I'm trying to find KML or polygon data for every city and then combine population data with it to create a heatmap in Google Fusion Tables. I'm not sure where to get the polygon data for the cities though?
I'm using this to compare population sizes against distance to map out territories that are worth while to campaign in while having reasonable driving distances.
Any suggestions are welcome. Thanks!
Natural Earth has a large data set that might be useful.
From their Features page, under Cultural:
Urban polygons – derived from 2002-2003 MODIS satellite data.
They're available at 10 m & 50 m resolutions.
http://www.naturalearthdata.com/downloads/ (Note: The urban polygons are in the Cultural data set!)
It depends on the city, but most large ones (i.e. Seattle, San Fran, LA, New York, Chicago, etc.) have county or state GIS data warehouses that can be accessed for free for public data such as transportation networks, zipcode or census tract (block group) polygons.
It'll take a bit of sifting, but google search engine with keywords: "city name" + words like kml, shapefile, zipcodes, GIS data should give you a place to start.
One example would be to type in "LA GIS data" into Google search.
If you're struggling and want specific links, let me know which cities you're interested in.
