GIS Data

With support from:

NSF DUE-0903270

Prepared by:

in partnership with:

John McGeeJennifer McKee

Geospatial Technician Education Through Virginia’s Community Colleges (GTEVCC)

Let’s take a look at what resources you have been provided, and where you can obtain more…

• County Data for your county• VCCS Geospatial Institute Data DVD

• State level data• Exercise specific data

Resources provided to you

Virginia GIS County Data series• You have been provided with a DVD of your local county

• County Data Set-Elevation model - FSA CLU-Contours -Soils-Slope -USDA Imagery-Aspect -VA Imagery-Hydro -VDOT Roads-Topo

State level Data (on the Data DVD)

• VCE District Boundaries

• Census Summary-blockgroup-tract-county

• Schools• Golf courses• Congressional Districts

• Zip codes

• Hospitals• State boundaries• County boundaries• And more…

Acquiring Data from other sourcesTwo approaches:

1. Internet servers – you do not actually “acquire” the data…it ‘streams’ to your computer from a GIS server at a remote location

2. Acquire and save to your hard drive

Acquiring Data from other sources

USDA server

Internet Connection Required…

USDA Data Services (we’ll talk about this more in a minute…)

Where can you find more data?

• I’d start with your local governments. They’ve got the best stuff.

• Local Government GIS contact info.: http://gismaps.virginia.gov/contacts/

Rule of thumb: Call a planner or someone in the engineering dept.

Calling your Local Government: What questions to ask…

• Is there any GIS data available for my county that is accessible to me?

• If so, what is available (parcels, structures, etc.)?

• Can you send these layers to me on a CD, or can I download them off of the Web?

• Are there projection files (.prj for vector files and .aux for raster files) associated with all of the layers?

• Can I share these data with others, or are the data licensed?

• Can I print maps from this data, and distribute the maps?

• What format are the data in (i.e. shapefile, geodatabase, etc.)

• Do you have any post 2002 aerial photography?

The Virginia Metadata Clearinghouse http://gisdata.virginia.gov

Geospatial One-Stop http://www.geodata.gov

The USDA Geospatial Data Gateway

http://datagateway.nrcs.usda.gov/

• Click on the “Get Data” button on the right side to get started

The Virginia Geospatial Extension Program – Links to VA Data Sources

http://www.gep.frec.vt.edu/

There are literally hundreds of additional GIS data distribution sites…

State Agencies

• No central GIS Data clearinghouse currently exists for Virginia

• There is a metadata clearinghouse… this can get you started http://gisdata.virginia.gov

• You have to call agencies and see what they’ve got.

• Leaders include:• VDOF, DMME, VEDP, VDA, DCR, DHR, VDH, VDOT, DEQ, VEDP, et. al.

• VDEM is “getting going”