All features that appear in this crowdsourced map can be downloaded in bulk from Geofabrik. For more targeted extracts, add the QuickOSM plugin for QGIS, or download and add the OSMquery toolbox for ArcGIS.
Select Geospatial Datasets in the first drop-down menu and hit Search to access several global datasets that cover the environment, climate, and general base layers.
Detailed administrative, legal, and statistical boundaries as well as the features used for delineating them (water bodies, roads, landmarks). Features represent precise boundaries.
These files are generalizations of the TIGER files that are appropriate for mapping at different scales. Coastal water has been removed from the feature boundaries, and edges have been simplified to varying degrees (see examples above).
A spatial database of Rhode Island features for thematic mapping and basic analysis. Includes boundaries, census data, and point features. Created by the GeoData@SciLi team in the Library.
Several datasets in this repository represent point features. You can export these as CSV, use a spreadsheet to separate the address and coordinates stored in the location field, and plot the coordinates in GIS.
Go to the Web GIS Hub portal to download a selection of data; other layers can be requested by submitting a data request form to the City. Alternatively, Brown affiliates can contact the GIS Librarian to access copies of some of these layers.
ESRI's catalog of data. Can also be accessed from within ArcGIS Pro (Map Ribbon - Layer Panel - Add Data - Living Atlas) and ArcGIS Online.
GIS Data Formats
GIS Data comes in several different formats:
Vectors: geographic features of the same type are stored in a file as strings of coordinates that form points, lines, or polygons (areas) in conjunction with attributes that describe the features. Vectors are drawn to a specific scale with a particular coordinate system and map projection that allows them to be depicted visually and overlaid with other geospatial data. Common formats include shapefiles, geopackages, and GeoJSON.
Rasters: a continuous surface of grid cells of equal size, where values of a cell denote a feature type or attribute and the size of the cells indicates resolution. They are structured like other digital images except they are georeferenced: rasters have been created or warped to a particular coordinate system and map projection so they can be overlaid with other geospatial data. Formats vary widely.
Tables: each record represents a geographic feature with attributes (columns) that describe that feature, but the records lack geometry and cannot be displayed visually. To visualize tables, the records can either be joined to a corresponding vector file of the same features using a shared unique identifier, or can be plotted as a point-based vector if the records include attributes for XY coordinates. Common formats include delimited text (CSV, TSV) and spreadsheet files.
Spatial Databases: containers that hold a collection of vector, raster, and tabular data. Depending on the GIS software you use, you access the databases by establishing a connection to them or navigating them the way you would a file folder. Common file-based formats include: file geodatabases (gdb, default ArcGIS format), personal geodatabases (mdb older ArcGIS format), and Spatialite (open source).