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 446-2008ANSIINCITS446-2008ANSIINCITS 446-2008American National Standardfor Information Technology Identifying Attributes for Named Physical and CulturalGeographic Features (Except Roads and Highways) ofthe United States, Territories, Outlying Areas, andFreely Associa
3、ted 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.Approval of an American National Standard requires review by ANSI that therequirements for due proc
4、ess, consensus, and other criteria for approval havebeen met by the standards developer.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 tha
5、na simple majority, but not necessarily unanimity. Consensus requires that allviews and 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, whethe
6、r he has approvedthe standards or not, from manufacturing, marketing, purchasing, or usingproducts, 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 Nationa
7、lStandard. Moreover, no person shall have the right or authority to issue aninterpretation 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 th
8、is standard.CAUTION NOTICE: This American National Standard may be revised orwithdrawn 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
9、 current information on all standards by calling or writing the AmericanNational Standards 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 reser
10、ved.No part of this publication may be reproduced in anyform, in an electronic retrieval 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
11、of patents that may berequired for the implementation of the standard disclose such patents 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
12、standardand following calls for the identification of patents that may be required for 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 impliedt
13、hat licenses are not required to avoid infringement in the use of this standard.iContentsPageForeword iiIntroduction vii1 Scope . 12 Normative References 23 Terms and Definitions. 34 Procedures . 64.1 Application as an Authoritative Source. 64.2 Establishing a National Standard Feature Identifier .
14、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 Locations, and Feature Identifiers. 7AnnexA Bibliography 8iiForeword (This foreword
15、is not part of American National Standard ANSI 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
16、 government. The Board comprises representa-tives 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 fe
17、ature names with locative attributes as well 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 supporti
18、ng agency for theBoard.By law, the Board is responsible 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 ter
19、ritories, and outlying areas. Unless asked to 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
20、named by Con-gress, but not the names of dams 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 name
21、s, spellings, andlocations became a serious problem 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 B
22、oard were accepted as binding by all de-partments 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 lo
23、cation inquiries, issues, changes, andproposals 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 i
24、s throughstrong programs of national standardization.“ 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 developed
25、as an essential application of information technology 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 fo
26、r applying these data to federal electron-ic 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
27、. The database holds the federally recognized name of each feature andiiidefines the feature location by state, county, USGS topographic map, and geograph-ic coordinates. Other attributes include names or spellings other than the officialname, feature designations, feature classification, and histor
28、ical and descriptive in-formation. The database assigns a unique, permanent feature record identifier as thestandard federal key for accessing, integrating, and reconciling feature data acrossmultiple data sets.The GNIS contains data compiled over thirty years. In the first phase (1976-1981),data we
29、re 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.S. Board on Geographic Names going back to 1890. Analysisdetermined that these sources provided less than twenty percent of t
30、he 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 historicalmaps and documents. All but one state (Alaska) are in process or have been com-pleted.The third and ongoing phase for
31、 maintenance commenced in 1985. The GNIS nowoperates through a broad and growing program of partnerships with federal, state,and local government agencies. Partners submit new and revised feature records inconjunction with their mapping and geographical information system data mainte-nance programs.
32、 The objective is to integrate and synchronize GNIS feature names,locations, and other attributes with state and local holdings, and therefore ensureproper representation of local data at the federal and national level.The GNIS utilizes web, database, and GIS technology to automate and simplifymaint
33、enance, ensure data consistency, integrity, and accuracy, and to continuemeeting the requirements of the Board for standardization. Data are available to alllevels of government, to the public, and to numerous applications through a web que-ry site (http:/geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/), web map
34、and feature services, filedownload services, and customized files upon request. A web-based data entry andedit application allows partners to submit transactions directly for validation and entryinto the database, where changes immediately become available to web servicesand applications. Batch file
35、s 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 (DHS) Geospatial Data Model. Forover a century, the Board on Geographic Names and the Geographic Names Projecthave ensured accu
36、rate geographic feature data on USGS Topographic Maps. Theyand the Geographic Names Information System now are serving the growing Geo-graphic Information System communities in the same manner.The ChallengeThe explosive growth of geographic information systems and internet-based applica-tions and se
37、rvices have generated multitudes of related, overlapping, and potentiallycontradictory datasets containing geographic feature data, served by multiple, inter-locking, and interdependent applications at all levels of government and the privatesector. It is virtually impossible to correlate the many d
38、ifferent 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 same features, record forrecord. Unregulated text fields, particularly feature names, may contain wide varia-tions of spellin
39、g, content, presentation, and errors that are outside the control of thedata owners. Locational attributes are subject to multiple variations and differing in-terpretations. Geospatial representations frequently exist in multiple versions at vary-iving scales and levels of accuracy. Many geographic
40、features 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 ensur
41、ing 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 representat
42、ion 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 se
43、curity, 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
44、 annex, 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 20
45、005.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 G
46、arner, SecretaryOrganization Represented Name of RepresentativeAdobe Systems, Inc Steve ZillesScott Foshee (Alt.)AIM Global, Inc. Dan MullenCharles Biss (Alt.)Apple Computer, Inc. Kwok LauHelene Workman (Alt.)David Singer (Alt.)Distributed Management Task Force Tony DiCenzoElectronic Industries Alli
47、ance Edward Mikoski, Jr.EMC Corporation Gary RobinsonFarance, Inc Frank FaranceTimothy Schoechle (Alt.)Google Zaheda BhoratRobert Tai (Alt.)GS1 US. Ray DelnickiFrank Sharkey (Alt.)James Chronowski (Alt.)Mary Wilson (Alt.)Hewlett-Packard Company. Paul JeranKaren Higginbottom (Alt.)Scott Jameson (Alt.
48、)IBM Corporation Ronald F. SillettiRobert Weir (Alt.)vOrganization Represented Name of RepresentativeIEEE Judith GormanTerry DeCourcelle (Alt.)Bill Ash (Alt.)Jodie Haasz (Alt.)Bob Labelle (Alt.)Susan Tatiner (Alt.)Intel .Philip WennblomDave Thewlis (Alt.)Grace Wei (Alt.)Lexmark InternationalDon Wrig
49、htDwight Lewis (Alt.)Paul Menard (Alt.)Microsoft CorporationJim HughesDave Welsh (Alt.)Isabelle Valet-Harper (Alt.)National Institute of Standards & Technology .Michael HoganElaine Barker (Alt.)Dan Benigni (Alt.)Fernando Podio (Alt.)Teresa Schwarzhoff (Alt.)Oracle CorporationDonald R. DeutschJim Melton (Alt.)Michael Kavanaugh (Alt.)Peter Lord (Alt.)Toshihiro Suzuki (Alt.)Sony Electronics, Inc.Ed BarrettJean Baronas (Alt.)Stroage Networking Industry Association (SNIA)Gary PhillipsRick Bauer (Alt.)Arnold Jones (Alt.)Dave Thiel (Alt.)US Department of Defense .Jerry SmithDennis Devera (Alt
