1、American National StandardDeveloped byfor Information Technology Identifying Attributes for Named Physical and Cultural Geographic Features (Except Roads and Highways) of the United States, Territories, Outlying Areas, and FreelyAssociated Areas, and the Waters of the Same to the Limit of the Twelve
2、-Mile Statutory Zone ANSI INCITS 446-2008ANSIINCITS446-2008Copyright American National Standards Institute Provided by IHS under license with ANSI Not for ResaleNo reproduction or networking permitted without license from IHS-,-,-Copyright American National Standards Institute Provided by IHS under
3、license with ANSI Not for ResaleNo reproduction or networking permitted without license from IHS-,-,-ANSIINCITS 446-2008American National Standardfor Information Technology Identifying Attributes for Named Physical and CulturalGeographic Features (Except Roads and Highways) ofthe United States, Terr
4、itories, Outlying Areas, andFreely Associated Areas, and the Waters of the Sameto the Limit of the Twelve-Mile Statutory ZoneSecretariatInformation Technology Industry CouncilApproved October 28, 2008American National Standards Institute, Inc.Copyright American National Standards Institute Provided
5、by IHS under license with ANSI Not for ResaleNo reproduction or networking permitted without license from IHS-,-,-Approval of an American National Standard requires review by ANSI that therequirements for due process, consensus, and other criteria for approval havebeen met by the standards developer
6、.Consensus is established when, in the judgement of the ANSI Board ofStandards Review, substantial agreement has been reached by directly andmaterially affected interests. Substantial agreement means much more thana simple majority, but not necessarily unanimity. Consensus requires that allviews and
7、 objections be considered, and that a concerted effort be madetowards their resolution.The use of American National Standards is completely voluntary; theirexistence does not in any respect preclude anyone, whether he has approvedthe standards or not, from manufacturing, marketing, purchasing, or us
8、ingproducts, processes, or procedures not conforming to the standards.The American National Standards Institute does not develop standards andwill in no circumstances give an interpretation of any American NationalStandard. Moreover, no person shall have the right or authority to issue aninterpretat
9、ion of an American National Standard in the name of the AmericanNational Standards Institute. Requests for interpretations should beaddressed to the secretariat or sponsor whose name appears on the titlepage of this standard.CAUTION NOTICE: This American National Standard may be revised orwithdrawn
10、at any time. The procedures of the American National StandardsInstitute require that action be taken periodically to reaffirm, revise, orwithdraw this standard. Purchasers of American National Standards mayreceive current information on all standards by calling or writing the AmericanNational Standa
11、rds Institute.American National StandardPublished byAmerican National Standards Institute, Inc.25 West 43rd Street, New York, NY 10036Copyright 2008 by Information Technology Industry Council (ITI)All rights reserved.No part of this publication may be reproduced in anyform, in an electronic retrieva
12、l system or otherwise,without prior written permission of ITI, 1250 Eye Street NW, Washington, DC 20005. Printed in the United States of AmericaCAUTION: The developers of this standard have requested that holders of patents that may berequired for the implementation of the standard disclose such pat
13、ents to the publisher. However,neither the developers nor the publisher have undertaken a patent search in order to identifywhich, if any, patents may apply to this standard. As of the date of publication of this standardand following calls for the identification of patents that may be required for
14、the implementation ofthe standard, no such claims have been made. No further patent search is conducted by the de-veloper or publisher in respect to any standard it processes. No representation is made or impliedthat licenses are not required to avoid infringement in the use of this standard.Copyrig
15、ht American National Standards Institute Provided by IHS under license with ANSI Not for ResaleNo reproduction or networking permitted without license from IHS-,-,-iContentsPageForeword iiIntroduction vii1 Scope . 12 Normative References 23 Terms and Definitions. 34 Procedures . 64.1 Application as
16、an Authoritative Source. 64.2 Establishing a National Standard Feature Identifier . 64.3 Establishing a National Standard Feature Name . 64.4 Establishing a National Standard Feature Location Standard 74.5 Revising Official Feature Names and Locations. 74.6 Accessing Official Feature Names, Feature
17、Locations, and Feature Identifiers. 7AnnexA Bibliography 8Copyright American National Standards Institute Provided by IHS under license with ANSI Not for ResaleNo reproduction or networking permitted without license from IHS-,-,-iiForeword (This foreword is not part of American National Standard ANS
18、I INCITS 446-2008.)The United States Board on Geographic NamesThe United States Board on Geographic Names (http:/geonames.usgs.gov/) is afederal body created in 1890 to maintain standardized geographic feature name andlocation usage throughout the federal government. The Board comprises representa-t
19、ives of federal departments and independent agencies concerned with geographicinformation, population, ecology, and management of public lands. Sharing its re-sponsibilities with the Secretary of the Interior, the Board promulgates official geo-graphic feature names with locative attributes as well
20、as principles, policies, andprocedures governing the data. An underlying principle of the Board is formal recog-nition of present day local usage or preferences. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)Geographic Names Project is the executive agent and supporting agency for theBoard.By law, the Board is r
21、esponsible for all geographic names except those applying tooffices or establishments of federal agencies. Practically, however, the Board de-cides primarily on the names of natural features of the land, reservoirs, and canals inthe United States, its territories, and outlying areas. Unless asked to
22、 do so, the Boarddoes not rule on the names of cultural features such as roads, streets, shopping cen-ters, churches, schools, hospitals, and airports. Borderline cases exist; for example,the Board determines the official names of reservoirs not formally named by Con-gress, but not the names of dams
23、 that form the reservoirs.The original program of names standardization (not regulation) began during thesurge of exploration, mining, and settlement of western territories after the Civil War.Inconsistencies and contradictions among numerous feature names, spellings, andlocations became a serious p
24、roblem to surveyors, map makers, and scientists whorequired uniform, non-conflicting geographic nomenclature. President Harrisonsigned an executive order establishing the Board and giving it authority to resolvethese critical questions. Decisions of the Board were accepted as binding by all de-partm
25、ents and agencies of the federal government.Congress recreated the Board in 1947 by Public Law 80-242. In partnership with fed-eral, state, and local agencies and state names authorities, the Board serves as acentral authority to which feature name and location inquiries, issues, changes, andproposa
26、ls may be directed. The usefulness of this type of program has been proven time and again, and todaymore than fifty nations have some type of national names authority. The United Na-tions stated: “the best method to achieve international standardization is throughstrong programs of national standard
27、ization.“ Numerous nations established policiesrelevant to the toponymic (the study of names) issues in their respective countries.The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS)In the mid-1970s, the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) was developedas an essential application of information te
28、chnology to the mission of the Board. TheBoard designated the GNIS as the official repository of domestic geographic featurenames and locations data, the official vehicle for use of these data by all departmentsof the federal government, and the source for applying these data to federal electron-ic
29、and printed products. The GNIS is the federal standard for geographic nomencla-ture.The GNIS contains information about selected domestic physical and cultural geo-graphic features of importance and interest to users of geographic information sys-tem data. The database holds the federally recognized
30、 name of each feature andCopyright American National Standards Institute Provided by IHS under license with ANSI Not for ResaleNo reproduction or networking permitted without license from IHS-,-,-iiidefines the feature location by state, county, USGS topographic map, and geograph-ic coordinates. Oth
31、er attributes include names or spellings other than the officialname, feature designations, feature classification, and historical and descriptive in-formation. The database assigns a unique, permanent feature record identifier as thestandard federal key for accessing, integrating, and reconciling f
32、eature data acrossmultiple data sets.The GNIS contains data compiled over thirty years. In the first phase (1976-1981),data were entered from the largest-scale USGS topographic maps available, ForestService maps and visitor maps, and National Ocean Service charts, and compared tothe records of the U
33、.S. Board on Geographic Names going back to 1890. Analysisdetermined that these sources provided less than twenty percent of the names forextant features. Phase II commenced in 1982 as a thirty year program to collect databy contract from official state, local, and other approved sources including h
34、istoricalmaps and documents. All but one state (Alaska) are in process or have been com-pleted.The third and ongoing phase for maintenance commenced in 1985. The GNIS nowoperates through a broad and growing program of partnerships with federal, state,and local government agencies. Partners submit ne
35、w and revised feature records inconjunction with their mapping and geographical information system data mainte-nance programs. The objective is to integrate and synchronize GNIS feature names,locations, and other attributes with state and local holdings, and therefore ensureproper representation of
36、local data at the federal and national level.The GNIS utilizes web, database, and GIS technology to automate and simplifymaintenance, ensure data consistency, integrity, and accuracy, and to continuemeeting the requirements of the Board for standardization. Data are available to alllevels of governm
37、ent, to the public, and to numerous applications through a web que-ry site (http:/geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/), web map and feature services, filedownload services, and customized files upon request. A web-based data entry andedit application allows partners to submit transactions directly for
38、 validation and entryinto the database, where changes immediately become available to web servicesand applications. Batch files also are accepted in most standard formats. The GNIS is an element of The National Map, the National Spatial Data Infrastruc-ture, and the Department of Homeland Security (
39、DHS) Geospatial Data Model. Forover a century, the Board on Geographic Names and the Geographic Names Projecthave ensured accurate geographic feature data on USGS Topographic Maps. Theyand the Geographic Names Information System now are serving the growing Geo-graphic Information System communities
40、in the same manner.The ChallengeThe explosive growth of geographic information systems and internet-based applica-tions and services have generated multitudes of related, overlapping, and potentiallycontradictory datasets containing geographic feature data, served by multiple, inter-locking, and int
41、erdependent applications at all levels of government and the privatesector. It is virtually impossible to correlate the many different sets of feature data containingthousands, tens of thousands, or more records based solely on attribute compari-sons with any assurance that they mutually address the
42、 same features, record forrecord. Unregulated text fields, particularly feature names, may contain wide varia-tions of spelling, content, presentation, and errors that are outside the control of thedata owners. Locational attributes are subject to multiple variations and differing in-terpretations.
43、Geospatial representations frequently exist in multiple versions at vary-Copyright American National Standards Institute Provided by IHS under license with ANSI Not for ResaleNo reproduction or networking permitted without license from IHS-,-,-iving scales and levels of accuracy. Many geographic fea
44、tures have no definable,official, recognized, or agreed upon boundaries, for example, the eighty percent ofcommunities in the United States that are unincorporated, or a mountain for whichthere is really no algorithm for determining feature extent. Therefore, there is no known mechanism for ensuring
45、 at the national level that relat-ed datasets contain and are serving mutually consistent feature data, or that stateand local data are properly represented in federal datasets. For over a hundredyears, the USGS National Base Map series provided the only consistent, nationalgeospatial representation
46、 available, but for many critical purposes, printed mapshave been rendered obsolete by technology.The implications of incorrect, inaccurate, or contradictory feature data appearing si-multaneously in multiple Internet applications are serious and potentially catastrophicwith regard to national secur
47、ity, emergency preparedness and response, regionaland local planning, site selection and analysis, cartographic applications, environ-mental problem-solving, tourism, and all levels of communication. This standard is in-tended to help correct this deficiency.This standard contains one informative an
48、nex, which is not considered part of thisstandard.Requests for interpretation, suggestions for improvement or addenda, or defect re-ports are welcome. They should be sent to InterNational Committee for InformationTechnology Standards (INCITS), ITI, 1250 Eye Street, NW, Suite 200, Washington,DC 20005
49、.This standard was processed and approved for submittal to ANSI by INCITS. Com-mittee approval of this standard does not necessarily imply that all committee mem-bers voted for its approval. At the time it approved this standard, INCITS had thefollowing members:Karen Higginbottom, ChairJennifer Garner, SecretaryOrganization Represented Name of RepresentativeAdobe Systems, Inc Steve Zille
