The GIS Lab is committed to provide GIS data for the state of Illinois and the U.S. to both the UIS community and off-campus users.
There is a wealth of public domain data available for scientists and researchers at no cost. Although many public datasets can be obtained through websites and/or public repository libraries, most users still face major obstacles in gathering and using these datasets.
The GIS Lab systematically inventories these datasets that are publicly available for the State of Illinois. Following the links and data description below, you can easily locate the data you are looking for. Our lab staff is also available to answer any further questions that you may have when retrieving your dataset. Clicking on a link will navigate you away from the UIS website, to return use the back arrow. Additionally, please adhere to all stated citation requests found on the various sites.
Illinois Natural Resources Geospatial Data Clearinghouse: Provides access to downloadable digital data as well as interactive maps. Topics include surficial and bedrock geology, elevation, mining, water resources and hydrology, natural history, base maps, PLSS, administrative, infrastructure, digital orthophoto quarter quadrangle, Chicago urban area, digital raster graphics, and historical aerial photographs.
IllinoisData.com: Data provided by the Northern Illinois Business and Industry Data center in cooperation with NIU Center for Governmental Studies. Topics include agricultural statistics, business characteristics, crime statistics, demographic statistics, education statistics, government & taxes, housing characteristics, labor market, Northern Illinois economic indicators, regional & state profiles, and Census 2000 data.
Illinois Climate Network Data: Data provided by the Illinois Climate Network in downloadable text files. Data is archived from 1989 to 2007 and includes all stations in Illinois including Belleville, Carbondale, Champaign, Monmouth, Peoria, Springfield, and St. Charles.
Invasive Plant Species in Illinois Forests: Data provided by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources in pdf format. Data includes invasive shrubs and invasive groundcover.
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service: Data provided by the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service. Datasets include refuge boundaries, public roads and related features that are located on National Wildlife Refuges and Wetland Information. Also included are links to USGS DEM 10M and 30M, USGS DOQ, DRG, and DLG, Illinois Geospatial Data Clearinghouse, STATSGO, and SSURGO.
City of Chicago GIS: Data provided by the City of Chicago to include base data, boundary, conservation areas, empowerment zones, enterprise communities, enterprise zones, industrial corridors, planning districts, planning regions, cemetery, forests, libraries, parks, pedways, school grounds, and transportation. Also included are a variety of maps for the City of Chicago.
Chicago Police Department Citizen Law Enforcement Analysis and Reporting (CLEARMAP): The CLEARMAP Crime Summary web application enables you to see choropleth maps and tables of reported crime summarized into 32 categories such as violent crime, property crime, robbery, burgulary and motor vehicle theft. The data is summarized by beat, district, ward, community area, and census tract. The database contains 1 year of information which you can access in blocks of 90, 180, 270 and 365 days. Data is refreshed daily. This tool is useful for comparing and contrasting various areas of the City of Chicago.
The University of Chicago GIS Data: Data includes links to shapefiles for local political boundaries in the Chicago area. Included are Chicago ward map 1998, 1992, and 1986, community areas, police districts, 1980 census tract boundaries for Northeastern Illinois and Northwestern Indiana, and Chicago city limits,
Natural Resources Conservation Service Soil Laboratory Data: Data provided by the Natural Resources Conservation Service that contains soil sample locations and corresponding laboratory data for samples completed by the soil characterization laboratory at the University of Illinois and NRCS National Soil Survey Lab.
Illinois Rivers Decision Support System: Data provided by the Illinois State Water Survey to include online data, maps, downloadable GIS data, GIS animations/visualizations, and web mapping applications.
Natural Connections: Green Infrastructure in Wisconsin, Illinois, & Indiana: Data provided through a partnership between the Center for Neighborhood Technology and Openlands and includes downloadable GIS data from over 400 green infrastructure datasets.
Illinois Department of Transportation: T2 GIS Data: Access IDOT statewide and county GIS data and associated metadata files.
Adams County, Illinois: Geographic Information Systems: Data provided by Adams County, Illinois as shape files and Mr Sid Image files. Use website as the login and adamsgis as the password.
Coastal and Ocean Resource Economics STICS: Data Access : Provides access to digital state and county watershed data for the conterminous United States. Also accessible is coastal assessment frameworks, census 2000 data, block groups data 1970-2000, and USGS hydrologic cataloging units.
Seamless Data Distribution System: Provides access to free digital data downloads including high resolution orthoimagery, digital raster graphic, landsat mosaic, MODIS data, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, National Atlas, National Elevation Dataset, National LandCover Dataset, and shuttle radar topography data.
National Geologic Map Database: Provides access to publications, maps and reports including free digital data downloads queriable by geological theme, format, state, county, author, title, scale, or 100K quad.
Natural Resources Conversation Service: Provides access to digital data downloads of 8-digit hydrologic unit coverage, county and FIPS coverage, major land resource areas coverage, and state 8-digit hydrologic unit coverage for the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, and territories.
U.S. General Soil Map (STATSGO2): Provides access to free digital data downloads of the state soil geographic database.
Wetlands Geodatabase: Provides access to digital data downloads for state quad in 100K or 24K format.
Geospatial Data Gateway: Provides access to digital data downloads to natural resource data for state, county or counties. Data includes soils, plant hardiness, climate, wetlands, transportation, flood hazards, cadastral, hydrography, elevation, boundaries, federal lands, cultural and demographics, enhanced digital raster graphic, common land unit, land use resource areas, orthoimagery, land cover, watersheds and dams.
Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium: Provides access to digital data downloads for 21 classes of land cover, percent tree canopy, and percent urban imperviousness at 30m cell resolution.
Energy Program Publications and Data Search: Provides access to downloadable spatial and tabular data in the energy field. These include world petroleum, coal, national oil and gas assessments, coal database, federal land, uranium, oil shale, produced waters database, organic chemistry database, seismic data processing and interpretation and national petroleum reserve-Alaska seismic data archive.
Mineral Resources On-Line Spatial Data: Provides access to regional and global Geology, Geochemistry, Geophysics, and Mineral Resource maps and data.
Coastal and Marine Geology Program Internet Map Server: Provides access to published data layers and information from the US Geological Survey, Coastal and Marine Geology Program. Data includes Pacific West Coast, Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic East Coast.
National Hydrography Dataset: Provides seamless digital data that can be queried and downloaded. Data can be extracted by sub basin, county, congressional district or by topographic map quad. Data can be extracted in blocks encompassing several adjacent reference areas.
The National Atlas: Provides access to downloadable digital data as well as interactive maps. Topics include agriculture, biology, boundaries, climate, environment, geology, history, map reference, people, transportation and water.
National Agricultural Statistics Service: Provides access to geospatial data to include vegetation condition images, cropland data layer, land use strata for selected states, seasonal summary of crop progress and condition/all crops and all states, crop acreage, and crop yield. Also accessible are maps and charts by commodity.
The National Assessment of Shoreline Change: A GIS Compilation of Vector Shorelines and Associated Shoreline Change Data for the U.S. Gulf of Mexico: Layers include Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, Vector Shoreline, Offshore baseline, Shore-normal transects with long-term and short-term rates of change, Transect/Shoreline intersection positions, Alongshore Vector showing spatial extents of beach nourishments, internal state boundaries, and cities and towns of the US.
National Geophysical Data Center: Layers include Coastal Relief Models for central, western, and eastern Gulf of Mexico, Continental US, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, East Coast, Florida, Southern California, US Central Pacific Coast, US NW Pacific Coast, Bathymetric, Topographic data, DMSP OLS Daily Mosaics, DMSP OLS Gas Flare Monitoring, DMSP OLS Global Composites, DMSP OLS Lunar Cycle Composite, GLOBE Version 1.0 Digital Elevation Data, 1999, Nightime Lights of the World 2003, TerrainBase (Global 5-minute Digital Terrain Model), 1994.
Spatial Data Sets Available on the WRD NSDI Node: A variety of water-based datasets provided by the USGS.
NOAA Coastal Services Center Land Cover Analysis: Coastal Great Lakes Land Cover: Provides access to data layers of land cover and change data for the Great Lakes region (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin) according to Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP) standards. These data are the first coastal land cover information available region-wide for the Great Lakes since 1992.
The National Atlas: Provides access to downloadable digital data as well as interactive maps. Topics include agriculture, biology, boundaries, climate, environment, geology, history, map reference, people, transportation and water.
Seamless Data Distribution System: Provides access to free digital data downloads including high resolution orthoimagery, digital raster graphic, landsat mosaic, MODIS data, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, National Atlas, National Elevation Dataset, National LandCover Dataset, and shuttle radar topography data.
Natural Resources Conversation Service: Provides access to free digital data downloads of 8-digit hydrologic unit coverage, county and FIPS coverage, major land resource areas coverage, and state 8-digit hydrologic unit coverage for the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, and territories.
Coastal and Ocean Resource Economics STICS: Data Access : Provides access to digital state and county watershed data for the conterminous United States. Also accessible is coastal assessment frameworks, census 2000 data, block groups data 1970-2000, and USGS hydrologic cataloging units.
National Geologic Map Database: Provides access to publications, maps and reports including free digital data downloads queriable by geological theme, format, state, county, author, title, scale, or 100K quad.
Geospatial Data Gateway: Provides access to digital data downloads to natural resource data for state, county or counties. Data includes soils, plants, climate, wetlands, transportation, flood hazards, cadastral, hydrography, elevation, boundaries, federal lands, cultural and demographics, common land unit, orthoimagery, land cover, watersheds and dams.
Energy Program Publications and Data Search: Provides access to downloadable spatial and tabular data in the energy field. These include world petroleum, coal, national oil and gas assessments, coal database, federal land, uranium, oil shale, produced waters database, organic chemistry database, seismic data processing and interpretation and national petroleum reserve-Alaska seismic data archive.
Land Survey Information System: Provides access to downloadable data from the Bureau of Land Management cadastral survey program. Includes official boundary surveys for all federal agencies. Includes township labels, sections, quarter-quarters, minor subdivisions, smallest divisions, roads, urban areas, forests, fire perimeters, burn zones, world transportation ESRI, world place names NGS, hydrologic unit codes (HUC), lakes and rivers.
Earthquake Hazards Program: Provides access to downloadable data and interactive mapping for seismic hazards and earthquake probability.
Mineral Resources On-Line Spatial Data: Provides access to regional and global Geology, Geochemistry, Geophysics, and Mineral Resource maps and data.
Coastal and Marine Geology Program Internet Map Server: Provides access to published data layers and information from the US Geological Survey, Coastal and Marine Geology Program. Data includes Pacific West Coast, Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic East Coast.
National Hydrography Dataset: Provides seamless digital data that can be queried and downloaded. Data can be extracted by sub basin, county, congressional district or by topographic map quad. Data can be extracted in blocks encompassing several adjacent reference areas.
U.S. Census Bureau: Provides access to publicly available printed maps and free, downloadable maps in Portable Document Format [PDF], to generalized, digital files suitable for use with a Geographic Information System (G.I.S.) as a base for medium to small-scale thematic mapping, and to two mapping applications derived from Census Bureau base map data - American FactFinder, State&County QuickFacts, and the TIGER Map Server. Also available is queriable census data.
The National Archive of Criminal Justice Data: Provides access to data collections that contain geographic identifiers that could be geocoded for GIS analysis. Includes FIPS county codes, county codes, census tract codes, zip codes, block groups, police precincts and beats, addresses, and lat/long coordinates.
Uniform Crime Reports County Data: Provides access to county level data. Includes arrest data for Part I offenses (murder, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, larceny, auto theft, and arson), for Part II offenses (forgery, fraud, embezzlement, vandalism, weapons violations, sex offenses, drug and alcohol abuse violations, gambling, vagrancy, curfew violations, and runaways) and reported offenses (as opposed to arrests) for Part I crimes only.
Bureau of Justice Statistics: Provides access to data tables and spreadsheets that contain criminal offenses from the Uniform Crime Reports for all 50 States and local agencies with coverage of 10,000 population or greater, homicide trends and characteristics for all 50 States and localities of more than 250,000 population, and law enforcement management and administrative statistics for State and local agencies with more than 100 sworn officers.
National Geophysical Data Center: Layers include Coastal Relief Models for central, western, and eastern Gulf of Mexico, Continental US, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, East Coast, Florida, Southern California, US Central Pacific Coast, US NW Pacific Coast, Bathymetric, Topographic data, DMSP OLS Daily Mosaics, DMSP OLS Gas Flare Monitoring, DMSP OLS Global Composites, DMSP OLS Lunar Cycle Composite, GLOBE Version 1.0 Digital Elevation Data, 1999, Nightime Lights of the World 2003, TerrainBase (Global 5-minute Digital Terrain Model) 1994.
Spatial Data Sets Available on the WRD NSDI Node: A variety of water based data sets provided by the USGS.
NOAA Coastal Services Center Land Cover Analysis: Coastal Great Lakes Land Cover: Provides access to data layers of land cover and change data for the Great Lakes region (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin) according to Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP) standards. These data are the first coastal land cover information available region-wide for the Great Lakes since 1992.
EPA Geospatial Data Download: Provides access to data about facilities or sites subject to environmental regulation. The EPA Geospatial Data Access Project provides a downloadable extensible markup language (XML) file, Shapefile and Feature Class of these facilities or sites. Includes data on Superfund National Priorities List, RCRAInfo – Treatment, Storage, and Disposal facilities, Toxic Release Inventory System, NEPT – National Environmental Performance Track, and Permit Compliance System (PCS) – National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Majors.
Envirofacts Data Warehouse: Provides access to downloadable data, queriable searches and interactive mapping for a variety of environmental topics. Topics include AIRS/AFS, Brownfields, CERCLIS, Environmental and Compliance History Online/IDEA, Envirofacts Master Chemical Integrator, Facility Registry System, Grants Information and Control System, Information Collection Rule, NCOD, Water Discharge Permits (PCS), Radiation Information Database (RADInfo), RadNet, Safe Drinking Water Information System, Toxic Release Inventory and UV index.
Better Assessment Science Integrating Point & Nonpoint Sources: BASINS is a multi-purpose environmental analysis system that integrates a geographical information system (GIS), national watershed data, and state-of-the-art environmental assessment and modeling tools into one convenient package. Includes downloadable data in a full processing package using open source GIS software.
Climate Maps of the United States: Provides access to downloadable data and maps in high resolution Adobe PDF format or in ESRI Shape Files. Included are maps available for climatic elements such as temperature, precipitation, snow, wind, pressure, etc., chosen to portray the climate of the U.S. The period of record of the data for most of the maps is 1961-1990.
Radar Data Access: Provides access to downloadable data that includes Radar Data, National Mosaic Reflectivity Images, Real-Time Radar, Virtual Globe (KMZ) Archived Severe Weather Warnings and Storm Events. Data is available from 1950 to 1 day from present.
NCDC GIS Portal: Provides access to interactive maps, metadata, and downloadable KMZ GIS files of climatic data. Data includes divisional data, local climatological data, NEXRAD Level II Radar Imagery, NEXRAD Level III Radar Imagery, Paleoclimatology, Precipitation Data 15 minute, Precipitation Data hourly, Surface Data Daily US, Surface Data Global Summary of the Day, Surface Data Hourly Global, Surface Data Monthly Extremes US, Surface Data Monthly Global, Surface Data Monthly Global (GSN), Surface Data Monthly US, US Climate Reference Network.
The National Atlas: Provides access to downloadable digital data as well as interactive maps. Topics include agriculture, biology, boundaries, climate, environment, geology, history, map reference, people, transportation and water.
Geospatial Data Gateway: Provides access to digital data downloads to natural resource data for state, county or counties. Data includes soils, plants, climate, wetlands, transportation, flood hazards, cadastral, hydrography, elevation, boundaries, federal lands, cultural and demographics, common land unit, orthoimagery, land cover, watersheds and dams.
U.S. General Soil Map (STATSGO2): Provides access to free digital data downloads of the state soil geographic database.
Energy Program Publications and Data Search: Provides access to downloadable spatial and tabular data in the energy field. These include world petroleum, coal, national oil and gas assessments, coal database, federal land, uranium, oil shale, produced waters database, organic chemistry database, seismic data processing and interpretation and national petroleum reserve-Alaska seismic data archive.
Coastal and Marine Geology Program Internet Map Server: Provides access to published data layers and information from the US Geological Survey, Coastal and Marine Geology Program. Data includes Pacific West Coast, Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic East Coast.
National Hydrography Dataset: Provides seamless digital data that can be queried and downloaded. Data can be extracted by sub basin, county, congressional district or by topographic map quad. Data can be extracted in blocks encompassing several adjacent reference areas.
TOXMAP Environmental Health e-Maps: Provides access to downloads of facilities data and aggregate release amounts (nationwide, all TRI years), download releases data (nationwide, all TRI chemicals), download ESRI shapefile of TRI facilities, download Superfund NPL site data (nationwide), download Superfund NPL contaminant data (nationwide), download ESRI shapefile of Superfund NPL sites.
Spatial Data Sets Available on the WRD NSDI Node: A variety of water based data sets provided by the USGS.
NOAA Coastal Services Center Land Cover Analysis: Coastal Great Lakes Land Cover: Provides access to data layers of land cover and change data for the Great Lakes region (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin) according to Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP) standards. These data are the first coastal land cover information available region-wide for the Great Lakes since 1992.
The National Atlas: Provides access to downloadable digital data as well as interactive maps. Topics include agriculture, biology, boundaries, climate, environment, geology, history, map reference, people, transportation and water.
Geospatial Data Gateway: Provides access to digital data downloads to natural resource data for state, county or counties. Data includes soils, plants, climate, wetlands, transportation, flood hazards, cadastral, hydrography, elevation, boundaries, federal lands, cultural and demographics, common land unit, orthoimagery, land cover, watersheds and dams.
Coastal and Marine Geology Program Internet Map Server: Provides access to published data layers and information from the US Geological Survey, Coastal and Marine Geology Program. Data includes Pacific West Coast, Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic East Coast.
U.S. Census Bureau: Provides access to publicly available printed maps and free, downloadable maps in Portable Document Format [PDF], to generalized, digital files suitable for use with a Geographic Information System (G.I.S.) as a base for medium to small-scale thematic mapping, and to two mapping applications derived from Census Bureau base map data - American FactFinder, State&County QuickFacts, and the TIGER Map Server. Also available is queriable census data.
Uniform Crime Reports County Data: Provides access to county level data. Includes arrest data for Part I offenses (murder, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, larceny, auto theft, and arson), for Part II offenses (forgery, fraud, embezzlement, vandalism, weapons violations, sex offenses, drug and alcohol abuse violations, gambling, vagrancy, curfew violations, and runaways) and reported offenses (as opposed to arrests) for Part I crimes only.
Bureau of Justice Statistics: Provides access to data tables and spreadsheets that contain criminal offenses from the Uniform Crime Reports for all 50 States and local agencies with coverage of 10,000 population or greater, homicide trends and characteristics for all 50 States and localities of more than 250,000 population, and law enforcement management and administrative statistics for State and local agencies with more than 100 sworn officers.
The National Archive of Criminal Justice Data: Provides access to data collections that contain geographic identifiers that could be geocoded for GIS analysis. Includes FIPS county codes, county codes, census tract codes, zip codes, block groups, police precincts and beats, addresses, and lat/long coordinates.
National Agricultural Statistics Service: Provides access to geospatial data to include vegetation condition images, cropland data layer, land use strata for selected states, seasonal summary of crop progress and condition/all crops and all states, crop acreage, and crop yield. Also accessible are maps and charts by commodity.
