Geospatial data, spatial data or geodata contain geographic positioning information.
Examples of this type of data include: road networks from a GIS, or a geo-referenced satellite image.
Geospatial data may include attribute data that describes the features found in the dataset.
There are two types of geospatial data - vector and raster.
Vector data: utilizes geometric objects, lines and areas to represent spatial features.
Raster data: utilizes a grid to represent geographic information. Examples include: satellite imagery, digital elevation models, digital orthophotos (aerial), and scanned maps.
How do I find geospatial data?
Geospatial data is extremely narrow in scope and subject specific.
To start, consider what kind of organization collects the data you are looking for.
Search the organization’s website with a phrase like “data download” if you can’t find an obvious link to data on the homepage.
Search a portal. Portals strive to be one-stop-shops for specialized data.
Use Google to search for datasets by typing appropriate keywords along with GIS, data download, shapefile, .shp, and/or another word that describes your desired data format (like KML).
Why do I need geospatial data?
Geospatial data is used to create maps.
By visualizing information on a map you can see patterns in the data that are not easily detectable in tabular format.
Provides access to geospatial data (data paired with geographic positioning information) licensed to all Ontario universities, as well as sophisticated search, discovery, and analysis tools. Contains data from Canada, Ontario, and has access to local Guelph data.
A multi-disciplinary database for the geosciences that contains journal articles, book chapters, and conference proceedings. Topics cover environmental sciences, oceanography, alternative energy, pollution, nature conservation, and more.
