Provides consistent coverage of all the Earth's land cover area. Includes different thematic maps such as: transportation, elevation, drainage, vegetation, administrative boundaries, land cover, population centres, and land use. Registration required.[3]
The first global digital elevation model at 30 meter resolution with forests and buildings removed. Produced by researchers from Fathom and the University of Bristol.[4]
OpenTopography facilitates community access to high-resolution, Earth science-oriented, topography data, and related tools and resources.. Find high-resolution, Earth science-based, topography data, and related tools and resources. Available as dense point clouds and DEMs.
Climate web viewer containing accessible climatic information from 1901 that can be downloaded in a variety of GIS formats.
HydroSHEDS
Global hydrological data based on the SRTM elevation data. Includes river networks, watershed boundaries, drainage directions, and flow accumulations.
USGS Land Cover Institute
Set of links from the USGS for numerous land cover datasets. Although primarily US data, further down the list there is data for other continents.
Atlas of the Biosphere: Mapping the Biosphere
Raster maps of environmental variables including soil pH, potential evapotranspiration, average snow depth, and more.
Global 200
Vector data from WWF of "a set of the Earth's terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecoregions that harbor exceptional biodiversity and are representative of its ecosystems."[8]
Global Lakes and Wetlands Database
Vector data created from multiple sources by the WWF and Center for Environmental Systems Research, University of Kassel outlining global wetlands, swamps, bogs, reservoirs, etc.
Conservation GIS Data
Data from The Nature Conservancy and associated organizations, including: TNC Lands & Waters (properties/preserves, easements and leases), Ecoregional Portfolio, Terrestrial Ecoregions of the World, Freshwater Ecoregions of the World, and Marine Ecoregions of the World.
Pilot Analysis of Global Ecosystems: Forest Ecosystems
Data from the World Resources Institute includes: percentage tree-cover, population density and tree cover, share of wood in fuel consumption, etc.
SoilGrids1km - soil property and class maps
SoilGrids1km is a collection of updatable soil property and class maps of the world at a resolution of 1 km produced using state-of-the-art model-based statistical methods. Presents estimates (means and 90% confidence intervals) for pH, texture (sa, si, cl), organic carbon and more for 6 depth layers up to 2 m depth.
A collection of reports from the USGS describing metallic and nonmetallic mineral resources throughout the world. Includes names, location, commodity, description, geologic characteristics, production, reserves, and more.
World Bank Geodata
A wide range of World Bank datasets: schooling and financial data, etc.
Global Administrative Areas
Administrative areas in this database are countries and lower level subdivisions such as provinces, departments, bibhag, bundeslander, daerah istimewa, fivondronana, krong, landsvæðun, opština, sous-préfectures, counties, and thana.
Crop Calendar Dataset
Raster data on planting dates and harvesting dates across the world for 19 crops. Available at 5 minute and 0.5 degree resolutions.
Global Agriculture Lands
Raster dataset from NASA's Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center representing global extent and intensity of use of agricultural lands in 2000. Satellite data from MODIS and SPOT (satellite) image vegetation sensor were combined with agricultural inventory data.
Multiple datasets showing agricultural land use dating from 1700 to 2007 for 175 crops.
Historic Croplands Dataset, 1700-1992
Documents historical changes in global land cover: croplands from 1700 to 1992.
Global Reservoir and Dam (GRanD) Database
Vector dataset from NASA's Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center on all reservoirs with a storage capacity >0.1 cubic km.
Armed Conflict Location and Event Dataset
Contains all reported conflict events in 50 countries in developing world, from 1997 to present.
Gridded Population of the World (GPW)
Dataset from NASA's Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center includes raw population, population density, historic, current and predicted.
Global Rural-Urban Mapping Project (GRUMP)
Dataset from NASA's Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (based on the above data, but includes information on rural and urban population balances).
Global Roads Open Access Data Set (gROADS)
Well documented global dataset from NASA's Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center of roads between settlements using a consistent data model (UNSDI-T v.2) which is, to the extent possible, topologically integrated, and accurate to approximately 50m. Only roads between settlements are included, not residential streets, and the dataset is suitable for mapping at the 1:250,000 level.
Crowdsourced data for the whole world including most things you'd find on a standard local paper map: points of interest, buildings, roads and road names, ferry routes etc.
Includes geology, topography and mineral occurrence data for several countries as well as globally. Files are mostly in MapInfo format. Both free and commercial datasets available.
Rextag Global Energy GIS Data
Covers more than two million miles (3.2 Million Km) of oil and gas pipelines, and thousands of energy facilities, such as refineries, LNG terminal, gas processing plants, terminal, and much more.
International Peace Information Service (IPIS) Open Data
Datasets originate from International Peace Information Service (IPIS) 's data collection campaigns and research in sub-Saharan Africa with a thematic focus on natural resources, conflict motives of armed actors, business and human rights, and international arms transfers.
The OCC Environmental Data Commons
Repository for environmental public data sets of scientific interest, hosted as part of the Open Science Data Cloud Ecosystem.
OpenAerialMap
OpenAerialMap (OAM) is a set of tools for searching, sharing, and using openly licensed satellite and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imagery.
OpenLandMap
World's environmental data representing land mask (land cover, vegetation, soil, climate, terrain data and similar)
IPUMS International
Harmonized International Census Data for Social Science and Health Research
Polar region
GIS data for Polar datasets (only)
Name
Description
REMA
The Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica (REMA) is a high resolution, time-stamped Digital Surface Model (DSM) of Antarctica at 8-meter spatial resolution.
Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community; primarily a geoportal; contains many resources pertaining to GIS governance in the European Union. For example: INSPIRE Thematic Working Group Cadastral Parcels — This document describes the INSPIRE data specifications for the spatial data theme Cadastral Parcels.
Unique point for soil related data at continental scale.[11] Among others: The European Soil Database, Soil erosion assessment, Soil Organic carbon, soil biodiversity, LUCAS data, etc
The digital vector geographical database of the Czech Republic ArcČR® 500 is created in the detail of the scale 1: 500 000. Its content is clear geographical information about the Czech Republic. The data were created in cooperation with ARCDATA PRAHA, s.r.o., the Surveying and Mapping Authority and the Czech Statistical Office and are distributed free of charge.
geodata.gov.gr is designed, developed and maintained by the Institute of Information Systems of the Research Center "Athena" to serve as a central collection point, search, distribution and display of open public geospatial information.
Collection of data for Greece, the Corinthia, and Ancient Corinth; contains many data resources pertaining to GIS in Greece, modern and ancient. The page is maintained by the Corinth Excavations of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens which has been excavating in Ancient Corinth since 1896.
GeoNB is the Province of New Brunswick's gateway to geographic information and related value-added applications. Use "Data Catalogue" link to access files.
Search for and download a wide variety of datasets from this portal developed by the member agencies of the Federal Geographic Data Committee through collaboration with partners and stakeholders.
Data from the Economic Research Service, including the Atlas of Rural and Small-Town America, Farm Program Atlas, Food Access Research Atlas, and Food Environment Atlas.
The USGS Gap Analysis Program maintains four primary data sets: land cover, protected areas, species and aquatic. The GAP Land Cover Data Set is the most complete map ever produced of vegetative associations for the US. Classified into 551 ecological systems, and 32 modified ecological systems (where human impacts have had an effect).
The AHCBP documents all boundary changes in states and counties in United States territory, including non-county areas never before compiled or mapped, providing unrivaled historical and geographic coverage. Primary sources are cited for every change, providing extensive historical documentation.
Online collection of all digital USGS 1:24K scale topographic maps (as well as various other GIS data) covering the United States, available as a free download.
NOAA generates tens of terabytes of data a day from satellites, radars, ships, weather models, and other sources. While these data are publicly available, it is difficult to download and work with such high volumes. NOAA’s vast wealth of data therefore represents a substantial untapped economic opportunity. The NOAA Big Data Project (BDP) was created to explore the potential benefits of storing copies of key observations and model outputs in the Cloud to allow computing directly on the data without requiring further distribution. Such an approach could help form new lines of business and economic growth while making NOAA's data more easily accessible to the American public.
The Kentucky Geoportal is a Data Clearinghouse that provides ays to discover and share geospatial data resources. Locate maps and geographic data content for a particular part of the state or search based on keyword or theme type.[13]
The Kentucky Open Data Portal is a site for exploring, accessing and downloading Kentucky-specific GIS data and discovering mapping apps. You can analyze and combine datasets using maps, as well as develop new web and mobile applications.[14]
The KyFromAbove initiative is focused on building and maintaining a current basemap for the Commonwealth that can meet the needs of its users at the state, federal, local, and regional level. A common basemap, including current color leaf-off aerial photography and elevation data (LiDAR), reduces the cost of developing GIS applications, promotes data sharing, and add efficiencies to many state agency business processes. All basemap data acquired through this effort is being made available in the public domain.[15]
Lexington’s Open Data Portal is a collaborative effort between LFUCG and the community. Provides government data in standards compliant, machine readable format.[16]
The Louisville/Jefferson County Information Consortium (LOJIC) is a multi-agency partnership to build and maintain a Geographic Information System (GIS) to serve Louisville Metro and Jefferson County.[17]
The Louisiana Atlas is a data distribution system hosting a variety of publicly available GIS datasets for the state of Louisiana. Operated by Louisiana State University.[19]
Data repository for the City of Philadelphia, which includes GIS data-sets relating to the Philadelphia region, available to view and download in various formats
The 1map online GIS repository hosts public domain GIS information for the entire South Africa, including cadastral data, aerial imagery, and topographical data.
^Karger, Dirk Nikolaus; Conrad, Olaf; Böhner, Jürgen; Kawohl, Tobias; Kreft, Holger; Soria-Auza, Rodrigo Wilber; Zimmermann, Niklaus E.; Linder, H. Peter; Kessler, Michael (2016). "Climate". CHELSA climatologies at high resolution for the earth's land surface areas (Version 1.1). World Data Center for Climate (WDCC) at DKRZ. doi:10.1594/wdcc/chelsa_v1_1. Archived from the original on 2016-10-13. Retrieved 2016-10-13.
^Panagos, Panos; Liedekerke, Marc Van; Jones, Arwyn; Montanarella, Luca (2012). "European Soil Data Centre: Response to European policy support and public data requirements". Land Use Policy. 29 (2): 329–338. Bibcode:2012LUPol..29..329P. doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2011.07.003.
