1. GIS Data With support from: NSF DUE-0903270 Prepared by: in partnership with: John McGee Jennifer McKee Geospatial Technician Education Through Virginia’s Community Colleges (GTEVCC)

2. Let’s take a look at what resources you have been provided, and where you can obtain more… County Data for your county VCCS Geospatial Institute Data DVD State level data Exercise specific data Resources provided to you

3. Virginia GIS County Data series You have been provided with a DVD of your local county County Data Set -Elevation model- FSA CLU -Contours-Soils -Slope-USDA Imagery -Aspect-VA Imagery -Hydro-VDOT Roads -Topo

4. State level Data (on the Data DVD) VCE District Boundaries Census Summary -blockgroup -tract -county Schools Golf courses Congressional Districts Zip codes Hospitals State boundaries County boundaries And more…

5. Acquiring Data from other sources Two approaches: 1.Internet servers – you do not actually “acquire” the data…it ‘streams’ to your computer from a GIS server at a remote location 2.Acquire and save to your hard drive

6. Acquiring Data from other sources USDA server Internet Connection Required…

7. USDA Data Services (we’ll talk about this more in a minute…)

8. Where can you find more data? I’d start with your local governments. They’ve got the best stuff. Local Government GIS contact info.: http://gismaps.virginia.gov/contacts/ http://gismaps.virginia.gov/contacts/ Rule of thumb: Call a planner or someone in the engineering dept.

9. Calling your Local Government: What questions to ask… Is there any GIS data available for my county that is accessible to me? If so, what is available (parcels, structures, etc.)? Can you send these layers to me on a CD, or can I download them off of the Web? Are there projection files (.prj for vector files and.aux for raster files) associated with all of the layers? Can I share these data with others, or are the data licensed? Can I print maps from this data, and distribute the maps? What format are the data in (i.e. shapefile, geodatabase, etc.) Do you have any post 2002 aerial photography?

10. The Virginia Metadata Clearinghouse http://gisdata.virginia.gov http://gisdata.virginia.gov

11. Geospatial One-Stop http://www.geodata.gov http://www.geodata.gov

12. The USDA Geospatial Data Gateway http://datagateway.nrcs.usda.gov/ Click on the “Get Data” button on the right sideto get started

13. The Virginia Geospatial Extension Program – Links to VA Data Sources http :// www.gep.frec.vt.edu/

14. There are literally hundreds of additional GIS data distribution sites…

15. State Agencies No central GIS Data clearinghouse currently exists for Virginia There is a metadata clearinghouse… this can get you started http://gisdata.virginia.govhttp://gisdata.virginia.gov You have to call agencies and see what they’ve got. Leaders include: VDOF, DMME, VEDP, VDA, DCR, DHR, VDH, VDOT, DEQ, VEDP, et. al. VDEM is “getting going”