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Dwight HughesGeographic Names ProjectU.S. Geological SurveyU.S. Department of the Interior

West Virginia Partnerships and the Geographic NamesInformation System

West Virginia Partnerships and the Geographic NamesInformation SystemWest Virginia GIS Forum & Workshops

May 16-17, 2006

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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

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• 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

GNIS

The Geographic Names Information System

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GNIS Public Web Query

http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic

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GNIS in The National Map

http://nmviewogc.cr.usgs.gov/viewer.htm

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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 locationIf your features are in GNIS, they are official

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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 IDA locationA name

• A Geometry?

• Other Secondary Attributes

A feature is an Entity on the landscape with

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

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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: Don’t 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 (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 & QA’d• Names complete, standard, nationally consistent• Available to all levels of Government & the public

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Full Service – Data In

Web Services &Applications

GNIS

Partner

TransactionEntry/Edit

Partner

Data Maintenance

Partner Data

Batch

Files

Synchronizedby Feature ID

Working

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Full Service – Data Out

GNIS

National Map

Any other GIS

GNIS Web Site

TNM Feature

Look up

Any other App

FeatureService

FeatureService

File

Download

Custom

Files

GNIS MapService

GNIS MapService

GNIS XMLService

GNIS XMLService

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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)

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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

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Partnerships Are Critical

USGS GeographicNames Project

USGS GeographicNames Project

State NamesAuthorities

State NamesAuthorities

State/Local GISAuthorities

State/Local GISAuthorities

Long Standing Working

Develop

For West Virginia

• Paul Liston

• Kurt Donaldson

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Contacts

• Louis Yost – Executive Secretary U.S. Board on Geographic Names (Acting) (703) 648-4552 lyost@usgs.gov

• Robin Worcester (703) 648-4551 rworcest@usgs.gov

• Jennifer Runyon (703) 648-4550 jrunyon@usgs.gov

• Eve Edwards (703) 648-4548 eedwards@usgs.gov

• Dwight Hughes (703) 648-5793 dshughes@usgs.gov

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Thank you for your interest!

Questions?

The End