[music] Narrator: Our greatest resource to understanding
our geography has always been maps.
Sprawling urban areas, growing infrastructure, and changing shorelines drive the need for
up to date maps and geographic data.
Michael Cooley: Topographic maps have been used by outdoor enthusiasts, land planners,
land managers, emergency response they've used these maps and depending on them for
decades.
Narrator: Today, the U.S. Topo a product of the National Map brings a new way of looking
at maps.
Major William Schouviller: For me the US Topo is different from the commercially available
maps and their viewers through this precision.
Dr. Cynthia Brewer: US Topo is trusted, the content is the primary source of publicly
available geographic data.
Man 3: US Topo can be provided in a digital format or it can be used as a hard copy.
Michael: The U.S. Geological Survey has a long history of topographic mapping.
Narrator: From 1947 to 1992 the USGS created over 55,000 seven point five minute quadrangle
maps for the lower United States and periodically revised them.
Michael: The National Geospatial program is responsible for mapping the nation.
Mapping our nation is a very labor intensive process.
USGS is embracing new technologies to continue our high standards of quality while improving
efficiencies and lowering cost.
Narrator: We have seamlessly combined a traditional look and feel with new features
to provide greater value to the user.
Cynthia: The use of imagery adds a new dimension to map reading and interpretation, it lets
you bring in the layer with up to date conditions so that you can superimpose or interleave
with existing data and understand changes in the landscape.
Imagery introduces unique map design issues multi scale, on screen.
It's quite different than designing for a printed map.
At Penn State University, students and researchers are doing some groundbreaking work with USGS
to make the very best cartographic designs for US Topo.
William: US Marine Corp is an integral part of the Homeland Defense and First Responder
community.
In our opinion, it's critical that the US Topo be updated every three years to provide
that base map for response to natural and man made disasters.
The ability to download maps to our laptop computers and handheld devices allows us to
deploy in a matter of hours as opposed to days.
This helps save lives of both the victims as well as the first responders.
Charles Dull: US Forest Service and USGS have been working together dating back to
the 1920s when we first began producing topographic maps of our nation's national forest and grasslands.
Today, we're working together to produce US Topo, a product that covers 193 million acres
of national forest and grasslands.
The US Forest Service collects the information on Forest Service roads, boundaries, geographic
names, elevation.
We provide that information to the USGS and they produce the US Topo.
Michael: We do customer surveys of key mapping communities.
This feedback and ongoing communication with our users guides us to improving the US Topo.
Cynthia: The look of US Topo is like the traditional paper USGS maps.
I think that's really going to improve over time as new features are added and the design
is refined.
William: The idea that every feature and attribute has a precise location to it so
that I can find that feature on the ground later is very important.
We use the national grid system.
It's a locational based system we used in the US Topo to allow the first responder to
find locations when the standard locational data such as street signs or landmarks are
missing.
Charles: It's a great example of our two agencies working together to meet our missions
for service to protect and manage the nation's national resources and the USGS and their
production of the National Map.
Laurie Jasso: Via the USGS store or National Map viewer, tens of thousands of US Topo maps
per year are downloaded for free by users.
Once downloaded, these high quality maps can be printed to scale.
Narrator: Our vision does not end there.
Taking maps into the digital realm is an evolution.
Michael: We continually assess and look at data for Alaska, Hawaii and the Pacific
Territories.
As US Topo evolves, we will be updating and adding new features.
Narrator: The potential of these maps is far reaching.
The incorporation of additional data layers offers exciting new possibilities to explore
and understand changes in our landscape.
Michael: We understand the importance of a robust map and we're incorporating additional
data layers from the National Map.
William: As we start adding specific features and specific buildings in, such as police
stations and hospitals, schools it will be a critical tool for that first responder.
Cynthia: US Topo is the first step in an electronic national topographic map for the
future.
The National Map data that are used to build the US Topo maps are available for public
download and that's a powerful benefit.
Narrator: Visit www.nationalmap.gov to see how you can partner with us for the future.
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