Using GIS data
To make full use of the data available on this website, you will need to know a few things, such as what types of files you're downloading, how to uncompress the files, and how to interpret the data attached to the geographic features. This page was designed to give you as much of this information as possible. If you don't have any GIS software on your computer, please read the page titled How to do GIS at home before continuing here.
Digital data formats
Currently, all data available for download are available in Shapefiles. Translation of data to other digital or hardcopy format is the sole responsibility of the downloader of the data.
For faster downloads, the shapefiles are compressed in the Winzip ZIP format (.zip files). In order to decompress these files on a computer running Windows, you will need a decompression software called WINZIP or FREEZIP.
If you do not have WINZIP or FREEZIP, or if you have it but don't know how to use it, please follow the link below for instructions on how to download, install, and use this free decompression package for Windows.
Tell me about WINZIP and FREEZIP
Take me to the data dictionary
Comments or questions?
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