''The National Map'' is a

collaborative Collaboration (from Latin ''com-'' "with" + ''laborare'' "to labor", "to work") is the process of two or more people, entities or organizations working together to complete a task or achieve a goal. Collaboration is similar to cooperation. The f ...

effort of the

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on Mar ...

(USGS) and other federal, state, and local agencies to improve and deliver

topographic Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the landforms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary scienc ...

information for the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The purpose of the effort is to provide "...a seamless, continuously maintained set of public domain geographic base information that will serve as a foundation for integrating, sharing, and using other data easily and consistently".Moore, Larry (December 2000, with January 2003 update), . United States Geological Survey. Also available as a
HTML document
''The National Map'' is part of the USGS National Geospatial Program. The geographic information available includes orthoimagery ( aerial photographs),

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

, geographic names,

hydrography Hydrography is the branch of applied sciences which deals with the measurement and description of the physical features of oceans, seas, coastal areas, lakes and rivers, as well as with the prediction of their change over time, for the primary ...

, boundaries, transportation, structures and land cover. ''The National Map'' is accessible via the

Web Web most often refers to: * Spider web, a silken structure created by the animal * World Wide Web or the Web, an Internet-based hypertext system Web, WEB, or the Web may also refer to: Computing * WEB, a literate programming system created by ...

, as products and services, and as downloadable data. Its uses range from recreation to scientific analysis to emergency response. ''The National Map'' is a significant contribution to the

U.S. National Spatial Data Infrastructure The Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) is a United States government committee which promotes the coordinated development, use, sharing, and dissemination of geospatial data on a national basis. Its 32 members are representatives from the E ...

(NSDI) from the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) and currently is being transformed to better serve the

geospatial Geographic data and information is defined in the ISO/TC 211 series of standards as data and information having an implicit or explicit association with a location relative to Earth (a geographic location or geographic position). It is also call ...

community by providing high quality, integrated geospatial data and improved products and services including new generation digital

topographic map In modern mapping, a topographic map or topographic sheet is a type of map characterized by large- scale detail and quantitative representation of relief features, usually using contour lines (connecting points of equal elevation), but histori ...

s. In addition, the National Map is foundational to implementation of the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) Geospatial Modernization Blueprint. The USGS also utilizes data from ''The National Map'' Corps, which consists of volunteers who devote some of their time to provide cartographic information on structures. ''The National Map'' is the official replacement for the USGS topographic map program.

''The National Map'' Corps

''The National Map'' Corps consists of volunteers who devote some of their time to provide cartographic information to the

U.S. Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on March ...

. The only requirements to participate are having access to the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

and a current familiarity with the area being mapped. This data is used to update ''The National Map''. The program originally allowed volunteers to collect

geographic coordinates A geographic coordinate system (GCS) is a spherical or geodetic coordinate system for measuring and communicating positions directly on Earth as latitude and longitude. It is the simplest, oldest, and most widely used type of the various ...

(

latitude In geography, latitude is a geographic coordinate system, geographic coordinate that specifies the north-south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from −90° at t ...

and

longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east- west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek lett ...

) via GPS receivers. The data was entered in

spreadsheet A spreadsheet is a computer application for computation, organization, analysis and storage of data in tabular form. Spreadsheets were developed as computerized analogs of paper accounting worksheets. The program operates on data entered in c ...

format or in

ESRI Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc., doing business as Esri (), is an American Multinational corporation, multinational geographic information system (GIS) software company headquartered in Redlands, California. It is best known for ...

shapefile The shapefile format is a geospatial vector data format for geographic information system (GIS) software. It is developed and regulated by Esri as a mostly open specification for data interoperability among Esri and other GIS software product ...

s and submitted via e-mail to the USGS National Geospatial Technical Operations Center(s) in

Denver, Colorado Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

, and

Rolla, Missouri Rolla () is a city in and the county seat of Phelps County, Missouri, United States. Its population in the 2020 United States Census was 19,943. It is approximately midway between St. Louis and Springfield along I-44. Its micropolitan sta ...

. During the registration process, prospective volunteers submitted a list of the 7.5 minute quadrangle maps on which they wished to work. Once accepted into the project, volunteers received their assignment and 1:24,000 scale

of their quad. While there was no deadline for completing maps, the project's administrators preferred volunteers to submit coordinates for all structures in the quad no more than one year after beginning work. In December 2006, a new Internet-based method for submitting information on structures was introduced. Using a

web browser A web browser, often shortened to browser, is an application for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's scr ...

, volunteers are able to navigate maps and aerial photography, placing a point on the map and subsequently entering the name and type of structure. From August 2008, the program stopped accepting structure data collected via GPS, but continued to use the web-based collection site.

Types of structures mapped

The following is a list of structures that can be entered on the web site. The focus is significant man-made structures. The "other" category is for man-made structures not on this list and should not include locations such as homes, restaurants or other commercial establishments. * Education ** School ** College/University * Emergency Response and Law Enforcement ** Fire Station/EMS Station ** Law Enforcement ** Hospital ** Ambulance Service ** Correctional Facility * Government and Military ** State Capitol * Mail and Shipping ** Post Office * Public Attractions and Landmark Buildings ** Cemetery

References

External links

''The National Map''
(USGS)
National Geospatial Program
(USGS)

USGS Aerial Products

from the U.S. Department of the Interior * OGC GeoSPARQLbr>webapp
for selected data sets {{DEFAULTSORT:National Map, The United States Geological Survey Topography Maps of the United States Collaborative mapping Aerial photography

''The National Map'' Corps

Types of structures mapped

See also

References

External links