Geospatial Data Resources Guide: GIS Data Websites

Website designed to provide easy access to GIS data and applications frequently requested by members of the public.

For information and access to City of Seattle data.

For information and access to the King County GIS Data Portal.

For regional planning boundaries, census tracts, PSRC forecasting zones, and Puget Sound LiDAR.

For data on Washington's climate, environment, oceans, inland waters, biota, farming, geosciences, elevation, maps, boundaries, locations, planning, structures, utilities, transportation, economy, military, health, and society.

For data on surface geology, hazards, geothermal activity, geochronology, geochemistry, geophysical properties, and mining.

For data on aquatics, hydrography, forestry, soils, fire, and conservation.

For data on air, water, shorelines, toxics, and spills.

For data on crops by group, type, and irrigation method across the state.

For Washington Department of Transportation data.

A curated collection and science-based mapping platform for biodiversity, ecology, and species data. Contributions by many state and federal agencies and special interest groups.

Distributes scientific data on glaciers, ice sheets, soil moisture, and other variables related to the cryosphere.

For statewide government-published geospatial data.

Alaska GIS data for latitudes 55N-60N.

Geospatial data and maps provided by the University of Arizona Library.

GIS data for the state of California provided by the University of California, Los Angeles Library.

GIS data for the state of Colorado provided by the Governor's office.

Geospatial data and information provided by the University of Idaho.

Geographic information clearinghouse for the state of Montana.

Geospatial data for the state of Oregon.

Geospatial data for the state of Utah.

Geospatial data provided by the University of Wyoming.

The finest resolution global population distribution data and related metrics available, represents ambient population (average over 24 hours).

CIESIN works at the intersection of the social, natural, and information sciences, and specializes in on-line data and information management, spatial data integration and training, and interdisciplinary research related to human interactions in the environment.

U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA Earth Observations. Provides global satellite imagery for data related to oceans, atmosphere, and land surfaces.

U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center. Focuses on human interactions in the environment and supports the integration of socioeconomic and earth science data.

Provides economic, social, science, and education data for the European Union.

European Union European Environment Agency. Provides data related to developing, adopting, implementing, and evaluating environmental policy.

United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Provides access to interactive maps, satellite imagery, and related spatial databases maintained by FAO. This data relates to agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and food security.

Based on the Harvard University Geospatial Infrastructure (HUG) platform, and was developed by the Center for Geographic Analysis to make spatial data on Africa easier for researchers to discover and explore.

Harvard-based map of China supported with data from Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Social Explorer, and China Data Center - powered by WorldMap.

Canadian government GIS repository provided by the Earth Sciences Sector of Natural Resources Canada. Contains both physical and human geography datasets, vector and raster, for free. Most files are in Interchange Format (e00).

Open Maps provides access to the Government of Canada’s geospatial information. You can combine, visualize, and analyze geospatial data.

Download country level data for any country in the world: administrative boundaries, roads, railroads, altitude, land cover, population density.

World Wildlife Fund Hydrological Shuttle Elevation Derivatives at Scales. Provides regional and global hydroshed images, data (vector and raster), and maps.

Data archive comprises data and links for global and Pacific Northwest climate and natural resources.

The University of Washington Olympic Natural Resources Center located on the Olympic Peninsula in Forks, Washington, provides scientific information to address critical issues and solve problems concerning forestry and marine sciences in the region.

A federal metadata repository that serves as the primary resource for data discovery at national, state, and local scales.

Provides aggregate census data and GIS-compatible boundary files for the US from 1790 - 2014.

U.S. Bureau of Land Management. Provides bureau-wide and state-specific geospatial metadata for energy and rangelands.

U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Links to public health and related geospatial data at both the national and international level.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping Tool. Provides geospatial analysis tools for environmental, demographic, and justice indexes.

U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Provides oceanic, coastal, atmospheric, and geophysical data.

U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Provides raster navigational charts.

U.S. National Park Service. Provides metadata for national parks throughout the U.S. and its territories.

U.S. Department of Agriculture. Provides natural resource, agriculture, and imagery data (requires up-to-date java).

U.S. Geological Survey Data and Tools home page. Select "Data and Tools Topics" to filter by field of study (e.g. Biology and Ecosystems, Geology, Oceans, etc). Select "GIS Data" to access mapping information from all topics.

A comprehensive guide to climate data, ecosystem vulnerability assessments, and climate adaptation databases and tools.

U.S. Geological Survey Coastal and Marine Geology Program. Provides data on sediment and rock distributions as well as seafloor characteristics for waters off the U.S. coast.

U.S. Geological Survey. Provides satellite images, aerial photographs, and other cartographic products.

U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science Center. Provides aerial photography and digital orthophotography, elevation data (NED, DEMs, GTOPO30, etc), satellite imagery (ASTER, SRTM, SIR-C, NALC, etc), and land cover data (NLCD, LULC, GLCC, etc).

U.S. Geological Survey. Provides elevation, hydrography, geographic names, boundaries, transportation, structures, and land cover data as well as orthoimagery.