Geospatial Data Integration through Linked Open Format
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The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) holds a vast collection of geospatial data, spanning various formats and standards. Here's a rundown of some of the key geospatial file formats found in NARA's holdings, along with their descriptions and associated properties.
Geospatial File Formats in NARA
ASC (ASCII point of interest text file)
A simple coordinate data file commonly used for point data.
APR (ESRI ArcView 3.3 and earlier project file)
An ESRI proprietary format for projects created using ArcView 3.3 and earlier versions.
DEM (USGS Digital Elevation Model file)
Raster elevation data used for topographic analysis and modeling.
E00 (ARC/INFO interchange file format)
ESRI interchange format, reverse engineered documentation.
GeoJSON
An open standard for vector data, used for geographically located data in JSON object notation.
GeoTIFF
Geographically located raster data in the TIFF format with geospatial tags.
GML (Geography Markup Language file)
An OGC XML-based vector data standard for geographic data.
GPX (XML-based GPS exchange format)
Used for GPS data exchange, including waypoints, routes, and tracks.
ITN (TomTom Itinerary format)
Proprietary navigation format used by TomTom devices.
MXD (ESRI ArcGIS project file, version 8.0 and higher)
Proprietary ESRI format for ArcGIS projects.
NTF (National Transfer Format file)
UK Ordnance Survey data exchange format used for vector data.
OV2 (TomTom POI overlay file)
Proprietary format for Point of Interest data used by TomTom devices.
SHP (ESRI shapefile)
Widely used vector data format, requiring multiple component files.
TAB (MapInfo TAB format)
MapInfo vector data format used for tab-delimited data.
DTED (Digital Terrain Elevation Data)
Raster elevation data standard used for topographic analysis and modeling.
KML (Keyhole Markup Language)
XML-based format used by Google Earth and other mapping services.
Geospatial PDF
PDF files with embedded geospatial information, supporting coordinates and map overlays.
IHO S-57
Transfer Standard for Digital Hydrographic Data used in marine navigation charts.
Canadian Council on Geomatics Interchange Format (CCOGIF)
Standard file exchange format for Canadian digital spatial data.
DIG-3 (Digital Line Graph Level 3)
USGS digital line graph standard for digital geospatial data.
TerraGo GeoPDF
GeoPDF with extended geospatial capabilities, a commercial extension of Geospatial PDF.
BSB format (Navigational chart format)
A navigational chart format in NARA holdings, categorized under Geospatial.
CompeGPS Land Track file
Geospatial format in NARA holdings used for tracking data.
E57 Lidar Point Cloud Format
Geospatial and digital design and vector graphics format used for Lidar data.
GIS
A computer system for creating, storing, analyzing, and managing spatial data and associated attributes.
The Geospatial Preservation Plan
A comprehensive document that outlines significant properties of geospatial records, although the exact Plan document content was not found in the search results.
The ESRI Shapefile (Spatial Index), ESRI File Geodatabase, ESRI ArcInfo Interchange, ESRI Shapefile (dBASE Table), and ESRI Shapefile Compound File
These are geospatial formats in NARA holdings, with associated NARA Format IDs and Linked Open Data TTLs.
NARA's Linked Open Data
NARA makes its Linked Open Data available in Resource Description Framework Terse RDF Triple Language (RDF Turtle) format.
To access NARA's open geospatial datasets and associated file formats, you can visit NARA's open data portal or Digital Archives, search the Catalog for geospatial datasets by format name (e.g., shapefiles, GeoTIFF), or explore NARA's linked open data initiatives or data.gov, where NARA data may be published in accessible geospatial formats.
Technology plays a significant role in NARA's management and preservation of geospatial data, with data-and-cloud computing solutions likely employed to host and organize the extensive collection. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) also makes use of various technology platforms to provide access to its geospatial datasets, including the ESRI Shapefile, GeoJSON, and GeoPDF.
