Geospatial Data: U.S. and Other Countries

Nationwide or regional geospatial data for other countries (excluding Canada) are also available from a wide variety of resources online. This page outlines some frequently-request datasets by continent. Select one of the links below to get access to each dataset. More international datasets can be accessed in the Worldwide section.

North America: United States

Data Portals

• Data.gov (U.S. Federal Government): data from various U.S. government agencies
• GeoPlatform: Access to a wide range of geospatial resource sharing across the U.S. Government and the world
• U.S. Geospatial and Attribute Links (University of Arkansas Libraries): one-stop web access to U.S. geospatial data
• State GIS Data Clearinghouses (University of Maryland): a list of state GIS websites
• Selected American GIS Data sites for individual states (American Library Association): a directory of websites with GIS data for every state in the United States
• Michigan GIS Open Data Portal: contains over 60 statewide unique datasets including the state's basemap, aerial imagery geology, hydrology, land ownership, topography, etc.
• City of Detroit GIS Catalogue:  the City of Detroit’s open data portal
• Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ): contains several data related to the Michigan state's air, climate change, land, pollution, waste and water.
• Department of Natural Resources: provides a series of maps regarding the Michigan state's forest, wildlife, minerals, fishes, land and recreation etc.

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Natural Environments

• U.S. Geological Survey (USGS): includes USGS Maps; GIS data; The National Map (comprehensive topographic information for the country); GloVis (USGS satellite image collections).
• National Atlas of the United States: provides both interactive map interface and downloadable geospatial data for a variety of themes in the United States, including Agriculture, Biology, Boundaries, Climate, Environment, Geology, History, Map Reference, People, Transportation, Water. The National Atlas was discontinued in October 1, 2014, but its data is still available in the following places: 
  • Data published in the National Atlas is archived as 1997-2014 Edition of The National Atlas of the United States on the U.S. government's www.data.gov website.
  • The U.S. Geological Survey continues to make at least a subset of the National Atlas data available under its National Map Small Scale Collection. A few of the datasets have been updated since the National Atlas retired.
• Natural Resources Conservation Service: access to soil information and data in the United States  
• Atlas of the Biosphere (University of Wisconsin-Madison): contains maps with geographically explicit data broken down into four general categories: human impacts, land use, ecosystems and water resources
• Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) Maps and GIS Data: GIS data files for BOEMRE Offshore block grids, boundaries, active leases, wells, pipelines, and more
• Bureau Of Land Management (BLM) Navigator: a centralized location to discover and access BLMs geospatial data 
• NOAA National Weather Service GIS – AWIPS Shapefile Database: ESRI Shapefiles of weather-related data, including political boundaries, hydrography and cities
• NOAA Climate Maps of the United States: downloadable climates maps in Adobe PDF and/or ESRI Shapefiles
• Wind ENergy Data and Information Gateway: browse, query, and display United States wind energy-related spatial data. The gateway has been discontinued since August 2012. Much of its content was incorporated into the OpenEI Map of Wind Farms. 
• United Sates Environmental Protection Agency Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Program: covers an important subset of toxic chemicals managed at U.S. facilities.

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Social Environments

• U.S. Census Bureau Tiger Products: offers several file types for mapping census geographic data, including Cartographic Boundary Files, TIGER/Line Shapefiles (roads, railroads, rivers) and KML files.
• The Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care: provides boundaries of Hospital Service Areas (HSAs) and Hospital Referral Regions (HRRs) for all of the United States as well as select attributes (e.g., Medicare mortality rates, selected medical discharge rate, selected surgical discharge rates etc.)
• National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS): provides aggregate census data and GIS-compatible boundary files for the United States between 1790 and 2010.
• Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC): integration of socioeconomic and Earth science data

Latin America

• Biodiversity & Environmental Resource Data System of Belize

Africa

• Africover: a digital georeferenced data base on land cover and baseline geographic data for Africa. Africover has been discontinued, but its data can be accessed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations' GeoNetwork pages (by searching keyword "Africover"). 
• Digital Atlas of Namibia: maps and geospatial data for Namibia’s climate, physical geography, living resources, land and population and infrastructure. 
• Central Africa Regional Program for the Environment (CARPE): interactive access to geospatial data for central African nations
• The Map Library: free Africa vector and raster GIS data

Asia

• China Dimensions Data Collection: get access to various geospatial datasets for China including Administrative Boundaries, Fundamental Maps, Population and Public Health, Economics and Public Policy.
• China Historical GIS (Harvard University): a database of populated places, historical place names and historical administrative units for the period of Chinese history between 221 BCE and 1911 CE.

Europe

• Atlas of Rural Settlement in England GIS: free access to ESRI Shapefiles and KML files showing the 19th-Century settlement and terrain for England
• London Datastore: Greater London’s open data
• Ordnance Survey Open Data: Ordnance Survey is Great Britain's national mapping agency. Several datasets are available for free download.
• The European Soil Data Centre (ESDAC): contains currently many soil data and information; most of the offered data are at European scale, while, when possible, links to national or global datasets are provided. 
• European Forest Fire Information System Current Situation Map Viewer: displays the most up to date information on the current fire situation in Europe and the Mediterranean area, with an added 3-day forecast feature.