Creating useful products from USGS topographic maps: GIS workflows developed in response to Hurricane Sandy data processing needs
Tefft E. 2015. Creating useful products from USGS topographic maps: GIS workflows developed in response to Hurricane Sandy data processing needs. Natural Resource Report. NPS/NCBN/NRR—2015/958. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
US Topo topographic maps produced by the National Geospatial Program of the USGS are useful as both a data source and as a basemap. US Topos are originally distributed in GeoPDF format and do not provide the needed functionality to GIS analysts actively preparing for, or responding to a natural disaster, such as a coastal storm. These workflows focus on how these US Topo GeoPDFs can be converted into more useful formats. The first two workflows detail how to download US Topos from two online sources, the USDA Geospatial Data Gateway and The National Map Viewer. The USDA Geospatial Data Gateway provides pre-processed collarless topographic maps in MrSid format for download, while The National Map provides collared GeoPDF topographic maps. The next two workflows instruct users on a technique for creating collared and collarless GeoTIFF and JPEG2000 versions of GeoPDFs. Both of these two final workflows use Blue Marble Global Mapper and Esri ArcGIS Desktop software. To accommodate users who do not have access to Global Mapper, an appendix walks users through an alternative approach to converting GeoPDF-formatted files to GeoTIFFs using Geospatial Data Abstraction Library (GDAL) software. These workflows provide users with not only detailed instructions, but also include annotated images for each step along the way.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Tefft, Erica
- Date of Issue
- 2015-05
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- NCBN , NRSS
- Keywords
- Blue Marble Global Mapper, CESU, Environmental Data Center, Esri ArcGIS, GeoPDFs, GeoTIFFs, GIS, Hurricane Sandy, National Geospatial Program, NCBN, North Atlantic Coast Cooperative Ecosystems Studies Unit, Northeast Coastal and Barrier Network, The National Map Viewer, Topographic Map, University of Rhode Island, US Topo, USDA Geospatial Data Gateway