course resolution i.e. less detailed and cannot be downloaded.

Africa Map Library

• It provides basic base maps for countries in Africa in the form of administrative boundaries and satellite imagery.

Capital Area Council of Governments, Texas

• "CAPCOG provides vector data (e.g. point, line, or polygon) as an ESRI geodatabase and an ESRI shapefile; and raster data (e.g. orthoimagery, digital elevation models, etc.) as a MrSID file for the Capital Area / Central Texas area". Data covers topics like hydrology, geology, political boundaries, land cover, transportation etc.

Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment (CCMA)  

• Provides free, high quality geospatial data produced through coastal environmental monitoring and research studies. Other data available include satellite/aerial imagery, digital maps, and habitat data.

City of San Antonio                

• Here you can download GIS data for the San Antonio area that includes parks, viewsheds, boundaries, city hall, corridor plans, aerial imagery and more.

Colorado Geological Survey

• Provides links to other statewide datasets particularly imagery datasets.

ColoradoView

• Available datasets include Remote Sensing and geospatial data such as Landsat, MODIS, aerial photos, Digital Elevation Model (DEM)

NASA Topographical Data

• Provides links to NASA Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) data and other global elevation data at up to 30m resolution.

Ordnance Survey (Great Britain)

• Provides various GIS datasets such as topography, road networks, imagery, DEM etc. on the UK.

Houston-Galveston Area Council - GIS Data Clearinghouse

• Provides GIS data for census boundaries, regional boundaries, statewide boundaries, cultural features, environmental, hazards, hydrologic datasets, land features, land cover datasets, transportation, water quality Aerial photos, Lidar, Census, Land Use/Cover datasets etc.

Texas Natural Resources Information System

• "TNRIS archives, maintains, and distributes the largest collection of current and historical geospatial data sets on environmental, geological and administrative issues for the State of Texas."

Texas Tech University GIS Repository           

• A great resource for geospatial datasets such as roads, rivers, lakes, reservoirs, census, DEM, Landsat tm imagery, populated places boundary etc. for Texas and other parts of USA.

United States Geological Survey                    

• A National Elevation Dataset, aerial photography, avhrr, cal/val reference sites, Ikonos, declassified data, digital line graphs, digital maps, eo-1, forest carbon sites, global land survey, hcmm, land cover, radar

United States Geological Survey

• Land Cover, NED, Orthoimagery

United States Geological Survey (USGS) - Earth Explorer                 

• Satellite imagery, multiple Landsat scenes  and DEM

United States Geological Survey (USGS) - Glovis                               

• Satellite imagery, multiple Landsat scenes covering almost all parts of the world.

United States Geological Survey - Texas

• "The U.S. Geological Survey currently operates about 688 data collection sites in Texas for acquiring information on surface-water, groundwater, water-quality, and precipitation. These sites are equipped with satellite telemetry, which provides real-time data via GOES satellites and downlinks, which enables the posting of data to the Web for public dissemination."

University of Texas Center for Space Research

• Satellite and aerial imagery mainly of Texas (Astor, Modis, Landsat).

USGS - Earth Resources and Science

• Free Landsat satellite imagery and aerial photos about US.