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In recent years, the disciplines of cartography and geography have undergone a rapid and striking reorientation as the techniques for digital collection and manipulation of data have evolved from fledgling laboratory procedures into dominant and driving forces that now pervade the disciplines.Digital tech-~-have provided a variety of new and powerful capabilities to collect, manipulate, analyze, and display spatial data.However, this evolution also has introduced a number of new and complex problems.One of the most pressing problems, and one which is receiving particular attention at present, is the issue of digital cartographic data standards.The u.s.Geological Survey (USGS) has been activelydeveloping digital cartographic and geographic techniques for over a decade and has taken significant steps to develop and define in-house standards governing the various types of digital cartographic data that are being collected and archived in a national digital cartographic data base.The in-house standards are expressed in the form of specifications documents that were prepared to govern collection of the data and in the form of user guides that were prepared for distribution with the data.In an effort to fulfill lead agency requirements for promulgation of Federal standards in the earth sciences, the documents have been assembled with explanatory text into this USGS Circular consisting of separately bound chapters.This Circular describes some of the pertinent issues relating to digital cartographic data standards, documents the digital cartographic data standards currently in use within the USGS National Mapping Division, and details USGS efforts to define national digital cartographic data standards.Chapter A is an overview in which the major issues involved in developing digital cartographic data standards are discussed and the activities of the USGS related to digital cartographic data production and standards development are described in detail.Succeeding chapters comprise the pertinent documents that establish USGS in-house standards for the various types of digital cartographic data currently produced by the National Mapping Division--that is, digital elevation data, digital planimetric data, digital land use and land cover data, and digital geographic names data.
Roger L. Payne (Sat,) studied this question.