Funding
The CSA Core will work with you to accommodate your work. Contact the CSA Core for assistance in identifying the requirements for your project and developing budget estimates.
For awarded projects, principal investigators are expected to support the time and effort of CSA staff assigned to your project using project funding. CSA Core staff may be contracted on a short-term, as-needed basis to assist with research tasks or on a long-term, multi-year basis to staff your research team.
Several options are available to support pre-award studies. The Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) offers financial support for researchers working in the social sciences. Two levels of SSRI funding are available. Either could be used to cover the costs of the CSA Core services.
Researchers associated with the Population Research Institute (PRI) may seek a PRI seed grant award.
The CSA Core also provides pilot hours to support the development of proposals involving the application of spatial analysis and statistics. The GIA pilot hours provide up to 10 hours of spatial analysis and statistical support.
Spatial Data
Geolytics Census CD products
User-friendly software packaged with the Decennial Census data along with the boundary data files associated with census geographies to create an all-in-one census data extraction and mapping package. Decennial Census data are available in this format from 1970 to 2010, with additional packages of normalized data between years for temporal analysis. Data can be extracted in several file formats as well as in a summary reports. Multiple layers of data may be mapped quickly within the program itself or exported into ArcView shapefile or MapInfo format.
ESRI Data CDs
Several CDs of boundary and attribute data for both domestic and international studies. These data are included with ESRI software.
ESRI StreetMap Pro
Streets and boundary data. Provides road locations, names, and address ranges for the entire United States.
TIGER Census Boundary Files
Governmental and statistical boundaries for states, counties, census tracts, block groups, places, and other entities in the United States, Puerto Rico, and island areas. TIGER was developed at the Census Bureau to support the mapping and related geographic activities required by the decennial and economic censuses and sample survey programs.
Mapping the USA
Agricultural, environmental, and other physical data in GIS format
EPA's air monitoring files
These are raw files which contain data from multiple official and non-official monitoring stations across the country. The main reported pollutants are:
- Particulate Matter 2.5 and 10
- Ozone
- Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2)
- Carbon Monoxide (CO)
- Sulfur Dioxide (SO2)
EPA's Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) data
It provides data for toxic chemical releases reported by industrial and federal facilities. Contains exact facility locations and amount of release for each particular chemical (including zinc, arsenic and others).
EPA's National Air Toxic assessment
It provides cancer assessment rates for the entire US at the census tract level.
PA DEP Oil and Gas Reports
It contains fracking data for the entire PA including exact well locations.
County Health Rankings
It contains a lot of health related data at the county level.
Pennsylvania Spatial Data Access (PASDA)
Pennsylvania’s official public access open geospatial data portal.
USDA's Food Access Research Atlas
It provides food desert indicators for each census tract in the US.
National Land Cover Database (NLCD)
It provides nationwide data on land cover and land cover change at a 30m resolution with a 16-class legend.
Useful Links
Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI)
International supplier of GIS software, WebGIS, and geodatabase management applications
Center for Spatially Integrated Social Science (CSISS)
Supports and cultivates an integrated approach to social science research that recognizes the importance of location, space, spatiality, and place
Census Bureau Geography
Maps, data, boundary files, and useful census documentation
Social Explorer
Easy and convenient access to census, ACS, and ARDA data; professional edition license is provided by the PSU Library
National Historical GIS
Provides, free of charge, aggregate census data and GIS-compatible boundary files for the United States between 1790 and 2013
Online Geospatial Education at Penn State
Offers six online programs of study in GIS and geospatial intelligence
GIScience
Contains links to PSU GIS research centers such as the GeoVista Center, Human Factors in GIScience Lab, Peter R. Gould Center, and GeoInformatics and Earth Observation Laboratory
Pennsylvania Spatial Data Access (PASDA)
Official public access geospatial information clearinghouse for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Penn State Maps Library
Contains wide collection of hardcopy maps and digital GIS data
GIS FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
GIS stands for Geographic Information Systems. The main software package is called ArcGIS and is supplied by the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI). A good place to start learning more about the potential applications of GIS in demography and the social sciences is ESRI’s home page. In addition, you can find a staggering amount of information about GIS on the Internet, including software training and tutorials, data products, statistical techniques, and myriad areas of application (crime, health, planning, etc.).
Geospatial data store the geometric location of a particular feature or object (represented as either a point, a line, or an area), along with attribute information describing what those features represent. Geospatial data may come from a variety of sources—individual, household, or institutional surveys; population censuses, land use surveys, human infrastructure databases (streets, buildings, business listings, tax records, etc.), satellite imagery, aerial photographs, and paper maps. It is commonly reported that over 80% of all data are geospatial—that is, these data can be linked to features or objects such as a street address, a census tract, a ZIP code, a school district, a police precinct, a health service area, a county, a state, and/or a country.
Formats readable by spreadsheet or statistical software (and, of course, ArcGIS shapefiles) are the most directly useful; however, it may be possible to use other types of files. With ArcGIS, the preferred tabular data format is .dbf. If you have data for specified geographic areas (e.g., counties or census tracts) in Excel, ASCII, or other formats, such as SAS, the data can be easily converted to .dbf format, and can usually be integrated with other geospatial information quite easily.
Census data and boundary files for various geographic levels are the most commonly used data. However, many other datasets are available. Please see the Spatial Data page, which contains a more detailed listing of available resources. Additional datasets are also available from SodaPop, although not all of their datasets have a geographic component. The Geographic Levels and PRI Data Archive page lists available datasets by geographical levels.
PRI currently has files at a variety of geographic levels : nation, region, division, state, county, tract, block group, place, ZIP code, MSA/CMSA, PMSA, urban area, congressional district, American Indian, ANRC, MCD, and block.
The best source is the DIVA-GIS website. Please contact the GIA team for further assistance.
You can combine datasets when they contain (a) different areas with records at the same geographic level (e.g., appending records for Alaska and Hawaii to records for the 48 contiguous states to produce a complete dataset of all 50 U.S. states) or (b) additional data for existing records at the same geographic level (e.g., adding environmental data such as average temperature for a county to the census data for a county).
Yes, we can scan maps and images and then convert them into a format that ArcGIS can use. This process may take time, depending on the complexity of the original map and the clarity of the image.
You should store data in your personal webspace or space allocated for a project. Or you can store your data on removable media such as a flash drive. Geospatial datasets can be large, so please adopt sound data management practices. Also, it is advisable to back up all project data on a regular basis.
ESRI has made a number of changes in the new version of ArcGIS Desktop. These changes include new spatial statistics tools, improvements in annotation and labeling, improved raster support, and new geoprocessing tools. A more detailed list of new features in ArcGIS 10.3 is available from ESRI.
You can think of a project file as a database management tool. GIS users often must work on the same files for long periods of time, and the .mxd file is the management file that remembers which files you use, where they are located, the projection the file is stored in, the colors you have set, etc.
Once you open your project file, editing is simple. The last saved version of your files will appear on your computer screen, and you can manipulate the existing settings to update the file. (Always remember to save it!) Project files must be edited in order for changes to be reflected in your work. You’ll often work on GIS projects over long periods of time, and as you work, new data, shapefiles, etc. can be added to keep your project current.
Shapefiles are computer files that produce images for users in a GIS environment. There are three basic types of shapefiles:
- Polygons (area-based features such as census tracts and block groups)
- Points (address locations)
- Lines (roads, rivers, etc.)
Several affiliated files must be together for a GIS system to use and present the data. Some common file types are .shp, .shx, .sbn, and .dbf. When you are downloading shapefiles from data sources, there may be other affiliated files; make sure you have all files with the same name in the same directory when using them.
Address matching in ArcGIS is simple once you have worked with this type of data a few times. To address-match, you need a .dbf file of address information that includes the street address and preferably the ZIP code of your locations of interest. It is possible to address-match with just a street address, but in large urban areas a common street name (e.g., Main Street or 17th) may appear across several ZIP codes, making the address-matching process a more difficult and time-consuming task. As with so many tasks, address-matching accuracy is only as good as the skills of the person doing the work.
If you have data with spatial locators (e.g., census FIPS codes, ZIP codes, street addresses), you can link your data to shapefiles within a GIS environment. You also can join tables in a GIS project.
ESRI makes additional ArcGIS functionality available through the use of extensions. Extensions allow you to add specific features to the software as necessary and then unload this functionality when you no longer need it. The full list of available extensions, with descriptions of each, is available here.
ArcMap is the application in ArcGIS that you use to create, visualize, and manipulate maps. ArcCatalog is the application in ArcGIS for browsing and organizing data files. ArcToolbox is the application in ArcGIS that contains data management and conversion tools and wizards (e.g., projection tools).
The Spatial Analyst extension can help you find slopes and directions, least-cost paths, and best locations for a new facility based on multiple criteria. This is useful for analyzing raster data as well as feature data.
The Geostatistical Analyst extension can help you with the production of statistical surfaces for exploratory spatial data analysis, structural analysis (calculating properties of neighboring areas), and surface prediction and results analysis.
ESRI has a number of scripts and other downloads available. Scripts work with the existing software to extend functionality or to automate common tasks. The scripts on ESRI’s site come from ESRI itself and from other ArcGIS users; you can even upload your own scripts for other people to use.
An .E00 file is an ArcInfo interchange file that contains spatial feature information and attribute data in a fixed-length ASCII format. You use these files for the system-independent exchange of GIS coverages and associated data. To work with data in this format in ArcGIS, you must first convert it using ArcToolbox : In the ArcToolbox window, click the plus signs next to Coverage Tools, Conversion, and To Coverage, respectively. Next, double-click “Import from E00”. Under “Input Interchange File,” navigate to the file want to convert. Specify the output dataset and click OK. The resulting output file(s) will be compatible with ArcGIS. News Honor a Colleague Letter for Suet-ling Pong Steffensmeier named Liberal Arts Research Professor Postdoctoral Training position in Family Demography and Individual Development: NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS Spatial demography publication explores new practices Life as an immigrant inspires College of Education faculty member's book Really Big Data Penn State symposium aims to reconstruct African-American narratives Van Hook Wins Raymond Lombra Award De Jong receives the College of the Liberal Arts' Emeritus Distinction Award Penn State to host national symposium on African-American family issues