[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 77 (Friday, April 20, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Pages 20323-20324]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-9770]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

U.S. Geological Survey


Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC); Public Review of the 
U.S. National Grid Standard

ACTION: Notice; request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The FGDC is conducting a public review of the draft U.S. 
National Grid standard. An interorganizational team sponsored by the 
FGDC Standards Working Group developed this draft standard over several 
years and the FGDC Coordination Group comprised of representatives from 
Federal agencies approved releasing this standard for public review. 
The FGDC invites software vendors and data users and producers in 
public and private sectors to comment on this standard to ensure that 
the standard meets their needs.
    Comments that address specific issues/changes/additions may result 
in revisions to the draft U.S. National Grid Standard. After comments 
have been evaluated, participants will receive notification of how 
their comments were addressed. After formal endorsement of the standard 
by the FGDC, the standard and a summary analysis of the changes will be 
made available to the public.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before June 22, 2001.

ADDRESSES: The draft standard may be downloaded via Internet address 
http://www.fgdc.gov/standards/status/usng.html/.
    Request for printed copies of the standard should be addressed to 
``U.S. National Grid Standard,'' FGDC Secretariat (attn: Julie Binder 
Maitra), U.S. Geological Survey, 590 National Center, 12201 Sunrise 
Valley Drive, Reston, Virginia 20192 or facsimile 703-648-5755 or 
Internet at [email protected].
    Reviewer's comments may be sent to FGDC via Internet mail to [email protected]. Reviewer's comments may also be sent to the FGDC 
Secretariat at the above postal address. Please send one hardcopy 
version of the comments and a softcopy version on 3.5-inch diskette in 
Microsoft Word or Rich Text Format. All reviewers are strongly urged to 
use the template for sending comments that may be downloaded from 
Internet address http://www.fgdc.gov/standards/directives/dir2d.html.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Following is information about the draft 
U.S. National Grid, submitted by the FGDC Standards Working Group:

[[Page 20324]]

    Objective: The objective of this standard is to create a more 
favorable environment for developing location-based services within the 
United States and to increase the interoperability of location services 
appliances with traditional printed map products by establishing a 
nationally consistent grid reference system as the preferred grid for 
National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) applications.
    There are a number of coordinate reference systems that can be used 
either in location service appliances or on printed maps for the 
purpose of establishing a location. Within automated location service 
appliances, the conversion of coordinates based on one well-defined 
reference system to coordinates based on another can be both automatic 
and transparent to the user. These devices can support multiple 
coordinate reference systems with little difficulty. However, it is not 
easy for users to work in multiple reference systems and to convert 
between systems without the aid of location service appliances, 
calculators, or conversion tables. Furthermore, it is difficult for 
users to accurately determine a location coordinate from paper maps 
when spherical coordinate reference systems, like latitude and 
longitude, are used because they do not appear square on the flat map. 
As a consequence paper maps created for the general public frequently 
have a square reference grid that overlays the non-rectangular 
coordinate reference system. It is computationally difficult, labor 
intensive, and time consuming to convert the reference grid coordinate 
obtained from one printed map to another printed map with a different 
grid even when both grid reference systems are well defined. It can be 
impossible when proprietary grids are used. This situation greatly 
limits the ability of users to use location service devices with 
traditional printed maps. Subsequently, location based services in this 
country have been limited to totally digital environments, restricting 
the number of users and uses and retarding the development of the 
location based service industry.
    This standard seeks to improve the current situation by identifying 
a single nationally consistent, humanly facile grid reference system as 
the preferred U.S. National Grid (USNG) and promoting its use within 
the NSDI.
    Scope: This standard defines a preferred U.S. National Grid (USNG) 
for large and medium-scale mapping applications; for this standard, 
large and medium-scale shall be defined as from approximately 1:5000 to 
1:1,000,000 applications. It defines how to present UTM coordinates at 
various levels of precision. It specifies the use of those coordinates 
with the grid system defined by the Military Grid Reference System 
(MGRS). Additionally, it addresses specific presentation issues such as 
grid spacing. The UTM coordinate representation, the MGRS grid, and the 
specific grid presentation requirements together define the USNG. This 
standard is a process standard as defined by the FGDC Standards 
Reference Model. Specifically, it is a presentation process standard.
    Applicability: This standard is for use in the acquisition or 
production, either directly or indirectly through contracts and 
partnerships, of printed maps and the acquisition, either directly or 
indirectly, of location service appliances. The USNG addresses the 
geospatial coordinate, user interface of products and services designed 
as interoperable components of the NSDI. This standard applies to 
printed maps that are to be used in conjunction with location service 
appliances and to location service appliances that are to be used in 
conjunction with printed map products.
    This standard is not applicable to the collection of geospatial 
data, either remote sensed data collection or field surveys. This 
standard is not applicable to the internal data storage structure of 
any GIS or location service appliance or to the transfer of coordinates 
between databases or appliances.
    Use of USNG grid coordinates may be useful or even desirable within 
some systems or enterprises. The decision to use USNG grid coordinates 
or some other coordinate system internal to geographic information 
systems or location service appliances is left to the discretion of the 
system developer as long as the user interface provides for USNG grid 
coordinate readout as one option.
    The USNG is not applicable to surveying. This standard does not 
attempt to replace the State Plane Coordinate Systems (SPCS) 
established by the National Geodetic Survey specifically for field 
surveying. The SPCS is specifically designed to meet the requirements 
of surveyors and engineers in determining location and boundaries and 
most states mandate its use by law especially for cadastral surveys. 
The USNG does not address those needs. SPCS coordinates can be readily 
converted to USNG grid coordinates for subsequent use within the NSDI.
    The USNG is interoperable with the MGRS. This will be of critical 
importance to safety of life during times of disaster relief 
operations.

    Dated: April 11, 2001.
Karen Siderelis,
Geographic Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 01-9770 Filed 4-14-01; 8:45 am]
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