Fogler Library: GeoStats Spatial, Socioeconomic and Natural Resource Data Service

GeoStats: Spatial, Socioeconomic and Natural Resource Data Service

Useful spatial data and GIS links

Quick jumps within this page: General | Terrestrial | Nautical | Link Farms

General

GIS Day 2008 A site for educators and others to find resources to celebrate GIS Day, Wednesday, November 15 during Geography Awareness Week, during which users and vendors of geographic information systems (GIS) open their doors to schools, businesses, and the general public to showcase real-world applications of this technology. The event is principally sponsored by the National Geographic Society, the Association of American Geographers, University Consortium for Geographic Information Science, the United States Geological Survey, The Library of Congress, and ESRI, Inc.
GIS Glossary Provided by ESRI, Inc.
GIS Dictionary Collection of more than 980 terms related to geographic information systems (GIS). Entries provide brief definitions and related resources. Browsable; searchable by keyword, geographic region, or subject (such as cartography or geography). Also includes a list of GIS acronyms. From the Association for Geographic Information and the University of Edinburgh Department of Geography. .

Terrestrial

Alexandria Digital Library (University of California at Santa Barbara) Designed to be "a working digital library with collections of geographically referenced materials and services for accessing those collections." Named in honor of the library of ancient Alexandria, Egypt, the site includes, among other services, a point-and-click map browser, a world gazetteer and a "Universe" links page (link: http://www.alexandria.ucsb.edu/other-sites/ ) for spatial data at other sites.
Census Bureau's TIGER site Allows you to make customized maps of areas in the United States.
Digital Representations of Tree Species Range Maps (USGS Earth Surface Processes Team) Maps of the ranges of tree species in North America in the Atlas of United States Trees, compiled by Elbert Little, Jr. of the U.S. Forest Service, and in other publications were digitized for use in USGS' vegetation-climate modeling studies. These digital map files are available for download as ArcView® shapefiles (with associated data files) for each tree species. Geographic ranges are represented as polygons.
EPA Spatial Data-GIS Program
Gulf of Maine Ocean Observing System (GOMOOS) Up-to-date information on weather and oceanographic conditions in the Gulf of Maine. Includes Hourly Buoy Data, Ocean Conditions, Biological Data, Circulation Forecasts, Satellite Imagery, & Wave Forecasts.
Maine Office of Geographic Information Systems (MOGIS) operates a GIS computer center for Maine state agencies and provides development and technical services to encourage and guide the development of GIS in Maine for public and private sector applications. It maintains a very elaborate Web site, whose Data Catalog of digital geographic data is especially useful.
Microsoft's TerraServer Site Image-based search system. Purpose: "to provide viewers access to vast amounts of data over slow speed telecommunication lines and simple computer designs such as PCs and web browsers."
NASA's Landsat Thematic Mapper Mosaic page allows online viewing and downloading (in mrsid format) of 30 meter Landsat false color satellite images. These images cover most of the land-covered portion of the earth and are georeferenced for use in GIS.
National Biological Information Infrastructure-Geographical Structures A wide range of information from geographical and geospatial perspectives. Examples: The Gap Analysis Program (modeling of occurrence of species and communities); the Vegetation Mapping Program; and, Ecosystems, scheduled for a 2001 release, to identify major U.S. ecosystems.
National Geographic Map Machine Printable maps, profiles, flags, and facts about the countries of the world, plus star charts and satellite images.
National Elevation Dataset provides seamless elevation data for the U.S. in a raster format with a consistent datum, elevation unit, and projection. The USGS merges the highest resolution elevation available into a seamless raster to create NED. Data from NED are available to users through FTP in three formats (Arc Grid, GridFloat, BIL). Data are available for download for seamless, user-defined areas. Data sets up to 10 MB can be downloaded at no charge.
PCL Map Collection (Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection). Collection of digitized maps of general interest (world, continents, countries, states and national parks of the USA, etc.) and a list of electronic cartographic reference resources.
Topozone has made available a digital version of every USGS 1:100,00, 1:63,360, 1:25,000, and 1:24,000 scale map of the United States. Web site include geographic name search facility. Date of maps varies. These are very large files. Time your searches accordingly.
UNH Historic USGS Maps of New England and New York (Dimond Library, University of New Hampshire.) This online collection of over 1100 USGS topographic maps includes complete geographical coverage of New England from the 1890s to 1950s. Files for Maine are listed alphabetically by town name or quadrangle; or represented spatially by an image map of the grid of 15 minute quadrangles.
Yahoo! Map Creates maps from US street addresses, intersections, or city names; provides point-to-point driving directions; places businesses worldwide on maps.

Nautical

NOAA Nautical Charts from the Office of Coast Survey, known for the useful and necessary navigational products which are required for the safe and efficient maritime commerce in and out of our Nation's ports.
Ocean Data View (ODV) is a software package (free for use in scientific research and teaching) for the interactive exploration, analysis and visualization of oceanographic and other geo-referenced profile or sequence data. Data from the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE), the World Ocean Database, the World Ocean Atlas 2005, World Ocean Atlas 2001, and the World Ocean Atlas 1994 can be directly imported into ODV.
Sailvector.com offers free viewing of NOAA nautical charts in a zoomable window.
World Cruising Guide.net "A forum for cruising sailors to share information, local knowledge, experiences and advice in ports and anchorages around the world." Zoomable map in a small window, with option to see MapTech Chart Navigator^® coverage of the same area, in a separate small window.

Link Farms

Fogler Library Virtual Reference Desk - Maps and Geographic Data A list of useful links, compiled by the Reference Department of the University of Maine Library.
Geospatial One-Stop serves as a public gateway for improving access to geospatial information and data under the Geospatial One-Stop e-government initiative. It is designed to facilitate communication and sharing of geographic data and resources to enhance government efficiency and improve citizen services. This portal will make it easier, faster and less expensive for all levels of government and the public to access geospatial information.
GIS Data Depot "The largest free geo-spatial data repository on the web." Sponsored by Geocomm International Corporation. Include links to government sites (federal, state, municipal of the USA and foreign) and sites pertinent to states of the USA
Links to other GIS sites A handy page provided by the Census Bureau.
National Geospatial Data Clearinghouse is a collection of over 100 spatial data servers (each a component of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure or NSDI), that have digital geographic data primarily for use in Geographic Information Systems. Example: the USGS node assists users to find information about geospatial or spatially referenced data available from USGS.

For assistance and to make suggestions please contact Karen Stewart
Page Created by Frank Wihbey; revised by Karen Stewart: 12/28/11