Pima County Department of Transportation

Geographic Information Services Division

Geographic Data Library

FTP Server GIS Data Download

Before downloading any files, read the Disclaimer and our Product Support Policies. Then review Using the ftpgis.pima.gov FTP Server which provides an overview of all the areas on the FTP server and the mechanics of using FTP.

GIS Data Layers in ESRI Shapefile Format

This data is stored in a password-protected area on our FTP server. See Ordering a Username and Password.

• 277 of our GIS library data layers are available for download in ESRI Shapefile format. See the complete list of layers available on the FTP server. Click the "DOC" buttons on that page for more information about the layers or the "DOWNLOAD" buttons to download using your web browser. You may also want to search GIS Data Library Layers for information about all our data layers, including whether or not the layers are on the FTP server.

  Orthophotos and other aerial imagery files are not available for download from our FTP server. See Orthophotos and Aerial Imagery below.

  In the interest of conserving your Internet bandwidth and ours, please download only what you need. If you want most of the layers you are better off getting our Pima County GIS Layers (PCLAYERS) DVD product, and then getting updates to critical layers via FTP download. However, the township-based topographic contours layers (layer names beginning with cn_) are not on the PCLAYERS DVD due to their large size.

  The files are refreshed daily on the FTP server. This means you will get our latest version of data. It doesn't necessarily mean the data is up-to-date. Unfortunately, there is no way for you to know when the contents of a data layer has been updated. The layer metadata includes a "Date of last update" field which may help but also may not be up-to-date as the date is maintained manually, separate from data layer updates.

  ESRI Shapefile Technical Description is an Adobe Acrobat PDF format document describing ESRI Shapefiles. Shapefile format usually includes files with .shp, .shx, and .dbf for each data layer. For instance, the three individual files subdiv.shp, subdiv.shx and subdiv.dbf collectively make up the Shapefile format for the Subdivision layer. Other file extensions such as .avl may be included with some layers.

  Each layer is a single compressed .zip file on our FTP server, containing the individual files that make up the Shapefile format. For instance, subdiv.zip is the single file for the Subdivision layer. After downloading one or more .zip files you need to "unzip" them to uncompress the data and create the individual Shapefile format files you need. Popular programs for managing .zip files include PKZIP from PKWARE, Inc. and WinZip.

  If you want to see a sample of the data and its Shapefile format, here is a sample ZIP file of the county boundary: pima_all.zip -- You can use this ZIP file to check for compatibility with your data and software.

• You may find that using the "DOWNLOAD" buttons in the list of layers available or layer metadata detail is all you need. Otherwise, Using the ftpgis.pima.gov FTP Server explains some of what you need to know to get started downloading. If you want to download a number of layers, using an FTP program may be the best choice.

• At the present time, all the available Shapefile layers are in the /gislib/az/counties/pima/shapes/ directory on the FTP server. Beyond /gislib, this structure mimics the storage structure of our internal GIS library.

Orthophotos and Aerial Imagery

• Orthophotos and other aerial imagery files are not available for download from our FTP server. See Getting Orthophotos and Aerial Imagery for more.

Other Miscellaneous Data

• We also have a limited amount of other data available as described in 00readme.txt files on the FTP server.

We want to hear what you think about this service! Send FTP server comments, suggestions, and problems to