Nebraska: New Digital Hub and Geospatial Data Portal

I recently gave the new Nebraska digital hub and geospatial data portal a test run.  As some of the GIS-based lessons I teach are based in Nebraska, some of which are in the Exercises section of this blog (including the fire tower site selection exercise), I have been using GIS portals in the state for at least 20 years.  As I have stated in reviews of other data portals, my preference is to have searching tools as well as the ability to browse categories of data, and this site provides both.

As detailed in a recent article in Enterprise Digitalization, the unique characteristic of the Nebraska portal is that it includes data from every single state agency, served in one location.  Crime, childcare, gas stations, and other information is all supposed to be here.  My searches for fuel or gas came up with nothing, as was my search for robberies, crime, and soils.   My search on land cover netted me unrelated items.   Admittedly, these were my first experiences with the site, and no doubt the site as well as my skills in using it will improve over time.  I did find some interesting data sets that I had not been able to find in the Nebraska data portals I had been using up to now.  I was also pleased to see that many of the data sets are offered as downloads and also as  streaming data services.  Plus, metadata is easily found and understandable.

I know it is a challenge to pull together a state portal, and I salute the efforts of those behind this one.  Admittedly, all I am interested in is geospatial data, and not the other data on the site.  For now, I will use this portal, but because I could not find all of the data sets I am interested in, I will continue to use the Nebraska DNR site, the state’s open data portal, and the sites I have found useful in the past at the University of Nebraska.   I only hope that if those other sites are removed at some point, that the developers do not do so before verifying that every single GIS dataset is moved to the new portal (please!).

Nebraska data portal.

–Joseph Kerski