U.S. Census Urbanized Areas

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Frequently-anticipated questions:


What does this data set describe?

Title: U.S. Census Urbanized Areas
Abstract:
U.S. Census Urbanized Areas represents the Census 2000 Urbanized Areas (UA) and Urban Clusters (UC). A UA consists of contiguous, densely settled census block groups (BGs) and census blocks that meet minimum population density requirements (1000ppsm /500ppsm), along with adjacent densely settled census blocks that together encompass a population of at least 50,000 people. A UC consists of contiguous, densely settled census BGs and census blocks that meet minimum population density requirements, along with adjacent densely settled census blocks that together encompass a population of at least 2,500 people, but fewer than 50,000 people. The dataset covers the 50 States plus the District of Columbia within United States.
Supplemental_Information: Largest scale when displaying the data: 1:300,000.
  1. How should this data set be cited?

    Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, Geography Division, and ESRI, 20050401, U.S. Census Urbanized Areas: ESRI® Data & Maps 2005, ESRI, Redlands, California, USA.

    Other_Citation_Details: Location: \usa\census

  2. What geographic area does the data set cover?

    West_Bounding_Coordinate: -166.542186
    East_Bounding_Coordinate: -67.251657
    North_Bounding_Coordinate: 71.306820
    South_Bounding_Coordinate: 19.469934

  3. What does it look like?

  4. Does the data set describe conditions during a particular time period?

    Calendar_Date: 01-Jan-2000
    Currentness_Reference: publication date

  5. What is the general form of this data set?

    Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form: vector digital data

  6. How does the data set represent geographic features?

    1. How are geographic features stored in the data set?

      This is a Vector data set. It contains the following vector data types (SDTS terminology):

      • G-polygon (3580)

    2. What coordinate system is used to represent geographic features?

      Horizontal positions are specified in geographic coordinates, that is, latitude and longitude. Latitudes are given to the nearest 0.000009. Longitudes are given to the nearest 0.000009. Latitude and longitude values are specified in Decimal degrees.

      The horizontal datum used is North American Datum of 1983.
      The ellipsoid used is Geodetic Reference System 80.
      The semi-major axis of the ellipsoid used is 6378137.000000.
      The flattening of the ellipsoid used is 1/298.257222.

  7. How does the data set describe geographic features?

    urban
    An urbanized area (UA) consists of densely settled territory that contains 50,000 or more people. A UA may contain both place and nonplace territory. The U.S. Census Bureau delineates UAs to provide a better separation of urban and rural territory, population, and housing in the vicinity of large places. At least 35,000 people in a UA must live in an area that is not part of a military reservation. (Source: Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, Geography Division)

    ObjectID
    Internal feature number. (Source: ESRI)

    Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated.

    Shape
    Feature geometry. (Source: ESRI)

    Coordinates defining the features.

    UA_ID
    Unique identification number of the Urban Area feature. (Source: ESRI)

    Formal codeset
    Codeset Name:Urbanized Area Five-Digit Census Codes
    Codeset Source:Department of Commerce, Census Bureau

    NAME
    Urban Area name of the feature. (Source: ESRI)

    Names for the features.

    LSAD
    Legal/Statistical area code of the feature. (Source: ESRI)

    ValueDefinition
    75Urbanized Area.
    76Urban Cluster.

    LSAD_DESC
    Legal/Statistical area description of the feature. (Source: ESRI)

    ValueDefinition
    Urbanized Area, Urban Cluster.Legal/Statistical area descriptions of the feature.

    POP2000
    The 2000 population of the feature. (Source: ESRI)

    Populations for the features.

    POP00_SQMI
    The 2000 population per square mile of the feature. (Source: ESRI)

    Calculated populations per square mile for the features.

    HOUSEHOLDS
    Number of households for the feature. (Source: ESRI)

    Numbers for the features.

    HSE_UNITS
    Number of housing units for the feature. (Source: ESRI)

    Numbers for the features.

    SQMI
    The area in square miles for the feature. (Source: ESRI)

    Calculated areas for the features.


Who produced the data set?

  1. Who are the originators of the data set? (may include formal authors, digital compilers, and editors)

  2. Who also contributed to the data set?

  3. To whom should users address questions about the data?

    ESRI
    c/o Data Team
    380 New York Street
    Redlands, California 92373-8100
    USA

    909-793-2853 (voice)
    909-793-5953 (FAX)
    info@esri.com

    Hours_of_Service: 8:00 a.m.–5:30 p.m. Pacific time, Monday–Friday
    Contact_Instructions:
    In the United States– Please direct all inquiries regarding software/data pricing and consulting services to your local ESRI Regional Office. For support, you may contact Technical Support by telephone (voice) between 6:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Pacific time, Monday through Friday, by dialing 909-793-3774; facsimile (fax) available at 909-792-0960; electronic mail (e-mail) support@esri.com; or visit <http://support.esri.com>; ESRI holidays excluded.

    Outside the United States– Please direct all inquiries regarding software/data pricing, sales, support, and consulting services to your local ESRI International Distributor. This information can be found at <http://gis.esri.com/intldist/contactint.cfm>.

    For other questions or comments, you may contact ESRI headquarters by e-mail, telephone, or fax or write to us.


Why was the data set created?

U.S. Census Urbanized Areas provides information about the locations, names, and urban codes of urbanized areas primarily for national planning applications.


How was the data set created?

  1. From what previous works were the data drawn?

    Census - Urban (source 1 of 2)
    Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, Geography Division, 20000101, 2000 Urbanized Areas: Urbanized Areas 2000, Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, online.

    Online Links:

    Type_of_Source_Media: online
    Source_Contribution: Attribute and geospatial data

    ESRI BIS (source 2 of 2)
    ESRI Business Information Solutions, 2003 ESRI Business Information Solutions, Vienna, Virginia, USA.

    Type_of_Source_Media: CD–ROM
    Source_Contribution: Attribute and geospatial data

  2. How were the data generated, processed, and modified?

    Date: 2002 (process 1 of 3)
    An urbanized area (UA) consists of densely settled territory that contains 50,000 or more people. A UA may contain both place and nonplace territory. The U.S. Census Bureau delineates UAs to provide a better separation of urban and rural territory, population, and housing in the vicinity of large places. At least 35,000 people in a UA must live in an area that is not part of a military reservation.

    For Census 2000, UA delineations constitute a "zero-based" approach that requires no "grandfathering" of UA boundaries from the 1990 census. Because of the more stringent density requirements (and the less restrictive extended place criteria), some territory that was classified as urbanized for the 1990 census has been reclassified as rural. In addition, some areas that were identified as UAs for the 1990 census have been reclassified as urban clusters.

    The title of a UA may contain up to three incorporated place names, and will include the two-letter U.S. Postal Service abbreviation for each state into which the UA extends. However, if the UA does not contain an incorporated place, the UA title will include the single name of the geographic entity that occurs first from the following list: census designated place, minor civil division, or populated place recognized by the U.S. Geological Survey.

    Each UA is assigned a five-digit census code in alphabetical sequence on a nationwide basis, interspersed with the codes for urban clusters (UCs), also in alphabetical sequence. For the 1990 census, the U.S. Census Bureau assigned a four-digit UA code based on the MA codes. For Census 2000, a separate flag is included in data tabulation files to differentiate between UAs and UCs. In printed reports, this differentiation is included in the name.

    Data sources produced in this process:

    • Census - Urban

    Date: 16-Mar-2004 (process 2 of 3)
    The following steps were performed by ESRI: Downloaded ua99_doo.shp from the Census web site in October 2003. Deleted areas outside Alaska, Hawaii, and the contiguous United States--Puerto Rico, Guam, etc. Made shapes multi-part. Converted Hawaii to North American Datum of 1983 (NAD83). Clipped features to the 2004 U.S. States coastline. Added POP2000 attribute by aggregating ESRI Business Information Solutions block pop points. Removed state abbreviations from NAME attribute (i.e., Riverside, CA became just Riverside). Deleted records that were prisons. Added SQMI attribute and calculated its values. Converted the data set to SDC. Created the projection file (.prj) and spatial indices.

    Data sources used in this process:

    • Census - Urban
    • ESRI BIS

    Date: 20-Mar-2005 (process 3 of 3)
    The following steps were performed by ESRI: Added attribute POP00_SQMI and calculated its values. Reduced attribute widths for UA_ID, NAME, LSAD, and LSAD_DESC.

  3. What similar or related data should the user be aware of?


How reliable are the data; what problems remain in the data set?

  1. How well have the observations been checked?

  2. How accurate are the geographic locations?

  3. How accurate are the heights or depths?

  4. Where are the gaps in the data? What is missing?

    After processing, the data set is checked for drawing display and number of records and file sizes compared with source materials.

  5. How consistent are the relationships among the observations, including topology?

    No duplicate features are present. The shapefile is converted to SDC (Smart Data Compression) format in ArcSDE®. This verifies and validates the geometry.


How can someone get a copy of the data set?

Are there legal restrictions on access or use of the data?

Access_Constraints: Access granted to Licensee only.
Use_Constraints:
The data are provided by multiple, third party data vendors under license to ESRI for inclusion on ESRI Data & Maps for use with ESRI® software. Each data vendor has its own data licensing policies and may grant varying redistribution rights to end users. Please consult the redistribution rights below for this data set provided on ESRI Data & Maps. As used herein, “Geodata” shall mean any digital data set consisting of geographic data coordinates and associated attributes.

The redistribution rights for this data set: Public domain data from U.S. government is freely redistributable with proper metadata and source attribution.

The terms and conditions below apply to all the data sets provided on ESRI Data & Maps.

Proprietary Rights and Copyright: Licensee acknowledges that the Data and Related Materials contain proprietary and confidential property of ESRI and its licensor(s). The Data and Related Materials are owned by ESRI and its licensor(s) and are protected by United States copyright laws and applicable international copyright treaties and/or conventions.

Limited Warranty and Disclaimer: ESRI warrants that the media upon which the Data and Related Materials are provided will be free from defects in materials and workmanship under normal use and service for a period of ninety (90) days from the date of receipt.

THE DATA AND RELATED MATERIALS ARE EXCLUDED FROM THE LIMITED WARRANTY, AND THE LICENSEE EXPRESSLY ACKNOWLEDGES THAT THE DATA CONTAINS SOME NONCONFORMITIES, DEFECTS, OR ERRORS. ESRI DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE DATA WILL MEET LICENSEE'S NEEDS OR EXPECTATIONS; THAT THE USE OF THE DATA WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED; OR THAT ALL NONCONFORMITIES, DEFECTS, OR ERRORS CAN OR WILL BE CORRECTED. ESRI IS NOT INVITING RELIANCE ON THIS DATA, AND THE LICENSEE SHOULD ALWAYS VERIFY ACTUAL DATA.

EXCEPT FOR THE LIMITED WARRANTY SET FORTH ABOVE, THE DATA AND RELATED MATERIALS CONTAINED THEREIN ARE PROVIDED "AS-IS," WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Exclusive Remedy and Limitation of Liability: The entire liability of ESRI or its licensor(s) and Licensee's exclusive remedy shall be to terminate the Agreement upon Licensee returning the Data and Related Materials to ESRI with a copy of Licensee's invoice/receipt and ESRI returning the license fees paid to Licensee.

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In the event that the data vendor(s) has (have) granted the end user permission to redistribute the Geodata, please use proper proprietary or copyright attribution for the various data vendor(s), and provide the associated metadata file(s) with the Geodata. In compliance with FGDC metadata standards, ESRI has attempted to practice proper metadata methodologies by providing any data source information, descriptions, and file names to assist in this effort.

  1. Who distributes the data set? (Distributor 1 of 1)

    ESRI; ESRI International Distributors
    380 New York Street
    Redlands, California 92373-8100
    USA

    800-447-9778 (voice)

    Contact_Instructions:
    In the United States, contact the ESRI Telesales staff at 800-447-9778 for more information about our software and data.

    Outside the United States, please direct all inquiries to your local ESRI International Distributor. This information can be found at <http://gis.esri.com/intldist/contactint.cfm>.

  2. What's the catalog number I need to order this data set?

    Offline Data

  3. What legal disclaimers am I supposed to read?

    See use constraints.

  4. How can I download or order the data?

  5. What hardware or software do I need in order to use the data set?

    To use this data requires software that supports SDC files.


Who wrote the metadata?

Dates:
Last modified: 21-Mar-2005
Metadata author:
ESRI
c/o Data Team
380 New York Street
Redlands, California 92373-8100
USA

909-793-2853 (voice)
909-793-5953 (FAX)
info@esri.com

Hours_of_Service: 8:00 a.m.–5:30 p.m. Pacific time, Monday–Friday
Metadata standard:
FGDC Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata (FGDC-STD-001-1998)
Metadata extensions used:


Generated by mp version 2.8.6 on Thu Oct 27 09:23:32 2005