Digital Chart of the World (DCW)
Overview | Features | Getting Data | Using DCW in ArcView | Data Organization | Documentation and Links
Overview
The Digital Chart of the World (DCW) is a 1:1,000,000 scale geographic database. It contains geographic features, attribute data, descriptive text, and metadata that can be used in conjunction with Arc/Info and ArcView GIS software. It was originally produced by ESRI for the U.S. Defense Mapping Agency and distributed on CD.
Data Features
Consult the DCW Documentation for details on the layers listed below:
- Layer documentation introduction
- Political and oceans layer
- Populated places
- Railroads
- Roads
- Land cover
- Vegetation
- Physiography
- Utilities
- Transportation sturctures
- Drainage
- Supplemental drainage
- Hypsography
- Supplemental hypsography
- Ocean features
- Aeronauticl features
- Cultural landmarks
- Data Quality
The Utilities Directory contains additional layers which may be of use in interpreting the DCW data sets.
Data Access and Use
DCW data is now downloadable via the Web as ARC/INFO coverages that are clipped to individual country borders. See http://www.gisdatadepot.com. For NCSU networked data holdings see below:
Data Location
Copying Data to Your Personal Space
If you do not want to edit the DCW data then there is no need to copy the DCW data. You can read it into ArcView or Arc/Info from where it resides.
- Navigate to the directory where you want the coverage.
- Start Arc/Info.
- The second method is to bring the data into ArcView and save it as a shape file to your personal space.
Using DCW Data in ArcView
A brief guide to bringing DCW data into ArcView is available.
A sample ArcView project containing DCW data for Eastern North Carolina is available.
Data Organization
The DCW data is broken up into tiles, each representing a 5 degree latitude by 5 degree longitude portion of the earth. These tiles must each be accessed individually for analysis or plotting.
The tile organization
- Tile names for specific areas of interest
- The Continental USA
The tiles for the Western and Midwestern US (DK through FH) are contained in the w180_w90 quadrant (subdirectory). Tiles for the Eastern US (GK through HJ) are contained in the w90_w0
quadrant (subdirectory). [see image]
- Alaska
(AK through CK), contained in the w180_w90 quadrant (subdirectory) [see image]
- North Carolina
The tiles for North Carolina are: GJ22, GJ32, GJ21, GJ31. These tiles are all contained in the w90_w0 quadrant (subdirectory). [see image]
- Tile names for the globe
These give the 15 degree tiles, see the tile organization for additional details.
- w180_w90: Contains tiles between 90 and 180 degrees West; most of North America
- w90_w0: Contains tiles between 0 and 90 degrees West; Eastern US and South America .
- e0_e90: Contains tiles between 0 and 90 degrees East; Africa, Europe, India, the former Western USSR.
- e90_e180: Contains tiles between 90 and 180 degrees East; China, Japan, Australia, and the former Eastern USSR.
Documentation and Links
Further Information
- Questions about the online data should be directed to
Data Services.
- Paper documentation: ESRI. 1993. Digital Chart of the World for use with
ARC/INFO: data dictionary. ESRI, Redlands, California.
Go to the GIS Data Listing
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