Standards set the criteria and specifications to ensure that all products prepared by the USGS Geography Discipline (formerly National Mapping) under the National Mapping Program (NMP) reflect current mapping and data policies and are accurate and consistent in style and content. The standards are essential for efficient sharing of products and to provide information about geospatial data. The following pages describe the standards used by USGS Geography to produce and maintain geospatial data products. Many of the standards are available online from this site, and all can be obtained as printed documents by contacting Ask USGS -- Earth Science Information Center (ESIC) or by calling 1-888-ASK-USGS (1-888-275-8747) or e-mailing ask@usgs.gov.

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Help -- Instructions

This page explains procedures for viewing and downloading the standards documents to your system, or ordering printed copies. Documents on this site are available in either Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) or Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML).

• Digital Elevation Model Standards
• Digital Line Graph Standards
• Digital Orthophoto Standards
• Digital Raster Graphic Standards
• Metadata Standards
• Miscellaneous Instructions
• National Hydrography Dataset Standards

• National Map Accuracy Standards
• Other Map Series Standards
• Preparation of Technical Instruction Standards
• Primary Series Quadrangle Map Standards
• Raster Feature Separate Standards
• Supplemental Technical Instructions

• Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC)
• Spatial Data Transfer Standard (SDTS)
• United States National Grid (FGDC)
• U.S. National Grid Conversion (NGS/NOAA)  
• Links to other Standards Sites (world wide)  

Overview of NMP Standards

NMP standards documents, and subsequent updates or changes, available from this site are current and have been approved and authorized by the NMD Standards Review Board. Additionally, we offer some standards documents that are in the draft stages of the approval process. These documents will be labeled, "DRAFT," or if the document has approval for use by USGS contractors and for USGS internal production, it will be labeled, "DRAFT FOR IMPLEMENTATION." All draft documents are subject to change without notice! Standards documents may be periodically updated to reflect changes in policy or to define new or improved data and map specifications. The standards are current as of the version date indicated, please check this site often for the most current document.

Digital Data Standards -- The NMP produces five basic types of digital geospatial data.

• Digital Elevation Model Standards -- Standards which define a digital file consisting of terrain elevations for ground positions at regularly spaced intervals. A Digital Elevation Model is often referred to as a DEM.
• Digital Line Graph Standards -- Standards which define digital vector files containing line data, such as roads or streams, digitized from quadrangle maps. A Digital Line Graph is often referred to as a DLG. The standards cover both DLG-3 and DLG-F series.
• Digital Orthophoto Standards -- Standards which define a digital image of an aerial photograph in which displacements caused by the camera and the terrain have been removed. A Digital Orthophoto is often referred to as a DOQ. A DOQ combines the image characteristics of a photograph with the geometric qualities of a map.
• Digital Raster Graphic Standards -- Standards which define a digital image which is scanned from a USGS quadrangle map. A Digital Raster Graphic is often referred to as a DRG. A DRG is georeferenced to the surface of the Earth, inside the map neatline.
• National Hydrography Dataset Standards -- The USGS and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are jointly preparing standards for the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) and the National Hydrography Dataset - High Resolution (NHD - HR). Both the NHD and NHD - HR are digital vector files of cataloging units which uniquely identify and interconnect the stream segments or "reaches" that comprise the country's surface water drainage system.
• Raster Feature Separate Standards -- Standards which define an archive format for a raster feature separate image file of a USGS topographic or planimetric map.

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Printed Map Standards -- The NMP produces several different series of printed maps.

• Other Map Series Standards -- Various map standards may be found here. Some examples include 1:100,000-Scale Quadrangle Maps, 1:50,000- and 1:100,000-scale County Maps, and State Maps.
• Primary Series Quadrangle Map Standards -- Standards which define primary series topographic maps which include 1:24,000- or 1:25,000-scale quadrangles of the conterminous United States and Hawaii, 1:63,360-scale quadrangles of Alaska, and 1:20,000-scale quadrangles of Puerto Rico. These quadrangle maps show the positions of features and represent their vertical position in a measurable form.

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Additional Standards -- Related NMP standards documents.

• Metadata Standards -- Standards which define content for digital geospatial metadata for USGS NMP digital products.
• Miscellaneous Instructions -- These documents provide detailed instructions or guidelines to support products or processes not covered by other standards or documents.
• National Map Accuracy Standards -- Standards which define the accuracy for published maps.
• Preparation of Technical Instruction Standards -- Standards which define required content and formatting for all USGS NMP technical instructions.
• Supplemental Technical Instructions -- These technical instructions are supplements to the USGS NMP technical instructions. They provide clarifications for both graphic and digital mapping specifications on the basis of changing requirements and interpretations.

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If you have comments and (or) questions about any USGS NMP standards documents, please e-mail NMP Standards.

For comments or questions about other USGS products and (or) services, please contact Ask USGS -- Earth Science Information Center (ESIC) or call 1-888-ASK-USGS (1-888-275-8747) or e-mail ask@usgs.gov.