Having trouble accessing government information? See the Libraries’ guide to Alternative Sources for Federal Information and Data.
GEOG 416: Data Sources: Home
Information about finding data and links to sources on various topics.
Variety of Possible Spatial Data Sources
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GIS GuideCourse Guide for GIS Classes from our GIS Librarian.
Sources Specific to Some of Your Topics (NOT necessarily spatial)
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Census Data Resources: Make Maps, Reports and Data ExtractsCensus data provides demographic, income, health insurance coverage, housing, and much other data. This link is to my guide to Census resources. I strongly recommend using the Social Explorer database but this guide both links to that and provides other necessary information. You will need to join data tables into a GIS map.
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Climate Data OnlineFrom NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information. Offers multiple tools for weather, marine, storm event, and severe weather data.
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Coastal County SnapshotsFrom NOAA's Office for Coastal Management's Digital Coast. Related datasets linked at the bottom of the page.
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Endangered and Threatened species of North CarolinaLists vulnerable species in the state.
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EnviroAtlas Data Download from EPADownload page for data underlying the EnviroAtlas mapping application. Free but must register.
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Environmental Conservation Online SystemIntegrated data system of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) and other government data sources.
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National Environmental Public Health Tracking NetworkEnter a county to view environmental health issues for that area.
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National Invasive Species Information Center from USDAScroll down to State-Specific Threats to find several useful databases: Invasive Species Status Report by State; Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database; and Pest Tracker. The State & Local Government section under the next heading, Selected Resources, also offers links to NC-specific resources.
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NC Fisheries StatisticsStatistics on recreational and commercial harvest of finfish, shellfish and crustaceans. Reports may be generated by specific species and history is available back to 1972.
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NC OneMapIncludes many spatial layers from imagery to property to topo maps.
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Palmer Drought Severity IndexThis page describes the PDSI, and includes links to external sites to obtain data.
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PolicyMapUseful multi-disciplinary data source. Recommend exploring many categories, but particularly Lending, Quality of Life and Federal Guidelines. Not all tables can be exported: after selecting a layer, click on the down arrow icon above the upper right corner of the map to test. Different variables will have different geographic levels available, depending on how they were collected and are structured. For instance, for the CDC's Social Vulnerability Index, one can select to download the state of North Carolina at either the Census tract or county level. Unsheltered Homeless Population, though, is available at the state or county level but cannot be downloaded for all counties at once.
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ResourceWatch Data page"A global partnership of public, private, and civil society organizations convened by World Resources Institute to provide trusted and timely data for a sustainable future." Provides data related to food and agriculture, energy, climate, and society.
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Uniform Crime ReportsFBI's standardized crime reporting database. Take care: reporting jurisdictions can overlap.
Note that PolicyMap also includes crime data.
Strategies for Finding Data
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Slide deck from classDescribes strategies for identifying data sources.
