FLORIDA GEOGRAPHIC DATA LIBRARY DOCUMENTATION
VERSION 2003, RELEASED NOVEMBER, 2002.
TITLE: FLORIDA PUBLIC LAND SURVEY SYSTEM - TOWNSHIP & RANGE LEVEL
Geodataset Name: FPLSS_TR Geodataset Type: SHAPE Geodataset Feature: POLYGON
GENERAL DESCRIPTION:
This dataset contains the boundaries of the Public Land Surveys of the State of Florida to the Township and Range level, including areas of private survey, Donation Land Claims, and Land Grants and Civil Colonies.
DATA SOURCE(S): United States Geological Survey SCALE OF ORIGINAL SOURCE MAPS: 1: 2,000,000 DATE OF AUTOMATION OR SOURCE: 1972-2002 GEODATASET EXTENT: State of Florida
FEATURE ATTRIBUTE TABLES:
Datafile Name: FPLSS.DBF ITEM NAME WIDTH TYPE PRECISION SHAPE 8 SHAPEPOLY 0 PLSS00P020 11 DECIMAL 0 FEATURE1 80 CHARACTER - FEATURE2 80 CHARACTER - FEATURE3 80 CHARACTER - NAME1 80 CHARACTER - NAME2 80 CHARACTER - STATE 20 CHARACTER - STATE_FIPS 20 CHARACTER - DESCRIPT 80 CHARACTER -
FEATURE ATTRIBUTE TABLES CODES AND VALUES:
ITEM ITEM DESCRIPTION
SHAPE Data attribute inherent to the ESRI shapefile format,
which defines the data as a point, polyline, or polygon.
PLSS00P020 Internal feature number
FEATURE1 The primary survey area type
Land Grants, Civil Colonies An area of land to which title was
conferred by a predecessor government and confirmed by the U.S.
Government after the territory in which it is situated was
acquired by the United States.
Not Part of Public Land Surveys System An area that is outside of
the Public Land Survey System.
Overlapping Land Grants = An area of land to which more than one title
was conferred by a predecessor government and confirmed by the
U.S. Government after the territory in which it is situated was
acquired by the United States. These areas are the result of survey
error or disputed claims.
Public Survey An area of land subdivided by the Public Land Survey
System (PLSS), which was originally created on public domain lands
and the rules for its use were defined by the authority of the U.S.
Government. The PLSS has since been extended, following similar
rules, into non- public domain areas.
Unsurveyed Area An area that is part of the public domain but which
has not been subdivided.
Water Areas of navigable streams and meanderable lakes which are
excluded from the Public Land Survey System.
FEATURE2 The township and range designation for the area
Format "Township xx aaaaa Range yy bbbb", where xx and yy are numbers,
aaaaa is either North or South, and bbbb is either East or West.
If there is no value for this item, then there is no township and
range designation for the area because it is not a Public Survey
or Private Survey area.
FEATURE3 The secondary survey area type
Land Grants, Civil Colonies An area of land to which title was
conferred by a predecessor government and confirmed by the U.S.
Government after the territory in which it is situated was
acquired by the United States.
NAME1 The primary name of the survey area
NAME2 The secondary name of the survey area. This is an additional land grant name.
STATE The 2-character code of the State where the survey area is located.
STATE_FIPS The 2-digit code of the State where the survey area is located.
DESCRIPT FGDL added item based on Feature1
USER NOTES:
All lands in the public domain are subject to subdivision by a rectangular system of surveys called the Public Land Survey System (PLSS), established and regulated by the Bureau of Land Management. The original public domain includes the land ceded to the Federal Government by the Thirteen Original States, supplemented with acquisitions from native Indians and foreign powers. It encompasses major portions of the land area of 30 western States.
Under Congressional mandate, cadastral surveys of public lands were undertaken to create parcels suitable for disposal by the Government. The PLSS was developed for this purpose. The PLSS is a rectangular survey system that typically divides the land into 6-mile square townships, which are further subdivided into 1-mile square sections (the data in the National Atlas do not include section-level information). The extension of the rectangular system of surveys over the public domain has been in progress since 1785. These surveys form the basis of patents issued when public lands pass out of Federal ownership.
Certain lands were excluded from the public domain and not subject to survey and disposal.
These lands include the beds of navigable bodies of water, national installations such
as military reservations and national parks, and areas such as land grants that had
already passed to private ownership prior to subdivision by the Government.
Data describing the PLSS is required by Federal surface and mineral management agencies,
as well as any organization concerned with land ownership in the 30 western States that
were formed from the public domain. Additionally, many agencies have encoded natural
resource or environmental inventory data based on the PLSS.
A note concerning scale:
Scale is an important factor in data usage. Certain scale datasets are not suitable for some project, analysis, or modelling purposes. Please be sure you are using the best available data.
1:24000 scale datasets are recommended for projects that are at the county level. 1:24000 data should NOT be used for high accuracy base mapping such as property parcel boundaries.
1:100000 scale datasets are recommended for projects that are at the multi-county or regional level.
1:250000 scale datasets are recommended for projects that are at the regional or state level or larger.
Vector datasets with no defined scale or accuracy should be considered suspect. Make sure you are familiar with your data before using it for projects or analyses. Every effort has been made to supply the user with data documentation. For additional information, see the References section and the Data Source Contact section of this documentation. For more information regarding scale and accuracy, see our web pages at: http://www.geoplan.ufl.edu/education.html
FGDL QUALITY ASSURANCE STATUS:
-Reprojected data to FGDL Albers HPGN (See "Map Projection Parameters" below) -Extent set to the State of Florida -Changed dataset name from plss00p020 to FPLSS -DESCRIPT item added based on Feature1 -Upcased all character records. -Dropped AREA and PERIMETER items because values were incorrect. -Dropped empty field NAME3
DATA LINEAGE SUMMARY:
This data was compiled, created and released by U.S. Geological Survey. Public Land Survey System data were collected from 1:500,000 and 1:1,000,000 State base maps for the western United States. The eastern States were collected from existing 1:100,000-scale base maps. Data from both sources were integrated into 1:2,000,000 State-level DLG files, then generalized and vertically integrated with 2MILBD (1:2,000,000-scale Digital Line Graph Data - Boundaries), ATLAS-CNTY (County Boundaries of the U.S.), and ATLAS-HY (Hydrography features of the U.S.). The resulting Public Land Survey System DLG files were published on CD-ROM in 1995.The DLG optional-format files were then converted to Arc/INFO coverages, and the individual State files were paneled together into a national coverage. Numeric DLG codes were translated into English, non-polygon features were deleted, and the data set was converted to shapefile format.
In 2001, this data was downloaded in shapefile format by the GeoPlan Center from the National Atlas Website: http://nationalatlas.gov/atlasftp.html. The original geographic extent was the continental U.S., hence the dataset was clipped to the State of Florida, and projected to FGDL Albers HPGN. When received, data was in the following projection: Geographic, Datum: NAD83, Spheroid: GRS1980, Units: Decimal degrees.
MAP PROJECTION PARAMETERS:
Projection ALBERS Units METERS Datum HPGN Spheroid GRS1980 1st standard parallel 24 0 0.000 2nd standard parallel 31 30 0.000 central meridian -84 0 0.000 latitude of projection's origin 24 0 0.000 false easting (meters) 400000.00000 false northing (meters) 0.00000
DATA SOURCES CONTACT(S):
Name: Earth Science Information Center (ESIC), U.S. Geological Survey
Abbr.name: USGS
Address: 507 National Center, Reston, VA 20192
Phone: 1-888-275-8747
Web site: http://mapping.usgs.gov/esic/esic_index.html
Email: atlasmail@usgs.gov
Contact Person:
Phone: 703-648-5920
FGDL CONTACT:
Name: Florida Geographic Data Library
Abbr. Name: FGDL
Address: Florida Geographic Data Library
431 Architecture
PO Box 115706
Gainesville, FL 32611-5706
Web site: http://www.fgdl.org
Contact FGDL:
Technical Support: http://www.fgdl.org/fgdlfeed.html
FGDL Frequently Asked Questions: http://www.fgdl.org/fgdlfaq.html
FGDL Mailing Lists: http://www.fgdl.org/fgdl-l.html
For FGDL Software: http://www.fgdl.org/software.html