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Research Guides

Geospatial Data Resources Guide: GIS Data Hosted at UW Libraries

University of Washington Geospatial Data

Geospatial datasets housed at the University of Washington Libraries have been migrated from shapefile format to storage within PostgreSQL database accessed through ESRIs Spatial Database Engine (SDE).  Specific spatial datasets are organized based on geographic extent or source agency. Using the links in the sections below, spatial data can either be directly loaded into ArcGIS Desktop as a layer or downloaded as a zipped file in another format. Below are examples of the different data formats.

Spatial Dataset Format Icon Format Description
SDE Dataset ArcGIS Layer

ArcGIS Layer File containing
symbology and connection information for SDE
Shapefile Dataset ArcGIS Shapefile

Zipped geospatial data in
shapefile format
Geodatabase ArcGIS Geodatabase

Zipped geospatial data in
ESRI geodatabase format
Coverage (.e00) Coverage

Zipped geospatial data in
ESRI coverage format

Lists of datasets are hidden in collapsible sections, click on the purple arrow to expand or collapse the list of datasets.

Collapsed List Collapsed List
Expanded List Expanded List

University of Washington Campus Data

Spatial datasets for the University of Washington such as building outlines and other layers.

University of Washington Campus Vector Datasets

Washington Cities

Spatial datasets available in the Maps Library originated from cities within the State of Washington. Some datasets are avalible for direct download while others can be copied from the physical media.

City of Kirkland

City of Seattle

EarthCorps (formerly Seattle Urban Nature (SUN))

City of Shoreline

Washington Counties

Spatial datasets from counties within the State of Washington available in digital format. Some spatial datasets are directly downloadable while others are only available from the physical media.

Chelan County

Clark County

King County

Kitsap County

Lewis County

Mason County

Pierce County

Snohomish County

Stevens County

Thurston County

Yakima County

U.S. Vector Data

Base datasets for the United States supplied by ESRI in the Maps and Media package.

United States Based Vector Datasets

US Census

US Census Geodatabases

Country Data

Vector base datasets for individual countries.

Russian Federation

World Vector Data

Base datasets for the World supplied by ESRI in the Maps and Media package.

World Base Vector Datasets

Connecting to the WAGDA 2.0 Server

UW students, faculty, and staff can access datasets via direct connection to our WAGDA SDE database. ​

  • In ArcCatalog double-click on "Database Connection" and double-click one more time on " Add Database Connection". Then enter the following into the dialog box:

                 

From on campus, you can use the username "guest" with anything as a password.

From off campus, you must first create an account in the database here. Once you have created an account, use your UWNetID username and password to gain access. This method also works if you are on campus

Need help connecting?

Need help? If you have troubles connecting to SDE or downloading data send an email to 
uwlib-gis@uw.edu

Subjects: Geography