NYC Metro Area Interactive Maps & Geographic Information Systems Resources: Open Data and Software

What is GIS? Visit USGS.gov, National Geographic.org, and Wikipedia for definitions.

Click on links below to create your own free GIS maps:

GRASS GIS - Offers powerful raster, vector, and geospatial processing engines in a single integrated software suite. It includes tools for terrain and ecosystem modeling, hydrology, visualization of raster and vector data, management and analysis of geospatial data, and the processing of satellite and aerial imagery. 

Leaftlet - Java script library to make interactive maps.

Odysee JS - Open source answer to a story map. 

OpenStreetMap - OpenStreetMap is a map of the world, created by people like you and is free to use under an open license.

QGIS - A free and user friendly open source GIS platform, it is an official project of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo).

Click on the links to browse the free GIS data available at the websites listed below: 

ASPRS Aerial Data Catalog - Catalog for locating aerial photography over the U.S. and international coverage areas.

Berkeley Library Geodata - Links to thousands of data websites, search or browse by subject, placename, data type, and institution.

Big Ten Academic Alliance Geoportal - Provides discoverability and facilitates access to geospatial resources including GIS datasets, web services, and digitized historical maps

Bureau of Land Management Geospatial Business Platform - Search BLM data or browse by subject categories 

Bytes of the Big Apple - A family of software data and geographic base map files for NYC; the Department of City Planning offers these products for free download or by a license.

Cornell University Library GIS Resources Page - CUGIR is an active online repository in the National Spatial Data Clearinghouse program that provides geospatial data and metadata for New York State, with special emphasis on those natural features relevant to agriculture, ecology, natural resources, and human-environment interactions.

Data.census.gov - The U.S. Census Bureau's data dissemination platform to access demographic and economic data. Find tables, maps and more.

Data.gov - Data.gov increases the ability of the public to easily find, download, and use datasets that are generated and held by the Federal Government. The site provides descriptions of the Federal datasets (metadata), information about how to access the datasets, and tools that leverage government datasets.

EarthWorks - Stanford University's GIS data and maps locator.

Federal Geographic Data Committee - FGDC provides shared and trusted geospatial data, services, and applications. Search our massive catalog of geospatial data and tools provided by a multitude of federal agencies. 

Forest Service Geodata Clearinghouse - An online collection of digital data related to forest resources where you can find datasets related to forests and grasslands, including boundaries and ownership, natural resources, roads and trails, and much more.

GeoData - University of Texas searchable/browseable repository of geospatial data and maps.

Geospatial Data Gateway (USDA) - GDG is the One Stop Source for environmental and natural resources data, at anytime, from anywhere, to anyone.

Google dataset search - This is an aggregator by Google to specifically find datasets provided in other repositories.

National Historical Geographic Information System - NHGIS provides, free of charge, aggregate census data and GIS-compatible boundary files for the United States between 1790 and 2010.

The National Map: Data Download (USGS) - This site provides applications and web map services for "Topographic Information for the Nation". This information includes topographic maps and geographic information system (GIS) data for elevation, hydrography, watersheds, geographic names, orthoimagery, governmental units/boundaries, transportation, and land cover.

Natural Earth - A public domain map dataset available at 1:10m, 1:50m, and 1:110 million scales featuring tightly integrated vector and raster data, with Natural Earth you can make a variety of visually pleasing, well-crafted maps with cartography or GIS software.

New York City OpenData - NYC OpenData makes the wealth of public data generated by various New York City agencies and other City organizations available for public use. The data sets are available in a variety of machine-readable formats and are refreshed when new data becomes available.

New York State GIS Clearinghouse - Operated by the New York State Office of Cyber Security the clearinghouse was established to disseminate information about New York's Statewide GIS Coordination Program and to provide access to the New York State GIS Data and Metadata Repository.

UN Data Catalog - The aim of this platform is to provide a comprehensive and representative overview of UN system open data assets.

U.S. Census TIGER files and products - TIGER Geodatabases are spatial extracts from the Census Bureau’s MAF/TIGER GIS software. The geodatabases contain national coverage (for geographic boundaries or features) or state coverage (boundaries within state).

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - The EPA Geospatial Data Access Project provides downloadable files of facilities and sites subject to environmental regulation.