Data Sources¶

Open and public spatial data for IsDB project work. All sources listed here are free to access and use.

Admin Boundaries¶

GADM — Global Administrative Areas¶

gadm.org

~500,000 administrative units worldwide. Currently version 4.1.

• ADM0 — National boundary
• ADM1 — Province / state / region
• ADM2 — District / county

Download formats: GeoJSON · Shapefile · KMZ (zipped KML) · GeoPackage

How to use in this training: 1. Go to gadm.org → Data → select your country 2. Download as GeoJSON 3. Open in GeoLibre → select your district → export 4. Import into eToolkit or WaPOR for analysis

GeoBoundaries¶

geoboundaries.org · Simplified Downloads

Open, community-supported admin boundaries. The simplified downloads page gives quick access by country and administrative level. GeoJSON format — ideal for all web tools used in this training.

OpenStreetMap¶

openstreetmap.org

Community-mapped roads, buildings, infrastructure, and administrative areas. Useful for project context maps and base layers. Download via Overpass Turbo or GeoFabrik for regional extracts.

Humanitarian & Socioeconomic Data¶

HDX — Humanitarian Data Exchange¶

data.humdata.org

UN OCHA's open data platform: poverty indices, population grids, census data, health facility locations, education facilities, conflict data — country by country.

Used in this training (Day 3): search for your country → download population grid → open in GeoLibre → compute population in a project buffer.

Search tips: Use country name as the main filter, then filter by file format (Shapefile, GeoJSON, CSV, GeoTIFF) for spatial data.

WorldPop¶

worldpop.org

High-resolution gridded population estimates at 100 m resolution for most countries. Useful for estimating beneficiary populations within a project boundary.

FAO GeoNetwork¶

fao.org/geonetwork

Agricultural land use, crop area, irrigation extent, food insecurity indicators, livestock density — all freely downloadable.

Earth Observation & Climate Data¶

FAO WaPOR¶

data.apps.fao.org/wapor

High-resolution (20–100 m) evapotranspiration, water productivity, biomass, and root zone soil moisture (RZSM) for Africa and the Near East. Three spatial levels: continental (L1), country (L2), irrigation scheme (L3).

Primary tool for agriculture and water projects — see Day 2 afternoon for the full walkthrough.

Copernicus Dataspace¶

dataspace.copernicus.eu

The European Space Agency's data portal for all Sentinel satellites: Sentinel-1 (radar), Sentinel-2 (optical), Sentinel-3, Sentinel-5P (atmospheric). Free download, registration required.

USGS EarthExplorer¶

earthexplorer.usgs.gov

Landsat archive — 40+ years of optical imagery at 30 m resolution. Free download, USGS account required.

Google Earth Engine¶

earthengine.google.com

Cloud-based analysis platform with a massive satellite data archive. Used by advanced analysts; requires programming (JavaScript or Python). The data backbone behind many web tools used in this training.

NASA POWER¶

power.larc.nasa.gov

Meteorological data for any point on Earth — temperature, precipitation, solar radiation — with no registration. Useful for project site climate profiles and baseline data.

CHIRPS¶

Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data — rainfall data at 0.05° resolution for Africa and beyond, going back to 1981. Available through EarthMap, Google Earth Engine, and direct download from chc.ucsb.edu/data/chirps.

Summary table¶