Compiled by Keith Jenkins kgj2@cornell.edu, GIS Librarian at Mann Library.
https://cornell-gis.github.io/gis-data-sources/
https://gis.ny.gov/
Includes geospatial data created by state, county, and local governments across New York.
https://data.ny.gov/
New York’s main site for open government data. When searching the site, trying limiting the results to “Maps” (under “view types” on the left), which will limit the results to geospatial datasets that can be directly used with GIS software. When downloading a dataset, click the “Export” button and look for a “shapefile”, “KML”, “GeoJSON”, or other GIS data format. For many point datasets, you’ll need to download as CSV, which is a tabular format that contains longitude and latitude coordinates. Most of the other datasets on the site will be non-spatial tabular datasets (spreadsheets), but some of these datasets contain placenames or standard identifiers that can be used to join the data to GIS polygon layers (for example, county-based statistics).
https://cugir.library.cornell.edu/
The Cornell University Geospatial Information Repository. Includes New York data from a variety of federal, state, and local government sources, as well as Cornell research projects.
https://orthos.dhses.ny.gov/
Provides access to elevation data from a variety of statewide and local sources, LiDAR pointcloud data from various surveys, and aerial imagery for specific years (1990s to the present) from the NYS statewide orthoimagery program. To get to the previews and downloads, see the “tools” icon in the top right of the map.
For the aerial imagery, it is also possible to link to a web service rather than downloading specific image tiles. For details, see https://gis.ny.gov/sharegis#connecting-to-web-services-with-popular-software-and-code
https://digital.library.cornell.edu/collections/aerialny
Aerial photos dating back to 1936. Only Cayuga, Cortland, Onondaga, Seneca, Tompkins, and Wayne counties are currently available online, but Cornell IRIS is in the middle of a project to scan the original photographs for other counties across NY.
https://www.census.gov/geographies/mapping-files/time-series/geo/tiger-line-file.html
Spatial data for boundaries of legal and statistical areas such as states, counties, census tracts, block-groups, blocks, zipcode tabulation areas, legislative boundaries, school districts, etc. (Also includes roads and water features, although probably not as detailed or current as other sources.)
Demographic data can be downloaded from:
http://resolver.library.cornell.edu/misc/6168667
Formerly known as SimplyMap, this is a website that the Cornell Library subscribes to. It offers thematic maps and reports of demographic, business, and marketing data for the United States. Some of the marketing data is incredibly specific, such as “# Households buying car wax and polish in last 12 months” or “% Households engaged in marathon/triathon training and events”. To export shapefiles of the data, click the ☰ menu.
http://resolver.library.cornell.edu/misc/6268440
Another website that Cornell Library subscribes to, Social Explorer provides convenient access to US Census data back to 1790, as well as other datasets related to elections, businesses, crime, health, religion, and more. Users can create maps on the website, but can also export data tables for use in GIS. For details, see https://guides.library.cornell.edu/c.php?g=374982&p=6972945
https://apps.nationalmap.gov/downloader/#/
Download a variety of data layers for any arbitrary region. Includes NED (National Elevation Dataset), NHD (National Hydrography Dataset), orthoimagery, and more.
https://www.mrlc.gov/data
The Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium publishes the National Land Cover Database (NLCD), a 30-meter-resolution raster dataset of the United States that includes landcover, tree canopy, urban imperviousness, and more.
https://coast.noaa.gov/inventory/
Catalog of high-resolution elevation surveys across the US, with links to data download sites where available.
https://www.naturalearthdata.com/
Public domain map data at 1:10m, 1:50m, and 1:110 million scales for global or regional maps. Version 5.0.0, released in December 2021, offers point-of-view variants of national boundaries for several dozen countries.
https://www.geoboundaries.org/
Global database of political administrative boundaries (state and county equivalents for each country, and sometimes even smaller units), produced by the College of William & Mary and shared under an open license.
https://gadm.org/download_country.html
Global administrative boundaries, often down to the 3rd or 4th level for each country.
https://www.openstreetmap.org/
A free, collaborative, editable map of the world. The current map can be viewed at the link above – check your area of interest to see what level of detail is available. To download as data, click “Export” for various options, or go directly to these sites for easy-to-use shapefiles:
https://geolode.org/
Geolode is a worldwide catalog of over 900 open geospatial data websites, including all the major US state GIS websites. This project started at Cornell, and is maintained by GIS librarians at several universities.
When searching the web, try using a country/province/city name and terms like “GIS data”, “shp”, “shapefile”, etc. Try variants using the local language, like Colombia SIG datos. Local governments and NGOs may share geospatial data, although availability varies from place to place. Even if data is not readily downloadable from an organization’s website, it might be possible to find a contact name and e-mail address. When making a request by e-mail, be explicit about what data you are looking for, and be sure to mention that you will be using the data for an academic course project.