Geospatial Technology

Understanding Data

Data can be added to a geospatial map in many different formats, some of the data will be in a format that can be edited and other data will be in a read only format.  A shapefile format (Esri format) can be downloaded in a compressed (zipped) file folder format or as a geodatabase.  The compressed format is required for the shapefile folder since there are multiple separate files that make up the shapefile format including a database, projection, xml and geometry file.  The compressed format must be extracted before being used; all files in the folder must remain together.  A geodatabase is seen by a Microsoft Windows operating system as a single file.  If a higher end database is used such as a Microsoft SQL database then you cannot just transfer the database since it requires another program to make it operational.  Read only data will be information that might be a basemap that is received from an external source.  Data might also be from a geospatial server in which a stream of data is received which depending on the operational parameters may or may not be in an editable format. 

Shapefiles/GeoDataBases for download

The JCTC Data Portal: http://techcenter.jefferson.kctcs.edu/gis/data/Country/USA/State/State.html  (I maintain state level shapefiles that can be used with student projects. Not every state is populated and a majority of the information is for Kentucky.  Below the state level information is county and regional level information.  Other levels of information can be selected by the use of the tabs.)

Kentucky Geospatial Data: http://kygeonet.ky.gov

Kentucky 'KYMARTIAN' Site: http://kymartian.ky.gov/

Indiana Spatial Data Portal: http://maps.indiana.edu/layerGallery.html

U.S. Census TIGER Portal: http://www.census.gov/geo/maps-data/data/tiger.html

Kentucky Digital Elevation Models (DEM): http://kymartian.ky.gov/demwebusgs/

Kentucky Tagged Vector Contours: http://kymartian.ky.gov/tvcshp/

Kentucky Digital Ortho Images: ftp://ftp.kymartian.ky.gov/doq1z/

USDA Geospatial Data Gateway: https://gdg.sc.egov.usda.gov/

Connecting to an ArcGIS Server

To connect to an ArcGIS Server you must make the connection to the server, for ArcMap that connection can be made from either ArcCatalog or ArcMap.  In ArcMap this is done in the add data area, near the bottom of the list you will find add ArcGIS Server.  The links below must be used as presented and while they are hyperlinks that can be viewed in an Internet browser, to view metadata, there main functionality is directly inside of a geospatial program. 

Jefferson Community and Technical College ArcServer: http://216.69.2.43/arcgis & http://216.69.2.38/arcgis

U.S. National Map Basemap: http://basemap.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/services

U.S. National Map Raster: http://raster.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/services

U.S. National Map Services: http://services.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/services

U.S. Census Bureau Tiger Files: https://tigerweb.geo.census.gov/arcgis/rest/services

Indiana University: http://gis.uits.iu.edu/ArcGIS/rest/services

Kentucky Data ArcServer: http://kygisserver.ky.gov/arcgis/services

Kentucky Raster Server: http://kyraster.ky.goc/arcgis/rest/services

Indiana ArcServer: http://maps.indiana.edu/arcgis/services

National Park Service: http://mapservices.nps.gov/arcgis/services

Esri ArcGIS Online: http://services.arcgisonline.com/arcgis/services