Publication of North American Datum of 1983 State Plane Coordinates in Feet in West Virginia

AGENCY:

National Geodetic Survey (NGS), National Ocean Service (NOS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

ACTION:

Notice.

SUMMARY:

The National Geodetic Survey (NGS) will publish North American Datum of 1983 (NAD 83) State Plane Coordinate (SPC) grid values in both meters and U.S. Survey Feet (1 ft = 1200/3937 m) in West Virginia, for all well defined geodetic survey control monuments maintained by NGS in the National Spatial Reference System (NSRS) and computed from various geodetic positioning utilities. The adoption of this standard is implemented in accordance with NGS policy and a request from the West Virginia Department of Transportation, the West Virginia Society of Professional Surveyors, the West Virginia GIS Coordinator, and the West Virginia Association of Geospatial Professionals.

DATES:

Individuals or organizations wishing to submit comments on the Publication of North American Datum of 1983 State Plane Coordinates in feet in West Virginia, should do by September 17, 2007.

ADDRESSES:

Written comments should be sent to the attention of David Doyle, Chief Geodetic Surveyor, Office of the National Geodetic Survey, National Ocean Service (N/NGS2), 1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, Maryland 20910, fax 301-713-4324, or via e-mail Dave.Doyle@noaa.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Requests for additional information should be directed to David Doyle, Chief Geodetic Surveyor, National Geodetic Survey (N/NGS2), 1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910; Phone: (301) 713-3178.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Abstract

In 1991, NGS adopted a policy that defines the conditions under which NAD 83 State Plane Coordinates (SPCs) would be published in feet in addition to meters. As outlined in that policy, each state or territory must adopt NAD 83 legislation (typically referenced as Codes, Laws or Statutes), which specifically defines a conversion to either U.S. Survey or International Feet as defined by the U.S. Bureau of Standards in Federal Register Notice 59-5442. To date, 48 states have adopted the NAD 83 legislation however, for various reasons, only 33 included a specific definition of the relationship between meters and feet. This lack of uniformity has led to confusion and misuse of SPCs as provided in various NGS products, services and tools, and created errors in mapping, charting and surveying programs in numerous states due to inconsistent coordinate conversions.