GIS Resources | Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Community and Economic Development

ISU GIS Resources

GIS and Mapping Task Sheets - Two-page recipes for completing common GIS and mapping tasks.
Data and Code for Task Sheets - GitHub page where you can access all the data and code used in the task sheets.
ISU GIS Facility - The GIS Support and Research Facility is a public computing facility established to support the use of geographic information system (GIS) technology at Iowa State University.
ISU GIS Labs - List of computer labs on the Iowa State University campus with access to GIS software
ISU GIS Facility Data Connections: List of different data connections hosted by ISU GIS Facility.

Iowa Geodata: Data provided by a number of state agencies including Iowa Department of Revenue, Iowa Geological Survey, Iowa Homeland Security and Management, Iowa Department of Natural Resources, and more.
Iowa Geographic Map Server: Orthophotos--Iowa aerial imagery, landcover, elevation and related datasets
Iowa DOT (Department of Transportation): Iowa DOT's GIS page with link to their resources.
Iowa DOT Open Data Portal: Iowa DOT's public platform for exploring and downloading open data.
Kaiser State Health Facts: Provide free, up-to-date, and easy-to-use health data on all 50 states
NOAA's National Weather Service GIS Data Portal: Downloadloadable shapefiles, web services, and KML files
USGS The National Map: Visualize, inspect, and download topographic basemap data
FAO GeoNetwork: Interactive maps, satellite imagery and related spatial databases
The Iowa Environmental Mesonet (IEM): High resolution depiction of rainfall estimates over the state of Iowa
Iowa Community Indicators Program (ICIP): Provides data and research on local demographic, social, and economic trends in Iowa.
Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Indicators Portal: data displayed as interactive state maps, mapping tools, data training.

ESRI ArcGIS: An international supplier of industry standard geographic information systems software. The software is supported at ISU through a campus license.
QGIS: A free and open source geographic information system. Create, edit, visualize, analyze, and publish geospatial information on Windows, Mac, Linux, BSD (Android coming soon).

Guide to Geocaching: Guide to Geocaching Road Trip with list of resources for choosing a GPS and finding and making a cache.