Abstract

Fusion of Geodesy and GIS at NOAA's National Geodetic Survey
Track: Surveying
Authors: Brian Shaw

The mission of NOAA’s National Geodetic Survey (NGS) is to define, maintain, and provide access to the National Spatial Reference System (NSRS), the foundation for navigation, mapping, and surveying in the United States. For most of its over 200 year history, NGS has largely met its mission objectives without GIS...until now. NGS has developed a GIS toolbox that includes survey tools that create attribute-rich GIS features for GNSS and geodetic leveling networks directly from NGS software output (including OPUS-Projects), and a grid conversion tool that generates standard GIS rasters from NGS grids, such as geoid models. The GIS tools were created using the Python scripting language and are accessed through the Esri ArcToolbox; a Web-based version is also being planned. This workshop describes these new NGS GIS products and services and shows how to use them. The new tools provide better access to the NSRS and leverage the power of GIS for display and analysis of geodetic data. By developing such tools, NGS better meets the needs of our growing and diverse customer base of surveyors, GIS practitioners, and other geospatial professionals