Finding Spatial Data for Mapping (GIS)

Find Spatial Data

Includes spatial data sources and mapping tools and support persons. Boston College supports several Geographic Information Systems software packages on campus.

Free: U.S. and Community

Census Reporter
Analyze Boston
Data for the city of Boston which can be subsetted and downloaded.
MassGIS Mapping
ArcGIS Hub Open Data
500 Cities: Local Data for Better Health
The purpose of the 500 Cities Project is to provide city- and census tract-level small area estimates for chronic disease risk factors, health outcomes, and clinical preventive service use for the largest 500 cities in the United States. These small area estimates will allow cities and local health departments to better understand the burden and geographic distribution of health-related variables in their jurisdictions, and assist them in planning public health interventions. Data can be extracted and used with GIS software
State GIS Data from Cornel Library Guide
EBT/SNAP Locations with Longitude Latitude
Data Boston Area Research Initiative (BARI)
NHGIS
National Historical GIS formatted census data.
Connecticut GIS Data
GeoFred
Map economic data such as employment, unemployment, housing vacancy and health insurance coverage at the state, county and metropolitan statistical areas.
Data.gov
Portal to Federal, State and Local Geographic Data. Use left filter for maps and shapefiles.
Open Data Catalog
The Derived Federal Open Data site has been created by Esri to provide federally focused data of interest. There are hundreds of layers of authoritative data available for easy downloading.
USDA Economic Research Service Food Security Data

Free Online Sources

Download free GIS data:

ArcGIS Open Data
ArcGIS community shares open data, many from local government agencies.
CIA Declassified Maps
Dataverse at Boston College
Department of State Large-Scale International Boundary (LSIB)
Earth Explorer USGS
Data and maps of World and U.S.
Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center
Edina
EDINA is a JISC National Data Centre based at the University of Edinburgh. Some public data.
Export from ChinaMap for QGIS
How to export a layer from ChinaMap as a Shapefile, then create a thematic map with the Shapefile using QGIS . (Note: no audio on this tutorial, just text callouts). Video screen capture by Lex Berman
Global Administrative Areas (GADM)
Global Administrative Boundaries
The project was developed by Robert Hijmans, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of California.
Global Open Data Index Survey
Harvard Election Data Archive
This archive contains data on election results, voting behavior, and electoral politics, with particular focus on the United States. The core data for the archive are state, county and district level election returns for all recent state and federal elections in the United States. Shapefiles by state
Harvard Geospatial Library
Search your topic . Some data is restricted and requires login.
Historical GIS Research Network
Historical GIS research resources in Europe.
Historic USGS Maps of New England & NY
History of Open Source Tools (by makepath)
This is an interactive timeline. You can click on each entry to see more details as well as some anecdotes from project creators we connected with.
Humanitarian Data Exchange
MassDOT
Massachusetts Dept. of Transportation GIS layers.
National Geospatial Program. USGS
Themes include Biological Resources Information, Geologic Information, National Mapping Information, Water Resources Information.
Natural Earth
Natural Earth is a public domain map dataset available at 1:10m, 1:50m, and 1:110 million scales. Featuring tightly integrated vector and raster data, with Natural Earth you can make a variety of visually pleasing, well-crafted maps with cartography or GIS software.
Open Geoportal (Tufts)
The Open Geoportal combines an intuitive, map-based search interface along with traditional text-based metadata search tools for rapid data discovery. Geoportal provides organizations the opportunity to share geospatial data, maps, metadata, and development resources through a single common interface. Key open source components include Geoserver, Open Layers, Solr/Lucene, GeoWebCache, jQuery, etc.

Mapping Examples

Historical GIS Clearinghouse and Forum
AAG (Association of American Geographers)
Digital Atlas of Roman and Medieval Civilizations
By using this site, visitors can trace Roman road networks, bridges, aqueducts, the cities and settlements of the empire, Roman military installations, and so on
Mapping History
Syracuse GIS Examples
Syracuse blog for working with GIS data sets

Historical Map Resources

ARTstor This link opens in a new window
ARTstor is a database of more than 1.3 million digital images. It covers many time periods and cultures and represent architecture, painting, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, etc. Users are required to create a personal account to access this database off campus.

China Historical GIS
cshapes
Historical national boundaries and capitals of the post-WWII period in KMZ and shapefile formats.
David Rumsey Map Collection
Harvard Geospatial Library
Search your topic and "public access" as keywords to retrieve freely downloadable data in GIS format.
Historical Maps on the Web
http://www.lib.umich.edu/map-library/historical-maps-web
Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library
Old Maps Online
Sanborn Maps-Library of Congress Collection
The Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps Online Checklist provides a searchable database of the fire insurance maps published by the Sanborn Map Company housed in the collections of the Geography and Map Division.
United Nations Geospatial Information Section
World Map Harvard

Boston College GIS Data

PolicyMap This link opens in a new window
PolicyMap is a GIS tool for non-GIS users." PolicyMap is used as a data visualization tool in the social sciences, urban studies and planning, real estate and housing analysis, community and economic development, public administration and policy, public health, political science, education, environmental studies, business and finance, economics, statistics and geography, among other areas. Downloadable data.
Social Explorer This link opens in a new window
Social Explorer is a research tool designed to provide quick and easy access to historical census data and demographic information. It creates maps and reports to help users visually analyze and understand demography and social change throughout history. Currently includes the entire US Census history from 1790 to 2000, all annual updates from the American Community Survey. Users can customize, save, print, and email maps and reports and export them to a variety of programs and statistical packages for further analysis and use in reports and presentations.
Census 2000 Long Form Online This link opens in a new window
Census 2000 Long Form offers detailed data on the social and economic characteristics of the U.S. population, including employment, occupation, income, education, poverty. Geographies include block groups, tracts, ZIP codes and data download options include spreadsheet or shapefiles for Geographic Information Systems.

50 Meter Terrain Data Great Britain
The EDX data is in raster format, ready to use with ESRI ArcGIS software ArcMap . Documentation and links to individual files
Download the folders on your local hard drive, and use WinZip or similar software to extract data.
LIDAR data for Hartlepool and Sutton Hoo U.K
Euratlas georeferenced historical vector data
Shapefile data which can be analyzed and organized spatially with GIS software. Includes data covering Europe, as well as large parts of northern Africa and the Middle East. Euratlas Georeferenced Vector Data is composed of 21 maps, one for each century from year 1 to year 2000. These maps depict the detailed political situation of Europe at the last year of each century. Each map is composed of physical features layers and political features layers. Boston College has access to the following data sets: 1000, 1200, 1400, 1600, 1700, 1800, 1900.

Neighborhood Change Database: 1970-2010 This link opens in a new window
nation-wide census tract-level data from the 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000 and 2010 decennial censuses normalized to 2010 census tracts. Researchers tracking demographic trends over time can use variables and tract boundaries that are consistently defined across census years.Data download and mapping tools are available. Formats are compatible with B.C. supported software.

ESRI Data

Boston College owns several years of demographic data from our software vendor ESRI. This data includes selected Census data with geographic boundaries from the block level up to the national level. Additional data for roads, water and parks are also included. A select amount of international data can also be found. All data ArcGIS compatible.

ESRI Map and Data 2012

See separate tabs for earlier years.

Business Data

How to Find Business Data in Reference USA to use in ArcMap

Data Axle This link opens in a new window
Directory of more than 55 million U.S. businesses. Information includes company name, divisions and subsidiaries, address, line of business, number of employees, annual sales and competitors. Coverage: current, updated continuously. Also includes job and internship listings.

Economic Census
Every five years, the U.S. Census Bureau collects extensive statistics about businesses that are essential to understanding the American economy.

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Finding Spatial Data for Mapping (GIS)

Find Spatial Data

Free: U.S. and Community

Free Online Sources

Mapping Examples

Historical Map Resources

Boston College GIS Data

ESRI Data

Business Data