Observations on USGS-State Cooperative Mapping
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DR.WALLACE W. HACAN Director Kentucky Geological Survey (Ret.) Observations on USGS-State Cooperative Mapping HE DICTIONARY defines the word cooper- selective based on immediate needs of our T ate to mean: to work together willingly country. A state may attract the uscs to map for a common purpose. Thus, when The in it, or accelerate mapping in progress, by United States Geological Survey and a state entrance into a cooperative program. This agency enter into a cooperative agreement, also reduces the cost to the federal govern- they have definite objectives which involve ment, and produces a base map sooner, and both state and federal agencies. The signed consequently enhances economic develop- agreements are quite simple and indicate ment in the State. the nature of the funding, who performs the Fourteen states now have complete 7.5 operations, who owns the original materials, minute topographic map coverage on a the mutual considerations, and the publica- 1:24,000 scale, most of which was done in tion of the results. cooperative programs. Last year in FY 1978, There are several types of cooperative 38 states and Puerto Rico contributed $3.5 programs: million toward the National Mapping Pro- The uses furnishes the personnel, super- -gram, .- primarily for new 7.5 minute topo- vises personnel and operations, in field graphic mapping. Some states' cooperative and ofice, reviews, approves, does cartog- mapping agreements included: raphy, and publishes. Plans and priorities are formulated mutually, and funds are High-altitude aerial photography, photo- matched. inspection, and photorevision of published 7.5 minute maps in the states of Indiana, This is the same, except by agreement the state furnishes some of the personnel and Kansas, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Virginia. pays them from state funds. State funds a Standard revision of published 7.5 minute and services are matched by the uscs. maps in the state of Kentucky. The uscs has a mission in a given state Revision and series conversion in the with which the state is in agreement, so the states of Louisiana and Wyoming. uSGs grants money to it to perform supervi- Preparation of 7.5 minute orthophotoquads sion, operations, and cartography with in the states of Massachusetts and North state personnel. Close control is exerted by Carolina. both parties. Periodic progress reports are Preparation of county topographic maps for required, as are maintenance of given the states of Colorado, Connecticut, Ken- standards. tucky, and Pennsylvania. Pilot projects to generate and use digital There are cooperative agreements in sev- cartographic data in the states of Kansas eral types of mapping, for example, topo- and Texas. graphic, areal geologic, aeromagnetic, grav- Preparation of 1:100,000 scale topo- ity, seismic, radiometric, orthophotographic; graphictbathymetric maps in the state water, coal, and mineral resources, slope of Georgia. maps, engineering geologic, and geologic In the past, uscs-state cooperative map- hazards. ping agreements generally meant matching The first cooperative agreement in topo- dollars or 50 percent each party. Today they graphic mapping was entered into in 1885 by are beginning to include other types of state the uscs with Massachusetts. Since then all assistance such as utilizing state facilities 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto and capacity to compile new map manu- Rico, and the Virgin Islands have contrib- scripts and map finishing; revising and up- uted over $95 million to cooperative topo- dating older ~ublishedmaps; researching graphic mapping programs with the uscs and data gathering to revise and update map through FY 1978. content; and similar activities. One of the uscs missions is to map the to- Today's discussion will briefly cover two pography of all 50 states, and since it cannot cooperative mapping programs in which map all at the same time, it is necessarily Kentucky has participated with the uscs. PHOTOGRAMMETRICENGINEERING AND REMOTE SENSING, Vol. 45, No. 12, December 1979, pp. 1617-1620. PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING, 1979 Cooperative topographic mapping started in Kentucky to check the quadrangles for cul- Kentucky in 1903 and continued until 1929, tural and topographic changes. He and the and from then until 1948 there was no state geologist would meet annually with cooperative mapping in Kentucky. In 1947, representatives of the Kentucky Depart- the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce ap- ments of Highways and Commerce, look pointed a sub-committee of their Natural Re- over the changes, and select quadrangles for sources Committee to investigate the possi- revision, assign priorities, and send the rec- bility of a statewide topographic mapping ommendations to the Atlantic Region office program in cooperation with us~s.It con- for implementation. sisted of a cross-section of representatives Robert Lyddan, then Chief of the uscs from state and local governments, mineral Topographic Division, recommended to the industries, oil and gas industry, professional states in 1976 that, in order to incorporate engineers, agriculturalists, and foresters. As statewide requirements for 7.5 minute quad- a result of their conclusions and support, rangle and other map products into the prep- Governor Clements made it possible to enter aration of the annual national mapping plan, into a five-year program on a matching fund each should establish a State Mapping Advi- basis to map the 767 7.5 minute quadrangles sory Committee. The state requirements on a scale of 1:24,000. State funds came from then submitted annually by each committee the Kentucky Department of Highways and would receive equal consideration with from Legislature appropriations. The Ken- those of a federal agency that uscs receives tucky Agricultural and Industrial Develop- through the annual OMB A-16 procedure. ment Board at Frankfort, Kentucky provided This would not guarantee that all of a state's the necessary. coordination, administration, requirements will materialize in the fol- and technical direction through Phil M. lowing year's program, but it will help in- Miles to formulate concrete plans with the sure that the topographic program is geared uscs for a complete five-year mapping pro- toward meeting the greatest needs. Ken- gram. tucky has essentially implemented such a The first step to devise a plan of action was procedure through the KGS,although it has to review the status of mapping in Kentucky. not formalized it. Our present program is About 35 percent of the State's 40,395 square only adequate to revise urban areas about miles had never been mapped topograph- once every five years, and other quadrangles ically. About 20 percent of the area of the about once every 20 to 30 years. I believe the state was covered by topographic maps made procedure recommended by Robert Lyddan from 1882 to 1910, many of which were at a would take care of many of the cooperative scale of 1:125,000. About 30 percent of the problems which arise in the course of a pro- state was covered by 1:62,500 scale maps gram, and would place the emphasis on the made from 1910 to 1929. About 55 percent of areas of greatest need in the United States. the state required remapping, so it was de- In the 1960's the OMB requested the uscs cided to map the entire state on a scale of to cut the cost of preparation of topographic 1:24,000 on 7.5 minute quadrangles. map revision by use of photorevision and Cost and time estimates were prepared. overprint of cultural changes in color, but The cost for the 36,000 square miles, not a revision of contours. Kentucky was excluding 1:24,000 mapping already done by against this because it would downgrade the TVA and AMS, was estimated at $7 million and quality of the maps on which so much had five years. The program commenced in 1949 been spent. We felt the standard revision, and was completed in 1956 at a cost of which includes cultural and topographic $6,360,000 or $0.28 per acre or $0.14 per acre changes, would maintain the quality of the for the state. At that time, in 1956, Kentucky maps. We finally compromised and agreed became the best modem-mapped state in the for an interim or photorevision only in areas United States, which was to prove econom- of low relief with many cultural changes, to ically most beneficial to it. be followed by a standard revision. We be- In 1958 the Kentucky State Legislature lieve that in areas of high relief the color transferred a modest cooperative topo- overprint would be very misleading or even graphic mapping revision program to the dangerous to the map users where deep ex- Kentucky Geological Survey (KGS)for plan- cavations or roadcuts had been made. ning and administration for the state. The Items such as the representation of rock program was gradually accelerated until cliffs and strip mines have posed specific about 28 to 30 maps are revised each year. problems difficult of representation. The There are never enough funds to revise all new strip mine laws make it more impera- those maps which need it each year. The tive to represent the stripped areas as realis- uscs placed a topographic engineer into tically as possible, and to show the spoil USGS-STATE COOPERATION banks. Slope maps are important in these and individuals. The uscs agreed to enter areas. the program if we could arrange for funds. The practice of changing a quadrangle A ten-to-12-year program to cost about name when the original populated place for $12,000,000 was outlined to the uscs as a which it was named ceases to exist poses cooperative program on a 50150 matching problems of significance for the consumer in basis. We worked through our U.S.