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The best option for getting the full GIS project experience is to download data from online GIS data portals. You will also gain exposure to the best GIS data websites for the Houston region.
Accessing tutorial data online using a personal computer
If you are completing this tutorial from a personal computer, you will need to download the tutorial data online by following the instructions below:
- Using a web browser, go to the Introduction to GIS short course webpage at: http://library.rice.edu/gis-intro
- At the bottom of the webpage, under the Resources section, click the Introduction to GIS – Tutorial Data link to download the tutorial data.
- Unzip the IntroTutorialData folder.
- Copy the unzipped IntroTutorialData folder to your Desktop or another location of your choice. Ensure that you note the file path of the location you have selected.
Any time throughout the tutorial that you see reference to the file path C:\Users\gistrain\Desktop\IntroTutorialData, you will need to substitute it with the file path you have just selected.
The following step-by-step instructions and screenshots are based on the Windows 7 operating system with the Windows Classic desktop theme and ArcGIS for Desktop 10.1 SP1 software with an Advanced license. If your personal system configuration varies, you may experience minor differences from the instructions and screenshots.
Obtaining tutorial data from source websites
COHGIS Open Data Portal
The COHGIS (City of Houston GIS) Open Data Portal website provides over 100 data sets including administrative boundaries, amenity locations, transportation routes, crime, and flooding. For this tutorial, we will download population and housing data from the 2010 census, which has been aggregated to super neighborhood boundaries.
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