Every link in one place
Data
Every challenge's datasets, then public sources for the open tracks. Always say where your data came from.
Challenge data
Help Manvel residents find answers in the city's published information Track 3
All public, on the city's and county's own websites.
| Source | What's in it | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Permits | When you need a permit, checklists for common projects, and links to forms and codes | City of Manvel: Permits (opens in a new tab) |
| Permit forms | Every permit form, such as fence, pool, roofing, demolition and fill dirt | City of Manvel: Available Permit Applications (opens in a new tab) |
| Fee schedule | Fees for zoning, plats and building permits, adopted September 2026. It's a scanned PDF (10 MB, 17 pages), and the text you copy out of it has errors. Check numbers against the page | City of Manvel: Fee Schedule (PDF) (opens in a new tab) |
| Planning | Plats (maps that divide land into lots), splitting land, pre-development meetings and plat deadlines | City of Manvel: Planning (opens in a new tab) |
| Building codes | Which building codes the city uses | City of Manvel: Building and Inspections (opens in a new tab) |
| Code of Ordinances | The city's laws, including zoning and building rules. The online copy is current through May 2025. The site needs JavaScript, so simple scraping tools may get a blank page. Copy the sections you need by hand | Manvel Code of Ordinances on Municode (opens in a new tab) |
| Permit status | The city's permit portal, where people check a permit's status | City of Manvel permit portal (MyGov) (opens in a new tab) |
| City map | City limits, ETJ (the area just outside city limits where some city rules apply), zoning, parcels, subdivisions and flood zones (FEMA map from December 2020). Parcel records show owners' names. Don't copy names into your project | City of Manvel GIS map (opens in a new tab) |
| Development map | Plat approvals, new commercial building and city projects | City of Manvel Development Map (opens in a new tab) |
| City plans | Comprehensive plan, future land use map and thoroughfare plan | City of Manvel: Adopted Development Plans (opens in a new tab) |
| Development Guide | The city's guide for planning a project. It opens on a sign-in page that also offers a guest option | City of Manvel Development Guide (opens in a new tab) |
| County development rules | Brazoria County's subdivision rules and plat checklists, for land outside city limits | Brazoria County: Development (opens in a new tab) |
| County building and flood permits | Brazoria County building and floodplain permits, for land outside city limits | Brazoria County: Building Permits (opens in a new tab) |
| County septic permits | Forms for septic systems (the county calls them OSSF) | Brazoria County: Environmental Health forms (opens in a new tab) |
Which care facilities to approach first Track 9
| Dataset | What's in it | Official source |
|---|---|---|
| Hospital service areas, 2025 | Medicare cases by hospital and patient home ZIP. Public, US government (CMS, the federal agency that runs Medicare) | CMS Hospital Service Area File (opens in a new tab) |
| Hospital general information | Hospitals: type, ownership, star rating. Public (CMS) | CMS Provider Data xubh-q36u (opens in a new tab) |
| Hospital readmissions | Readmissions on 6 conditions. Public (CMS) | CMS Provider Data 9n3s-kdb3 (opens in a new tab) |
| Rehab hospital quality | One row per facility per measure. Public (CMS) | CMS Provider Data v9e4-nwhh (opens in a new tab) |
| Skilled nursing quality | One row per facility per measure. Public (CMS) | CMS Provider Data fykj-qjee (opens in a new tab) |
| Nursing home details | Beds, residents per day, ownership type, chain. Public (CMS) | CMS Provider Data 4pq5-n9py (opens in a new tab) |
| Home health agencies | Services and star rating. Public (CMS) | CMS Provider Data 6jpm-sxkc (opens in a new tab) |
| Home health ZIP codes | Which agency serves which ZIP. Public (CMS) | CMS Provider Data m5eg-upu5 (opens in a new tab) |
| Medicare by county | County Medicare use, 2014 to 2024. Public (CMS) | CMS Medicare Geographic Variation (opens in a new tab) |
| Older adults and housing, by census tract | People 65+ living alone (table B09020) and the median year homes were built (table B25035). Public (US Census Bureau) | Census table B09020 (opens in a new tab), Census table B25035 (opens in a new tab) |
| Disability estimates, by tract | Estimated % of adults with mobility and other disabilities. Public domain (CDC) | CDC PLACES (opens in a new tab) |
Find food help near you Track 5
| Dataset | What's in it | Official source |
|---|---|---|
| School meal program sites | Texas school nutrition program sites, program year 2025 to 2026. Public (Texas Department of Agriculture). Includes staff contact names. It's public data, but we suggest leaving names out of your tool | Texas Open Data Portal 3qgy-p3sr (opens in a new tab) |
| Child and adult care meal sites | Centers in the Child and Adult Care Food Program. Public (Texas Department of Agriculture). Includes staff contact names. It's public data, but we suggest leaving names out of your tool | Texas Open Data Portal py3b-tqc9 (opens in a new tab) |
| Stores that take SNAP | Stores that accept SNAP (food stamps). Public (USDA) | USDA SNAP Retailer Locator (opens in a new tab) |
| Food access by area | How far census tracts (small areas of a few thousand people) are from food stores. Public (USDA) | USDA Food Access Research Atlas (opens in a new tab) |
| Households without a car | Vehicles available per household (table B08201). Public (US Census Bureau) | Census table B08201 (opens in a new tab) |
| Bus routes and stops | METRO's GTFS feed (a standard set of files with routes, stops and times). Public, no account needed. METRO's terms require you to credit METRO | Download METRO schedule data (zip, 13 MB) |
| WIC offices | Texas WIC (food help for pregnant women, new moms and young children) office finder. Look up offices near an address. It's a lookup, not a download. Public (Texas WIC) | Texas WIC office finder (opens in a new tab) |
Where will food be needed next? Track 5
| Dataset | What's in it | Official source |
|---|---|---|
| Texas SNAP cases by county, monthly | SNAP cases and eligible people by county. One Excel file per month, January 2022 to August 2025, then an interactive dashboard. Public (Texas Health and Human Services) | Texas HHSC SNAP statistics (opens in a new tab) |
| Weekly unemployment claims by county | New unemployment claims each week for every Texas county, January 2019 to about two weeks ago. One Excel file. Public (Texas Workforce Commission) | Texas LMI downloads (choose "UI Claims") (opens in a new tab) |
| FEMA disaster declarations | One row per county per declared disaster, back to 1953 (counties from 1964). API and CSV. Public (FEMA) | OpenFEMA dataset page (opens in a new tab) |
| County unemployment, monthly | Labor force and unemployment by county, latest 14 months (ZIP). Older months through the BLS database tools or the free BLS API. October 2025 is missing. Public (US Bureau of Labor Statistics) | BLS Local Area Unemployment tables (opens in a new tab) |
| SNAP households by census tract | Share of households getting SNAP, by tract, 5-year estimates (table S2201). Public (US Census Bureau) | Census table S2201 (opens in a new tab) |
| Food access by census tract | Distance to large food stores, by 2010 census tract. Formerly the Food Access Research Atlas, now the 2019 Large Retailer Access Map. Public (USDA Economic Research Service) | USDA ERS download page (opens in a new tab) |
| County food insecurity estimates | Food insecurity by county for 2024, from Feeding America's Map the Meal Gap 2026 map. The full dataset needs a request form. Check Feeding America's terms before you reuse it | Map the Meal Gap by county (opens in a new tab) |
| County and tract boundaries | TIGER/Line shapefiles, for joining the data to a map. Public (US Census Bureau) | Census TIGER/Line files (opens in a new tab) |
| Texas road network | OpenStreetMap roads for routing. ODbL license: credit "© OpenStreetMap contributors" | Geofabrik Texas extract (opens in a new tab) |
| Routing engine | OSRM, a free, open-source route planner that runs on OpenStreetMap data. Free demo server: no more than one request per second | OSRM (opens in a new tab) |
Learn from offshore incident reports Track 9
| Dataset | What's in it | Official source |
|---|---|---|
| Incident reports | About 1,200 incidents, with causes and recommendations, in CSV files. Download one zip: the full one, or the text-light one without the incident descriptions. Open README_FIRST.md first. Real report text (US government, public domain) plus made-up fields that are marked. Code and added fields: MIT license | Open the download page on GitHub (opens in a new tab) |
| Rows for checking | gold/ folder: 360 rows set aside for checking, plus two smaller files. The label columns are blank. Label some as a team, then test your tool against them | gold folder on GitHub (opens in a new tab) |
Public data for open tracks
No ready-made challenge? Pick any public data, say where it came from, and show who it helps. These are official sources to start from.
Tracks 1, 2 and 4 (Growth, Drainage, Development)
- City of Manvel GIS map (opens in a new tab): city limits, ETJ, zoning, parcels, subdivisions, flood zones and drainage districts. Parcel records show owners' names, so leave names out of your project
- City of Manvel Development Map (opens in a new tab): plat approvals, new commercial building and city projects
- City of Manvel adopted plans (opens in a new tab): comprehensive plan, land use and thoroughfare plans, and master plans
- Census Building Permits Survey (opens in a new tab): new housing permits by city and county
- FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer (opens in a new tab): flood zone maps
- data.census.gov (opens in a new tab): population, housing and commuting by area
- Texas Open Data Portal (opens in a new tab): state datasets on many topics
Track 6 (Grid Resiliency & Outage Readiness)
- ERCOT grid information (opens in a new tab): Texas power demand, supply and grid conditions
- OpenFEMA data sets (opens in a new tab): disaster declarations and assistance
- NOAA Storm Events Database (opens in a new tab): storms and damage, by county and date
Track 7 (Healthcare Access & Patient Support)
- CMS Provider Data Catalog (opens in a new tab): hospitals, clinics and care quality
- HRSA data (opens in a new tab): health centers and areas short of health workers
- CDC PLACES (opens in a new tab): local health estimates by county and tract
- MedlinePlus (opens in a new tab): plain-language health information
Track 8 (Water Conservation & Drought Readiness)
- TWDB Water Use Survey (opens in a new tab): water use by Texas cities and counties
- US Drought Monitor (opens in a new tab): weekly drought maps
- USGS Water Data (opens in a new tab): river, lake and groundwater readings
- NOAA Climate Data Online (opens in a new tab): rainfall and temperature history