GIS for and Maps for Political Science

This page was constructed to make my searches for GIS material a little quicker.  If it helps you, too, have at it.  Suggestions welcome at olufs@plu.edu 

 

Google Earth Blog has discussions of all kinds of topics, and contacts for the two people that run it. 

Google Earth Outreach has several tutorials for importing GIS data into GoogleEarth. 

When in Google Earth, in the left hand column click on the GE Community, see what is offered.  Also, try searching for Google Oceans. 

USGSÕs Map Viewer is a good place to see what is possible, select the things you want to include on the map. 

Leaflet is a way to generate GIS maps with all sorts of political data.  Here is a recent election example. 

 

Washington State GIS info and data

á      The Office of Financial Management has a GIS page that includes 2010 Census files.  You can subscribe to their postings about new data sources, analysis, forecasts. 

á      From the Department of Ecology, and a separate Data Page 

á      From the Department of Natural Resources

á      From the Department of Transportation 

á      Department of Fish & Wildlife entry page for GIS—they link several mapping services for priority habitates & species, hunting, etc.   

á      The Washington State Redistricting Commission shows their existing maps onlineÉ.. too bad they do not share their data sets. 

á      The Department of Revenue has data on tax rates, incentive programs

á      The Puget Sound Regional Council has a page of GIS links, mostly what their partners do.

á      Washington Geodata Archive [WAGDA] From UW library—they do data, not maps. 

á      The State Geospatial Clearinghouse, one stop shopping.  Their search engine is just GeoData.gov.  Many dead links. 

 

Redistricting

á      Redistricting the Nation is a collection of illustrations and tutorials on constructing legislative district boundaries.  A commercial firm supports it, Azavea. 

á      Maplight tries to illustrate the connections between money and politics.  Support comes from Sunlight Foundation and OpenSecrets.org. 

á      The Wikipedia page on Gerrymandering is pretty good. 

 

Other Environmental Theme GIS Sites

á      EPA has a searchable database of GHG emissions, state by state

á      NRDC has a GIS projects page, and occasional reports based on GIS

á      The Earth Observation and Geospatial Resources page on Google Earth

á      King County (WA) has a good GIS site, and a map site .  On their GIS site, enter IMAP to see what all you can do. 

á      Pierce County (WA) has a public GIS site 

á      USGS runs a Western Geographic Science Center, and a Geographic Analysis and Monitoring Program (check their links)  

á      The National Snow and Ice Data Center 

 

 

Other Things, Wanting Classification

The David Rumsey Map Collection is a must-see for lovers of paper maps, and their digital possibilities.  Some of it is viewable via Google Earth, and some via its own software. 

StatsAmerica lets you compare economic, other data in counties, cities, states.

The GeoCommunityÕs GIS Data Port , somewhat commercial. 

Earth Exploration Toolbook emphasizes education GIS applications with earth systems science data, with training available. 

Catherine ShreveÕs class, at Duke, used GIS sources.  Here is her main library sources page, which linked the previous page. 

The University Consortium for Geographic Information Science  [UCGIS] 

The artist Sabine RŽthorŽ makes interesting maps and globes

The Harvard Geospatial Library, about 8k layers, including old maps & historical data

Udig claims to be user-friendly desktop, web-based GIS software. 

The World Bank collects Lots of Data and puts it on this page. 

 

 

 

Copyright Sid Olufs, 2012.