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 Goals | Activities | Contacts The mission of the Cooperative Topographic Mapping (CTM) Program is to provide the Nation with access to current, accurate, and consistent base geographic data and derivative products, including topographic maps. The CTM Program has the lead responsibility to develop, maintain, and make available The National Map. CTM Program Goals The USGS traditionally has produced base geographic information and has made that information available as topographic quadrangle maps and digital products, such as line graphs, elevation models, and raster graphics. The CTM Program 5-Year Plan calls for a dramatic realignment of USGS roles to deemphasize data production in order to focus on partnerships for data sharing. State and local governments and the private sector conduct mapping operations that provide much of the data content required for The National Map. Integrating these data into a distributed set of public domain, nationally consistent information and making these data immediately accessible over the Web are the keys to achieving the goals of The National Map.
The CTM Program 5-Year Plan documents the major objectives of the program:
Key CTM Program Activities Ensuring the availability of current and complete base geographic data for the Nation requires innovative approaches to coordinating mapping and related activities. The CTM Program promotes activities that focus on achieving the full characteristics of The National Map. The following are examples of these activities. Mapping Partnership Offices. By placing an increasing fraction of its workforce in offices that are collocated with other USGS discipline staff or with Federal and State partner agencies, the USGS will provide resources and expertise to encourage and sustain cooperative activities that emphasize data sharing and distributed data stewardship. In Austin, Texas, the USGS Mapping Partnership Office shares office space with USGS Water Resources Discipline staff and supports a partnership with the Texas Natural Resource Information System StratMap to implement The National Map. State Partnerships. State-level consortia that bring together State, county, and local mapping activities are important for accomplishing The National Map. Many partnerships are being created. For example, Delaware authorities work closely with the USGS to provide Web access to seamless Federal, State, county, and local base geographic data.
Federal Partnerships. Many Federal agencies collect base geographic data. By sharing and maintaining these data through long-term partnerships, the USGS is implementing the principles of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure and the Office of Management and Budget's Geospatial One-Stop Initiative for geographic data access. For example, the USGS is developing a partnership with the Bureau of the Census to incorporate updated transportation and boundary data from the TIGER database into The National Map. Volunteers. Knowing about changes on the landscape is critical to maintaining data that are current. A major source for update information may be volunteers. The current mapping volunteer program, the Earth Science Corps, will be the base for new approaches that take advantage of emerging technologies, such as global positioning systems (GPS), personal digital assistant devices, and wireless Web access, to obtain feature status and change information from volunteers. Hazards and Disasters. Current, reliable, and readily accessible geographic information of The National Map is essential for planning for, responding to, and recovering from natural hazards and other emergencies. By linking real-time stream-flow data to The National Map, scientists can predict the timing and magnitude of downstream flooding. Detailed orthophotographs and map data for the Nation's urban areas can be used to protect people and critical infrastructure in both natural events such as hurricanes and earthquakes and human-induced disasters. Data Access. Web access to the data of The National Map and Web-based mapping tools that provide data visualization and mapping functionality are essential to making geographic knowledge available. The CTM Program supports a Web portal that will be a single access point to The National Map. Users will be able to define a geographic area of interest, browse metadata for available data, select content that meets their unique needs, and display and print maps from these data.
Key CTM Contacts CTM Program Coordinator
U.S. Geological Survey National Center, Mail Stop 590 12201 Sunrise Valley Drive Reston, VA 20192-0002 Phone: 703-648-5569 E-mail: hgarie@usgs.gov Eastern Region Geography CTM Contact
U.S. Geological Survey National Center, Mail Stop 561 12201 Sunrise Valley Drive Reston, VA 20192-0002 Phone: 703-648-5393 E-mail: aherr@usgs.gov Mid-Continent Mapping Center CTM Contact
U.S. Geological Survey 1400 Independence Road, Mail Stop 300 Rolla, MO 65401-2602 Phone: 573-308-3802 E-mail: kcraun@usgs.gov EROS Data Center CTM Contact
U.S. Geological Survey 47914 252nd Street Sioux Falls, SD 57198-0001 Phone: 605-594-6160 E-mail: binnie@usgs.gov Rocky Mountain Mapping Center CTM Contact
U.S. Geological Survey Denver Federal Center, Mail Stop 516 Box 25046 Denver, CO 80225-0046 Phone: 303-202-4106 E-mail: tpdinardo@usgs.gov Western Region Geography CTM Contact
U.S. Geological Survey 345 Middlefield Road, Mail Stop 531 Menlo Park, CA 94025-3561 Phone: 650-329-4294 E-mail: rmarinaro@usgs.gov |
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U.S. Geological Survey 12201 Sunrise Valley Drive, Reston, VA 20192, USA URL: http://geography.usgs.gov/ctm.html Maintainer: Geography Webmaster Last modified: 06:42:20 Wed 13 Oct 2004 |
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