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There are three ways of obtaining the tutorial data. The best option for getting the full GIS project experience is to follow option Option 1 and practice downloading the data from the source websites. Not only will you learn, but you will learn how to download data from online GIS data portals. You will also gain exposure to the best GIS data websites for the Houston region. If you do not have Before beginning the tutorial, you will copy all of the required tutorial data onto your Desktop. Follow the applicable set of instructions below depending on the particular computer you are using.
OPTION 1: Obtaining tutorial data from source websites
If you need wish to download the tutorial data from their the source websites or want to and practice finding and obtaining data from online sources, follow these instructions:
COHGIS Public Data
The COHGIS (City of Houston GIS) Open Data Portal website provides over 100 data sets with data such as administrative boundaries, amenity locations, transportation routes, and permit locations. For this tutorial, we will download population and housing data from the 2010 census, which has been aggregated to To obtain this data:
- Using a web browser, go to the COHGIS Public Data Page at: http://gisdata.houstontx.gov/cohgis/
- Click on the Download icon for the COHGIS Lines section for the Freeways data. The data file should automatically being downloading to the Downloads folder.
- For the Superneighborhoods data, go back to the COHGIS Public Data Page. Click on the Download icon for the Federal datasets.
The HCAD (Harris County Appraisal District) Public Data is another great online source that provides similar data such as highways, utilities, and water districts and is available at: http://pdata.hcad.org/GIS/index.html
Houston METRO
The Houston METRO website provides GIS data for the public transit system in Houston provided by METRO. For this tutorial, you will need the bus stops and bus routes data which is included in the downloadable zip-file containing all of the GIS data available on the site. To obtain this data:
- Using a web browser, go to the Houston METRO home page at: http://www.ridemetro.org/Pages/index.aspx
- At the top of the webpage, there should be 6 columns. Click the NEWS Meetings and Media column.
- Scroll down to the bottom of the webpage until you see the Downloads subheading. Click on Downloads.
- Scroll down to the bottom of the webpage until you see 4 links at the bottom of the page. Click on METRO GIS Data Layers. The data file should automatically begin downloading.
COHGIS Public Data
The COHGIS (City of Houston GIS) website provides over 100 datasets with data such as flood hazards, recent crimes, transportation, and government boundaries. For this tutorial, we’ll need the super neighborhoods (available in the Federal data sets) and freeways data (available in the COHGIS Lines dataset). To obtain this data:
- Using a web browser, go to the COHGIS Public Data Page at: http://gisdata.houstontx.gov/cohgis/
- Click on the Download icon for the COHGIS Lines section for the Freeways data. The data file should automatically being downloading to the Downloads folder.
- For the Superneighborhoods data, go back to the COHGIS Public Data Page. Click on the Download icon for the Federal datasets.
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OPTION 2: Accessing tutorial data from Fondren Library using the gistrain profile
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