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Resource Guide for CISAC Honor Thesis Research : Geospatial data sources

This guide provides students with resources like article databases, data and policy resources to aid in their literature review and data collection for their thesis work.

Spatial Data Sources

Earthworks: Discover Stanford's GIS data and maps

https://earthworks.stanford.edu/

 

Earthworks is Stanford University Library's portal for discovery and distribution of geospatial data. Earthworks provides federated search of more than a dozen other research collections and direct access to data for download. Earthworks currently contains records for over 100k spatial datasets and cartographic resources, with over 60,000 of those freely available under permissive licensing.

SimplyAnalytics is a web-based mapping, analytics, and data visualization application that makes it easy for anyone to create interactive maps, charts, and reports using 100,000+ data variables. SimplyAnalytic’s intuitive analysis tools generate detailed custom maps and reports for any location in the country. Add individual data variables or entire groups of variables and generate a report in seconds, or create a ring study report illustrating the characteristics of the 1-, 3-, and 5-mile radius surrounding your target location. Rank locations, apply filters to maps and reports, and create custom study areas to further hone your research.

SimplyAnalytics Data

SimplyAnalytics has all the data you need to answer key research questions, model business decisions, and understand the socio-demographic and economic conditions of any geographic area in the United States and Canada. We currently offer more than 75,000 data variables related to demographics, employment, housing, market segments, businesses, consumer spending, brand preferences, public health, and more from industry-leading data vendors.

Accessing SimplyAnalytics.com from Off-Campus

SimplyAnalytics.com is an IP restricted resource and requires authentication on the Stanford Network, using VPN or a Proxy server. The easiest way to access SimplyAnalytics.com from off-campus is to install the "Lean Libraries" browser extension: https://library.stanford.edu/using/connecting-e-resources, then go to https://simplyanalytics.com/ and create an account using your Stanford.edu email address.

Editing and Contributing to OpenStreetMap:

 

Querying & Retrieving Data from OpenStreetMap:

  • overpass-turbohttps://overpass-turbo.eu/ - a web-based data filtering tool for OpenStreetMap. With overpass turbo you can run Overpass API queries and analyse the resulting OSM data interactively on a map. There is an integrated Wizard which makes creating queries super easy. More information about overpass turbo and how to write Overpass queries can be found in the OSM wiki.

  • geofabrik.de OpenStreetMap Data Extractshttp://download.geofabrik.de/ - This server has data extracts from the OpenStreetMap project which are normally updated every day. Select your continent and then your country of interest.
  • Planet OSM: https://planet.openstreetmap.org/ - The files found here are regularly-updated, complete copies of the OpenStreetMap.org database, and those published before the 12 September 2012 are distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license, those published after are Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0 licensed. 

Through the Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0, OpenStreetMap (OSM) contributors own, modify and share data publicly. There are many other free maps on the Internet, but most have legal or technical restrictions preventing others from using the data openly. With OSM both the maps and underlying data can be downloaded for free, for developers or anyone to use or redistribute. Additionally, in many places of the world where there is no commercial motivation to develop this data, OSM is often the best available resource.

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.

Data themes are available in three levels of detail. For each scale, themes are listed on Cultural, Physical, and Raster category pages.

Overwhelmed? The Natural Earth quick start kit (227 mb) provides a small sample of Natural Earth themes styled in an ArcMap .MXD document and in a QGIS document. Download all vector themes as SHP (279 mb), SQLite (222 mb), or GeoPackage (260 mb).

Natural Earth is the creation of many volunteers and is supported by NACIS. It is free for use in any type of project. Full Terms of Use »

Large scale data, 1:10m

download_thumbs_10m

Cultural Physical Raster

The most detailed. Suitable for making zoomed-in maps of countries and regions. Show the world on a large wall poster.

1:10,000,000
1″ = 158 miles
1 cm = 100 km

Medium scale data, 1:50m

download_thumbs_50m

Cultural Physical Raster

Suitable for making zoomed-out maps of countries and regions. Show the world on a tabloid size page.

1:50,000,000
1″ = 790 miles
1 cm = 500 km

Small scale data, 1:110m

download_thumbs_110m

Cultural Physical

Suitable for schematic maps of the world on a postcard or as a small locator globe.

1:110,000,000
1″ = 1,736 miles
1 cm = 1,100 km

HDX: The Humanitarian Data Exchange

https://data.humdata.org/

Over 17,000 Datasets
 

The Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX) is an open platform for sharing data across crises and organizations. Launched in July 2014, the goal of HDX is to make humanitarian data easy to find and use for analysis. Our growing collection of datasets has been accessed by users in over 200 countries and territories. Watch this video to learn more.

HDX is managed by OCHA's Centre for Humanitarian Data, which is located in The Hague. OCHA is part of the United Nations Secretariat and is responsible for bringing together humanitarian actors to ensure a coherent response to emergencies. The HDX team includes OCHA staff and a number of consultants who are based in North America, Europe and Africa.

 

https://data.census.gov/cedsci/ is the new platform to access data from the U.S. Census Bureau. The vision for data.census.gov is to improve the customer experience by making data available from one centralized place so that data users spend less time searching for data content and more time using it.

TIGER/Line Shapefiles

TIGER/Line Shapefiles: https://www.census.gov/geographies/mapping-files/time-series/geo/tiger-line-file.html - TIGER/Line Shapefiles do not include demographic data, but they do contain geographic entity codes (GEOIDs) that can be linked to the Census Bureau’s demographic data, available on American FactFinder.