NatMap Briefing with Speakers Notes

1
State Partnerships and the Geographic
NamesInformation System
National States Geographic Information
CouncilMarch 21, 2006
Lou Yost, Dwight Hughes U.S. Board on
Geographic Names U.S. Geological Survey U.S.
Department of the Interior
2
Standardization not Regulation

• 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
Need for Names Standardization

• In the 1800s numerous Federal scientific and
  exploration expeditions
• Many agencies recorded different names, resulting
  in confusion
• Geographic names is a key component of the
  National Spatial Data Infrastructure
• Consistency is a key attribute of base geographic
  information

4
The Solution

• 4 September 1890 U.S. Board on Geographic
  Names established by Presidential Executive Order
• 25 July 1947 Board re-established by Public
  Law 80-242

5
U.S. Board on Geographic Names

• Provides for uniformity in geographic
  nomenclature and orthography throughoutthe
  Federal government
• Formulates principles, policies, and
  proceduresfor domestic and foreign geographic
  names
• Promulgates in the name of the Board
• Decisions with respect to geographic names
• Principles of geographic nomenclature and
  orthography

6
U.S. Board on Geographic Names

• No Federal agency may CHANGE or ADD unilaterally
  any name on any product (conventional or digital)
  for any reason without BGN approval
• An agency may choose to leave the name off a map
  or out of a publication

7
National Geospatial Programs Office
Supports major geospatial programs

• The National Map
• Nationally consistent and current base geographic
  information
• Federal Geographic Data Committee
• NSDI enables spatial data sharing and efficient
  transfer between producers and users
• Geospatial One-Stop
• Makes geospatial information access and sharing
  easier, faster, and less expensive

8
GNIS

• 1987 U.S. Board on Geographic Names designated
  the Geographic Names Information System as the
  only official vehicle for domestic geographic
  names used by the Federal government
• Therefore, the GNIS is the only source for
  applying geographic names to Federal maps and
  other products depicting areas under U.S.
  jurisdiction

9
Data Compilation Status
10
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 Hydrographic Data Set Partners
  synchronized (NHD 1997)
• National Park Service (1999)
• Bureau of Land Management (2005)
• Fish Wildlife Service (soon)
• General Services Agency (MOU in for signature)
• GNIS staff processed updates regularlyfrom other
  agencies

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Geographic Names Yawn!
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GNIS Revolution Past Two Years

• Completely redesigned database
• All Web user interfaces
• Public Query links to The National Map,
  TopoZone, TerraServer, GoogleMap, Tiger
• Partner data entry/edit Fully automated
• Full service geodatabase
• Web map service layer into any GIS application
• Web feature service (very soon)
• Web extract Shape file (very soon)
• XML service
• File download. Customized on request

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GNIS Public Web Query
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GNIS Query Results
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GNIS Query Detail
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GNIS in GoogleMap
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GNIS in The National Map
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GOS Geographic Names Community
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GNIS in the GOS Viewer
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Why GNIS?

• Meets BGN principles, policies, guidelines
• 30 Years of Data from authoritative sources
• Like you all local stake holders
• Stable, mature system
• Full nationally coverage, consistent, seamless
• Quality assured, prevents duplication
• Feature based
• Open, interoperable, available
• Functioning partner base Federal, State, Local
• Large user community of long standing
• Provides unique feature identifier
• Provides official name and location

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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.

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GNIS Features

• A feature is
• An entity on the landscape witha name and a
  location
• A feature consists of
• A name
• A point
• A Feature ID

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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
• Immediately assigned on feature entry to GNIS
• Added to local data sets for future
  reference/maintenance
• 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

24
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
• 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

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GNIS Official Name

• Official because data owner says it is
• (In all but a very few cases, mostly natural
  features)
• 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 Governmentand the
  public

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Partner Data Example
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Validation Rules Hundreds of them
Case, special characters, abbreviations,
generics, parentheses Examples

• comma to commaspace
• to Numberspace
• to spaceandspace
• _at_ to spaceatspace
• - to space-space
• slash to spacehyphenspace
• spacespace to space
• All upper case to title case
• Ste. To Sainte
• Mt. to Mount
• Mtn to Mountain

• comma to commaspace
• Dr., Dr Drive or Doctor?
• W , W. Initial or West?
• No., No North or Number
• No apostrophe in natural features
• U. S. to "United States"
• NE Northeastspace
• Name, The to The Name
• Search for ( ), remove/correct
• Cty.to County
• Rd., Rd to Road

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Can You Identify These Features?

• CAMDEN CO-SR110 MSWL
• East DeKalb Campus (school?)
• Johnson Magnet
• LIBERTY CO-LIMERICK RD (L)
• Tabernacle Baptist (a school)
• Hiawassee WPCP
• Monticello Pearson Creek Pond (waste water
  treatment plant)
• Alcovy Shores (a water system)

• Saint Peter Claver
• Shurling Branch (library)
• Ochlocknee PD
• Spence Field (airport)
• Shepard Center, Inc. (hospital)
• Marlow (elementary school)
• Charter Lake Hospital(a private school)
• Macon-Bibb Station 8(Fire Station)
• BJC Medical Center(name or acronym?)

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Full Service Data In
Web Services Applications
Working
Synchronizedby Feature ID
GNIS
Partner Data
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Full Service Data Out
GNIS Web Site
FeatureService
GNIS MapService
GNIS XMLService
GNIS
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Full Service In Out in Minutes
Enter, Edit Data
Names Office
Other apps using services
Validate,Commit Data
Seamless (weekly extract)
National Atlas, NHD, Antarctic
GNIS
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State Partners

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

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Worked for the Topos

• For over a century, the U.S. Board on Geographic
  Names assured consistency and accuracy of
  geographic names on USGS Topographic Maps, the
  only national system of maps. This was a mission
  critical to national development.
• For thirty years, the Geographic Names
  Information System has been the primary mechanism
  for accomplishing this purpose.
• Can we do less in the age of the Internet, GIS,
  and The National Map?

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Partnerships

• U.S. Board on Geographic Names,the Geographic
  Names Project,and the GNIS
• Federal Agencies
• DHS, FIMA, NGA, Forest Service, Parks, NOAA, GSA,
  etc.
• State Names Authorities
• Do you know yours?
• State GIS organizations and agencies
• Any State/county/local agency with data

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URLs

• Board on Geographic Names
• http//geonames.usgs.gov
• GNIS Public Query
• http//geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic
• GNIS Data Maintenance Test
• http//geonames.usgs.gov/pls/htmldb/f?pGNISTEST
• ID and Password User05!!
• GNIS Map Service
• http//geonamesmap.er.usgs.gov/OGCConnector/servle
  t/OGCConnector?ServiceNameus_gnisrequestgetMap
  
• GNIS XML Service
• Potomac River Example http//geonames.usgs.gov/pl
  s/gnis/x?fnamepotomac20riverstatecntycell
  ftype
• Virginia Streams Example http//geonames.usgs.gov
  /pls/gnis/x?fnamestateVirginiacntycellft
  ypestream

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Contacts

• Roger Payne
• [phone]
• rpayne_at_usgs.gov
• Louis Yost
• [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 support.
• Questions?