Oh Where oh Where has the NIMA VMAP 1 data gone?

I gotta be honest with you... something that drives me up the wall is when public agencies either move or remove a web service, data product or ?? without any explanation or without any paper trail what so ever. Case in point, I have a popular data tip article on GISuser describing and pointing users to the NIMA VMAP data - theses data are... er, were easily accessible via ftp download from the NGA/NIMA website. Now it turns out that all the pointers to these data are broken and users simply get the familiar error page - try hitting this link and you'll see what I mean http://geoengine.nga.mil/ftpdir/archive/vpf_data/v1053.tar.gz.

If you head off to the VMAP 1 boundaries website, then select an area of interest (click on a yellow box), you are then sent to the raster roam page where you are provided with additional information on these data. Then the problem when you click on the FTP download link to access the .tar.gz file. Links are still live, however, the file with 0 for a file size is no longer available.
On the bright side, VMAP 0 data are available for download and you can also grab the data HERE as SHP files. Again, please don't waste your $$ buying the raw data from an online data "eating" resource like the datadepot or others... the same or even more currrent data are easily available via public sites like this.

Anyone have any ideas about this?? An email sent to the contact person provided has no yielded any response.
See http://geoengine.nga.mil/

GeoCommons Maker! discover geospatial data and make your own maps

I've been messing around a bit with GeoCommons Maker! - coming to the public this week - sorry but you'll need to wait to try it for yourself - thanks Sean! You may already be familiar with the cool, GeoCommons Finder! web service (http://finder.geocommons.com/) enabling users to discover a wealth of geospatial data being shared with the community. Well now, this week the developers will be rolling out even more functionality to the GeoCommons portfolio in a service called Maker! Using GeoCommons Maker!, users can create a user account, search and discover data, save their maps, and share them. Obviously, the key component of Maker! is the "create" component. Once logged in, creating your own map is a snap. Search the vast data holdings and preview data, then create a custom my by adding your own clever title, add data, them your data in a number of ways, select a base map of choice from a number of open data providers. You can read more about Maker! in this piece that I just cranked out... I'm sure you'll enjoy Maker! once it's live...
For more on Maker! See also http://www.geocommons.com/

Find your data with Finder!

I messed with this one a bit while in Beta, now you can get your own invite and its way cool! From the developers... Finder! (a browser-based application for finding, organizing and sharing GeoData in common formats) has officially graduated from 'private beta' and is now open to everyone for finding, organizing and sharing geodata. To get started, simply sign up to create a free account. See also http://www.geocommons.com/
See also http://finder.geocommons.com/

Use the search UI to enter your search parameters i.e. "Colorado Parks"

Then access metadata, preview your data in Google Maps or Google Earth, or download as KML, SHP, or CSV

Grab the 2007 TIGER/Line Shapefiles from the Census Bureau

A tip if you like free stuff... I see that some of the "free" data websites are now flogging the free 2007 TIGER/Line files (SHP format) - I saw one site whoring out the data for $100+ bucks! OR.... you can always simply go to http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/tgrshp2007/tgrshp2007.html for your self and take a few minutes to download these data yourself - sounds like a no-brainer to me! If you want to grab a bunch of data grab yourself gozilla and eat the ftp site while you have lunch!

About the data... The 2007 TIGER/Line Shapefiles contain current geographic areas (boundaries of governmental units as of January 1, 2007) and Census 2000 vintage geography. The shapefiles also contain some additional post January 1, 2007 feature updates reported in the Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS).

Download the 2007 Tiger/Line SHP files HERE

TerrasServer.com VS Microsoft TerrasServer USA

I have to admit, I've wondered about this one for years. I recall stumbling onto the Microsoft resource and wondered "how do they get away with this"? What I mean is that commercial data provider terraserver.com is now finally taking Microsoft to court over their imagery project trademark. Should be interesting to see how this one pans out - most likely the big guy will prevail in court (don't they always??)

TerraServer.com is a commerical imagery provider. Users can subscribe to their services and receive updates. Data can also be downloaded and posters and prints are also for sale. The site has a strong consumer focus (ie. want to buy a print of a celebrity's home?) but there's also loads of imagery available for a GIS base (ie. data from Pictometry and others). FYI, TerraServer was founded in 1997 in Raleigh, North Carolina with the simple purpose of finding a commercial market for satellite imagery and aerial photography.

TerraServer.com - Commercial Imagery provider

Microsoft's resource (TerraServer USA) has been developed with a partnership in place with the USGS. Users can easily access topos and aerial photos. An online viewer enables you to easily browse USGS quads and then download for use. Personally, I don't know of many users or orgs who depend on this site for their data.

Microsoft's TerraServer USA

Both sites serve a purpose, however, I'd go to some of the many other free data providers before these one (see http://gisdata.blogspot.com). There's also USGS seamless data distn (http://seamless.usgs.gov/) or my favorite, the USDA Geospatial data gateway

Tip - National Geographic DataDoors portal

A data tip from NGS - Not exactly free, however, this is a fine resource for viewing data and imagery... National Geographic DataDoors portal (www.natgeodatadoors.com), customers can select the exact area of coverage they want and order National Geographic’s TOPO! maps and i-cubed’s USA Nationwide Prime Imagery on CD-ROM or removable hard drives, or as a download. National Geographic Maps has scanned over 58,000 United States Geological Survey (USGS) quadrangles, color corrected them to create a consistent look and created a seamless map that spans all 50 U.S. states. The TOPO! map data is available at 1:24,000 scale in the continental United States and Hawaii, 1:63,360 scale in Alaska, and 1:100,000 scale in the continental United States. Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data is also available to help visualize vertical terrain and conduct spatial analysis and modeling. DataDoors delivers TOPO! maps and i-cubed imagery in many open formats, including TIF, JPEG, SID and ECW, and supports the selection of projection and data.

Canadian and US topos from Touratel

Fugawi Touratel (aimed at hikers and outdoor enthusiasts) allows users to view and print Canadian and US topographic maps from Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) and the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The site contains NRCan maps in 1:50,000 and 1:250,000 scales for all Canadian Provinces, and USGS topographic maps for the USA, including Hawaii and Alaska, at all available scales, including 1:24,000, 1:100,000 and 1:250,000. Also served up are aerials and google maps. Finally, Touratel also offers up a mobile version and is available from Alltel wireless and Sprint. More on this app available in their latest PR

Zillow provides 7000+ Neighborhood boundaries via SHP format - CC license

This just in from the Zillow blog regarding free, SHP files downloads now available... The boundary lines for over 7,000 neighborhoods around the United States covering roughly 150 cities. These neighborhood shapes are now available, zipped up in the Arc Shapefile format, for anyone to download. According to Zillow's lab, the company wants to share more than 7000 neighborhood boundaries with the community... these via SHP file format. This from zillow... " The Zillow data team has created a database of nearly 7,000 neighborhood boundaries in the largest cities in the U.S. And we'd like to share them with you! We're sharing these neighborhoods under a Creative Commons license to allow people to use and contribute to our growing database." The fine print... You are free to use the files in this database in applications as long as you attribute Zillow when you use it. You may also make your own changes to the database files and distribute them, as long as you provide them under the same kind of license and give Zillow attribution. You can grab the boundaries here

Q and A: Where can I obtain VMAP data? Here's a tip

This is a common one.. today I got a common request from a reader.. "where can I obtain VMap data? My response which may help some of you asking the same thing:

See the following:
VMAP1 and other global datasets are available from the NGA Raster Roam -http://geoengine.nga.mil/geospatial/SW_TOOLS/NIMAMUSE/webinter/rast_roam.html
To access VMAP1 data see http://geoengine.nga.mil/geospatial/SW_TOOLS/NIMAMUSE/webinter/vmap1_legend.html

see also these useful help docs:
Free Download of VMAP1 - Vector Smart Map FTP links http://www.gisuser.com/content/view/5535/

The search on GISuser yields some great results and you can try this custom Google GIS Data search DB that I developed


I would urge you to be careful buying this data online as most commercial resellers simply download from these FTP sites, cut to a CD / DVD and send to you.. save your $$. There's many online sources of these data but these tips should get you started and atleast pointed in the right direction.

WorldMate now available free for S60 users (Nokia N95) and Zurfer is cool too!

Cool news for Symbian S60 device users (like the Nokia N95)... one of the most popular S60 applications is now available for free... WorldMate... the World's leading smartphone travel companion. WorldMate's feature set include weather forecasts, world clocks, a currency converter and a world day / night map. The new S60 WorldMate version also contains the Weathercaster service, the users' favorite audio / visual tool that pushes weather updates to the user. Premium services include real-time flight status, flight schedules and satellite weather imagery, and are available for a subscription fee. WorldMate can be downloaded for free at http://www.mobimate.com or over-the-air at http://mobile.mobimate.com.

Note... if this apps is cool to you then I also suggest you check out Zurfer for S60. ITs a cool add on for mobile flickr users (like me) enabling you to set your location, view photos from your sets, your friends/contacts, and others near you... way cool! Zurfer comes from the Yahoo research labs

Factle maps and a neighborhood dataset

Note: The original message posted here has been removed and updated with a new message at the request of factle.net - the prior message was based on information contained within an email that was not edited accordingly prior to distribution... Factle is a company out of Berkeley California.

Factle Maps produces high quality neighborhood maps. From members of the team that won the 2006 MapInfo Meridian Award, we have put together a comprehensive dataset of neighborhood boundaries for all U.S. cities with populations of 150,000 and greater, as well as their demographic data. As leading experts on neighborhood mapping, we are constantly improving our datasets, continually mapping out neighborhoods for most U.S. cities with the goal to expand our neighborhood collection to other nations.

Until July 28, 2007, Factle Maps will be offering GISUser users neighborhood data at a reduced price that is often substantially lower than comparable datasets. This license comes with names and boundaries for over 11,000 neighborhoods and sub-neighborhoods, that includes elements of the dataset used by HomeGain and Trulia. The reason for this offer is that after this month, the rights -- to the original neighborhood data that we helped create – reverts to another company. As a result, we will lose our license to sell this specific dataset directly and we want to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to purchase our data at a reasonable price. We typically sell our neighborhood data at 50% of what others have been charging and we do not require an annual licensing fee. You also have the option of upgrading your purchase to include corresponding demographic data to as many as 500 different parameters. Your neighborhood purchase will be credited toward future Factle dataset purchases. see more at http://www.factle.net/

Note: Since the time of this original post, Maponics (www.maponics.com ) has sued Factle Maps over copyright infringement in federal court (see http://dockets.justia.com/docket/court-candce/case_no-3:2007cv05777/case_id-197808/ ). Maponics is the legitimate owner of this data – please contact Maponics at 800-762-5158 for more information on licensing neighborhood boundaries.

2006 NAIP aerial photography North Dakota

The North Dakota State Water Commission has recently updated their map services to include the 2006 NAIP aerial photography. The resolution of this photography is 2 meters and is similar to the quality of the 2004 photography. The 2003 and 2005 photography have higher resolutions of 1 meter. See http://mapservice.swc.state.nd.us

Free resources and FTP sites for ortho photos - a reminder

Looking for orthos? Here's a decent reminder list that I published a while back... always useful for reference.. enjoy.
The data from the SDDS is available as a seamless product on the Seamless Data Distribution System see http://seamless.usgs.gov The imagery is available for online download as small files or larger areas may be purchased on media (CD or DVD).
Looking for more free resources & FTP sites? Other Sources of Orthophotos & imagery:
http://gisdata.usgs.net
http://www.faygis.org/datasearch.cfm
http://www.cast.uark.edu/cast/geostor/raw_DOQ/index.html
http://sal.uamont.edu/pages/nsdd/Arkansas_State.htm
ftp://ccwgov.co.calaveras.ca.us/GIS/Raster_Data/Aerial_Photos/2002_2ft_Color_DOI/
ftp://ftp.ci.corvallis.or.us/pw/gis/orthophotos/
http://casil.ucdavis.edu/casil/kerncog.org/
http://casil.ucdavis.edu/casil/usgs.gov/
http://www.landwateruse.water.ca.gov/basicdata/landuse/digitalsurveys.cfm
http://www.fcgov.com/gis/downloadabledata.php
http://www.udel.edu/dgs/dgsdata/hundreds.html
http://magic.lib.uconn.edu/cgibin/MAGIC_DBsearch2.plGeography=37811&Loc=0001
http://data.labins.org/2003/MappingData/DOQQ/doqq.cfm
ftp://gisftp.hicentral.com/AirPhotoImages/
http://inside.uidaho.edu
ftp://itoc.in-span.net/
http://cairo.gis.iastate.edu/map.html
http://gisdasc.kgs.ku.edu/kgcc/
http://gis.sedgwick.gov/view/
http://musashi.ogis.state.me.us/catalog/catalog.aspstate=2&extent=24k
http://www.mass.gov/mgis/laylist.htm
http://maps.dnr.state.mn.us/deli/data_search.html
http://www.lmic.state.mn.us/chouse/airphoto_usda.html
http://www.maris.state.ms.us/HTM/DataWarehouse/NAIP.htm
http://msdisweb.missouri.edu/data/naip/
http://nris.state.mt.us/nsdi/orthophotos/
ftp://www.co.missoula.mt.us/Surveyor/Horizx/MR_SID/
http://www.dnr.state.ne.us/databank/fsa03.html
http://www.dnr.state.ne.us/databank/lanc_doqq.html
http://njgin.nj.gov/OIT_IW/index.jsp
ftp://ims.bernco.gov/data
http://rgis.unm.edu/loader_div.cfmtheme=Digital20Orthophotos
http://www.nysgis.state.ny.us/gisdata/
http://lnweb02.co.wake.nc.us/gis/gismaps.nsf
http://www.state.nd.us/gis/mapsdata/download/
http://www2.ocgi.okstate.edu/2003img1/
ftp://ftp.ci.corvallis.or.us/pw/gis/orthophotos/
ftp://imagery.pasda.psu.edu/pamap/
http://www.edc.uri.edu/orthosf/orthos/2003usda/
http://www.pasda.psu.edu/documents/datalist.cgi/naip
http://www.edc.uri.edu/orthosf/orthos/2003usda/
http://www.edc.uri.edu/orthosf/orthos/2003usda/mrsid.html
http://www.sdgs.usd.edu/register/index.html
http://www.capco.state.tx.us/Information_Clearinghouse/Orthoimagery_main.asp
http://agrc.utah.gov/agrc_sgid/naip.html
http://gis.vcu.edu/datausda.html
ftp://ftp.spokanemaps.com/
http://wvgis.wvu.edu/data/dataset.phpaction=search&ID=254#Download
http://edc.usgs.gov
http://nationalmap.usgs.gov
http://www.usgs.gov
http://terraserver-usa.com/
Something missing???

Free USGS DRG data downloads from Libre and the Internet archive... download away!

Remember the USGS DRG map ransom project that "freed" the data, making these data freely available for public download? Well, its been some time and it seems that the data are indeed freely available for all. I surfed around a bit this AM and wanted to remind any of you GIS techs and managers that are STILL paying for these free data to consult this finne resource as an alternative. Data are available from a coulpe of locations and served up via http or ftp download. You can browse by State from the following locations: http://libremap.org/data/ - the libre map project UIorhttp://www.archive.org/details/maps_usgs - the Internet archive

Coming Soon, a new FREE GIS data product from the USGS, EROS, and NASA... TerraLook

TerraLook consists of a collection of JPEG images created from ASTER images from the Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center and Landsat Orthorectified images from the USGS EROS archive. images are user-selected, geo-registered, simulated natural color bundled with footprints of the images and standards-compliant
metadata that describe the collection. Each collection will be delivered as a single zipped file. TerraLook products will be available at no charge, and may be selected and ordered through the USGS Global Visualization Viewer (GloVIS) - See http://glovis.usgs.gov/.

USGS Seamless Data Server.. a simple reminder

In a recent reminder from sommeone at the USGS, I have to admit that I have neglected to promote this fabulous data resource. Most users know about it (or should know about it), therefore, as a result it sometimes gets forgotten. Thing of the seamless data distribution system as the grand-daddy of the USGS geospatial repositories... and then some! This site has complete coverage of theNational Elevation Dataset that supercedes Digital Elevation Models, complete DOQQcoverage, over 30 Tb of urban imagery, one-time coverage of full resolution Landsatimagery, and much more. Also, the data are seamless, so you can put a box aroundthe data without having to figure out quadrangles and then having to assemble themall. Here's some details from our friends at the USGS if you need to hear more... Free downloads are availble - up to 1.6 Gbytes of data in 100 MB files in one user request. Users have unlimited access to the interactive map and can make unlimited requests.The amount of coverage area depends on the number of products selected for download.For example, if NED 1 Arc Second is selected as the only product a user can downloadup to a 30 square degree area. But, if NED 1 arc second and NED 1/3 arc second areselected, then the area available for download will be considerably smaller. To seethe various sizes of coverage area for each product, click on the List of Productsdrop down, select the desired product. User can define an area of interest by drawing a box, defining coordinates, or useavailable templates to cut out the area. The first method of drawing a box (square or rectangle) is best for defining ageneral area. The coordinates are displayed, in decimal degrees, in the bottom leftcorner of the window as the mouse is moved over the map. The second method ofdefining coordinates can be used when the user wants a precise area and knows thecorner coordinates. The third method is the use of provided templates, such as 7.5min quadrangles. Bookmark this one, or maybe even set it as your homme-page! http://seamless.usgs.gov/

GISuser Data Search Engine with 1900 new resources (mostly for Free data)

Recall last week I made mention of the Google Co-op API and the new functionality that enables users (like me) to create their very own search engine. Since that time I've added some 1900+ of my favorite GIS resources (mostly data resources) which has resulted in a customized search tool that yields some awesome results if I say so myself! Many of the links come submitted directly to me for inclussion in vary sections at GISuser.com (ie. link section, free data resources, state clearinghouses etc...) Check it out and be sure to drop me a line if you don't think your favorite data resource is listed yet See the GIS Data search Engine HERE

Cities Database Free Edition

Another POI database is on the market in the GeoDataSource Cities Database product. The company has several flavors that run as much as $1,000+. A free product is available to those who register. It contains 2 million+ city place names. Not sure how this product differs from some of the widely available free place name products available. See more at http://www.geodatasource.com/cities-free.html - other free place name products can be found here & here for those interested - there's also the ever popular GNS names server at http://earth-info.nga.mil/gns/html/index.html

Any updates on the Free DRG project?

I'm curious, has anyone heard anything about the progress or plans to make the DRGs freely available via the Internet archive? Recall the plan from few weeks ago where Jared bought the DRG collection from a vendor, collected "donations" from the industry and then told us that the data would be made publicly available in a handy location (I still contend that they already are publicly available) . I've contacted them a couple of times requesting a simple update or any information at all but have not heard a word - although a small mesage on the site states that the data has been delivered. Now, don't get me wrong but won't uploading and indexing thousands of DRG files take considerable effort?? Until them a few free DRG resources can be found here and there's also the fabulous Geospatial Data Gateway - Have you heard anything? Related weblink http://libre.redjar.org/maps/

Free GIS Data GeoBlog

GIS users are always searching for free data sources. There's plenty of them out there but locating them can be a challenge. Many of you know that we already have hundreds of pointers to great free data repositories listed in some of the directories and articles hosted at GISuser.com. In an effort to share all the great pointers that we have I've started migrating pointers to some of the best free GIS data resources in a new blog - aka. the Free GIS Data blog - look forward to the best of the best making their way to this directory and feel free to suggest additions. Categories will make searching the blog a breeze with geographic tags (ie. State name or country) and by data type (ie. DRG). hopefully this resource will be useful to the community and I look forward to it growing nicely in the near future. The focus of the data resources will initially be on US data sources (ie. places where you can grab free DRGs and DOQQs) but there's also some great Global data resources as well. Bookmark http://gisdata.blogspot.com