GIS Data Download Sites
NC State University Campus
NCSU Facilities Maps and Data Downloads
Building Footprints and campus boundaries. For streets, use Wake County data.
Local and Regional (North Carolina) Data Resources
Many county and city governments allow data downloads from their websites. For the most current local data links, go to the Counties or Cities pages.
North Carolina Data Sources
Many public download sites for statewide datasets are listed on the webpages found linked under the Libraries Geodata Collection.
NC OneMap
Provides comprehensive discovery and access to North Carolina's geospatial data resources.
Department of Environmental Quality
Open Data website that aggregates data from multiple departments. We'll still keep the links below for the time being, however.
- Air Quality Permits
- Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Partnerships - Maps and Data
- Animal Feeding Operations Facilities
- Coastal Management - Maps and data downloads
- NC Coastal Reserve & National Estuarine Research Reserve Sites
- NC Dams Program - Click the dated link for the Dam Inventory
- Waste Management - Maps and data downloads
- Water Resources - Maps and data downloads
- Water Resources - Water Science Section - Data from numerous monitoring and assessment programs
- Division of Mitigation Services Property Information
- Stormwater Permitting Maps and Data
- Water Resources - Groundwater database
- Water Sciences Ecosystem Branch - See monitoring data links in the side bar
Topographic Map Indexes - 1:24,000, 1:100,000 and 1:250,000 scale index maps from the Division of Energy, Mineral, and Land Resources.
Department of Transportation - Listing of GIS and Mapping resources offered by NCDOT, including the Official County Boundary file.
NC Emergency Management Spatial Data Download - Includes QL2 (2 points/meter) circa 2010's and legacy data circa early 2000's, DEMs, and building footprints. Sign up for an NCID to log in if you don't already have one.
NC Geodetic Survey - Numerous GIS and GPS resources and tools, including Geodetic Monuments (zoom in on the map to view and pull up data details).
NC Coastal Atlas - Multi-partner mapping and data download site for NC Coastal Plain and Outer Banks data.
Flood Risk Information System - By county: Flood zone data and maps, lidar DEMs.
North Carolina State Center for Health Statistics
State Data Center - Demographics and other tabular data - can be mapped by county or other geographies in the tables.
State Historic Preservation Office - Historic District boundaries and sites, highway markers, and more.
Archaeological Sites Data Inventory
U.S. Data Sources
ArcGIS.com
Data downloads, WMS links, and/or access via ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS layer files.
The Esri Maps and Data Group, Living Atlas, as well as other groups "owned by Esri" are highly recommended for their various basemap layers. Predominantly US-based data, but also some from international sources.
Data Basin Gateways
Conservation planning databases for various portions of the U.S.
Geoplatform.gov
Comprehensive source for data from federal executive branch agencies in multiple formats.
USGS National Map
Download site for multiple data layers, including topography, hydrography, transportation, geographic names, boundaries, land cover, and more. The Small-Scale collection is good for contextual (overview) or large extent maps as most of the data were compiled at a scale of 1:2,000,000.
USGS EarthExplorer
Imagery, DEMs, Landcover, and other satellite and derivative data.
USDA Geospatial Data Gateway
Natural resources and environmental data, including soils, climate, and many other features.
USGS Water Resources
Downloadable spatial data files for exploration and analysis of water resources.
US EPA EnviroAtlas
National data and high-resolution data for selected populated places related to ecosystem services, their chemical and non-chemical stressors, and human health. Includes downloadable data and an interactive web mapping tool for exploring and comparing datasets from EnviroAtlas and other sources.
US Fish and Wildlife Services
Geospatial Services from the USFWS
US Census Bureau Maps and Data
Links to online resources, including TIGER data, from the Census Bureau. See also our Census data guide.
NOAA National Weather Service
National Weather Service data sets available in downloadable shapefiles, web services and KML files.
FEMA GeoPortal
Geospatial data and analysis that informs emergency management.
Global and/or International Data
Open Street Map
Comprehensive crowdsourced data. Several online services provide shapefiles, CAD files, and other formats of OSM data for download:
- OpenStreetMap Wiki - list of providers
- geofabrik.de
- bbbike.org
- CADMapper
NASA EarthData
Datasets, geo news, and articles from the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS)
Google Earth Engine data catalog
Public data archive includes more than forty years of historical imagery and scientific datasets, updated and expanded daily. Google Earth Engine combines a multi-petabyte catalog of satellite imagery and geospatial datasets with planetary-scale analysis capabilities.
GEOSS international geospatial data and services portal
Maintained by the European Space Agency
UN Food and Agriculture Organization GeoNetwork
Search for spatial databases, digital maps, satellite images and related statistics covering areas worldwide, produced by UN organizations.
Global Change Master Directory
Directory of many earth science data sources and services available worldwide.
Canadian Free Data (GeoGratis)
Ordinance Survey OpenData
United Kingdom government site, free access to selected datasets
Free China Data
From China Data Institute, former Univ. of Michigan data center.