U.S. Census Bureau Geography Division Programs

1. U.S. Census BureauGeography Division Programs Presentation to the Indiana Government Geospatial Coordinator Forum September 20, 2012

2. Overview • Boundary and Annexation Survey • Consolidated BAS Agreements • BAS State Certification • GSSiPartnership Program

3. Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS)

4. What is the Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS)? • A voluntary survey of local, county, and tribal governments • Conducted annually to collect information about legal geographic areas • Primary source of information for: • Legal boundaries and boundary changes • Names, functional statuses, and types of governments • New governments • Dissolved governments • higher-level geographic relationships • e.g. a place annexes into a new county

5. Why do we conduct the BAS? • Ensure that population and housing counts are assigned to the correct geography in all Census Bureau products. • Support the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular No. A-16 • Collecting and maintain boundaries for legal areas • Geo.data.gov • The National Map (http://nationalmap.gov/) • Present statistics for various censuses and surveys: • American Community Survey (ACS) • Population Estimates Program • Economic Census • Decennial Census Programs

6. BAS State Agreements • Available to states that mandate local governments to report boundary updates to the state government. • Under this agreement, states report to the BAS by: • Submitting all boundary updates in the state, OR • Submitting a list of entities that had boundary updates. • State participation improves the BAS process in the following ways: • Reduces duplication of effort in collecting information • Reduces the burden on local governments • Improves the completeness of the boundary data collected in a given year

7. BAS County Agreements • The county government responds to the BAS for governmental units within their jurisdiction. • Under this agreement, the county reports to the BAS by: • Establishing an agreement with entities whereby the county shall respond to the BAS for the undersigned entities. • County agreement does not require every entity to sign on • County participation improves the BAS process by: • Reducing the burden on local governments • Minimizing mailout; only the County BAS contact receives materials. • Improving the completeness of the reported boundary data

8. BAS State Certification Program (State Cert) • A program for state governments to review information that local governments reported to the previous BAS: • Legal boundary changes (annexations & deannexations) • Functional status of governments • Legal names of governmental units. • The current State Cert reports information collected during the previous BAS year: • Ex: 2012 State Cert reports information collected during the 2011 BAS.

9. Why do we conduct State Cert? • Ensure that legal boundary changes and government status changes reported to the BAS are legal. • implemented in accordance with applicable State Laws • Maintain the accuracy and completeness of boundary information: • The Census Bureau is responsible for collecting and maintaining correct Legal Boundary information • Make sure Census Bureau MTDB matches State record • Verify the attribute information submitted to BAS is correct: • Ordinance Number • Effective Date

10. State Laws and State Cert • The extent of State Cert varies depending on the State Laws for incorporations/disincorporations and boundary changes: • State Statutes • Constitution • or State Code • Some states have strong state laws requiring local governments to report to the state government: • The state contact has the authority to request the Census Bureau to edit or delete BAS information • In states that do not have such provisions, the Census Bureau will not edit or delete BAS information without confirmation with the local government.

11. Missing Annexations and Reversals • In strong law states, the state contact may notify the Census Bureau of any missing or illegal boundary changes: • The local entity is sent a discrepancy letter describing the issue • For boundary changes missing from the Census file: • The entity may simply report the missing boundary change to the BAS • For boundary changes flagged as invalid by the state: • The entity is responsible for resolving the discrepancy with the proper state authority. • After resolving the issue, the entity may submit the valid boundary change to the BAS.

12. Important Dates and Deadlines

13. BAS Website

14. Geographic Support System Initiative (GSS-I)Partnership Program

15. Key Components of the GSS-I Address Updates • An integrated program that utilizes a partnership program for: • Improved address coverage • Continual address and spatial feature updates • Enhanced quality assessment and measurement 123 Testdata Road Anytown, CA 94939 Lat 37 degrees, 9.6 minutes N Lon 119 degrees, 45.1 minutes W Quality Measurement Street/Feature Updates

16. The GSS-I Partnership Program • Recognize local governments as the definitive authority for quality geospatial data within their communities • Provide a repeatable opportunity for partners to exchange geospatial data with the Census Bureau leading up to 2020 • Provide simple tools that allow data transfers with partners through web-based technology and service-oriented architecture

17. How will the Program work? • Request address, housing unit structure, and street feature data for purposes of updating the MAF/TIGER System • Reach out to national & state organizations, commercial partners, and federal agencies as other potential sources of this quality data • Apply quality checks to determine if partner-provided data meet our minimum requirements

18. What Kind of Address Data? • City-style addresses and/or • Non city-style addresses (i.e., Rural Route #) that ‘ideally’ meet: • USPS minimum delivery requirements, and • the ‘FGDC Address Standard’ (U.S. Thoroughfare, Landmark, and Postal Address Data Standard) See the Census Bureau Address Data Content Guidelines: http://www.census.gov/geo/www/gss/gdlns/addgdln.html

19. What Kind of Housing Unit Structure Data? • Latitude/Longitude Coordinates for a Housing Unit structure or access point(i.e., from E-911 or Next-Gen E-911 database) • Structure centroids • Latitude/Longitude Coordinates for a real property parcel or parcel centroid • Other points used by partner? Again, see the Census Bureau Address Data Content Guidelines: http://www.census.gov/geo/www/gss/gdlns/addgdln.html

20. What Kind of Street Feature Data? • Street centerline geometry • Street attributes – names, address ranges, etc. Why? • Expand Census centerline and attribute coverage • Spatially-correct misaligned streets in conjunction with high-quality imagery Feature Data and Metadata Content Guidelines • http://www.census.gov/geo/www/gss/gdlns/addgdln.html

21. Planned Schedule for FY13-14 • October 2012 • Kick-off program with data from limited partners (@50, TBD) • February 2013 • Start providing feedback • March 2013 • Identify 300-400 supplemental FY13 partners based on quality audit of MAF/TIGER data • Make “Community TIGER” available for beta testing • October 2013 • Planning for open participation

22. GSS-I Web Site See the GSS-I internet site at the following URL: http://www.census.gov/geo/www/gss/

23. Questions? Monica Smith U.S. Census Bureau 301-763-9168 monica.smith@census.gov