United States/Resources
| United States | openstreetmap.us | Projects | Tags | TIGER fixup |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenStreetMap US | Users | Data Imports | Resources | Category |
Useful resources
Please respect the copyright of these sites.
- OSM Mapper can be used to track recent updates to the map.
- Notes can be used to mark spots on the map that need to be fixed.
FHWA National Highway System— Naming is not great and there are restrictions on use.http://mcdc.missouri.edu/webrepts/commoncodes/- Especially useful for landmarks such as parks, cemeteries, water features, hospitals, land use, and more. Some information is outdated such as T.B. sanitariums and Civil War hospitals so additional research may be required.
- U.S. Board on Geographic Names
- Keep Right
- Index of AASHTO minutes – tracking semiannual changes to Interstate routes, U.S. routes, and U.S. bicycle routes (permission)
Data sets
- TIGER
- US Forest Service Data
- National Hydrography Dataset
- California/Import — Collection of import datasets in CA.
National Resources Copied and Pasted from Potential Datasources
TIGER
More detail on the TIGER page
The Tiger road data is imported.
The U.S. Census Bureau's TIGER geographic database covers the United States (including Puerto Rico). The data is available from the Census Bureau as TIGER/Line files in ASCII text format - http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/. ESRI shapefiles of the TIGER data is available at http://www.esri.com/data/download/census2000_tigerline/index.html .
The TIGER data are in the public domain - http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/geo/tigerfaq?Q11 .
US Fish and Wildlife Service
USFWS is a bureau of the federal government operated by the US Department of the Interior. USFWS makes cadastral data (ownership) available at the USFWS Geospatial Services site. Refuges are accessible to the public for activities such as boating, hiking, hunting and fishing, so they are very relevant to OSM.
US Forest Service
Many national forests have GIS data available for download. A statement from region 6 (Pacific NW) http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/data-library/gis/disclaimers.shtml says that the data are public domain. Unfortunately each forest seems have their own quality of data contributions to the national extent datasets- some are very good; others have much more inventory and data quality issues. There are some files very relevant to OSM (trails; recreation points listing campsites, docks etc) and some not so useful to the normal OSM reader (owl and fish habitats).
US National Park Service
The National Park Service has a data clearinghouse often with trails (some historic paths) rivers, roads and often with very high resolution orthophotos. Most NPS data is available through an ESRI open data hub: https://public-nps.opendata.arcgis.com/
US Geological Survey
The USGS has a centralized database known as The National Map that contains many data sets, several that would be of use to OSM, including very detailed surface water data sets (rivers, streams, lakes, tiny ponds), dams, federal lands. The data are in the public domain. However, they do request attribution of data to USGS, so it may require a followup to use in OSM.
National Hydrography Dataset
Part of the USGS Data, the National Hydrography Dataset contains detailed information on nearly all waterways and bodies in the United States. The NHD was retired in October 2023. Its successor is the 3DHP.
3D Hydrography Program
The 3D Hydrography Program (3DHP) is a complete remapping of water features in the United States. Complete coverage of the country is supposed to be complete by 2032.
The GAP Analysis Program
Also a project of the USGS, the The GAP Analysis Project was conducted state by state initially and most recently on a regional basis. Relevant data includes landuse/landcover and stewardship/conservation lands, which includes military and DOD lands, and state/federal/local lands preserved for conservation purposes. The resulting dataset, known as the Protected Areas Database of the United States is itself a contributor to the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA).
Department of Transportation links
DOT homepage links for all 50 states. Check each for the GIS department, and statewide downloadable data.
U.S. Energy Information Administration
Contains lots of data on US infrastructure. All data is public domain. (Shapefiles)
FAA Aeronautical Information Services
FAA Aeronautical Information Services department publishes public domain geodata on their Aeronautical Data Delivery Service. The Airports, NAVAID Components, and Obstruction data are likely to be most useful.
Airport diagrams and other procedures are available from https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/flight_info/aeronav/digital_products/dtpp/.
FAA Digital Obstacle File (DOF)
The FAA Digital Obstacle File contains coordinates and elevations, as well as some meta data for aviation obstacles in the united states. The file is available in raw form at [1] and as a map at [2]. Daily updates are published at [3], and notices of new obstructions are published at [4].
The DOF would be a useful way to populate the map with aviation-chart-related items, particularly ones that can also serve as landmarks: smoke stacks, antennas, etc.
FAA National Flight Data Center (NFDC)
Much aviation data is maintained at nfdc.faa.gov [ dead link ].
CLUI - Centre for landuse interpretation
http://www.clui.org/clui_4_1/index.html Information identifying weird landuses spotted in aerial imagery throughout the U.S. Non-profit organisation. No copyright information on their website. Didn't contact them (yet). Maps (approx landuse pinpointing) on the site uses google maps. May be use-able for vague identification purposes.
National Agricultural Imaging Project
http://www.fsa.usda.gov/FSA/apfoapp?area=home&subject=prog&topic=nai
Decent aerial imagery. List of WMS servers
Mines
Adding the list of mines and quarries in the USA from here:
Note, I have started the process to import this data, but I accidently overwrote the names with josm. Now I am working on modifying the names. https://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/changeset/3345627
Keywords: EPA, Brownfields, Assessment Grant, Hazardous Substance, Property Redevelopment, public health, environment, federal data download, regulated sites, hazardous, contaminated, polluted, federal datasets, Land Revitalization, land redevelopment, land reuse, real property, hazardous substance, kmz, xml, Shapefile
Next Generation Radar (NEXRAD) Locations
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/nexradinv/ Next Generation Radar (NEXRAD) Locations http://www.data.gov/details/4
This geospatial rendering of weather radar sites gives access to an historical archive of Terminal Doppler Weather Radar data and is used primarily for research purposes. The archived data includes base data and derived products of the National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Surveillance Radar 88 Doppler (WSR-88D) next generation (NEXRAD) weather radar. Weather radar detects the three meteorological base data quantities: reflectivity, mean radial velocity, and spectrum width. From these quantities, computer processing generates numerous meteorological analysis products for forecasts, archiving and dissemination. There are 159 operational NEXRAD radar systems deployed throughout the United States and at selected overseas locations. At the Radar Operations Center (ROC) in Norman OK, personnel from the NWS, Air Force, Navy, and FAA use this distributed weather radar system to collect the data needed to warn of impending severe weather and possible flash floods; support air traffic safety and assist in the management of air traffic flow control; facilitate resource protection at military bases; and optimize the management of water, agriculture, forest, and snow removal. This data set is jointly owned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Federal Aviation Administration, and Department of Defense
Processing :
- Unzip. Replace wsr with Placemark. gps babel.
Added these tags:
- source=http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/nexradinv/
- radar_transponder=NEXRAD
- man_made = beacon
https://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/changeset/3350339
EPA Geospatial Data Download: Facility and Site Information
Contains information about facilities or sites subject to environmental regulation, including key facility information along with associated environmental interests for use in mapping and reporting applications.
Keywords : FRS, EPA, CERCLIS, NEPT, NPDES, PCS, RCRA, RCRAInfo, Superfund, NPL, TRI, regulated sites, toxic release, major discharges, brownfields, federal data download, national priorities list, public health, environment, federal datasets, kmz, xml, shapefile, sites, facilities
See here for the full record : EPAGeospatial
National Atlas Raw Data Download Site
This site contains a huge amount of data possibly useful to OSM. Place names, political boundaries, hydrology, etc. Most data is USGS collected and is public domain, however the site "Web Policies" page states that copyright must be inspected for each data set.
Note: Many of the shapefiles on nationalatlas.gov, particularly fedlanp020.shp and its derivatives, are horribly inaccurate (the resolution is low). Please avoid importing any more of it onto OSM! Users have found boundaries as much as a mile off from their true location. See this diary post.
Wilderness.net
Wilderness.net gathers US Designated Wilderness area definitions from the US Forest Service, Fish and Game, National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management into a single data set available for free download as Shapefile or KML.
Wilderness.net webmaster Lisa Eidson has been contacted and confirmed that all Wilderness data available on Wilderness.net is public domain.
National Transportation Atlas Database
The NTAD maintains various datasets associated with transportation in the US.
HPMS/ARNOLD
The FHWA provides the ARNOLD (All Roads Network Of Linear referenced Data) data under the HPMS (Highway Performance Monitoring System); see here.
NOAA ENC wreck and AWOIS database
The NOAA Office of Coast Survey maintains a database of wrecks and underwater obstructions. [5] The data itself is useful for a nautical chart like in the OpenSeaMap project. After confirming with NOAA via email, the data is indeed in the public domain and therefore can be imported into OSM.
Microsoft Building Footprints with Heights
Microsoft has footprint data for 9.8 million buildings in 44 states, concentrating on metropolitan areas. The data is released with an ODbL license https://opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/. The Microsoft Building Imports page has more details. Microsoft Building Footprint Data
North Country Trail
US Postal Service
The USPS provides a database of post boxes (or "collection boxes" in their lexicon). The data includes coordinates. There is an online database and the data is also available in GitHub. The data is also available as an Excel spreadsheet from the USPS on request and this other github site has one such data set.
The number and location of collection boxes is changing over time and so this might be a good target for a periodic import.
US Department of Energy Alternative Fueling Stations
Offers seemingly high-quality data about electric vehicle charging stations and other alternative fuels such as hydrogen or natural gas vehicle filling stations.
According to the USDOE the data is verified at least biennially, by survey if necessary.
Download
- Geofabrik Downloads — Includes data for the US in PBF Format. The US is split by these regional divisions. Updated daily.
- Using OpenStreetMap#Maps on your GPS device — Helps you to download available maps for various states across the US, for use on devices.
