FLORIDA GEOGRAPHIC DATA LIBRARY DOCUMENTATION
VERSION 2006

TITLE: METROPOLITAN STATISTICAL AREAS

Geodataset Name:       MSA_2003
Geodataset Type:       SHAPEFILE
Geodataset Feature:    Polygon
Feature Count:         25
GENERAL DESCRIPTION:
This dataset contains the boundaries for metropolitan statistical areas for the State of Florida. The data set contains information on location, identification, and size.
DATA SOURCE(S):                    U.S. Bureau of the Census, Research and Innovative Technology Administration's Bureau of Transportation Statistics
SCALE OF ORIGINAL SOURCE MAPS:     N/A
DATE OF AUTOMATION OF SOURCE:      2000
GEODATASET EXTENT:                 State of Florida

FEATURE ATTRIBUTE TABLES:

Datafile Name: MSA_2003.DBF
ITEM NAME WIDTH TYPE N. DECIMAL DEGREES
OBJECTID
4 OID ---
MSACMSA
4 String ---
NAME
90 String ---
ST_POSTAL
2 String ---
LSAD
5 String ---
CNTRLAT
19 Number 5
CNTRLONG
19 Number 5
STFIPS
2 String ---
VERSION
2 String ---
FGDLAQDATE
8 Date ---
DESCRIPT
37 String ---
SHAPE
4 Geometry ---
AUTOID
4 Integer ---
SHAPE.AREA
0 Double ---
SHAPE.LEN
0 Double ---

FEATURE ATTRIBUTE TABLES CODES AND VALUES:

Item
Item Description
OBJECTID Internal feature number.

MSACMSA Unique identifier for each geographic entity (MSA code).

NAME Name/identification of the geographic entity.

ST_POSTAL U.S. Postal Service two letter state abbreviation.

LSAD List if the data was original from metropolitan area or primary metropolitan statistical areas
PMSA = Primary metropolitan statistical areas

MSA = Metropolitan statistical area


CNTRLAT Centroid latitude value for the polygon expressed as a signed integer with six implied decimal places.

CNTRLONG Centroid longitude value for the polygon expressed as a signed integer with six implied decimal places.

STFIPS State FIPS code

VERSION A 2-digit number that will be incremented for all records in the database whenever a new release is distributed.

FGDLAQDATE Date FGDL acquired the data.

DESCRIPT FGDL added field based on the NAME field.

SHAPE Feature geometry.

AUTOID Unique ID added by GeoPlan

SHAPE.AREA Area

SHAPE.LEN Perimeter

National Metropolitan Statistical Areas Polygons
USER NOTES:
All node-link and polygon topological relationships are created and verified 
using ARC/INFO. Unique entity identifiers were similarly verified using ArcGIS.
The Metropolitan Statistical Areas database was compiled from TIGER/Line 
data with a corresponding positional accuracy of +/- 80m for the contiguous 
48 States plus Washington D.C. and Hawaii.  TIGER/Line files for Puerto Rico 
and Alaska are at a scale of 1:125,000.  The shorelines for the 23 coastal states 
were created using 1:250,000 NOS digital data which has a positional accuracy 
of +/- 200m.  Thus, all internal political boundaries have a higher accuracy than 
do the coastal definitions with the exception of Puerto Rico and Alaska.
GeoPlan relied on the integrity of the attribute information within
the original data.
The general concept of a metropolitan area (MA) is one of a large population nucleus, 
together with adjacent communities that have a high degree of economic and social 
integration with that nucleus. Some MAs are defined around two or more nuclei.  Each 
MA must contain either a place with a minimum population of 50,000 or a U.S. Census 
Bureau-defined urbanized area and a total MA population of at least 100,000 (75,000 
in New England). An MA contains one or more central counties. An MA also may include 
one or more outlying counties that have close economic and social relationships with the 
central county. An outlying county must have a specified level of commuting to the central 
counties and also must meet certain standards regarding metropolitan character, such as 
population density, urban population, and population growth. In New England, MAs 
consist of groupings of cities and towns rather than whole counties. The territory, 
population, and housing units in MAs are referred to as "metropolitan." The metropolitan 
category is subdivided into "inside central city" and "outside central city." The territory, 
population, and housing units located outside territory designated "metropolitan" are 
referred to as "non-metropolitan." The metropolitan and non-metropolitan classification 
cuts across the other hierarchies; for example, generally there are both urban and rural 
territory within both metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas.

The data provide users with information about the locations, names, and sizes 
of MSAs primarily for national planning applications.

The MA(s) and the central cities within an MA are designated and defined 
by the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB), following a set of 
official standards that are published in a Federal Register Notice. The interagency 
Federal Executive Committee on Metropolitan Areas developed these standards, 
with the aim of producing definitions that are as consistent as possible for all MA(s) 
nationwide.

This data is provided 'as is' and its horizontal positional accuracy
has not been verified by GeoPlan

This data is provided 'as is' and its vertical positional accuracy
has not been verified by GeoPlan

THE DATA INCLUDED IN FGDL ARE 'AS IS' AND SHOULD NOT BE CONSTRUED
AS LEGALLY BINDING. THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA GEOPLAN CENTER SHALL
NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES SUFFERED AS A RESULT OF USING,
MODIFYING, CONTRIBUTING OR DISTRIBUTING THE MATERIALS.

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

REFERENCES:
National Transportation Atlas Databases (NTAD) 2006
Research and Innovative Technology Administration's Bureau of Transportation Statistics (RITA/BTS)
http://www.bts.gov/programs/geographic_information_services/

DATA LINEAGE SUMMARY:
All state supplied maps were digitized.  MSA boundaries were added from 
TIGER data and topologically integrated.  The data were checked for 
completeness and accuracy and were extracted and reformatted into 
ASCII data files.  These were then converted to ESRI shapefiles.
Process Date: Unknown

All MSA political boundaries were extracted from the TIGER/Line files and appended into a single polygon database. Process Date: Unknown
After completing topological and attribute verification using ARC/INFO, the data was extracted and reformatted into the BTS ACSII format. This file was then converted to the ESRI shapefile format. Process Date: Unknown
Downloaded the Metropolitan Statistical Areas and the Primary Metropolitan Statistical Areas. Merged the Primary Metropolitan Statistical Areas with the Metropolitan Statistical Areas. Created two State abbreviation columns; the first column will hold the primary state and the second column will hold the remain states that the MSA falls within. Used ArcGIS for topological and attribute verification. Process Date: 2003
Data was retrieved from the NTAD CD (distributed by RITA/BTS) in shapefile format in August 2006. The original dataset was projected in Decimal Degrees WGS84. GeoPlan, during the QA/QC process included the following aspects: (1) Changed the filename from msa.shp to MSA_2003.shp (2) Reprojected data to FGDL Albers (3) Deleted the empty fields ST_POSTAL_ and REVISION (4) Added FGDLAQDATE field (5) Added DESCRIPT field based on NAME Process Date: 20061113
MAP PROJECTION PARAMETERS:

Projection                          ALBERS
Datum                               HPGN
Units                               METERS
Spheroid                            GRS1980
1st Standard Parallel               24  0  0.000
2nd Standard Parallel               31 30  0.000
Central Meridian                   -84 00  0.000
Latitude of Projection's Origin     24  0  0.000
False Easting (meters)              400000.00000
False Northing (meters)             0.00000

DATA SOURCE CONTACT (S):

Name:
Abbr. Name:
Address:


Phone:

Web site:
E-mail:
Contact Person:
         Phone:
        E-mail:
Research and Innovative Technology Administration's Bureau of Transportation Statistics
USCB, RITA/BTS
Research and Innovative Technology Administration's Bureau of Transportation Statistics
Washington, District of Columbia
20590
202-366-DATA

http://www.census.gov answers@bts.gov Geospatial Information Program

FGDL CONTACT:
Name:                   FLORIDA GEOGRAPHIC DATA LIBRARY
Abbr. Name:             FGDL
Address:                Florida Geographic Data Library
                        431 Architecture Building
                        PO Box 115706
                        Gainesville, FL  32611-5706
Web site:               http://www.fgdl.org

Contact FGDL: 

      Technical Support:	        http://www.fgdl.org/fgdlfeed.html
      FGDL Frequently Asked Questions:  http://www.fgdl.org/fgdlfaq.html
      FGDL Mailing Lists:		http://www.fgdl.org/fgdl-l.html
      For FGDL Software:                http://www.fgdl.org/software.html