About Downloading Data
It's easy to start viewing and analyzing data in GIS. Data that include Landsat imagery, LiDAR-based elevation rasters and corresponding drainage layers, and more can be downloaded and opened in FREE Quantum GIS.
The data can be viewed in different GIS software (such as ArcGIS) but are designed for QGIS. You can access the QGIS page on this website here.
Once Quantum GIS is installed, you are ready to download and access the custom GIS data. Data downloads are saved as Quantum map projects; to open the projects in Quantum click File > Open Project and open the map represented the following Quantum icon:
You can change symbology and analyze data in Quantum many ways; it is very useful GIS software. A good way to apply LiDAR-based elevation rasters is to make them transparent and above a true-color image in the layers window; if you have the elevation layer highlighted and click on the image with the information tool, elevation values of the location on the image will appear.
Another important things to realize, is that once you have Quantum installed there is a lot of GIS data from many different sources you can download for free, open, and analyze.