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

URBAN: Bureau of Census Urbanized Area for the Long Island Sound Project area

Metadata also available as: HTML - TEXT

Frequently-anticipated questions:

What does this data set describe?
    Title:
    URBAN: Bureau of Census Urbanized Area for the Long Island Sound Project area
    Abstract:
    This is a polygon layer of the U.S. urbanized areas that fall within the US basemap data layer and border the Long Island Sound study area.
    Supplemental_Information:
    The origins of this data layer is the Bureau of the Census Urbanized Area Boundaries database. It is a geographic database of boundaries for urban areas with a population greater than 50,000. The database includes boundaries for urban areas in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The data provide users with information about the locations, names, urban, census and FIPS Codes, and size of urban areas primarily for national planning applications.

  1. How should this data set be cited?

    Bureau of Transportation Statistics (comp.), 1997, URBAN: Bureau of Census Urbanized Area for the Long Island Sound Project area: U.S. Geological Survey, Coastal and Marine Geology Program, Woods Hole, MA.

    Online Links:

    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: Open-File Report 02-002, U.S. Geological Survey, Coastal and Marine Geology Program, Woods Hole, MA.

    Online Links:

  2. What geographic area does the data set cover?

    West_Bounding_Coordinate: -80.519440
    East_Bounding_Coordinate: -68.630997
    North_Bounding_Coordinate: 44.995304
    South_Bounding_Coordinate: 39.203793

  3. What does it look like?

    ../../../htmldocs/images/browse/urban.gif (GIF)
    Image showing the extent urbanized area GIS layer that falls 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: 1995
    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):

      • G-polygon (172)

    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 0.000464. Longitudes are given to the nearest 0.000464. 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?

    urban.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)

    Coordinates defining the features.

    FEATURID
    Unique identification for the geographic entity.(the Urbanized Area Code) (Source: ESRI)

    DESCRIP
    Name/identification for the geographic entity.(Urbanized Area Name) (Source: ESRI)

Who produced the data set?

  1. Who are the originators of the data set? (may include formal authors, digital compilers, and editors)

  2. Who also contributed to the data set?

    The Bureau of the Census Urbanized Area Boundaries files were acquired from the US Bureau of the Census.

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

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

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

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

Why was the data set created?
The data provide users with information about the locations, names, urban and FIPS Codes, and size of urban areas primarily for the Long Island Sound project area.

How was the data set created?
  1. From what previous works were the data drawn?

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

    Online Links:

    This is part of the following larger work.

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

    Online Links:

    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 sample image data on CD #5.
    Type_of_Source_Media: online
    Source_Scale_Denominator: 100000
    Source_Contribution:
    The ArcView shapefile, urban.shp, provided by ESRI with their software distribution was used to create the new urban 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 2)
    The complete ESRI urban 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:
    • urban.dbf
    • urban.shp
    • urban.shx

    Data sources produced in this process:

    • urban.dbf
    • urban.shp
    • urban.shx

    Date: 07-May-2002 (process 2 of 2)
    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:
    • urban.dbf
    • urban.shp
    • urban.shx

    Data sources produced in this process:

    • urban.dbf
    • urban.shp
    • urban.shx

How reliable are the data; what problems remain in the data set?
  1. How well have the observations been checked?

    Attributes were supplied by the Bureau of the Census.

  2. How accurate are the geographic locations?

    The Bureau of the Census Urbanized Area database was derived from the TIGER data base. It was created from data created at a scale of 1:100,000 or better and as such has a positional accuracy of +/- 80m.

  3. How accurate are the heights or depths?

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

    405 distinct Urbanized Areas are identified database.

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

    All node-link and polygon topological relationships are created and verified using computer algorithms.

How can someone get a copy of the 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, Bureau of Transportation Statistics 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, Bureau of Transportation Statistics 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 Specialist
    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: urban.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?

  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.

Who wrote the metadata?
Dates:
Last modified: 07-May-2002

Metadata author:
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

Metadata standard:
FGDC Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata (FGDC-STD-001-1998)
Generated by mp version 2.7.3 on Tue May 07 07:54:00 2002