Data Basin as a source for free and open geospatial data

Data Basin is a very useful geospatial data portal with a focus on ecosystems and conservation. “A team of scientists, software engineers, and educators at the Conservation Biology Institute (CBI) built Data Basin with the strong conviction that we can expand our individual and collective ability to develop sustainable solutions by empowering more people through access to spatial data, non-technical tools, and collaborative networks” is the resource’s purpose.

Hence, Data Basin is more than just a data portal–it is a community. One feature of this community is the ability to create a free member account to connect with others. In addition, every free member account comes with a personal workspace, which is available in the far right of the navigation bar. Here a member can easily access content that the member contributes (datasets and documents) or creates in Data Basin.

It had been a while since I had last used Data Basin, and when I recently refreshed my experience with it, I was pleasantly surprised to see how it has evolved. It encompasses the modern GIS elements we have written about in this blog, including the ability to view the map in an interactive way, examine the data, review the metadata, and access the data. The search tool worked well for me, and the browse tool was useful. To download a data set, you need to register for the site and create a profile, but this took only 5 minutes for me to do.

A unique and wonderful feature of Data Basin is that content is not just available as maps and layers, but also in galleries and groups. Through these galleries and groups, one can more readily find related content; for example, in the fire data by category for Santa Barbara County, one can find a set of over 100 items, all directly tied to the theme of fire in that part of the world. In addition, gateways are sites powered by Data Basin and curated by members of various interest groups. They showcase spatial information for a particular geography, topic, project or organization. Gateways include a subset of the data available on Data Basin.

Data Basin showing the results of one data set.

Data Basin is not a new resource, but as we have not reviewed it for this blog, and given its longstanding utility among the scientific and education community, it is worthy of attention and of rigorous use. Consider using it for your next project!

–Joseph Kerski