Online Data
For any GIS project (including the final lab in Cartography), finding data can be the biggest challenge of all. Given that the focus of this course is Cartography the map is more important than the data. Thus finding data isn't something you want to spend a lot of time on, but if you can locate data of interest to you, relatively quickly, all the better. Here are some possibilities and ideas that might help.
DATA ON THE J DRIVE
In addition to the data we have been using all quarter (i.e., the GIS_data folders) there are various data folders on Huxley's J:\GEO\GEO_data\ server.
DATA FROM ESRI'S DATA PORTAL(S)
If you still can't find what you need, you can try searching the online Portal through ArcGIS Pro. In the simplest sense, you can just use the Add Data button, choose the All Portal or Living Atlas options (for the folder under Portal) and use the search box. In many cases a more general search (Europe rather than France, or Hydrology rather than rivers or lakes) may yield better results.
In addition to issues of availability (and the ability to find what you might need, even if it is available), streaming data from online can have numerous issues. Draw / refresh time can be slow, you may or may not be able to change the symbology, etc. Some online datasets can be download, providing you with a local copy of the data that overcomes many of these issues, but most cannot.
Note that a some of the Hillshade layers that can be displayed without any labels or feature overlays (i.e., just the hillshade, not a full basemap). These can be used for either web or static maps.
Using ArcGIS Online: Add / Search For Layers / <search for "World Hillshade" & add the 'World Hillshade' by Esri>
Using ArcGIS Pro: Add Data / All Portal / <search for "World Hillshade" & add the 'World Hillshade' Tile Layer>.
3RD PARTY DATA FROM ONLINE
Another option is to locate and download GIS data layers from some other source. Many governments (large and small) supply spatial data, usually in an ESRI-compatible format. The simplest datasets are just X-Y tables (of earthquakes, car accidents, potholes, etc.) that can be displayed as an X-Y data layer and converted to a geodatabase feature class. Line and polygon data often come in shapefiles, CAD files or .gpx (GPS Exchange) file formats, all of which can be used in ArcGIS Pro. Again, finding the data source (via Google and the like) can be a challenge. See the class spreadsheet listing sources of data that previous students have used for ideas (and maybe even actual sources).
GeoSEER
GeoSeer is a Search Engine for Spatial Data, allowing you to search for downloadable spatial data sets by location, topic or data type.
Open Street Maps DATA
Open Street Maps (OSM) is an open-source alternative to Google Maps, Bing Maps or Apple Maps. As a crowd-sourced product it often has more detailed data than some of the big commercial mapping vendors - especially for 'non-commercial' features such as hiking trails, bike routes, etc. If you are looking for base data (roads, hydrology, cities, etc.) for an area you might check out OSM and see if their data would be useful.
Because it is open source, OSM data can be downloaded in a GIS format. Here's one way of doing that:
Go to Open Street Map Data Extracts page: http://download.geofabrik.de/
Click on the Region / Sub-Region you want data for
If you want data for the entire region, you can download the .shp.zip file for that region)
In many cases you can get even more detailed data (and/or a smaller file) by clicking on the Sub-Region to display further sub-regions. Again, choosing the .shp.zip folder for the geographic area of interest
You probably don't want the .pbf or .osc files...
.shp.zip files can be opened and Extracted to a data folder
Unzipped .shp files (and their related files) can be added to ArcGIS Pro (note that you cannot add data that is still in a .zip file to Pro - it must be Extracted to a folder first first)
If desired, you can export the data from a shapefile to your project geodatabase... (or you can just use the shapefiles)
Here are some of the basic data layers available from OSM (depending upon the scale and location):
buildings Polygon Building outlines
landuse Polygon Forest, residential, industrial...
natural Point Natural Features
places_a Polygon Cities, towns, suburbs
places Point Cities, towns, suburbs
pofw_a Polygon Places of Worship
pofw Point Places of Worship
pois_a Polygon Points of Interest
pois Point Points of Interest - government, hospitals, stores, tourist
railways Line Railway, light rail, subway
roads Line Roads and paths
traffic_a Polygon Traffic related polygons
traffic Point Traffic related points
transport Point Transport related points (parking lots, gas stations...)
water Polygon Lakes
waterways Line Rivers, canals, streams...
See OpenStreetMap Data in Layered GIS Format for more information.
MISC WASHINGTON STATE
Washington State GIS Data (WAGDA)
Washington Geospatial Open Data (Geo.Wa.Gov)
Washington Dept. of Natural Resources (DNR)
Washington Dept. of Ecology (DOE)
Washington Dept. of Transportation (WaDOT)
Washington Dept. of Financial Management
Washington Dept. of Social and Health Services (DSHS)
Washington / Oregon Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
MISC
Wikipedia List of GIS Data Sources
10 Free GIS Data Sources: Best Global Raster and Vector Datasets (2019)
GIS-Geography Datasets
GIS Lounge Data
The Nature Conservancy (https://geospatial.tnc.org/pages/data)
Site Wind Right (wind sighting priorities)
Crisis Ecosystems
Resilient Connected Networks (USA)
Managed Areas
Coral Reefs
Important Areas to Reduce Mammal Extinction
Global Human Modification
Low Human Modification Within Crisis Ecosystems
Great Lakes Protected, Restored and Enhanced Coastal Wetlands
NGA Coastline MPA Calculations
World Wildlife Fund (https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/conservation-science-data-and-tools)
Marine Ecoregions
Freshwater Ecoregions
Terrestrial Ecoregions
HydroSheds
Global Lakes and Wetlands
Conservation Landscape Data
World Grasslands
DATA OTHER STUDENTS HAVE USED
(This is a simple spreadsheet of data sources with minimal metadata as to theme, URL, geographic location, etc. It's not exactly comprehensive, and some of the links are probably out of date by now, but it might provide you with data sources or ideas of where to look: