Dispatches from the Geospatial Data World
I posted the latest version of my Introduction to GIS with QGIS tutorial manual, updated for QGIS 3.44 Solothurn. The manual and sample data are freely available from my lab s tutorials page. This year s changes are minor, as there weren t major software updates that would impact the exercises. I updated the sample data as it [ ]
I presented a poster last April on the library s GIS and Data Services at the CHAIRS-C conference at the Brown School of Public Health. CHAIRS-C is an acronym for Center on Heat, Health, and Aging Innovation and Research Solutions for Communities; it s a small cluster whose members are interested in heat-related research, and the impact [ ]
I haven t been keeping up with posting, as these past few months have been atypical. April was devoted to attending conferences and giving presentations. Much of this was prompted by my recent work with the Data Rescue Project, and the HIFLD Open rescue initiative in particular. The month began with a panel at Brown s Data [ ]
Last December, the Data Rescue Project (DRP) finished an initiative to download and archive over 400 geospatial data layers from the defunct HIFLD Open repository to DataLumos, an ICPSR-sponsored repository for federal government datasets. I wrote this brief post that summarized our work. The Public Environmental Data Partners and Fulton Ring have launched a new community-shaped [ ]
While spending February buried under snow here in Providence, I took the opportunity to update several of the data products we create here at GeoData@SciLi. I ll provide a summary of what we re working on in this post. The heading for each project links to its GitHub repo, where you can access the datasets and the [ ]
I recently revisited a project from a few years ago, where I needed to extract temperature and precipitation data from a raster at specific points on specific dates. I used python to iterate through the points and pull up a raster for matching attribute dates, and Rasterio to overlay the raster and extract the climate [ ]
Some good news to end the year: the Data Rescue Project has finished archiving all of the GIS data layers that were in the HIFLD Open portal, which was decommissioned at the end of summer. I wrote a post for the DRP that summarized the work we did, and you can find all the layers [ ]
I visit courses to guest lecture on census data every semester, and one of the primary topics is immigrant or ethnic communities in the US. There are many different variables in the Census Bureau s American Community Survey (ACS) that can be used to study different groups: Race, Hispanic or Latino Origin, Ancestry, Place of Birth, [ ]
Just when we thought the US government couldn t possibly become more dysfunctional, it shut down completely on Sept 30, 2025. Government websites are not being updated, and many have gone offline. I ve had trouble accessing data.census.gov; access has been intermittent, and sometimes it has worked with some web browsers but not with others. In this [ ]
Last year I wrote about my stamp collecting hobby in a piece that explored maps and geography on stamps. Since it was well received, I thought I d do a follow-up about geography and postmarks on stamps. I also thought it would be a good time to feature some lighter content. Many collectors search for lightly [ ]