Where to Find Spatial Data
These websites contain shapefiles, csvs, or other types of data files that are available to the public. Not every file that appears on the sites is open for downloading, however. Some files are only for use online (primarily ones through ArcGIS since it is proprietary software) and those you will be able to view the maps but not download the data to your local machine. If there is a file that you need that isn't publicly available, you can always try emailing the authors of the data to see if they will allow you to use it. Often people are happy to share if the purpose of use is academic and not commericial.
Portland & Oregon Specific Files
- PCC Guide to GIS data has a great list of data sources for Portland and Oregon, it includes many of the below
- PortlandMaps Open Data: a good spot for Portland specific files
- Portland General Electric
- Oregon Open Data: wide-ranging datasets from Oregon, includes demographic and geographic files
- Oregon GEOHub: Oregon Open Data’s repository for geospatial data
- Bureau of Land Management for Oregon/Washington
- Oregon Water Data Portal
- Oregon Department of Energy
National & World Geographic Data
- USDA Forest Service: for national maps from the US Forest Service
- Earth Explorer: a USGS site for global data that is particularly good for raster data
- The National Map: a USGS site for US topographical data
- Google Earth: can download files as shapefile, csv, and more
- ArcGIS Hub: many, many different types of data (sadly, not all are available for download)
- EarthData (NASA)
- US Energy Information Administration: energy infrastructure
- USGS Water Resources
- US Department of Transportation
Data About Humans
- US Census Data: what it sounds like
- World Pop: a spot for worldwide demographic data
- Humanitarian Data Exchange: wide range of worldwide datasets based around humanitarian efforts
- CDC: Center for Disease Control datasets for US
- European CDC: European version
- Spatial Data Repository: worldwide health and demographic datasets
- OpenDataSoft: a French site that offers a variety of datasets, good place for Covid data
- National Institute on Minority Health: portal for characterizing disparities between US communities
Environmental Data
- NOAA/National Weather Service: weather, climate, and atmospheric data
- US Geological Survey: hydrology, satellite imagery, environmental hazards, and much more
- National Interagency Fire Center: information about forest fires
- NASA Air Quality
- ArcGIS Hub for Pollution
Wildlife Data
- NPS DataStore: a wide variety of environmental data from the National Park Service, includes animal data, fire data, and more
- Movebank: online database of animal tracking data by the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
- US-FWS Open Data: datasets from the US Fish & Wildlife Service
- Ebird: huge amounts of user submitted bird data