Recovery Plan Geographic Place Names

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. Where did the data come from?
  2. What changes have been made?
• 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: Recovery Plan Geographic Place Names

Abstract:

Point coverage of geographic names used in the SJV Recovery Plan

Supplemental_Information:

The original coverage was created from the U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) tabular database. Additional place names were added as needed.

1. How should this data set be cited?

   Endangered Species Recovery Program, 1999, Recovery Plan Geographic Place Names: Endangered Species Recovery Program, Fresno, CA, US.

   Online Links:

   • <http://arnica.csustan.edu/esrpp>

   Other_Citation_Details:

   U.S. FWS, 1998 Recovery Plan for Upland Species of the San Joaquin Valley, California.

2. What geographic area does the data set cover?

   West_Bounding_Coordinate: -122.213

   East_Bounding_Coordinate: -118.372

   North_Bounding_Coordinate: 39.4086

   South_Bounding_Coordinate: 34.8443

3. What does it look like?

   rp_placenames.jpg (JPEG)

   Graphic of theme rp_placenames

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

   Calendar_Date: 1998

   Currentness_Reference: ground condition

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?

      Indirect_Spatial_Reference:

      database fields for the name of the County and USGS Topographic Map

      This is a Vector data set.

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

      Grid_Coordinate_System_Name: Universal Transverse Mercator

      Universal_Transverse_Mercator:

      UTM_Zone_Number: 10

      Transverse_Mercator:

      Scale_Factor_at_Central_Meridian: 0.9996

      Longitude_of_Central_Meridian: -123

      Latitude_of_Projection_Origin: 0

      False_Easting: 500000

      False_Northing: 0

      Planar coordinates are encoded using Coordinate pair
      Abscissae (x-coordinates) are specified to the nearest 1
      Ordinates (y-coordinates) are specified to the nearest 1
      Planar coordinates are specified in meters

      The horizontal datum used is North American Datum of 1927.
      The ellipsoid used is Clark 1866.
      The semi-major axis of the ellipsoid used is 6378206.4.
      The flattening of the ellipsoid used is 1/294.98.
      

7. How does the data set describe geographic features?

   Entity_and_Attribute_Overview:

   Contains the attributes Name (name of feature), Type (type of feature as defined by the USGS GNIS), State (two letter state code), County (name of the county the point is in), and quadname (name of the USGS topographic map the point is in. Once the data had been edited, the attributes for State and County were assigned by a GIS identity operation using a coverage for 1990 County Boundaries obtained from the USGS National Atlas of the United States. See URL <http://www.nationalatlas.gov/atlasftp.html> for source data. The names of the counties were modified by removing the word " County" from the county name in order to emulate the orignal GNIS database field. The USGS topographic map names were assigned by an identity operation on a coverage of USGS 1:24,000 map boundaries obtained from the Gap Analysis Project of the U.C. Santa Barbara Biogeography Lab. See URL <http://www.biogeog.ucsb.edu> for more details on the data. The names of the topographic maps were modified from all upper case to proper case using the table program of ArcView GIS. This was done in order to emulate the topographic map names in the original GNIS data.

   Entity_and_Attribute_Detail_Citation:

   US Geological Survey, GNIS Data Users Guide. URL: <http://mapping.usgs.gov/www/ti/GNIS/gnis_users_guide_toc.html>

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

2. Who also contributed to the data set?

   Scott E. Phillips

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

   Endangered Species Recovery Program
   GIS Analyst
   
   
   US
   

   (voice)
   559 453 1227 (FAX)
   gis@esrp.org
   

   Contact_Instructions: Contact by electronic or postal mail

To show place name locations on maps used in the SJV Recovery Plan

1. Where did the data come from?

   GNIS (source 1 of 1)

   U.S. Geological Survey, 19810501, Geographic Names Information System: U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA, US.

   Online Links:

   • <http://nsdi.usgs.gov/wais/maps/gnis.HTML>

   Type_of_Source_Media: online

   Source_Contribution: Point location information and database fields.

2. What changes have been made?

   Date: 1998 (change 1 of 1)

   A copy of the text file containing the GNIS data for California was downloaded from the U.S. Geological Survey and imported into an INFO database. The INFO module of ARC/INFO was used to do the following: 1. Generate unique id numbers for each record., 2. Export the unique id and coordinate data for the records to a separate database., 3. Export the unique id and data fields for the records to a separate database., 4. The database of coordinate data was converted from Degrees, Minutes, and Seconds to Decimal degrees.,. The database of decimal degree data was exported to a text file with the unique ids to create an ARC/INFO generate file than could be used to convert the tabular coordinates to a point coverage. Once the point coverage was imported, point topology was build using the ARC/INFO BUILD command. The unique ids were used to join the database information to the point coverage. The point coverage was projected to UTM Zone 10 for use with other data.

   Person responsible for change:
   

   Endangered Species Recovery Program
   GIS Analyst
   
   
   US
   

   (voice)
   559 453 1227 (FAX)
   gis@esrp.org
   

   Contact_Instructions: Contact by electronic or postal mail

1. How well have the observations been checked?

   For points from the USGS, refer to URL: <http://nsdi.usgs.gov/wais/maps/gnis.HTML#section2> For points added by, or edited by ESRP, the place names have been checked by ESRP and FWS staff for consistency with the text of the SJV Recovery Plan.

2. How accurate are the geographic locations?

   For points from the USGS, refer to URL: <http://nsdi.usgs.gov/wais/maps/gnis.HTML#section2> For points added by ESRP, the horizontal positional accuracy should be within 25-250 meters depending on the aerial extent of the feature and the quality of the source map used.

3. How accurate are the heights or depths?

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

   Place names used were selected by ESRP and USFWS employees editing the SJV Recovery Plan. Place names were selected to highlight geographic locations mentioned in the text.

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

   Point locations.

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

Access_Constraints: none

Use_Constraints:

None. Acknowledgement of the Endangered Species Recovery Program would be appreciated in products derived from this data.

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

   Endangered Species Recovery Program
   GIS Analyst
   
   
   US
   

   (voice)
   559 453 1227 (FAX)
   gis@esrp.org
   

   Contact_Instructions: Contact by electronic or postal mail

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

   Arc Export file of coverage rp_placenames

3. What legal disclaimers am I supposed to read?

   No warranty, expressed or implied is made by the ESRP regarding the utility of the data, nor shall the act of distribution constitute any such warranty. These data are geographic illustrations and do not represent legal boundaries.

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

     Data format:	ARCE (version 7.2.1) no compression
     Network links:	<http://www.esrp.org/gis/>

   • Cost to order the data: Data may be accessed online without charge.

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

   computer with software to import ARC/INFO GIS data

Dates:

Last modified: 02-Jul-1999

Metadata author:

Endangered Species Recovery Program
GIS Analyst


US

(voice)
559 453 1227 (FAX)
gis@esrp.org

Contact_Instructions: Contact by electronic or postal mail

Metadata standard:

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