GIS Mapping Resources
California GIS Maps and Data Sets
- California Department of Education (CDE) – provides two ways to look up demographic information for counties, districts, and schools:
- Ed-Data Partnership – offers financial, demographic, and performance data for California K-12 public schools at the state, county, school district, or individual school level. (You can search for data as far back as the 1992-93 school year.) The site will display some of the information in a pie-chart format.
- DataQuest – much of the same data as Ed-Data, above, but it can be manipulated (in the good sense) to provide very specific data in a spreadsheet format. It also will compare the school or district data with the state and county data.
- California Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) – Maps and GIS Data
- California Spatial Information Library (CaSIL) – pretty much the California GIS mother lode; the range of data here is extremely broad, while specialized and useful for advocates, including core political data:
- California Statewide Database (SWDB) @ Berkeley – the redistricting database for the state of California; compiled from census data, free to those interested in the political and demographic characteristics of California.
- HealthyCity – the word from our compadres at the Race Equity Project is that HealthCity currently offers perhaps the most comprehensive California-wide access to community resources, demographic/health data, and cutting edge online GIS mapping technology ever seen.
- Sacramento County – Special Reports on Community Issues @ Community Services Planning Council – includes:
- Sacramento County Snap Shot (May 2005) – scores of GIS maps and charts compiled for Sacramento County at the sub-county (ZIP Code) level; includes information on language, education level, income and poverty, public assistance, and health & safety.
- A Regional View of Social Disparities (May 2004) – collection of 44 maps visualizing the socio-economic status of the Greater Sacramento (eight county) Region); uses GIS mapping to illustrate the spatial distribution of the demographic, social, economic and educational characteristics of the people living in the region.
- Websites for Digital GIS Data @ Stanford
National GIS Maps and Data Sets
- Cedar Grove Institute for Sustainable Communities – non-profit consulting and advocacy firm specializing in public data and demographic analysis and sophisticated GIS mapping in support of civil rights, sustainable and equitable growth, environmental justice and exposing and challenging long-standing institutional racism, among other areas.
- Community Mapping is part of the Equitable Development Toolkit available at PolicyLink.org. It offers a good, practical layperson’s introduction to and overview of GIS mapping, a useful, focused list of basic online GIS resources, along with real world examples of how GIS mapping has been and can be used to better understand and analyze data in support of economic and community development. Well worth the click-thru.
- DataPlace – click-worthy web-based GIS application from the affordable housing and econ development folks at Knowledgeplex; offers national scope, very good range of economic and census data sets, customizable maps, and well designed usability features.
- FedStats: MapStats – wonderfully easy to use, your only a few clicks away from getting solid Census-based demographic data at the state, county, city and Congressional district level.
- Thematic Maps – generate a downloadable map image showing basic demographic data at the national or state level.
- Food Stamp Program Map Machine @ USDA Economic Research Service (ERS) – utilizing national-, state- and county-level data to layout Food Stamp (as well as some TANF) statistics, this web-based mapping utility generates maps in JPEG format illustrating program participation and benefit levels down to the county level, as well as per capita participation, per capita benefits, changes from year to year, and more.
- GISTools Freeware – Census 2000 – provides several programs that allow you to work with Census data and TigerLine files; in particular, offers programs that allow users to easily extract Census 2000 data from the SF1-SF4 files for any summary level (i.e., block, tract, city, county, state, etc.), in way more efficient than extracting data using American FactFinder.
- HUD Enterprise Geographic Information System (EGIS) – interesting implementation using ArcIMS technology, enables you to drill down from state to local level to map numerous types of data sets, including various types of housing stock, environmental elements, zip code areas, and more.
- HUD User – A Picture Of Subsidized Housing 2000 – this dataset describes the 4.9 million households living in HUD-subsidized housing in the United States for the year 2000; provides characteristics of assisted housing units and residents, summarized at the national, state, public housing agency (PHA), project, and census tract levels; Picture 2000 also includes summary data for Metropolitan Statistical Areas and cities; users can also create custom queries of the Picture 2000 data by geography and by HUD program to retrieve exact data.
- Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity – research institute headed by john a. powell that makes significant use of GIS mapping to analyze race and ethnicity issue; offers a slew of free presentations and publications.
- Map Layers Warehouse @ NationalAtlas.gov – free map layers include national data and map layers for mapping of select census populations.
- MARC – its self description: “MARC has conducted over 23 regional studies and 4 statewide studies. For a single regional project, MARC examines socioeconomic separation and sprawl in the region, including data mapping and analysis. For a statewide study, MARC looks at several (3-8) metropolitan regions in a single state and then compares regional trends in the context of current state policies and politics. To accompany each study, MARC designs and produces a highly attractive report complete with photos, tables, maps, analysis and recommendations for use as a public education and outreach tool.”
- National Map @ USGS – at first glance, this application looks like a typical online map viewer with a slightly more-complicated-than-usual interface, but don’t be fooled… it packs a real punch; see An ode to the National Map at the Race Equity Project for ideas about how to use this GIS application in advocacy work.
- OnTheMap @ U.S. Census – online application to map Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics data (translation: you can create detailed maps showing where people work and where workers live with companion reports on worker ages, earnings, industry distribution, and local workforce indicators). A total of 42 states are currently “mapable” and data is available from 2002 through 2004.
- Scorecard.org – among other online mapping features and statistical tools available here, you can enter a zip code and get a list of pollutants emitted in that area and who emits them; search by geographic area or company name; and find rankings for lead hazards, land contamination (Superfund) according to state, county or census tract. And there’s more! You can rank on country or state level and lists companies responsible; show degrees of environmental burdens felt by different racial and income groups in each county in English or Spanish; and allows you to rank the top issues in the designated area based on comparative risk projects.
- Social Explorer – another national GIS mapping tool with more limited data sets, but interesting demos of how to effectively map data.
- Websites for Digital GIS Data @ Stanford University – a comprehensive listing of GIS resources available on the web.
Geocoding: Locating Latitude & Longitude
Zip Code Mapping and Data Sets
- Census Bureau Zip Code Statistics and Data Sets
- Community Information by Zip Code @ Cal State Northridge – handy list of sources for locating demographic and statistical data by zip code; including but not limited to:
- Finding Census 2000 Data by Zip Code @ Cal State Northridge
- Multiple Zip Code Mapping @ Maps.Huge.Info – an interesting, sometimes useful Google mashup that enables you to generate Google maps based on zip codes, e.g., single or merged zip code boundary maps, boundary maps that correspond to three-digit zip numbers, and more.
- Zip Code Resources Page @ Missouri – helpful explanations of the national zip code system and how it relates (or doesn’t) to other types of spatial information.
- California Zip Codes @ AreaConnect – select your city and then select the city’s “zipcodes” and you get a numerical listing of corresponding zip codes, plus the latitude and longitude for each zip code. For example:
Google Maps Tools & Resources
ArcGIS | ESRI Resources & Tutorials
Race Equity Project GIS Tutorials
