AWhere, Inc.

We get a lot of questions regarding data availability for AWhere.  What is not immediately realized is that AWhere uses the same standard GIS data formats available around the web.  Data may be in the form of boundary shapefiles, feature points, latitude and longitude, spreadsheets, georeferenced imagery or raster data sets.  Because some data can still be difficult to find, I have compiled a list of common data sources we at AWhere have used.

The current list consists of free and in some cases open source data at the global, regional and national level.  The data in this list can be easily brought into AWhere with minimal data cleaning, in most cases none at all.  Shapefiles, tabular (Excel, text, CSV), raster data sets and imagery are available for use in AWhere.

This list will be periodically expanded, Please post any data sources, free or fee, you have come across and I'll add them to the list.

Need help adding data to AWhere?  See this post on how to import/add data to AWhere.

Prebuilt AWhere data sets

• Foundation Data
• Country Boundaries
• U.S. Census Data
• U.S. Agricultural Data
  

Global

• Center for International Earth Science Information Network  A data portal run by Columbia University.  This portal contains links to a variety of data sources.  Some data may need to be processed prior to use in AWhere.
  
• CIA World Fact Book Population, Military, Economic, Government, Health.  Data is in tabular format, some cleaning maybe required.
• Cloudmade Opensource street maps Global coverage of street center lines.  This is an ongoing collaborative effort and may not be complete for many areas.
  
• Education Policy and Data Center Education, Population, Income
• Energy Information Administration Energy related statistics by country. 
  
• FAO Geonetwork Boundary, places, agriculture, food, hydrology, transportation, rail, road, elevation, imagery
• FAO Stats  Tabular statistics on global agriculture.
  
• gData from Berkeley Large collaborative effort to generate an update global boundary data set with all administrative boundaries.  Boundaries, Rivers, Road, Rail lines, places, elevation data can be obtained at country level from this website.
• Geo Names Places, towns, cities, villages, historic landmarks, geologic features
• Geography Network Boundary, places, agriculture, food, hydrology, transportation, rail, road, elevation
• GeoHive Population, Economic
• Human Development Reports Population, economic, education and health data by country.  Table may require cleaning.
• Mapmart  Purchase high quality vector and  raster imagery from this website.  Data covers USA and world locations on land use, elevation, and demographics.
• NASA Earth Observations Ocean, atmosphere, energy, land and life data.  These are largely geo-referenced raster data sets.
  
• Nationmaster Population, economic, education, health and crime by country.  Some data cleaning may be required.
  
• NGA GEOnet Names Server (GNS) Places, towns, cities, villages, historic landmarks, geologic features
• NIMA VMap0 Boundaries, roads, rivers, water bodies, populated places, points of interest.  Distributed by the National Geospatial Agency, this data is derived from the Digital Chart of the World.  The scale is 1:1,000,000.  It is widely considered to be one of the most accurate free/declassified digital data sets available.
  
• NIMA VMap1 Boundaries, roads, rivers, water bodies, populated places, points of interest.  Distributed by the National Geospatial Agency, this data is derived from the Digital Chart of the World.  The scale is 1:250,000.  It is widely considered to be one of the most accurate free/declassified digital data sets available.  This is more detailed than the VMap0 data, but does not cover the entire globe.
  
• Socioeconomic Data and Application Center Gridded population data
• U.S. Census International Database Population
• UN Population Information Network Population, Economic, Education, Health, Crime
• UN Stats Population, Economic, Crime
• United Nations Environmental Programme  A data portal for a variety of GIS and tabular data.
  
• UNESCO Institute for Statistics Education, Population, Science and Technology, Economic
• UNESCO Institute for Statistics (Education) Literacy, Education
• UNICEF Children Demographics
• World bank Finance, Expenditures by country.
  
• World Bank Group Population, Economic, Education, Health, Crime
• World Gazzetteer Places, towns, cities, villages, Population statistics.  This is a collaborative effort by people from all over the world.  Many points of interest.  The data is stored in latitude/longitude (Decimal Degrees) for import into GPS and GIS systems.
  
• World Health Organization Data and Statistics Health, Population, Mortality

Regional

• Africover FAO Boundary, places, agriculture, food
• FEWS Africa Data Disemination Service Boundary, places, agriculture, food, hydrology, transportation, rail, road, elevation

National

Canada

• The Atlas of Canada Boundary, places, agriculture, hydrology, transportation, rail, road, elevation

Indonesia

• World Bank: Indonesia Sub National Expenditures Expenditures

USA

• CDC Boundaries, Health, Popualtion shapefils and tables from the Center for Disease Control.
  
• CDC National Center for Health Statistics Health statistic tables from the Centers for Disease Control.
  
• Fish Data Stream, water quality, water features, fish habitats
• Geolytics Purchase high quality census data projected for 2008 and 2013.  Many variables are avaliable on a variety of topic replating to general demographics and consumer spending habits.
  
• Maponics Purchase high quality zip code areas, routes and other data products for the USA.
  
• National Agricultural Statistics Service Managed by the USDA.  Lot so tabular historical data on U.S. agriculture.
  
• National Atlas Boundary, places, agriculture, food, hydrology, transportation, rail, road, elevation
• National Historic Geographical Information System Population, Demographics
• National Weater Service Weather, climate, fires
• NOAA Hurricane tracking hurricane tracks
• TIGER 2007 line files Boundaries, Roads, points of interest all stored in shapefile format.
• TIGER 2008 line files Boundaries, Roads, points of interest all stored in shapefile format.
• US Board on Geographic names Places, towns, cities, villages, historic landmarks, geologic features
• USGS Seamless Data Elevation

 

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Michael Swaim
GIS Analyst / Cartographer
AWhere, Inc.