Compare public GIS data access
Choose a public GIS source by the data it supplies, the area it covers and the conditions attached to the specific product. This table compares twenty source families so you can separate a usable acquisition route from a map preview, a catalogue entry or an unverified licence assumption.
Read the source family before the access label
Each row names a publisher or source family, its declared coverage and a route to its own documentation. A broad family can contain several products with different formats, dates and restrictions. Treat the row as an entry point, then check the exact item you intend to obtain.
Start with the place and theme. A worldwide source may suit a regional overview while lacking the detail needed for a local study. A national portal may contain several resolutions or editions. The Census product guide, for example, distinguishes its geography products and their intended contents.1 Keep the chosen product’s name and year in your acquisition record rather than recording only the portal’s name.
The filterable access table searches the same twenty records. The public-data finder adds geography, theme, format, licence and access filters. Neither tool intersects a study boundary with source coverage. Confirm that overlap in the publisher’s item metadata.
| ID | Source | Publisher | Coverage | Formats | Access | Terms |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A01 | Natural Earth | Natural Earth | Worldwide | Shapefile; SQLite and GeoPackage bundles | Layer, scale or bundle | Public domain (Natural Earth raster/vector data) |
| A02 | TIGER/Line 2026 | US Census Bureau | United States | Shapefile | Geography-specific files | US public domain (US Census Bureau-produced) |
| A03 | Geofabrik OSM extracts | OpenStreetMap contributors / Geofabrik | Regional extracts worldwide | PBF, change files; selected shapefiles | Region | Open Database License 1.0 (ODbL) |
| A04 | HydroSHEDS v1 core | WWF / HydroSHEDS | Near-global; resolution varies north of 60°N | Compressed gridded products | Tiles or continental products | HydroSHEDS v1 Licence Agreement |
| A05 | geoBoundaries gbOpen | William & Mary geoLab / community | Worldwide | GeoJSON, Shapefile, TopoJSON | Country and administrative level | CC BY 4.0 (gbOpen) |
| A06 | USGS 3DEP | USGS | United States; product-specific extent | DEM GeoTIFF; lidar files; inspect selected product | Project or standard tile | US public domain (USGS-produced) |
| A07 | USGS National Hydrography | USGS | US; NHDPlus coverage varies by release | Shapefile; file geodatabase; NHDPlus raster archives | Hydrologic unit, state or national | US public domain (USGS-produced) |
| A08 | USFWS National Wetlands Inventory | US Fish & Wildlife Service / contributors | US states and territories; Alaska incomplete | Zipped GeoPackage or file geodatabase | State; larger custom requests separate | Not established; check the dataset’s terms |
| A09 | NOAA Digital Coast | NOAA Office for Coastal Management / data partners | US coastal regions; collection-specific | Collection-specific; no uniform format established | Selected collection or AOI | Dataset-specific terms; no blanket licence established |
| A10 | NASA Earthdata | NASA Earth Science Data Systems / DAACs | Global, regional and campaign-specific | Collection-specific; consult product variables and guide | Granule, tile or subset | CC0 (unmarked NASA-led mission data; check exceptions) |
| A11 | Copernicus DEM | ESA / Copernicus / Airbus | Global GLO-30/GLO-90; European EEA-10 | GeoTIFF DGED/INSPIRE; DTED | Geocell or bulk collection | Copernicus DEM ESA–User Licence (instance-specific) |
| A12 | Polar Geospatial Center ArcticDEM | Polar Geospatial Center / NGA / NSF | Arctic; post-June-2022 Alaska imagery excluded from public strips | GeoTIFF; extent indexes in multiple vector formats | Strip or mosaic tile | NextView / EOCL public DEM release exception |
| A13 | GEBCO | GEBCO Bathymetric Compilation Group | Global | netCDF; GeoTIFF; Esri ASCII raster | Global grid, tiles or subset | Public domain (GEBCO terms of use) |
| A14 | Natural Resources Canada GeoGratis | Natural Resources Canada | Canada | CanVec SHP/file geodatabase; elevation formats not established here | Prepackaged collection files | Open Government Licence – Canada |
| A15 | Ordnance Survey OpenData | Ordnance Survey | Great Britain; product exceptions apply | GeoPackage, GML, Shapefile, CSV; product-dependent | Product/region | Open Government Licence (OGL) |
| A16 | Eurostat GISCO | European Commission / Eurostat | EU, member state and regional; layer-specific | Collection-specific; not all formats checked | Dataset vintage and geographic scale | GISCO dataset-specific conditions (check the theme) |
| A17 | LINZ Data Service | Toitū Te Whenua LINZ / source partners | New Zealand | Collection-specific; GeoTIFF imagery displayed | Layer, tile or chosen extent | CC BY 4.0 (most layers) |
| A18 | Geoscience Australia data | Geoscience Australia / collaborators | Australia and offshore regions | Collection-specific; no uniform format established | Dataset or service | CC BY 4.0 (GA-produced; stated exceptions) |
| A19 | WorldPop | WorldPop / University of Southampton | Global, regional and bespoke country products | GeoTIFF; CSV for some datasets | Country/product/year or bespoke release | CC BY 4.0 |
| A20 | Overture Maps | Overture Maps Foundation / upstream contributors | Worldwide with uneven feature completeness | GeoParquet documented; query/export tools separate | Release/theme partition or spatial query | ODbL; CDLA Permissive 2.0; other theme/source terms |
Distinguish display, discovery and acquisition
A discovery page helps you find an item. A display service shows a representation. An acquisition route supplies files or data through a documented interface. Those roles can coexist on one site, but a working display does not establish that an analysis-ready download is available.
OGC’s Web Map Service standard describes requests for georeferenced images.2 If the task needs feature attributes or numerical raster cells, inspect the source’s data-access documentation instead of using a map screenshot as a substitute. Record whether the selected route gives complete files, a requested subset or only a rendered image.
Access labels here describe inspected documentation. They do not measure throughput, service uptime, account setup or the maximum practical size of a request. When a project depends on bulk acquisition, keep the publisher’s limits and the intended subset method with the project note.
Read the named terms with their scope
Read the dated quotation and its linked source in the source ledger. A short label such as “public domain” is useful for filtering only when you retain the object to which that statement applies. USGS explicitly distinguishes material it produces from material made by others.3 Do not convert a portal-wide search result into a blanket licence for every linked contribution.
Two source families in this compilation deliberately retain unresolved blanket rights: National Wetlands Inventory and the NOAA Digital Coast collection portal. Their records require product-level terms rather than inventing a general permission. Other families also contain stated exceptions or different licences by product or theme. The full records preserve those distinctions.
If a row says that an account requirement, update pattern or machine-access method was not established, read that as missing evidence. It does not mean that the feature is absent. Follow the official source and record the answer for your selected item before relying on it.
Keep the comparison reproducible
The JSON, CSV, method and source ledger carry the full fields, check dates and provenance. The compilation is CC BY 4.0; that licence covers this original compilation and does not replace the rights attached to a third-party dataset.
Use the row identifier in your project note, then add the exact item URL, edition, retrieval date and selected files. That preserves the distinction between this dated comparison and the source state you later encounter. If a route changes, update the acquisition note rather than treating an old filter result as proof of current access.
Not covered on this page
- A ranking of data quality, provider reliability or commercial products.
- Completed downloads, authenticated access tests or geographical intersection checks.
- Legal interpretation of source terms or permission to redistribute third-party files.
Sources
Code on this page is original and MIT licensed.
How we test: methodology. Found a mistake? Corrections.