David Michalski
Researcher Services
Researcher Services Librarian
916-392-2189
by David Michalski – March 13, 2020
Geography is a multi-disciplinary field. This guide introduces students to a variety of resources for the study of human and physical geography. If you have questions about the use of these databases, research in Geography, cultural studies or the social sciences, or if you need support with social sciences data, I am happy to help, or get you in contact with those who can. Feel free to contact me via email, michalski@ucdavis.edu or make an appointment https://calendly.com/michalski-1/research-librarian-consultation.
Researcher Services
Researcher Services Librarian
916-392-2189
Provides citations and abstracts to the international agricultural literature, including veterinary medicine, human and animal nutrition, forestry, rural development, as well as other related topics such as tourism and human ecology. Covers over 11,000 journals & conference proceedings and selected books in agriculture. Produced by CAB (Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux) International (CABI) with more than 10 million records.
HISTORICAL SCOPE: Archive abstracts added in August 2005 go back to 1910 with 1,860,000 additional records. CAB DATABASE PDFs: As of January 2009, hard-to-find literature may be available as CAB Database PDFs (so noted *below* the UC-eLinks button). These CABI Full Text items give users automatic access to over 350,000 journal articles, conference papers and reports – 80% of which are not available electronically anywhere else. NOTE: the default UCD Search Type is set to Advanced Ovid Search.
This database covers over 600 journals, as well as books & conference proceedings, on meteorology, climatology, air pollution, astrophysics, atmospheric chemistry & physics, physical oceanography, hydrology, glaciology, and weather forecasting, from 1950s to present.
The State of California’s portal for geospatial data resources.
The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS)is the official repository of the United States of America’s domestic geographic names data. The GNIS contains information about physical and cultural geographic features of all types in the United States, associated areas, and Antarctica, current and historical, but not including roads and highways. The database holds the Federally recognized name of each feature and defines the feature location by state, county, USGS topographic map, and geographic coordinates. Other attributes include names or spellings other than the official name, feature designations, feature classification, historical and descriptive information, and for some categories the geometric boundaries.
The Canadian Geographical Names Data Base stores names records for populated places and physical features across Canada. Of the entries, nearly 350 000 names are recognized by the Geographical Names Board of Canada (GNBC) for official Canadian use.
China Data Online is the primary data source for China studies. It includes (1) China Statistical Databases; and (2) China Census Databases; It provides easy access to the various statistical yearbooks published by the National Bureau of Statistics of China, comprehensive statistics, and Census data of economy and population at national, provincial, city, county, and even township levels.
Search for GIS Data or create a map using the online viewer. Geodata.gov is part of the Geospatial One-Stop E-Gov initiative providing access to geospatial data and information.
This site provides population statistics of regions, countries, provinces and cities. It also provides data on land area, natural resources, energy and economy.
Geographic database of over 165,000 entries including place-names, physical characteristics and attributes, political properties, economic parameters, and natural and agricultural resources. Global in scope, updated monthly.
Includes links to numeric and geographic data covering a variety of topics including demography, health statistics, state contracts, traffic records. Statistics and data sets are available from state agencies and links are provided to other data sources – local, federal and other sources.
The GeoPlatform provides shared and trusted geospatial data, services, and applications for use by the public and by government agencies and partners to meet their mission needs.
The Geo Data Portalis ponsored by the United Nations Environment Programme and is an authoritative source for data sets used by UNEP. The online database holds more than 450 different variables covering themes like freshwater, population, forests, emissions, climate, disasters, health, and GDP. They can be displayed as maps, graphs or data tables.
The Geographic Names Server is the official repository of standard spellings of all foreign place names, sanctioned by the United States Board on Geographic Names. The database also contains variant spellings which are useful for finding purposes. It also contains native script spellings for some of the names. All the geographic features in the database contain information about location, administrative division, and quality. The GEOnet Names Server (GNS) does not contain any data for the United States of America or its Dependent areas. To obtain U.S. data, use the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) database of names.
The Geospatial Data Gateway (GDG) is the One Stop Source for environmental and natural resources data. The Gateway allows you to choose your area of interest, browse and select data from our catalog, customize the format, and have it downloaded or shipped on CD or DVD. Data sets include: Common Land Units, Transportation, Government Units, Census, Landmarks, Digital Raster Graphics (DRG), Elevation, Ortho Imagery, Landuse/Landcover, Geology, Soils, Precipitation, Temperature
The World Factbook provides information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 266 world entities. A generalized map of the country/entity is also provided. The World Factbook also includes: maps of the major world regions, as well as Flags of the World, a Physical Map of the World, a Political Map of the World, and a Standard Time Zones of the World map.
Fire Insurance Maps online (FIMo) is a research portal to find and view high-definition, color Fire Insurance Maps, Real Estate Atlases, Plat Books, and other historical maps showing building structures, building construction details, property ownership, property uses, and other useful information.
UC Davis has licensed the maps for the state of California.
Sanborn fire insurance maps, created to assist fire insurance companies assess risk, are large-scale community plans drawn at a scale of 50 feet to one inch. The maps give street names, street and sidewalk widths, property boundaries, and house and block numbers. Sanborn maps also contain data about construction details, building use and the utilities and transportation infrastructure that supported the community overall. Several editions of maps exist for some cities.
Social Explorer provides quick and easy access to current and historical census data and demographic information. The interface lets users create maps and reports to illustrate, analyze, and understand demography and social change.
Contents included:
The entire US Census from 1790 to 2010.
The entire American Community Survey (ACS) from 2005 to 2014.
All annual updates from the American Community Survey.
InfoGroup data on religious congregations in the United States for 2009 and 2010, including maps for counties and special census areas, as well as point maps of the actual congregation locations.
The Religious Congregations and Membership Study (RCMS) from 1980 to 2010.
Carbon Emissions Data for 2002 from the Vulcan Project.
This government site provides free downloads for frequently used datasets of California, including basemaps, elevation, transportation, political boundaries, scanned USGS topographic maps and 2005 and 2009 aerial photography.