Townships

Metadata:


Identification_Information:
Citation:
Citation_Information:
Originator: Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, Geography Division
Publication_Date: 01012000
Title:
Townships
Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form: vector digital data
Online_Linkage: http://www.census.gov/geo/www/cob/cs2000.html
Description:
Abstract:
The cartographic boundary files are a generalized extract from the U.S. Census Bureau's TIGER database. Line simplification/smoothing was performed with a tolerance of 0.005 decimal degrees and a coordinate reduction using the Douglas-Peucker method with a tolerance of 0.0003 decimal degrees. Very small polygons were eliminated when the combination of geographic codes existed elsewhere. The geography was clipped back to the shoreline of the United States, in contrast to TIGER/Line(r) which shows the full extent of geography out to the 3-mile limit.
Purpose:
These generalized cartographic boundary files are originally produced to support the spatial geographic infrastructure for certain mapping functions within the Census Bureau's American Fact Finder and in support of the LandView Geographic Data Viewer. The generalized files have a much smaller file size than the original file extraction from the Census Bureau's TIGER database, resulting in faster download and processing times.
Supplemental_Information:
Minor civil divisions (MCDs) are the primary governmental or administrative divisions of a county or county equivalent in many states. MCDs represent many different kinds of legal entities with a wide variety of governmental and/or administrative functions. MCDs are variously designated as American Indian reservations, assessment districts, boroughs, charter townships, election districts, election precincts, gores, grants, locations, magisterial districts, parish governing authority districts, plantations, precincts, purchases, road districts, supervisor's districts, towns, and townships. In some states, all or some incorporated places are not located in any MCD (independent places) and thus serve as MCDs in their own right. In other states, incorporated places are part of the MCDs in which they are located (dependent places), or the pattern is mixed- some incorporated places are independent of MCDs and others are included within one or more MCDs. Independent cities, which are statistically equivalent to a county, also are treated as a separate MCD equivalent in states containing MCDs. In Maine and New York, there are American Indian reservations and off-reservation trust lands that serve as MCD equivalents; a separate MCD is created in each case where the American Indian area crosses a county boundary. 
The U.S. Census Bureau recognizes MCDs in the following 28 states: Arkansas, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. The District of Columbia has no primary divisions, and the city of Washington is considered equivalent to an MCD for statistical purposes. Arlington County, VA, also has no MCDs and the entire county is designated as an MCD with the name Arlington. 
The MCDs in 12 states (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin) also serve as general-purpose local governments that generally can perform the same governmental functions as incorporated places. The U.S. Census Bureau presents data for these MCDs in all data products in which it provides data for places.

The cartographic boundary files are primarily designed for small scale, thematic mapping applications at a target scale range of 1:500,000 to 1:5,000,000. 

Limitations 
Because of coordinate thinning:
1. Cartographic boundary files should not be used for geocoding; 
2. Some offshore, redundant, zero population and housing land areas may be absent from the files; 
3. Cartographic Boundary files are not necessarily vertically integrated with previous boundary file sets.
Time_Period_of_Content:
Time_Period_Information:
Single_Date/Time:
Calendar_Date: unknown
Currentness_Reference:
unknown
Status:
Progress: Complete
Maintenance_and_Update_Frequency: Unknown
Spatial_Domain:
Bounding_Coordinates:
West_Bounding_Coordinate: -84.422155
East_Bounding_Coordinate: -75.355690
North_Bounding_Coordinate: 36.617234
South_Bounding_Coordinate: 33.641965
Keywords:
Theme:
Theme_Keyword_Thesaurus: Township Boundaries
Theme_Keyword: Townships
Access_Constraints: None
Use_Constraints:
Unknown
Point_of_Contact:
Contact_Information:
Contact_Organization_Primary:
Contact_Organization: Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, Geography Division
Contact Instructions:
http://www.census.gov/geo/www/cob/cs2000.html
Native_Data_Set_Environment:
Microsoft Windows 2000 Version 5.1 (Build 2600) Service Pack 1; ESRI ArcCatalog 8.3.0.800
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Data_Quality_Information:
Lineage:
Process_Step:
Process_Description:
Metadata imported.
Source_Used_Citation_Abbreviation:
C:\DOCUME~1\stacey\LOCALS~1\Temp\xml214.tmp
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Spatial_Data_Organization_Information:
Direct_Spatial_Reference_Method: Vector
Point_and_Vector_Object_Information:
SDTS_Terms_Description:
SDTS_Point_and_Vector_Object_Type: G-polygon
Point_and_Vector_Object_Count: 1055
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Spatial_Reference_Information:
Horizontal_Coordinate_System_Definition:
Planar:
Grid_Coordinate_System:
Grid_Coordinate_System_Name: State Plane Coordinate System 1983
State_Plane_Coordinate_System:
SPCS_Zone_Identifier: 3200
Lambert_Conformal_Conic:
Standard_Parallel: 34.333333
Standard_Parallel: 36.166667
Longitude_of_Central_Meridian: -79.000000
Latitude_of_Projection_Origin: 33.750000
False_Easting: 609601.220000
False_Northing: 0.000000
Planar_Coordinate_Information:
Planar_Coordinate_Encoding_Method: coordinate pair
Coordinate_Representation:
Abscissa_Resolution: 0.002048
Ordinate_Resolution: 0.002048
Planar_Distance_Units: meters
Geodetic_Model:
Horizontal_Datum_Name: North American Datum of 1983
Ellipsoid_Name: Geodetic Reference System 80
Semi-major_Axis: 6378137.000000
Denominator_of_Flattening_Ratio: 298.257222
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Entity_and_Attribute_Information:
Detailed_Description:
Entity_Type:
Entity_Type_Label: Townships
Attribute:
Attribute_Label: FID
Attribute_Definition:
Internal feature number.
Attribute_Definition_Source:
ESRI
Attribute_Domain_Values:
Unrepresentable_Domain:
Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated.
Attribute:
Attribute_Label: Shape
Attribute_Definition:
Feature geometry.
Attribute_Definition_Source:
ESRI
Attribute_Domain_Values:
Unrepresentable_Domain:
Coordinates defining the features.
Attribute:
Attribute_Label: AREA
Attribute_Definition:
Area of the township polygon calculated by ArcMap
Attribute:
Attribute_Label: PERIMETER
Attribute_Definition:
Perimeter of the township polygon calculated by ArcMap
Attribute:
Attribute_Label: MCD
Attribute_Definition:
Minor Civil Division number from the US Bureau of the Census
Attribute:
Attribute_Label: MCDNAME
Attribute_Definition:
Township Name (Minor Civil Division)
Attribute:
Attribute_Label: COUNTY
Attribute_Definition:
County Number (FIPS Code)
Attribute:
Attribute_Label: KEY
Attribute_Definition:
A text number representing state, county, and township codes
Attribute:
Attribute_Label: ACRES
Attribute_Definition:
Areas of the township polygon in acres calculated by ArcMap
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Distribution_Information:
Distributor:
Contact_Information:
Contact_Organization_Primary:
Contact_Organization: Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, Geography Division
Contact Instructions:
http://www.census.gov/geo/www/cob/cs2000.html
Resource_Description: Downloadable Data
Standard_Order_Process:
Digital_Form:
Digital_Transfer_Information:
Transfer_Size: 7.291
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Metadata_Reference_Information:
Metadata_Date: 20040702
Metadata_Contact:
Contact_Information:
Contact_Organization_Primary:
Contact_Organization: Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, Geography Division
Contact_Address:
Address_Type: REQUIRED: The mailing and/or physical address for the organization or individual.
City: REQUIRED: The city of the address.
State_or_Province: REQUIRED: The state or province of the address.
Postal_Code: REQUIRED: The ZIP or other postal code of the address.
Contact Instructions:
http://www.census.gov/geo/www/cob/cs2000.html
Metadata_Standard_Name: FGDC Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata
Metadata_Standard_Version: FGDC-STD-001-1998
Metadata_Time_Convention: local time
Metadata_Extensions:
Online_Linkage: http://www.esri.com/metadata/esriprof80.html
Profile_Name: ESRI Metadata Profile
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