Populated Places

This data included the Populated Places dataset from the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT)/Bureau of Transportation Statistics’ (BTS's) National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD). Including cities and towns in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. As well as the DEC2010_IslandAreas & Place_2010Census_ DP1 TIGER/Line shapefiles from the U.S. Census Bureau's Master Address File / Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (MAF/TIGER) Database (MTDB) for all U.S. Territories which are not included in the USGS National Atlas. The boundaries of all CDPs were delineated as part of the Census Bureau's Participant Statistical Areas Program (PSAP) for the 2010 Census. Populated places were buffered from the coastline to gather only coastal cities & all other inland cities were removed. The cities remaining were divided into 4 groupings based on population & underwent a thinning process based on a 5 mile buffer of any grouping with a larger population. Cities left were guaranteed to be 5 miles apart if they were from different groupings. Areas with dense coastal lying places had any remaining inland cities removed. Utilizing the Raster Navigational Charts from NOAA started at Alaska & working down the coastline extraneous places from the center of land out to the coastline from smallest to largest were removed, assuring that cites that existed on the RNC remained, or a city with the largest population near the coast & close to an RNC designated city remained. Territory Island data from the U.S. Census was then merged with this data set so that it contained places for all U.S. populated places & territories. (The U.S. Census data was turned into a point feature utilizing the feature to point tool, the points are a representation of the centroid of the U.S. Census's polygon shapefile.) sparse or areas had places added from the U.S. Census Places dataset if the area was too sparse after this process. This dataset is not meant to be all inclusive, and only includes some coastal populated places in the U.S. and it's territories for NOAA's Ocean Reporting Tool.

This layer is an amalgamation of the Populated Places dataset from the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT)/Bureau of Transportation Statistics’ (BTS's) National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD) which includes cities and towns in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. As well as, DEC2010_IslandAreas & Place_2010Census_ DP1 TIGER/Line shapefiles from the U.S. Census Bureau's Master Address File / Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (MAF/TIGER) Database (MTDB) for all U.S. Territories which are not included in the USGS National Atlas. This dataset is not meant to be all inclusive, and only includes some coastal populated places in the U.S. and it's territories for NOAA's Ocean Reporting Tool.

The native coordinate system for this layer is WGS 1984 World Mercator (ESPG: 3395). Please note: all MarineCadastre.gov data served by the NOAA Office for Coastal Management and hosted through Esri REST services are in the WGS 1984 Web Mercator Auxiliary Sphere (EPSG: 3857) projection.

NOAA makes no warranties or representations whatsoever regarding the availability, quality, accuracy, content, completeness or suitability for the user's needs of such information. The services, information, and data made available on the Marine Cadastre web site are provided "as is" without warranties of any kind. These data are intended for coastal and ocean use planning. Not for navigation. http://www.marinecadastre.gov/about/disclaimer.html

NOAA makes no warranties or representations whatsoever regarding the availability, quality, accuracy, content, completeness or suitability for the user's needs of such information. The services, information, and data made available on the Marine Cadastre web site are provided "as is" without warranties of any kind. These data are intended for coastal and ocean use planning. Not for navigation. http://www.marinecadastre.gov/about/disclaimer.html

Microsoft Windows 7 Version 6.1 (Build 7601) Service Pack 1; Esri ArcGIS 10.4.1.5713

The attributes in this dataset are believed to be accurate.

Maximum scale of intended use is 1:80,000.

Spatial and attribute properties are believed to be complete, although attribute information has been simplified. Geometric thresholds from original data are preserved. No tests have been completed for exhaustiveness.

These data are believed to be logically consistent. Geometry is topologically clean.