United States National Grid
Lessons learned from recent hurricane seasons have taught us that standardized grid maps for search and rescue and other activities are a necessity. In an effort to standardize maps in Florida for both emergency and other operations, the State Fire Marshal, as the coordinating agency for search and rescue under the State Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan, and the Division of Emergency Management are embarking on a program to adopt the US National Grid (USNG) as the standard in Florida. This project will ensure a uniform grid mapping system across cities and counties in Florida, and will match the system used by the National Guard, the US Coast Guard and the US military when they are deployed into our state.
Florida’s unique geography of miles of coastlines, multiple river corridors, and large watersheds make the use of the common Township/Range/Section grid (PLSS) all but impossible except for a handful of inland counties. As the grid approaches wetlands, river corridors and the coast line, sections become irregular in shape and can be significantly larger than the typical square mile, which is too large to accommodate the needs of ground crews.
Adoption of a national grid system has been identified as ‘critical’ in a number of after action reports, investigations and studies dating as far back as Hurricane Andrew. FEMA, DHS, the National GeoSpatial Intelligence Agency, and the Federal Geographic Data Committee all promote the adoption of the USNG.
This project will pull together representatives from the various disciplines and agencies to form an implementation group, and training curriculum and materials are being identified.
USNG Mashups
Support for the USNG has been added to our Incident Mapper. USNG coordinates follow the pointer across the map, you can click on the map and obtain USNG coordinates, and even enter USNG coordinates and zoom to that location! Please bear with us as we continue to improve this service. Don't be surprised if you encounter some challenges along the way!
For a more reliable site that provides this same functionality, as well as some great information on the USNG and how to use the site, please visit Larry Moore's site at http://www.fidnet.com/~jlmoore/usng.
Downloadable GIS Data at UF's Florida Geographic Data Library
Courtesy of the University of Florida's GeoPlan Center, USNG data for all of Florida is now available for download at the Florida Geographic Data Library.
Please visit http://www.fgdl.org, click on FGDL Metadata Explorer, enter "usng" under the keyword search, click Start Search, and select the grid size and appropriate UTM zone...
Reminder -- the UTM 16/17 junction runs down Jefferson county, so counties west are in UTM 16 and counties east are in UTM 17.
