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to Top of Page This section lists all of the spatial data sets available on the CD-ROM and provides links to Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC)-compliant metadata.
Each of the links below provides a wealth of information on each of the data sets on this CD-ROM. The data have been divided into discrete themes based on the data types. Within these data types, there is information on the format and contents of the data, and a link to the FGDC metadata record.
A variety of tools have been provide on this CD-ROM set for viewing and analyzing the data.
All vector-based geographic information system (GIS) files are stored on these CD-ROMs as ArcView® shapefiles. Each shapefile has up to six files associated with it: filename.dbf, filename.met, filename.sbn, filename.sbx, filename.shp, and filename.shx. Each of these files are necessary for the shapefile to operate correctly.
All raster-based image files are stored on these CD-ROMs in a georeferenced, ERDAS IMAGINE® .img file format and in .tif format, which has an associated .tfw file containing the image referencing information.
These data can also be made available in ARC/INFO® export format (.e00), and Spatial Data Transfer Standard (SDTS). If you are interested in obtaining the data in a format not included on this CD you may e-mail the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Coastal Services Center (CSC) at csc.clearinghouse@noaa.gov.
If you wish to copy either a vector or image database from these CD-ROMs to another location, please be sure to copy all of its associated files into the same directory.
The project area data and images contained on Volume 1 and 2 are georeferenced to the State Plane projection for South Carolina with mapping units in feet. The geodetic reference, for the State Plane projection, is the North American Datum 1983 (NAD83) survey which is based on the GRS80 spheroid. This projection was chosen because it is the preferred projection of South Carolina's coastal management program. Please see the metadata for the data set to learn more specifically about each data set.
Metadata is data about data. Metadata describes the content, quality, condition, and other characteristics of a data set. Creating metadata or data documentation for geospatial data sets are crucial to the data development process. With the development of a metadata standard and a federal mandate to provide geospatial metadata, many spatial data developers feel they are faced with an enormous burden, especially because their efforts have focused on creating data products but not necessarily documenting the sources or procedures used in the process. However, metadata is a valuable part of a data set and can be used to:
Metadata, or data about data, is information that describes the content, quality, condition, and other characteristics of data. Listed below are links to the FGDC-compliant metadata records for each spatial data set. An ASCII (text) version of these metadata records is located in the data directory on this CD-ROM with a .met extension.
The metadata on this CD-ROM was developed with the Metadata Collector, an ArcView extension developed at the NOAA Coastal Services Center. This extension is available on the CD-ROM (/exten/metadata.avx).
The Metadata Collector v 2.0 is an easy to use software application which can be utilized by any ArcView 3.x user without having to fully understand the Federal Geographic Data Committee's (FGDC) "Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata." The Tool provides a dialog for creating FGDC compliant metadata for most data types supported by ArcView. The tool automatically extracts information (metadata) such as bounding coordinates, spatial data organization information and attribute information. In addition, the tool allows users to store information as .dbf and text (.txt) files that can be edited, if needed, and reused for subsequent metadata records. The application generates output in both text and HTML formats. If you are creating metadata for an ARC/INFOŽ coverage, you also have the option of generating an INFO file that will become part of that coverage.
To learn more about the tool and how to use it, click here.
To learn more about the metadata standards and see descriptions of the various elements, click here.