February 12, 2017

Kerski looks at TNRIS portal

A look at TNRIS. From Joseph regarding the portal... One of the oldest and yet most useful of all regional or state portals is that of the Texas Natural Resources Information System, or TNRIS.  Indeed, TNRIS predated digital spatial data, for it was founded in 1968, housing paper topographic and geologic maps and aerial photographs for years before hosting digital spatial data.  TNRIS allows searches by county or by data theme.  If one zooms in on a the statewide map with county boundaries, the familiar USGS 7.5-minute grid is displayed, from which one can download such data as digital raster graphics, elevation, wetlands, geology, and historical and current satellite imagery.  Statewide themes include bathymetry, land cover, soils, census data, transportation, and many others.  Metadata is not only available but it is conveniently packaged, and the site doesn’t burden the data user with needless frills and fancy ways to download–it is, in my view, what a data portal should be–with the ability to quickly go in and get what one needs, in a variety of formats.

Read the full review here

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