Anything Geospatial

GIS, Maps, Geo and Location Technology by @gletham

free gis data

GeoCommons 2.0 – better, faster performance, bigger data visualization #GeoIQ

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This week, perhaps while you were sleeping, the team at GeoIQ launched GeoCommons 2.0, the newest version of its community site. According to the folks at GeoIQ, they’ve made some exciting enhancements to the GeoIQ platform that powers GeoCommons, resulting in better, faster performance, bigger data visualization, and cross browser support.
Since 2008 GeoCommons has provided access to over 508,000 freely available data layers, shared over 2.5 million data sets and been used to create 9.5 million maps across the web for its more than 27,000 registered users – please note, GeoIQ also makes available an open API to developers. Enhancements made available in GeoCommons 2.0 include:

● More powerful visualization engine: GeoCommons can now handle bigger data sets at an improved speed
● Cross-browser platform support: With newly added support for HTML5 and Flash, GeoCommons is supported by 99 percent of web browsers, users can also leverage the site’s full capabilities through an iPad interface.
● Easier data editing: Data can now be edited, filtered and queried within the GeoCommons workflow
● Revamped temporal analysis: An improved time slider
● Custom icon-creator
● Multi-attribute filtering

See more details in this official announcement

OS OpenData – Making Public Data Public with free and unrestricted access to geographic data

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No doubt you’ve heard the buzz from the Ordnance Survey and the OS OpenData initiative… as of yesterday the doors are open! OS OpenData (www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/opendata) allows users to download a wide range of mapping and geographic information for free reuse direct to their computers; view maps and boundary information for the whole country; and develop web-map applications using Ordnance Survey’s OS OpenSpace API – See Details HERE

The following datasets are included in OS OpenData:

 OS Street View
 1: 50 000 Gazetteer
 1: 250 000 Colour Raster
 OS Locator
 Boundary-Line
 Code-Point Open
 Meridian 2
 Strategi
 MiniScale
 Land-Form PANORAMA
 OS VectorMap District (available May 2010)

Free GIS Data Tip – NLCD 2001 – nationwide land cover at 30-meter resolution

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The Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium is a group of federal agencies who first joined together in 1993 (MRLC 1992) to purchase Landsat 5 imagery for the conterminous U.S. and to develop a land cover dataset called the National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD 1992). In 1999, a second-generation MRLC consortium was formed to purchase three dates of Landsat 7 imagery for the entire United States (MRLC 2001) and to coordinate the production of a comprehensive land cover database for the nation called the National Land Cover Database (NLCD 2001). These data are now available via FTP download. See more details HERE or jump to  http://www.mrlc.gov

Free Data Tip – World database of large urban areas, 1950-2050

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Showing historic estimates and future projections for cities, urban areas and megacities with more than 750000 inhabitants for 1950-2050. The data has been acquired from UN Population Division and georeferenced.  The data is available as spreadsheet/table, maps, for Google Earth, in an animation video and for GIS data download. The data has been retrieved from the UN Population Division publication and web service World Urbanization Prospects, 2007 revision, and georeferenced using a variety of sources.

The database is available for unrestricted download, under the Creative Commons 2.5 attribution license. This gives you the right to reuse and modify the data, as long as Nordpil and the UN Population Division are properly credited. See http://nordpil.com/go/resources/world-database-of-large-cities/

For more data tips see here

Coming Soon, the London DataStore – sounds like GeoData.gov!

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As reported by The Guardian, this interesting, open and free data resource will be coming soon thanks to some investment by the government earmarked to kick-start application developers and provide them with the data they need. From The Guardian… The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, will on Thursday launch a website hosting hundreds of sets of data – including previously unreleased information – about the capital, as part of a new scheme intended to encourage people to create “mashups” of data to boost the city’s transparency and accountability. Note, this site is now to be confused with data.gov.uk which is also launching in the near future.

According to the news, datasets that will be available include attainment, pupil number and schools data; fire incidents, ambulance rates, crime rates; carbon emissions, floorspace, vacant commercial offices, industrial stock data, abandoned vehicles, recycling rates, waste data, waste re-use centres, fly tipping rates, alcohol indicators, abortion rates, hospital waiting lists and admissions, excess winter deaths – and much more.

Data Tip – World database of large urban areas 1950-2050

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An interesting data tip from a reader… Showing historic estimates and future projections for cities, urban areas and megacities with more than 750000 inhabitants for 1950-2050. The data has been acquired from UN Population Division and georeferenced. The data is available as spreadsheet/table, maps, for Google Earth, in an animation video and for GIS data download. The data has been retrieved from the UN Population Division publication and web service World Urbanization Prospects, 2007 revision, and georeferenced using a variety of sources.
The database is available for unrestricted download, under the Creative Commons 2.5 attribution license. This gives you the right to reuse and modify the data, as long as Nordpil and the UN Population Division are properly credited – see the World database of large urban areas 1950-2050

Info Needed on Free Housing and Economic Data + Maps + Shapefiles

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I received this message from Kristen Carney asking for some feedback and offering up free data for your input … If you use housing and economic Census data, I need your feedback.  You can get housing and economic data, labeled maps and shapefiles in less than 5 minutes using Cubit’s new Housing and Regional Economics Report (beta).  More information is here: http://www.cubitplanning.com/blog

In a nutshell, Cubit lets you get draw your project on a Google map interface, and in seconds, get cut-and-paste ready Census data, a labeled map and a shapefile.  Learn more about how Cubit works here: http://www.cubitplanning.com/how-cubit-works.html – As GIS experts, I need your help.  You can pull free data, maps and shapefiles until December 31st.  Twitter: @cubitplanning

USGS and a new generation of Topo Maps – A primer on US Topo

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Downloading “free” USGS topos from around the web?? Are you getting the new, enhanced USGS topos – US Topo? Chances are that if you’re downloading or even paying for free USGS topos from various, archaic data repositories and data warehouses (and depots) you may be grabbing older data. US Topo is the next generation of digital topographic maps from the U.S. Geological Survey. Arranged in the traditional 7.5-minute quadrangle format, digital US Topo maps are designed to look and feel like the traditional paper topographic maps for which the USGS is so well known. At the same time, US Topo maps provide modern technical advantages that support wider and faster public distribution and enable basic, on-screen geographic analysis for all users. Some facts and features of US Topo:

  • US Topo users can turn geographic data layers on and off as needed
  • zoom in and out to highlight specific features or see a broader context
  • print the maps, in their entirety or in customized sections, on a wide variety of printing devices
  • Additional analytical tools are available free for download.
  • File size for each digital 7.5-minute quadrangle is about 15-20 megabytes.
  • The prototype of US Topo, “Digital Map–Beta,” has been available since June 2009 and currently covers 17 states.
  • US Topo maps include all of the content of the earlier “Digital Map–Beta,” plus integrated contours and hydrographic features.

See current US Topo map coverage.

For more information on US Top see this article for some great pointers

Free GIS Data Spotlight Video – Natural Earth

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You know I dig free GIS data and I also love messing around with video (although I could use a little more practice with post processing and video editing ;0) And so, here’s a little of both as I walk you through a fabulous free GIS data resource from Natural Earth… enjoy! Would you like to see more videos directly from yours truly or like to suggest something for me to cover off in a future video?? Feell free to add a comment, email me (glenn at gisuser.com) or ping me on twitter @gletham


Santa Clara County slammed with $500K fine for not sharing data

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An interesting bit of fall out in California as Santa Clara County has been ordered to pay up for essentially trying to hoard their data and “stick it” to those who want access to it. Fees for data, cost recovery, ownership, public information, national security, you name it, all these points have been brought up at some point in this case (and others that are similar). Of particular interest (and quite laughable) is the fact that the county tried to charge $250K for a “duplication fee” – ya I guess dumping all that data on an external drive is quite labor intensive – and then when that failed they played the national security card. Oh, and also a bit laughable was the fact that in addition to the $250K the purchaser was supposed to sign an NDA and guarantee they would not redistribute the data… ohboy! The result of the county trying to lock-down their data.. they have been ordered to shell out $500,000 to the non-profit org that was seeking the information from them… Dang, that half a mill could have built you on hell of a fine GIS for the tax payers, perhaps the California First Amendment Coalition will take all that cash and invest it in a state of the art GIS and webmapping portal to serve up all that public information… hmmm! take that tax payers! You have to wonder how many counties have the same feeling and seem to have forgotten that the tax payers have paid to collect and distribute that data already. See more on Wired or see the San Jose Mercury News

Locking up your data and not sharing could cost you $$$
Locking up your data and not sharing could cost you $$$
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