open data

Google's Earth Engine Data Catalog lets users discover public geospatial datasets.

Find Public GIS Data with Google’s Earth Engine Catalog

Caitlin Dempsey

The Earth Engine Data Catalog lets users search and discover Earth observation public datasets.

Screenshot of the OpenTopography map interface.

Find Open Sources of Elevation Data With OpenTopography

Caitlin Dempsey

OpenTopography is a portal that provides access to open sources of topographical datasets and processing tools.

Access Open GIS Data for Almost 11 Million Trees with OpenTrees

Caitlin Dempsey

Developed by Steve Bennett, OpenTrees.org lets you visualize and download GIS data for almost 11 million city and park trees around the world.

Open Repository for Geospatial Training Data Released

Caitlin Dempsey

Radiant Earth has launched Radiant MLHub, a cloud-based open library for training geospatial data used by machine learning algorithms.

36,500 Satellite Images from RADARSAT-1 Now Available to the Public

Caitlin Dempsey

The Canadian Space Agency and the Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation have released RADARSAT-1's archive of 36,500 satellite images to the public.

Fire Danger Reanalysis Dataset

Caitlin Dempsey

Researchers have made 38-years worth of global fire danger reanalysis available as an open dataset.

125 Million Building Footprints in the US Now Available as Open GIS Data

Caitlin Dempsey

Microsoft has made 124,885,597 footprints from all 50 U.S. states available as open data.

Open Data Program Launched by DigitalGlobe

Caitlin Dempsey

The Open Data program offers high-resolution satellite imagery and crowdsourced GIS layers for large-scale natural disasters.

User can browse and located government agencies and organizations that use open data.

Find Users of Open GIS Data from Around the World Thanks to the Center for Open Data Enterprise

Liam Oakwood

The Center for Open Data Enterprise is working to improve the quality of open access data worldwide, including GIS data sources.

How To Make a Map From Open Data Using a Spreadsheet

Geo Contributor

Jonathan Goldman explains in this tutorial how to extract an open data feed from a civic data portal and pull it into Google Sheets, and then map it quickly using Geosheets.

Making Nottingham City Council’s Open Data Available

1Spatial

David A. Eagle, Managing Consultant takes a look at how 1Spatial helped Nottingham City Council harness FME in to streamline the availability of open data to the public, reducing its need to spend staff hours on Freedom of Information Act requests.

Searching for open GIS data via Esri's ArcGIS Open Data.

Esri Launches Site to Find Open Data

Caitlin Dempsey

Esri has launched ArcGIS Open Data as a portal for users to search, download, and visualize open data: Since July 2014, ...

Mapping the California Drought with Open Data

Caitlin Dempsey

The Center for Integrated Data Analytics (CIDA) of the United States Geological Survey has created an open source visual description of California's ongoing drought using free and publicly available GIS data sources

EarthCube Data Initiative

Rebecca Maxwell

Improvements in technology have led to the wide dissemination of information. As long as you have a computer, tablet, or ...

California Supreme Court Rules that GIS Data are Public Record

Rebecca Maxwell

After a lengthy battle in the court system, California’s Supreme Court has finally ruled in favor of allowing public access to the government’s GIS data in Orange County. Back in 2007, the Sierra Club sued the county for the right to use its GIS data for environmental mapping projects. Orange County resisted, however, claiming that the digital maps did not fall under the Public Records Act.

Open and Machine Readable Now the Default for Government Data

Caitlin Dempsey

On May 9, 2013, President Barack Obama sign an executive order making the default for government data "open and machine readable". The executive order was accompanied by the White House's Open Data Policy.