GIS Hub Database Standards

Medium

Last Updated: October 2001

The North Dakota GIS Hub geodatabase stores spatial data in a geographic coordinate system, using the North American Datum of 1983 (NAD83). The North Dakota GISTC believes that this is the best, all-purpose coordinate system and datum that allows maximum flexibility for GIS professionals and their GIS and GPS software within North Dakota, as the state has two UTM zones and two State Plane zones.
The North Dakota GISTC recommends the use of the North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD88) for data containing elevations

When possible, vector data stored on the GIS Hub geodatabase is organized by feature datasets to reflect major groupings of data, e.g., Transportation for all things related to transportation within the state
Within each feature dataset are the feature classes or layers
Raster data is stored on the GIS Hub geodatabase strictly by name, as the geodatabase lacks the ability to organize raster data as it does the vector data

Names used on the GIS Hub were chosen by the North Dakota GISTC to be both succinct and descriptive. Layers have a maximum of 30 characters in their name, exclusive of the "ndhub" schema prefix.
Special characters or blanks cannot be part of the layer name
Consistent and unique layer names, e.g., consistent - use RoadsCounty and RoadsCity, to assist in creating a sorted list; unique - there can only be one "counties" layer in the entire database
Where adjectives are combined with the name, a “_” will separate the two, e.g., RoadsCounty becomes Roads_County
Suffixes of “_pts,” “_line,” “_poly” will be used only when they are used to distinguish specific data types, e.g., water_line (rivers) and water_poly (lakes) or cities_pts (city point locations) and cities_poly (city boundaries)

Data must include projection information
Data that coincides with the state border should match the GIS Hub state boundary layer