The GNIS contains information about physical and cultural geographic features of all types in the United States, associated areas, and Antarctica, current and historical, but not including roads and highways. The database holds the Federally recognized name of each feature and defines the feature location by state, county, USGS topographic map, and geographic coordinates. Other attributes include names or spellings other than the official name, feature designations, feature classification, historical and descriptive information, and for some categories the geometric boundaries.
A note about data scale:
Scale is an important factor in data usage. Certain scale datasets are not suitable for some project, analysis, or modeling purposes. Please be sure you are using the best available data.
1:24000 scale datasets are recommended for projects that are at the county level. 1:24000 data should NOT be used for high accuracy base mapping such as property parcel boundaries. 1:100000 scale datasets are recommended for projects that are at the multi-county or regional level. 1:125000 scale datasets are recommended for projects that are at the regional or state level or larger.
Vector datasets with no defined scale or accuracy should be considered suspect. Make sure you are familiar with your data before using it for projects or analysis. Every effort has been made to supply the user with data documentation. For additional information, see the References section and the Data Source Contact section of this documentation. For more information regarding scale and accuracy, see our webpage at: <http://geoplan.ufl.edu/education.html>
(1) The original dataset name was FL_DECI.txt (2) The text file was converted to .DBF format. The .DBF file was then converted to a shapefile using the Add XY tool in ArcMap. (3) The original points were recorded in NAD83. GeoPlan projected the entire dataset to FGDL Albers. (4) The following points plotted outside the State of Florida or were located incorrectly. The corresponding Feature ID's of the deleted points are: 296517, 296521, 296523, 296814, 297009, 297717, 298049, 298165, 298211, 298325, 298736, 298979, 299184, 300608, 301010, 301041, 301312, 301880, 301889, 302374, 302376, 302384, 302456, 302754, 302829, 302904, 302930, 302963, 303008, 303059, 303372, 303382, 303751, 303753, 304298, 304641, 307146, 308181, 308609, 309281, 310263, 308529, 298711, 302991, and 300536. (5) Deleted points which plotted outside of the physical State of Florida. (6) Added the FGDLAQDATE field. (7) Added DESCRIPT item based on FEATURE_NA.