Urban Base Layers Curation Strategy

Purpose

The Urban Base Layers project is a curated collection of foundational geospatial datasets from major cities across the Big Ten region. These datasets support research across many disciplines, including housing studies, land use, urban planning, environmental change, and civic infrastructure. The project’s goal is to make these resources easy to find, well documented, and accessible for both current and future researchers.

The Layers

We collect six core datasets from each participating city:

1. Address points
2. Building footprints
3. City boundaries
4. Parks
5. Streets
6. Zoning districts

Data Snapshots

• Years: We will collect the most recent snapshot of major metro areas across the Big Ten region.
• Data sources: Original files obtained directly from city GIS contacts.
• Metadata: Created by BTAA GIN staff with input from data providers.
• Attribution: Cities retain credit as the creators and publishers of the data.
• Publication: Datasets will be indexed in the BTAA Geoportal with clear source and date labels.

Anticipated Outcomes

• A collection of foundational layers that support current and future research
• A complement to the legacy of historical fire insurance maps, which are the most accessed type of resource in our geoportal by a wide margin
• A reusable framework for collecting both retrospective and future snapshots
• A partial remediation of the temporal gaps in available geodata from the early 21st century

How BTAA-GIN Handles the Data

• Datasets retrieved from open data portals are processed by BTAA-GIN staff and published in the BTAA Geoportal (geo.btaa.org) with full source attribution and publication date labeling. BTAA-GIN creates and maintains the metadata; the originating city or agency retains credit as the data provider.

• Published records are publicly accessible and citable. When researchers need historical versions of urban datasets, the BTAA Geoportal provides a documented point of access — extending the useful life of data that cities have already made available.

• BTAA-GIN does not claim preservation authority over these datasets. We make them discoverable and well-described within an academic library context.*

Context

The Urban Base Layers project is the first collection in our Geodata Collection initiative.