U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 02-002

CITIES: ESRI northeast cities shapefiles for the Long Island Sound ArcView project area

Frequently-anticipated questions:

• What does this data set describe?
  1. How should this data set be cited?
  2. What geographic area does the data set cover?
  3. What does it look like?
  4. Does the data set describe conditions during a particular time period?
  5. What is the general form of this data set?
  6. How does the data set represent geographic features?
  7. How does the data set describe geographic features?
• Who produced the data set?
  1. Who are the originators of the data set?
  2. Who also contributed to the data set?
  3. To whom should users address questions about the data?
• Why was the data set created?
• How was the data set created?
  1. From what previous works were the data drawn?
  2. How were the data generated, processed, and modified?
• How reliable are the data; what problems remain in the data set?
  1. How well have the observations been checked?
  2. How accurate are the geographic locations?
  3. How accurate are the heights or depths?
  4. Where are the gaps in the data? What is missing?
  5. How consistent are the relationships among the data, including topology?
• How can someone get a copy of the data set?
  1. Are there legal restrictions on access or use of the data?
  2. Who distributes the data?
  3. What's the catalog number I need to order this data set?
  4. What legal disclaimers am I supposed to read?
  5. How can I download or order the data?
• Who wrote the metadata?

Title:

CITIES: ESRI northeast cities shapefiles for the Long Island Sound ArcView project area

Abstract:

This is a point layer of the U.S. cities that fall within the US basemap data layer and border the Long Island Sound study area.

1. How should this data set be cited?

   Paskevich(ed.), Valerie, and Environmental Systems Research , Inc. (ESRI)(comp.), 2002, CITIES: ESRI northeast cities shapefiles for the Long Island Sound ArcView project area: U.S. Geological Survey, Coastal and Marine Geology Program, Woods Hole, MA.

   Online Links:

   • <http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/openfile/of02-002/data/basemaps>
   • <http://www.esri.com/data/resources/geographic-data.html>

   This is part of the following larger work.

   Poppe, Larry, and Paskevich, Valerie, 2002, Geological Framework Data from Long Island Sound, 1981-1990: A Digital Data Release: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 02-002, U.S. Geological Survey, Coastal and Marine Geology Program, Woods Hole, MA.

   Online Links:

   • <http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/openfile/of02-002>

2. What geographic area does the data set cover?

   West_Bounding_Coordinate: -80.499817

   East_Bounding_Coordinate: -67.987297

   North_Bounding_Coordinate: 46.686039

   South_Bounding_Coordinate: 39.269600

3. What does it look like?

   ../../../htmldocs/images/browse/cities.gif (GIF)

   Image showing the extent of the GIS layer cities that fall within the USA basemap data layer distributed with the Long Island Sound ArcView project file.

4. Does the data set describe conditions during a particular time period?

   Calendar_Date: 30-Jun-2002

   Currentness_Reference: publication date

5. What is the general form of this data set?

   Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form: vector digital data

6. How does the data set represent geographic features?
   1. How are geographic features stored in the data set?

      This is a Vector data set. It contains the following vector data types (SDTS terminology):

      • Entity point (605)

   2. What coordinate system is used to represent geographic features?

      Horizontal positions are specified in geographic coordinates, that is, latitude and longitude. Latitudes are given to the nearest 0.00001. Longitudes are given to the nearest 0.00001. Latitude and longitude values are specified in Decimal degrees.

      The horizontal datum used is North American Datum of 1927.
      The ellipsoid used is Clarke 1866.
      The semi-major axis of the ellipsoid used is 6378206.400000.
      The flattening of the ellipsoid used is 1/294.978698.
      

7. How does the data set describe geographic features?

   cities.dbf

   Shapefile attribute file (Source: ESRI)

   FID

   Internal feature number. (Source: ESRI)

   Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated.

   Shape

   Feature geometry. (Source: ESRI)

   Value	Definition
   Point	ESRI point shapefile

   Coordinates defining the features.

   CITY_FIPS

   Field containing City fips code.

   CITY_NAME

   City or town name

   Character field

   STATE_FIPS

   Field containing State fips code.

   Range of values
   Minimum:	09
   Maximum:	50
   Units:	integer
   Resolution:	1

   STATE_NAME

   Text field containing state name.

   Character field

   STATE_CITY

   Combination of the State_fips and City_fips code.

   Range of values
   Minimum:	0901150
   Maximum:	5066175
   Units:	integer
   Resolution:	1

   TYPE

   Designation for city type.

   Value	Definition
   borough
   census designed place
   city
   town
   village

   CAPITAL

   Designation if city is state capital.

   Value	Definition
   Y	City is state capital.
   N	City is not state capital.

   ELEVATION

   Elevation of city location.

   Range of values
   Minimum:	-99
   Maximum:	1660
   Units:	meters
   Resolution:	1

   POP1990

   U.S. 1990 census population value for state.

   Range of values
   Minimum:	8247
   Maximum:	7322564
   Units:	integer
   Resolution:	1

1. Who are the originators of the data set? (may include formal authors, digital compilers, and editors)
   • Valerie Paskevich(ed.)
   • Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI)(comp.)

2. Who also contributed to the data set?

   Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI) for the source dataset.

3. To whom should users address questions about the data?

   U.S. Geological Survey
   c/o Valerie Paskevich
   Computer Specialist
   384 Woods Hole Road
   Woods Hole, MA 02543-1598
   USA
   

   (508) 548-8700 x2281 (voice)
   (508) 457-2310 (FAX)
   vpaskevich@usgs.gov
   

The purpose of this data layer is to provide a general reference as to locations of the major metropolitan cities and towns that fall within the USA basemap data layer distributed with the Long Island Sound ArcView project file.

1. From what previous works were the data drawn?

   cities.shp (source 1 of 1)

   Environmental Systems Research , Inc.(comp.), 1999, ESRI cities shapefile: ESRI Data and Maps; Disk 1, Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI), Redlands, CA.

   Online Links:

   • <http://www.esri.com>

   This is part of the following larger work.

   Environmental Systems Research , Inc., 1999, ESRI Data and Maps CD: ESRI, Redlands, CA.

   Online Links:

   • <http://www.esri.com/data/download/index.html>

   Other_Citation_Details:

   The data is organized on five CD-ROMS. CD#1 contains data for the world, Mexico, Canada, Europe and the United States. Detailed data for the entire United States is continued on CD #2. The very detailed data for the regions of the United States is split between the west (CD #3), the east (CD # 4), and the south (CD #5). Also, there is a ssample image data on CD #5.

   Type_of_Source_Media: CD-ROM

   Source_Contribution:

   The ArcView shapefile, cities.shp, provided by ESRI with their software distribution was used to create the new cities data layer for use with the Long Island Sound study project views.

2. How were the data generated, processed, and modified?

   Date: 18-Apr-2002 (process 1 of 3)

   The complete ESRI cities shapefile was clipped to include only those records that fall within the US basemap data layer distributed with the Long Island Sound ArcView project file.

   Person who carried out this activity:
   

   Valerie Paskevich
   U.S. Geological Survey
   Computer Specialist
   384 Woods Hole Road
   Woods Hole, MA 02543-1598
   USA
   

   (508) 548-8700 x2281 (voice)
   (508) 457-2310 (FAX)
   vpaskevich@usgs.gov
   

   Data sources used in this process:

   • cities.dbf
   • cities.shp
   • cities.shx

   Data sources produced in this process:

   • cities2.dbf
   • cities2.shp
   • cities2.shx

   Date: 18-Apr-2002 (process 2 of 3)

   The dataset was reprojected to the Clarke 1866 spheroid to be compatible with the other data layers.

   Person who carried out this activity:
   

   Valerie Paskevich
   U.S. Geological Survey
   Computer Specialist
   384 Woods Hole Road
   Woods Hole, MA 02543-1598
   USA
   

   (508) 548-8700 x2281 (voice)
   (508) 457-2310 (FAX)
   vpaskevich@usgs.gov
   

   Data sources used in this process:

   • citiesp.dbf
   • citiesp.shp
   • citiesp.shx

   Data sources produced in this process:

   • cities.dbf
   • cities.shp
   • cities.shx

   Date: 18-Apr-2002 (process 3 of 3)

   Unwanted attribute fields were deleted from the shapefile.

   Person who carried out this activity:
   

   Valerie Paskevich
   U.S. Geological Survey
   Computer Specialist
   384 Woods Hole Road
   Woods Hole, MA 02543-1598
   USA
   

   (508) 548-8700 x2281 (voice)
   (508) 457-2310 (FAX)
   vpaskevich@usgs.gov
   

   Data sources used in this process:

   • cities.dbf
   • cities.shp
   • cities.shx

   Data sources produced in this process:

   • cities.dbf
   • cities.shp
   • cities.shx

1. How well have the observations been checked?

   The attribute fields were not modified and are complete as they are distributed by ESRI.

2. How accurate are the geographic locations?

3. How accurate are the heights or depths?

4. Where are the gaps in the data? What is missing?

   This is a subset of the complete ESRI cities shapefile. The original dataset was clipped to include only those cities that would fall within the US basemap data layer being utilized in the Long Island Sound ArcView project file.

5. How consistent are the relationships among the observations, including topology?

   No additional checks for topological consistency were performed on this data set.

Are there legal restrictions on access or use of the data?

Access_Constraints: None

Use_Constraints:

Although this derived data set and its lineage dataset have been used by the USGS, no warranty, expressed or implied, is made by the USGS or ESRI as to the accuracy of the data and/or related materials. The act of distribution shall not constitute any such warranty, and no responsibility is assumed by the USGS or ESRI in the use of these data or related materials.

Please read the Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI) licensing agreement at <http://www.esri.com/licenseagreement/>

1. Who distributes the data set? (Distributor 1 of 1)

   Valerie Paskevich
   U.S. Geological Survey
   Computer Specialists
   384 Woods Hole Road
   Woods Hole, MA 02543-1598
   USA
   

   (508) 548-8700 x2281 (voice)
   (508) 457-2310 (FAX)
   vpaskevich@usgs.gov
   

2. What's the catalog number I need to order this data set?

   Long Island Sound: cities.shp

3. What legal disclaimers am I supposed to read?

   Although this derived data set and its lineage dataset have been used by the USGS and ESRI, no warranty, expressed or implied, is made by the USGS or ESRI as to the accuracy of the data and/or related materials. The act of distribution shall not constitute any such warranty, and no responsibility is assumed by the USGS or ESRI in the use of these data or related materials.

4. How can I download or order the data?
   • Availability in digital form:

     Data format:	The seven ArcView files (cities.dbf, cities.shp, cities.shx, cities.avl, cities.sbn, cities.sbx, cities.prj) comprising a general data layer showing the U.S. cities falling within the USA basemap data layer distributed with the Long Island Sound ArcView project file and an ASCII version of the metatdata file. in format ArcView (version 3.2) ESRI point shapefile Size: 30 Kbytes
     Network links:	<http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/openfile/of02-002/data/basemaps/cities.zip>
     Media you can order:	DVD (Density 4.75 Gigabytes) Note: The user must have a system with a DVD capable of reading an UDF standard DVD-R disk. To browse the information contained on this disk, the user must also have a current version of a WWW browser available.

   • Cost to order the data: none

5. What hardware or software do I need in order to use the data set?

   This GIS layer is available in an ArcView shapefile format. Users must have ArcView 3.0 or later, or another GIS application capable of importing the data.

Dates:

Last modified: 19-Apr-2002

Metadata author:

Valerie Paskevich
U.S. Geological Survey
computer specialist
384 Woods Hole Road
Woods Hole, MA 02543-1598
USA

(508) 548-8700 x2281 (voice)
(508) 457-2310 (FAX)
vpaskevich@usgs.gov

Metadata standard:

FGDC Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata (FGDC-STD-001-1998)