Abstract

Scanning and Georeferencing USGS Historical Topographic Maps
Track: Federal Applications and Enterprise Management
Authors: Gregory Allord

The USGS Historical Quadrangle Scanning Project is scanning all scales and all editions of approximately 250,000 topographic maps published by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) since the inception of the topographic mapping program in 1884. This scanning will provide a comprehensive digital repository of USGS topographic maps, available to the public at no cost. USGS will provide ready access to maps that are no longer available for distribution in print or are being replaced by the new generation of US Topo maps. This presentation will describe how the USGS is accurately cataloging and creating metadata to accompany high-resolution, georeferenced digital files representing the lithographic maps. A new software tool for georeferencing scanned topographic quadrangles without operator intervention will be demonstrated. The historical georeferenced maps can be combined with current data from The National Map. The maps will be delivered in a compressed GeoPDF format and as GeoTIFF files.