Edu Data Package North Carolina

This page includes information about a new sample data set provided for software testing and development of educational materials (tutorials, workshops, courses). The modern North Carolina based data set aims to replace the GRASS Spearfish dataset. This page is being worked on by Helena Mitasova and Markus Neteler.

New Image Gallery: http://www.grassbook.org/gallery/

North Carolina related Data Sources

 * Check all possible data layers and status of mapping here: http://nc.gisinventory.net/
 * Most data can be obtained through the USGS National map: http://nationalmap.gov/ (click on viewer)
 * The above viewer links to USGS seamless data server: http://seamless.usgs.gov/
 * as well as to the NC One map http://gisdata.usgs.net/website/NC_OneMap/viewer.asp
 * Most of NC One map state gov data files (in SP meter) can be directly downloaded from here http://www.nconemap.com/
 * Wake county data files (in SP feet!) are here http://www.wakegov.com/gis/gisdigitaldata.htm
 * General list: Geodata Packaging Working_Group


 * Additional, specialized data can be obtained here:
 * Imagery:http://glcfapp.umiacs.umd.edu:8080/esdi/index.jsp
 * Coastal lidar: http://www.csc.noaa.gov/crs/tcm/about_ldart.html
 * Flood maps:http://www.ncfloodmaps.com/default_htm.asp
 * Real-time streamflow data (these should be available through the national map too): http://water.usgs.gov/waterwatch/
 * Climate data: http://www.nc-climate.ncsu.edu/cronos/map.php
 * USDA soil attribute data or http://www.ncgc.nrcs.usda.gov/products/datasets/ssurgo

New sample GIS data set from North Carolina
Area in and around Wake county (eastern section of the Triangle) has public data for all basic data layers that were in Spearfish and there is an easy access to USGS data, local county data, EPA, State Climate Office, NCFlood maps and others through the above listed web sites. There is a big enough city, but also some rural areas that still have some agriculture with rolling topography. SE of it is Johnston county that has FOSS-based county GIS, running Mapserver and PostGIS on-line.

Core region (15km x 13.5km, city + rural) in stp[m]: in lat/long
 * north: 228500 south: 215000 west: 630000 east: 645000
 * nsres: 30 ewres: 30 rows: 450 cols: 500
 * long: -78.77428134 lat: 35.80960938 (north/west corner)
 * long: -78.60830318 lat: 35.80918894 (north/east corner)
 * long: -78.60889171 lat: 35.68750730 (south/east corner)
 * long: -78.77462049 lat: 35.68792712 (south/west corner)

For DEFAULT region we use entire NC (slightly beyond) to accomodate various subregions for thematic data sets (e.g. coast, mountains, urban)
 * LL(SW) corner: -85.0000, 33.0000
 * UR(NE) corner: -75.0000, 37.0000

Coordinate systems:
 * Geographic Coordinate System in decimal degrees WGS84 horizontal datum (close to NAD83 but there are submeter differences). This is EPSG:4326 SRS/CRS that all the OGC compliant software tends to use
 * NC State Plane Coordinate System, NAD 83 datum, units of meters: EPSG 3358
 * lot of local data and NCFlood mapping lidar come in US Survey feet (new EPSG 3404, the old wrong 3359 is deprecated)
 * xy for scanned historical maps and other non-georeferenced data

In addition to GRASS databases, the data will be provided in their original formats (shapes files, Arcgrid, tiff/tfw, etc.) and links to sites where the data can be downloaded will be provided too.

The data set is packaged as a baseline dataset and thematic sets (aka GRASS Mapsets concept).

The below list needs update, Ramona GIS inventory terminology http://nc.gisinventory.net/ is used in some sections.

Baseline raster maps in PERMANENT

 * elevation: 30m, 10m lidar-based NED, 30m SRTM-V1, 6m NCFlood DEM, 1m lidar raster for rural subarea (Lake Wheeler farm LW)
 * landcover: LULC 1996 (1992, 1998 and 2001 will go into thematic mapset), landuse 1m for rural area
 * orthoimagery: 2001, 1m resolution tile for rural area (additional years and higher resolution will go into imagery mapset)
 * landsat7

rasters derived from elevation and vector data:


 * derived from DEM:
 * slope, aspect, contributing area, stream network


 * derived from vector data
 * counties, zipcodes, soils, geology (needs labels), major roads, hydrography - lakes

Additional data that can go into the baseline, imagery, terrain/hydrology, or history mapsets

 * Original data:
 * landuse/landcover (NC One map EPA 1998, USGS 2001)
 * aerial images 6inch resolution orthos at http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/gis/raleigh.html, get also (raw stereo pair + orthophotos from DOT?)
 * raw geocoded LANDSAT7 satellite data, derived vegetation indices and land surface temperatures
 * raw SRTM V2
 * DRG topo sheets (available in ncexternal - Mrsid format)
 * Historical maps, http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/gis/historictopos.html, http://www.ncsu.edu/facilities/campus_maps/historic_maps/index.htm, or Schools situation North Carolina 1871 to 1876
 * HydroSHEDS data (check if resolution is high enough) URL, but only non-commercial use


 * Derived data (generated when working with the book):
 * DEM from Lidar vector points, complete set of topographic parameters (slope, aspect, different types of curvature), streams from DEM, landforms, derived satellite indices, hydrologically conditioned SRTM V2

Baseline vector maps in PERMANENT

 * point data: schools, climate stations, geodetic control points, bridges, firestations, hospitals, USGS stream gages, bus stops, points of interest, lidar point clouds (bare earth, multiple return)


 * line data: hydrography (streams), major roads, streets, railroads, bus routes, contours, planimetry (one tile)


 * polygon data: urban areas, counties, zip codes, census blocks, soils, geology


 * 3D buildings - 84 buildings for NCSU campus available from NCSU DELTA (http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/cldetails?mid=fda4a8505b42649c30e65e54bef87cc6&start=60)

Additional data for general and specialized data sets

 * organize using Ramona GIS inventory that also shows which data layers are available for our area
 * climate stations: temp., precip., frost, wind, cloud cover, ... (from State Climatology Office)
 * Air quality data (EPA EMPACT), http://www.scorecard.org
 * human and animal diseases incident data
 * wildlife data
 * hydrology:
 * watershed boundaries (EDNA, HUC)
 * real-time water data (streams and lakes) (WaterWatch)
 * groundwater data (NC Division of Water Resources)
 * water quality per watershed (EPA Surf Your Watershed)
 * flood data (NC digital flood maps)
 * placenames (gazetteer data) (US Gazetteer)
 * pollution and contamination data, hydrogeochemical and sediment data http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/1997/ofr-97-0492/quad/q_ralegh.htm, http://tin.er.usgs.gov/geochem/
 * results of elections
 * complete soils attributes (Wake County Soil data)
 * additional geology http://wfs.enr.state.nc.us/NCGeologicMaps/
 * quadrangles
 * voting districts
 * zoning districts
 * traffic (see wral.com, http://www.wakegov.com/news/22107.htm
 * 3D downtown Raleigh http://www.raleighnc.gov/portal/server.pt/gateway/PTARGS_0_2_306_203_0_43/http%3B/pt03/DIG_Web_Content/project/public/livable_streets/Drawing_board.htm

Packaging issues
... see Geodata Packaging Working_Group.
 * File Naming convention (approximately) - feature_origin_time_extent_resolution for raster data or feature_origin_time_extent_type for vector data
 * Metadata management (most data include standard FGDC metadata, store in history file) ,
 * provided as GRASS LOCATION, also in common GIS formats ? if yes, which?

Dataset Download
First test versions are available now. Some changes of map names are expected, FGDC metadata and full description will be added, but the data set can already be used for testing:


 * Ready-to-use GRASS location (see there for list of available maps)
 * Original datasets
 * More original datasets (yet to be ordered)
 * Table with the official data sources and metadata

Data set license
This data set is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC-BY-SA)

Additional proposed themes for data sets

 * 1) Coast
 * 2) Urban
 * 3) Atmospheric 3D
 * 4) Hydrology and earth surface processes
 * 5) Vegetation, land use (image processing, multitemporal)
 * 6) Working with real-time data (traffic, wolfline buses, meteorological data, stream gauges, webcams, ...)