Week 7 — Finding Spatial Data and Web Services¶

Also this week

Presentation Slides¶

Tuesday — Finding Spatial Data — Where spatial data comes from, and who makes it; National sources: data.gov, The National Map, EarthExplorer, and other federal portals; Searching for data you can actually use; Utah's data: the Utah Geospatial Resource Center (UGRC) and the SGID; Downloading a file versus connecting to a web service
Thursday — Web Services: Getting Data without Downloading It — What a web service is, and when to use one instead of a download; The OGC standards: WMS and WMTS send a picture; WFS and WCS send the data; Outside the standards: XYZ tiles, vector tiles, and ArcGIS REST; Reading a service URL and a REST services directory; Follow along: connect QGIS to UGRC's services, which is Lab 6, Step 3; A short pitch for the Community and Professional Map Experience

Press F for fullscreen and P for presenter view with speaker notes.

Tuesday — Data Source Scavenger Hunt (not graded).
Thursday — Follow along in QGIS: build a quick map from three or more UGRC layers, through the ArcGIS REST connection or the Open SGID database connection (Lab 6, Step 3, backup method) if a layer will not add, and upload the layout. Bring your laptop. Record your completion on Learning Suite.

Self-check quizzes — not graded; open them on a phone or laptop as often as you like:

Who Already Has This Data? — Tuesday: who makes public spatial data, the national sources worth knowing, and finding Utah's data at the UGRC.
A Picture, or the Features? — Thursday: whether a web service sends you a picture or the features themselves, what QGIS asks a server, and getting Utah's data into QGIS without a download.

Due Saturday at 11:59 pm on Learning Suite.

No reading quiz this week.

Note

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Version 2026.10.9 · Last updated October 15, 2026