Technical Resources

GIS - What's New

07/14/2008

Geodata Updates

CGI Framework Update

The State of Michigan Center for Geographic Information (CGI) has released version 8a of the Michigan Geographic Framework (MGF), and the data has been distributed to all field office servers. The MGF data includes government units, transportation, hydrography, etc. A complete description of improvements since version 7 may be found on CGI's website.

Zip Codes

The county-based zip code shapefiles have been replaced with an updated statewide zip code layer. The individual county shapefiles named zipcode_tapd_a_mi[FIPS] which were previously found in the "f:\geodata\government_units" folder have been replaced with the following:

postal_dm_a_mi.shp - Statewide zip code boundaries by county (polygons)

postal_dm_p_mi.shp - Statewide zip code centroids (points)

Field Imagery Updates

Georeferencing of the FSA Legacy Master Photos has been completed for all 68 Lower Peninsula counties as well as Delta County in the Upper Peninsula. Due to cost considerations, the remaining UP counties will be completed on an as-needed basis only. NRCS-MI staff may contact Brent Stinson, State GIS Specialist, for details on completing additional counties.

As a reminder. this is the scanned FSA master photography from C2003, roughly georeferenced to overlay existing GIS data. While this imagery should not be used as a base for heads-up digitizing, it can be useful as a historical reference when performing HEL and wetland determinations.

The 35mm Slides scanning effort has completed 17 counties to date, with an additional 6 counties underway. This imagery consists of all of the available FSA 35mm compliance slides for each county, often dating back to the late 1970's. These slides are critical to the NRCS wetland determination process and are being digitally captured to prevent further deterioration Those interested in acquiring scanned 35mm slide data should contact Lynn Sampson, NRCS State Biologist.

Field Imagery Status Map

Common Land Unit Certification

FSA-MI continues to certify the common land unit (CLU) boundaries. It is anticipated that the entire state will be certified by October 1, 2008.

CLU Certification Status Map

Software Updates

NRCS-MI ArcMap Tools

The NRCS-Michigan ArcMap Tools have been upgraded to operate exclusively within ArcMap 9.x and include several additional improvements. For example, the HEL Soil Report tool now allows users to perform determinations using CLU features which are physically located in another county. Other improvements increase ArcMap performance on older PCs while the NRCS-MI toolbar is active.

ArcGIS 9.2/Customer Service Toolkit/Soil Data Viewer/DNR Garmin

ArcGIS version 9.2 has been installed on all NRCS computers which are used for conservation planning, as well as the latest versions of Customer Service Toolkit, Soil Data Viewer, and DNR Garmin, (all compatible with Arc9.2). Information Technology Services (ITS) is now in the process of upgrading those computers which currently have ArcGIS version 8.3 installed without Toolkit.

ArcMap Service Packs

The latest NRCS load of ArcMap 9.2 includes ArcMap Service Pack 4 (SP4). ESRI released SP5 in March of 2008 and SP6 is scheduled for release in July. Depending on the estimated time for SP6 to be approved by ITS, NRCS may skip the installation of SP5 and move directly to SP6. A complete list of SP6 improvements may be found in this announcement on ESRI's website.

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