Subject and Course Guides: Anthropology: Finding & Creating GIS Data

There are many places to find existing data sets for GIS mapping online. This is by no means a comprehensive list of GIS hubs and data sources. Many state and federal agencies will have their own GIS servers and hubs that are just a quick internet search away. This information is often used when you want to compare data sets to one another. For example, you may import one dataset from a county government that represents the county boundaries. Then you might add another layer from a historical society that represents the locations of local cemeteries.

TxGIO DataHub
Hub for a wide range of datasets relating to Texas boundaries, resources, and more.
The National Map
As one of the cornerstones of the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) National Geospatial Program, The National Map is a collaborative effort among the USGS and other Federal, State, and local partners to improve and deliver topographic information for the Nation. It has many uses ranging from recreation to scientific analysis to emergency response.
ArcGIS Hub
Hub where you can find hundreds of examples of GIS projects and data sets. Try searching for keywords like archaeology, cemetery, cultural, historical, and more.
GeoPlatform.gov
The GeoPlatform delivers trusted, nationally consistent, authoritative geographically enriched social, economic, environmental and other US federal government data for understanding and decision making.
National Park Service
GIS data related to the United States National Park Service (NPS).
Texas Parks & Wildlife GIS
GIS data related to the natural and cultural resources under the care of the Texas Park & Wildlife Department.
Texas Historical Comission
A variety of data sets relating to historical and cultural resources in Texas.
Dallas Open History
The Dallas History Open Data Hub is a public data repository of historical information about the history of Dallas managed by the City of Dallas Office of Historic Preservation. We collaborate with professional and community historians to research significant people and places throughout Dallas.
Tarrant County Public Map Viewer
Basic government data related to Tarrant County including boundaries, roads, and school districts/school locations.

Creating Your Own GIS Data

Creating your own data sets that can be utilized by GIS software is a little bit more complicated that you might think, but it is possible to teach yourself this task using tutorials from Esri or QGIS and other resources such as YouTube. You will need to know this skill in order to use any data that you gather in the field such as where artifacts are found, where burial sites are located, where certain languages or dialects or spoken, a historic traveling route, or other cultural or historical data.

Remember that many home GPS tools cannot generate highly accurate GPS data. A typical consumer GPS tool is accurate to within a 16 foot radius. For a student project, or for a project where you are mapping areas and not precise locations, this may be okay. However, for research-grade data you will need to purchase or rent a much more accurate receiver. These are often called submeter receivers because they are accurate to within less than one meter of the target. You can learn more about GPS accuracy from GPS.gov the official US Government website about GPS and related topics. Click HERE to learn more.

Using GIS Data in ArcGIS software

In Esri products such as ArcGIS Pro, the underlying data that controls what is depicted on the map is called a GeoDatabase. You can learn more about these and how to create them HERE. But an even easier way to add GPS data you have collected to a map is to use the built in features in ArcGIS Online. You can find instructions for this task HERE.

Using GIS Data in QGIS

When you use data from a GIS receiver you are working with a type of data called vector data which is data that consists of discreet separate points (the other common type of data is called raster data). In QGIS you will need to follow the tutorial called "Creating a New Vector Dataset" in order to create a layer using data that you have collected in your map. You can get started HERE.

Using a Historical Map in GIS

It is possible to add a historic map as a layer in your GIS project. You may want to do this to compare the modern locations of certain features such as cities or bodies of water, to older features that are no longer physically present, but are represented on your historic map. The image of your historic map is called raster data (as opposed to vector data) because it is continuous data that cannot be broken up into individual points.

The process of matching your historical map to your present day base layer is called georeferencing. This tells the GIS software what mapping system to use to orient the imported raster data (your historic map) to the existing raster data (the base layer of your project) using specific control points. You can find tutorials for georeferencing in ArcGIS Pro HERE.

In QGIS you can follow a tutorial using forestry mapping as an example to learn georeferencing. This tutorial can be found HERE.