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Spatial Data Needs The Future of the National Mapping Program (1990) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 7-13

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From page 7...
... , through its Defense Mapping Agency (DMA) , has responsibility for all geographic information outside the United States including maps, charts, and geodetic control and most geographic and navigational data necessary for DOD operations.
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From page 8...
... It is called "throwing goodies over the fence." Although the USGS/NMD produces and publishes a great variety of textual data and a number of general- and special-purpose map series at scales ranging from 1:24,000 to 1:1,000,000 and smaller, the primary product is the 1:24,000, 7~/2minute topographic quadrangle series. This map series includes some 57,000 sheets and is the only uniform map series that covers the entire area of the United States in considerable detail.
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From page 9...
... The provision of geographic information in the form of maps is the business of various organizations and institutions in our economy. Taken together, these map producers (and ancillary providers of map-related services, such as photogrammetric engineering firms and academic institutions that educate cartographers)
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From page 10...
... Since these outside suppliers often provide similar services on contract to mapping or other organizations in the public sector, the division between public and private sector mapping is not always a sharp one. Type B maps tend to be application-specific, reproduced in very small quantities, very detailed, and of large scale.
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From page 11...
... Federal Mapping Conferences On a very occasional basis the USGS has organized conferences at which representatives of various federal agencies have been asked to comment on the USGS topographic mapping program. Remarks made at a Federal Map Users
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From page 12...
... By this time, many of the needs of the federal agencies involved had changed, and map data in digital form had become an important matter. However, when the Bureau of the Census asked about a digital 1:100,000 scale map series, the Survey responded that because there was a "lack of identified user requirements, we do not now anticipate digitizing them."4 At this conference, there were also indications of shifts in federal users' interest from the more traditional emphasis on terrain data to "transportation and land net" information.
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From page 13...
... This concern is being manifested by such emerging programs as the Global Change Initiative and the Decade of Natural Disaster Reduction currently under intense discussion by the Committee on Earth Sciences (of the Federal Coordinating Committee on Science, Engineering, and Technology) and the international community.
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Key Terms

  • mapping program
  • map products
  • map series
  • federal mapping
  • public sector

  • user requirements
  • topographic maps
  • earth sciences
  • sector mappers
  • usgs topographic

  • emergency management
  • map requirements
  • cartographic enterprise
  • federal emergency
  • change initiative

  • sector mapping
  • user satisfaction
  • current national
  • commercial mappers
  • marketable geographic

  • considerable detail
  • global scales
  • product user
  • scales ranging
  • geographic units

  • assigning priorities
  • disaster relief
  • map creation
  • organized conferences
  • major federal


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