Surveying, Mapping and GIS

I will relay this message recently posted on the POB message board from Dave Doyle, Chief Geodetic Surveyor of the National Geodetic Survey

I was able to convince NGS management to approve a new policy concerning the publication of State Plane Coordinates in feet on both the conventional NGS data sheet, and the OPUS extended output. As soon as software changes can be made, NGS will begin providing feet in addition to meters for the 18 states that have NAD 83 legislation which specifically defines the conversion to either U.S. Survey Feet, or International Feet. These are: Arizona(I), Connecticut(US), Delaware(US), Florida(US), Georgia(US), Illinois(US), Indiana(US), Louisiana(US), Mississippi(US), Montana(I), New Hampshire(US), New York(US), North Dakota(I), Pennsylvania(US), Rhode Island(US), South Dakota(US), Virginia(US), Washington(US) and Wisconsin(US).

15 States currently have NAD 83 legislation, but it does not define a conversion to either U.S. Survey or International Feet. NGS will publish feet in these states if the following conditions are met:

1. An interested person, governmental agency or professional organization in the state/territory makes a request to publish a specific foot to the NGS Director.

2. The NGS Director assigns a technical coordinator to assist the requestor, to ensure appropriate state or territorial surveying, mapping and GIS agencies and organizations are contacted and are in consensus. These may include, but not be limited to:

a. Land Surveying Professional Association
b. Transportation Department
c. Office of Geographic Information
d. GIS professional association or consortium

3. An official written request is made to the NGS Director, signed by senior representatives of the requesting agencies and organizations as approved by the technical coordinator.

4. The technical coordinator drafts and publishes a Federal Register Notice (FRN) outlining the state or territory’s intent to publish SPCs in a specific foot. If no irresolvable comments are received within 30 days after the FRN publication, the technical coordinator will work with various NGS divisions (responsible for SPC publication) to ensure the conversion is implemented into appropriate NSRS products, services and tools.

These states are: Alaska, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming. If anyone is interested in pursuing this issue an e-mail or telephone call to me will suffice for completion of Item 1 listed above.

The only states that do not have NAD 83 legislation are Alabama and Hawaii and NGS will publish meters only in those states until this legislation is adopted.