My interest in municipal service mapping in Miami started when I wanted to explain my frustration over the complex road maintenance and ownership in Miami-Dade. I was lucky to find a lot of great resources and people willing to help. I have tried to collect some of the most useful in one place so other people can save time.

Miami-Dade County has a great wealth of publicly available data—from parcel-level tax rolls to bus stops, zoning maps, and even elevation models—and with the right tools, anyone can turn this data into meaningful, interactive maps. Whether you want to analyze walk times to Metrorail stations, trace property boundaries, or explore building footprints and street-level views, free platforms like QGIS, OpenStreetMap, and Leaflet make it possible. This post is a hands-on guide for getting started: free software, plugins, and the most valuable local datasets to download first—tailored for anyone mapping Miami-Dade with curiosity, purpose, or a project in mind.

Software

• OpenStreetMap (OSM)
  OpenStreetMap is a map of the world, created by people like you and free to use under an open license.
• QGIS:
  QGIS is a geographic information system (GIS) software that is free and open-source. QGIS supports viewing, editing, printing, and analysis of geospatial data in a range of data formats. Its name comes from an abbreviation of its previous name, Quantum GIS.
  • Recommended Plugins
    • Quick Map Services – for basemaps
    • Street View – lets you view streets easily on Google Street View
    • mmqgis – a whole set of useful operations including geocoding
  • Very comprehensive manual: https://docs.qgis.org/testing/en/docs/user_manual/
• Leaflet for publishing to web
  Leaflet is the leading open-source JavaScript library for mobile-friendly interactive maps. Weighing just about 42 KB of JS, it has all the mapping features most developers ever need.

Datasets

• USDOT
  • https://geo.dot.gov/server/rest/services/Hosted/HPMS_FULL_FL_2022/FeatureServer
• Florida Geospatial Open Data
  • https://geodata.floridagio.gov/
• Florida Department of Revenue
  • Recommend Downloading the large PAR file. Has all parcel-level data from Property Appraiser in a Shapefile. https://floridarevenue.com/property/dataportal/Pages/default.aspx?path=/property/dataportal/Documents/PTO%20Data%20Portal/Map%20Data
  • Also available: Condos as a point layer. https://floridarevenue.com/property/dataportal/Pages/default.aspx?path=/property/dataportal/Documents/PTO%20Data%20Portal/Tax%20Roll%20Data%20Files
• FDOT
  • https://gis-fdot.opendata.arcgis.com/search?collection=Dataset
• Miami-Dade County Open Data Site: https://gis-mdc.opendata.arcgis.com/
  • Transportation files Include Metrorail, Metromover, Bus Routes, Bus Stops, Roads, and more.
  • Boundaries includes cities, districts, etc.
  • 2021 Digital Elevation Model DEM 5ft (large raster file) is worth downloading
• Miami-Dade APIs
  https://services.arcgis.com/8Pc9XBTAsYuxx9Ny/ArcGIS/rest/services
• City of Miami Open Data https://datahub-miamigis.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/0d25c6650abb48b49665492b2717577f/explore?location=25.779789%2C-80.209916%2C13.80
• Federal GIS Servers
  • https://mappingsupport.com/p/surf_gis/list-federal-state-county-city-GIS-servers.pdf
  • https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/?q=&sort=views_recent+desc&ext_location=Miami-Dade+County%2C+Florida&ext_bbox=-80.8762%2C25.1523%2C-80.1278%2C25.9847&ext_prev_extent=&res_format=API
• OpenStreetMap
  • OSM Category Viewer: https://mapscaping.com/openstreetmap-category-viewer/
  • Overpass Turbo: https://overpass-turbo.eu/
    a web-based data filtering tool for OpenStreetMap where you can run Overpass API queries and analyse the resulting OSM data interactively on a map or export. There is an integrated Wizard which makes creating queries super easy.

Getting started

1. Download & Install QGIS and dependencies
2. Install Plugins
   1. QuickMapServices Plugin or OpenLayers Plugin
      1. Show OSM or Google Satellite to get your bearings
   2. Street View Plugin
   3. etc.
3. Install and style useful Shapefile Layers
   1. Essential
      1. Florida DOR PAR Files from^^^^
      2. Street layer from Miami-Dade Opendata
   2. Interesting
      1. Building Footprints
      2. Edge of Pavement
      3. Municipal and District Boundaries
      4. Zoning layers
      5. Walk time to SMART stations, etc.
4. Export Maps using the Print Composer
   1. Export as PDF
   2. Export maps as Leaflet using qgis2leaf or other qgis2web