NatMap Briefing with Speakers Notes

1
West Virginia Partnerships and the Geographic
NamesInformation System
West Virginia GIS Forum WorkshopsMay 16-17,
2006
Dwight Hughes Geographic Names Project U.S.
Geological Survey U.S. Department of the Interior
2
Why Standardize Geographic Names?

• National Security
• Emergency Preparedness Response
• Regional Local Planning
• Site Selection Analysis
• Cartographic Application
• Environmental Problem-solving
• Tourism
• All Levels of Communication

3
GNIS
The Geographic Names Information System

• Supports the U.S. Board on Geographic Names
• Federal body authorized by law to ensure names
  standardization (not regulation)
• Official source for geographic names on Federal
  products depicting areas under U.S. jurisdiction
• Maps, electronic products, documents, etc.
• One Feature, One Name, One Location
• As specified by data owner within Board
  guidelines
• Normally Federal, State, County, Local
  authority-You

4
GNIS Public Web Query
http//geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic
5
GNIS in The National Map
http//nmviewogc.cr.usgs.gov/viewer.htm
6
GOS Geographic Names Community
http//gos2.geodata.gov/wps/portal/gos
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GNIS in a Map Viewer
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Why GNIS?

• Conforms to BGN principles, policies, guidelines
• 30 Years of Data from authoritative sources
• Like you local stake holders
• Stable, mature system
• Full national coverage, consistent, seamless
• Quality assured, prevents duplication
• Open, interoperable, available
• Functioning partner base Federal, State, Local
• Large user community of long standing
• Data readily available to all levels of
  Government and to the public through multiple
  services and options
• Provides unique feature identifier, official
  name, and official location
• If your features are in GNIS, they are official

9
Two Million And Growing Fast

• 502,000 hydrographic features Synchronized with
  NHD
• 395,000 cultural features Mostly structures
• Cemetery, Dam, Locale, Mine, Military
  (historical), Oilfield, Tower, Trail, Well
• 376,000 structural features
• Airport, Building, Church, Hospital, School, Post
  Office
• 257,000 landforms In no other layer of The
  National Map
• (Other than hydro)
• 170,000 populated places
• 100,000 admin features
• Civil, Forest, Park, Reserve
• 97,000 historical features In no other layer
• 14,000 transportation point features
• Bridge, Crossing, Tunnel
• (14,000 Antarctica features)
• Thousands added per month. If its not in GNIS, it
  should be.

10
GNIS Features
A feature is an Entity on the landscape with

• A Feature ID
• A location
• A name
• A Geometry?
• Other Secondary Attributes

Attributes
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GNIS Official Feature ID

• Unique, permanent, national feature identifier
• System assigned number - no information content
• Superseded FIPS55 Place Code
• Discussions concerning ANSI Standard
• Added to local data sets for future
  reference/maintenance
• Immediately assigned upon web data entry
• For comparing, reconciling, merging data sets
• Eliminates need for difficult attribute matching
  in data from multiple, overlapping jurisdictions
  sources
• Available to all levels of government and the
  public
• No confusion or doubt about identity of feature

12
GNIS Official Feature Location

• Single point at 24k The primary point
• Official point to which official name is attached
• Independent of size, extent, spatial
  representations
• 80 of GNIS features are point features
• Easily added, corrected, or modified
• Apply to Address Standard?
• Vital for correctly identifying locating
  features
• Boundaries not reliable as official feature
  location
• Boundaries Dont exist, change, are
  undetermined,cannot be determined, subject to
  disagreement, multiple versions at differing
  scales/resolutions

13
GNIS Official Name

• Official because data owner (you!) says it is
• (In all but a very few cases, mostly natural
  features)
• Resolves confusion from multiple, overlapping,
  conflicting jurisdictions and sources
• Subject to general guidelines of the BGN
• All sources authorized and verified
• All data validated QAd
• Names complete, standard, nationally consistent
• Available to all levels of Government the public

14
Full Service Data In
Web Services Applications
Working
Synchronizedby Feature ID
GNIS
Partner Data
15
Full Service Data Out
GNIS Web Site
FeatureService
GNIS MapService
GNIS XMLService
GNIS
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Electronic Maintenance Program

• Since 1987
• U.S. Board on Geographic Names
• U.S. Geological Survey
• U.S. Forest Service (1997)
• Office of Coast Survey (1997)
• National Hydrography Data Set (NHD) Partners
• Synchronized 1997
• National Park Service (1999)
• Bureau of Land Management (2005)
• Fish Wildlife Service (soon)
• General Services Agency (MOU in for signature)

17
State Partners

• North Carolina GNIS only official source
• Delaware GNIS only official source
• Florida State Gazetteer based on GNIS
• West Virginia
• Oregon working
• Hawaii discussions
• Nevada startup
• Missouri preliminary discussions
• New York discussions
• Others preliminary contact

18
Partnerships Are Critical
USGS GeographicNames Project
Long Standing
Working
State NamesAuthorities
State/Local GISAuthorities
Develop

• For West Virginia
• Paul Liston
• Kurt Donaldson

19
Contacts

• Louis Yost Executive Secretary U.S. Board on
  Geographic Names (Acting)
• [phone]
• lyost_at_usgs.gov
• Robin Worcester
• [phone]
• rworcest_at_usgs.gov
• Jennifer Runyon
• [phone]
• jrunyon_at_usgs.gov

• Eve Edwards
• [phone]
• eedwards_at_usgs.gov
• Dwight Hughes
• [phone]
• dshughes_at_usgs.gov

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The End

• Thank you for your interest!
• Questions?