FLORIDA GEOGRAPHIC DATA LIBRARY DOCUMENTATION
VERSION 2006

TITLE: Florida Public Land Survey System - Township and Range Level

Geodataset Name:       PLSS_TR
Geodataset Type:       Shapefile
Geodataset Feature:    Polygon 
GENERAL DESCRIPTION:
This dataset contains the boundaries of the Public Land Surveys of the State of Florida to the Township and Range level, including areas of private survey, Donation Land Claims, and Land Grants and Civil Colonies.
DATA SOURCE(S):                    United States Geological Survey
SCALE OF ORIGINAL SOURCE MAPS:     1:2,000,000
DATE OF AUTOMATION OF SOURCE:      2002
GEODATASET EXTENT:                 State of Florida

FEATURE ATTRIBUTE TABLES:

Datafile Name: .DBF file
ITEM NAME WIDTH TYPE
FID
4 OID
Shape
0 Geometry
PLSS00P020
11 Number
FEATURE1
80 String
FEATURE2
80 String
FEATURE3
80 String
NAME1
80 String
NAME2
80 String
STATE
20 String
STATE_FIPS
20 String
DESCRIPT
80 String
DESCRIPT
80 String

FEATURE ATTRIBUTE TABLES CODES AND VALUES:

Item
Item Description
FID Internal feature number.

Shape Data attribute inherent to the ESRI shapefile format, which defines the data as a point, polyline, or polygon.

PLSS00P020 Internal feature number

FEATURE1 The primary survey area type Land Grants, Civil Colonies An area of land to which title was conferred by a predecessor government and confirmed by the U.S. Government after the territory in which it is situated was acquired by the United States. Not Part of Public Land Surveys System An area that is outside of the Public Land Survey System. Overlapping Land Grants = An area of land to which more than one title was conferred by a predecessor government and confirmed by the U.S. Government after the territory in which it is situated was acquired by the United States. These areas are the result of survey error or disputed claims. Public Survey An area of land subdivided by the Public Land Survey System (PLSS), which was originally created on public domain lands and the rules for its use were defined by the authority of the U.S. Government. The PLSS has since been extended, following similar rules, into non- public domain areas. Unsurveyed Area An area that is part of the public domain but which has not been subdivided. Water Areas of navigable streams and meanderable lakes which are excluded from the Public Land Survey System

FEATURE2 The township and range designation for the area Format "Township xx aaaaa Range yy bbbb", where xx and yy are numbers, aaaaa is either North or South, and bbbb is either East or West. If there is no value for this item, then there is no township and range designation for the area because it is not a Public Survey or Private Survey area.

FEATURE3 The secondary survey area type Land Grants, Civil Colonies An area of land to which title was conferred by a predecessor government and confirmed by the U.S. Government after the territory in which it is situated was acquired by the United States.

NAME1 The primary name of the survey area

NAME2 The secondary name of the survey area. This is an additional land grant name.

STATE The 2-character code of the State where the survey area is located.

STATE_FIPS The 2-digit code of the State where the survey area is located.

DESCRIPT FGDL added item based on Feature1

DESCRIPT No description

USER NOTES:
Relied on the integrity of the attribute information within the original data layer. This layer was released in FGDL Version as FPLSS_TR.

All lands in the public domain are subject to subdivision by a rectangular system of surveys called the Public Land Survey System (PLSS), established and regulated by the Bureau of Land Management. The original public domain includes the land ceded to the Federal Government by the Thirteen Original States, supplemented with acquisitions from native Indians and foreign powers. It encompasses major portions of the land area of 30 western States.

Under Congressional mandate, cadastral surveys of public lands were undertaken to create parcels suitable for disposal by the Government. The PLSS was developed for this purpose. The PLSS is a rectangular survey system that typically divides the land into 6-mile square townships, which are further subdivided into 1-mile square sections (the data in the National Atlas do not include section-level information). The extension of the rectangular system of surveys over the public domain has been in progress since 1785. These surveys form the basis of patents issued when public lands pass out of Federal ownership.

Certain lands were excluded from the public domain and not subject to survey and disposal. These lands include the beds of navigable bodies of water, national installations such as military reservations and national parks, and areas such as land grants that had already passed to private ownership prior to subdivision by the Government.

Data describing the PLSS is required by Federal surface and mineral management agencies, as well as any organization concerned with land ownership in the 30 western States that were formed from the public domain. Additionally, many agencies have encoded natural resource or environmental inventory data based on the PLSS.

Scale is an important factor in data usage. Certain scale datasets are not suitable for some project, analysis, or modelling 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. These data are based on interpretation of available information and should not be construed as legally binding.

A note concerning data scale:

Scale is an important factor in data usage. Certain scale 
datasetsare not suitable for some project, analysis, or
modelling 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.

1:250000 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 analyses. Every 
effort has been made to supply the user with data 
documentation. For additional information, see the 
References sectionand the Data Source Contact section of 
this documentation. For more information regarding scale 
and accuracy, see our web pages at:

http://www.geoplan.ufl.edu/education.html
REFERENCES:

DATA LINEAGE SUMMARY:

Data was compiled, created, and  released by U.S. Geological Survey: Public Land Survey System data were collected from 1:500,000 and 1:1,000,000 State base maps for the western United States. The eastern States were collected from existing 1:100,000-scale base maps.  Data from both sources were integrated into 1:2,000,000 State-level DLG files, then generalized and vertically integrated with 2MILBD (1:2,000,000-scale Digital Line Graph Data - Boundaries), ATLAS-CNTY (County Boundaries of the U.S.), and ATLAS-HY (Hydrography features of the U.S.). The resulting Public Land Survey System DLG files were published on CD-ROM in 1995.The DLG optional-format files were then converted to Arc/INFO coverages, and the individual State files were paneled together into a national coverage. Numeric DLG codes were translated into English, non-polygon features were deleted, and the data set was converted to shapefile format.
Process Date: 2002

In 2001, this data was downloaded in shapefile format by the GeoPlan Center from the National Atlas Website: http://nationalatlas.gov/atlasftp.html. The original geographic extent was the continental U.S., hence the dataset was clipped to the State of Florida, and projected to FGDL Albers HPGN. When received, data was in the following projection: Geographic, Datum: NAD83, Spheroid: GRS1980, Units: Decimal degrees. Process Date: 2002
GeoPlan, during the QA/QC process included the following aspects: 1.) Reprojected data to FGDL Albers HPGN (See "Map Projection Parameters" below) 2.) Extent set to the State of Florida 3.) Changed dataset name from plss00p020 to FPLSS 4.) DESCRIPT item added based on Feature1 5.) Upcased all character records. 6.) Dropped AREA and PERIMETER items because values were incorrect. Process Date: 2002
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:
Earth Science Information Center (ESIC), U.S. Geological Survey
USGS
507 National Center
Reston, VA
20192
1-888-275-8747

http://mapping.usgs.gov/esic/esic_index.html NONE
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