Looking for US state geospatial shape data

  • We have a request to calculate distances across states for a given line between 2 points.

    Example a line from Minneapolis to Los Angeles, I need to know the total length and what percentage of that length is within each state it crosses.

    I know how to do it but I need the state outlines.

    I'm wondering if anyone knows of a good source to get geography instances of state shapes?

     

  • Try googling "State Geographies Downloads".

    Also, keep in mind that airlines and ships follow a great circle route between ports.   Over long distances, pythagorean theorem (straight-line geometry) calculations won't work for you.    Look into the STDistance()  function of SQL, paying attention to the geography parameter it requires.   You may need it in addition to the state geographies to answer your question.

    Good luck.

     

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  • OK yeah I did some searching yesterday and found thousands of different GIS downloads, it was overwhelming but I'll try more narrow searches such as the one you stated.

    And yeah this will require great circle Geography type and not Geometry type.

    Other stuff we've done was over a much smaller area like a few square miles so geometry was sufficient.

    Thanks for the input! Fortunately this isn't a critical project and one we can work on as time permits. This was kind of fun project the director threw out to see what we could come up with.

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