Subject Librarian
International Data Sources
Aerial/Satellite Imagery for around the world from Planet.com
Educational access with online application (for individual researchers/projects)
Arctic Ocean Sea Surface Temperatures
Moderate-Resolution Sea Surface Temperature Data and Seasonal Pattern Analysis for the Arctic Ocean Ecoregions
Antarctic Digital Database
The SCAR Antarctic Digital Database (ADD) is a seamless compilation of topographic data for the continent of Antarctica to 60°S. The SCAR ADD consists of geographic information layers including coastline, ice-shelf grounding line, rock outcrop, elevation data and human-presence features such as Research Station locations.
CARPE - Central African Regional Program for the Environment
An interactive web GIS for the Congo Basin and the CARPE Data Explorer lets you search and browse CARPE-related data and metadata. You can search by defining an area of interest, or by specifying a content type and an optional keyword.
Commission for Environmental Cooperation
Includes access to resources like the North American: Environmental Atlas, Land Change Monitoring System, Portal on Climate Pollutants, and Pollutant Release and Transfer Register
EarthWorks - GIS data from Stanford University
Famine Early Warning System Network
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) is an information system designed to identify problems in the food supply system that potentially lead to famine or other food-insecure conditions in sub-Saharan Africa, Afghanistan, Central America, and Haiti.
Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO)
GIS gateway to geospatial resources within the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations.
Access the FAO Data Catalog site to search and download spatial data.
France: Access to Open Government Data
Beta version as of December 2011. Open Access Portal to French Government information.
GeoGratis - GIS data for Canada
GeoGratis is a portal provided by the Earth Sciences Sector (ESS) of Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) which provides geospatial data at no cost via your Web browser.
Global Roads Open Access Dataset
A consortium of groups, led by International Council for Science's Committee on Data for Science and Technology (ICSU-CODATA) Global Roads Data Development Task Group, is developing a digital, public domain global road map under the name Global Roads Open Access Data Set (gROADS). The current version of the gROADS data set is available via the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC).
Great Britain Ordnance Survey Data
Open GIS data from the Ordnance Survey of Great Britain.
IHGIS - International Historical GIS (International Census Data)
The International Historical Geographic Information System (IHGIS) provides data tables from population and housing censuses as well as agricultural censuses from around the world, along with corresponding GIS boundary files. Data from diverse published documents are provided in a standardized, ready-to-use structure with thorough, consistently formatted metadata.
Living Atlas (ArcGIS)
ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World is the foremost collection of geographic information from around the globe. It includes maps, apps, and data layers to support your work.
Marine Ecoregions of the World
Marine Ecoregions of the World (MEOW) is a biogeographic classification of the world's coasts and shelves. It is the first ever comprehensive marine classification system with clearly defined boundaries and definitions and was developed to closely link to existing regional systems. The ecoregions nest within the broader biogeographic tiers of Realms and Provinces.|
North American River Width Dataset
NARWidth is composed of planform morphometric measurements of North American rivers at approximately mean discharge. It was created using image processing algorithms on Landsat TM and ETM+ imagery. NARWidth is intended to be used in a wide variety of scientific and engineering applications including hydrologic, hydraulic, and biogeochemical models. Additional information can be found in the Data Set Development page and in this GRL article (pdf).
Oak Ridge National Labs data archive
Biogeochemical and ecological data useful for studying environmental processes. The extent of data ranges from site-specific to global, and durations range from days to years.)
OpenStreetMap Data (OSM)
International streets data and transportation networks from OpenStreetMap data.
Quick and easy download access to all shapefiles from OSM via GeoFabrik
Ordnance Survey Open Data (Great Britain)
Ordnance Survey OpenData can be downloaded for free (no registration required).
Shaded Relief Archive
This website offers an archive of scanned manual shaded relief for use by digital mapmakers. Much of the relief art found here is georeferenced and customized to fit modern drainage vectors. All shaded relief data are free and useable for commercial and other purposes.
WorldClim
WorldClim is a set of global climate layers (climate grids) with a spatial resolution of about 1 square kilometer.