Explore geospatial data from UT Austin and beyond


About


The University of Texas Libraries collects and preserves the finest achievements of human knowledge in support of not only research and instruction needs, but also the exploration of ideas and intellectual innovation. We are proud to provide access to geospatial data from our collections as well as the shared collections of other universities for researchers, scholars, educators, and the general public through this Portal.

You will find a wide variety of data types available for download including georeferenced scanned maps from the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection, vector datasets developed from collections in the Alexander Architectural Archives, geospatial data from the Benson Latin American Collection, and more. These datasets represent just some of the geospatial resources found in the UT Libraries’ collections. Additional datasets will continue to be added to this Portal as they are processed.

Technology


The Texas GeoData Portal has been developed with a mix of open source solutions and commercial off-the-shelf technology, including GeoBlacklight 4.x for the front end framework, ArcGIS Server, Microsoft SQL Server, and Apache Solr. We provide access to the vector and raster datasets made available through this Portal in a range of downloadable formats and via web services to facilitate the use of the data in both GIS software and interactive web maps. All University of Texas datasets that are available for download through this Portal are georeferenced and use the WGS 84 (EPSG: 4326) coordinate reference system by default to facilitate use in GIS software.

This Portal has been configured to allow users to browse not only geospatial resources in the UT Libraries’ collections, but also raster and vector datasets shared by other universities that are utilizing GeoBlacklight and have shared Aardvark metadata for their openly accessible georeferenced resources through the OpenGeoMetadata collaboration. Since it is possible to find data from a variety of institutions through this Portal you may notice some variations in the services and metadata that are available for particular datasets. You may also notice that the number of records provided from other institutions through this portal will fluctuate. These changes in records counts may be due to changes implemented by the universities sharing their metadata through the OpenGeoMetadata project. As of December 2023 the Texas GeoData Portal has been updated so as not to include OpenGeoMetadata records for datasets that are not downloadable or are not georeferenced - as a result of this change the total number of datasets available through the Portal may seem lower than in past years but that is just due to datasets that are inaccessible or not GIS ready being removed. More accessible, georeferenced datasets will be added moving forward so the number of resources available through the Portal should only continue to grow from 2024 onward.

This Portal is built to conform to the standards set forth in the University’s Web Accessibility Policy.

Statement on Harmful Language and Content


The University of Texas Libraries (UTL) preserves and provides access to a wide range of cultural heritage and research collections. UTL strives to provide access to collection materials in a manner that is respectful to the individuals and communities who create, use, steward, and are represented in our holdings. Some content in UTL holdings may be disturbing or offensive, and may not reflect the current organizational values of UTL. We are committed to correcting past errors, overcoming current limitations, and are actively working to provide the necessary support for the collections in our care and those who engage with them. Read the full Statement on Harmful Language and Content.