And we're done with Oregon for a little while...

Since I live in Portland and do a lot of my research with Oregon GIS data I've been focused on putting up data in my own locality so far but this is the last post like that. From here on out I'm going to be doing a new project where each post will highlight a specific state (or possibly a different country if I get ambitious). I'm not sure which one I'll start with but I'll end with Oregon so we can see if any new sources of GIS data come up in the interim.

To wrap up Oregon for now, however, I present the NW GeoData Clearinghouse (from Portland State University) which has more of the geologic rather than urban data that I'm usually interested in. If geology is your thing though this is the place to find information on the NW.

GTFS data to Shapefiles

Melinda Morang, GIS Guru and employee at ESRI, has built some transit tools that she highlights on her personal website. I fully believe that we've barely begun to scrape the surface with mining the information in GTFS feeds.

If you're unfamiliar with GTFS read an intro and there is some technical info on the GTFS spec for reference.

Upcoming Conferences 2014

Registration just opened for the AASHTO GIS for Transportation Symposium in Burlington, Vermont May 5-8. Workshops on the 5th and the Symposium running the 6th through the 8th.

Secondly, Workshops on Big Data and Urban Informatics in Chicago, IL August 11-12 will be accepting papers as of early March. In their words: "The objective of the workshop is to bring together researchers with an interest in the use of Big Data for urban analysis."

Both seem like good opportunities for heavy GIS users.

Portland Area GIS Sources

Metro - Historical census tracts, up to date block data, access to shapefiles used in their Regional Land Information System (RLIS), user manual for the system is also available.

City of Portland's Bureau of Technology Services's Data Catalog - A wide range of street and lot information (curbs, street vegetation, tax-lots, etc) as well as zoning and bike facilities and more.

PSU's Geography Dept GIS portal has a great number of links to more data sources.