VT GIS Standard

This Standard is intended to define a common data exchange format for
bridge and culvert data (xy locations and inventory information)
collected in the State of Vermont. The hope is that this standard will
enhance data compatibility and sharing between local municipalities,
Regional Planning Commissions, and State Agencies.

This Standard is intended to draw together all documentation and
references related to the development and maintenance of Vermont's
master road centerline spatial data layer. It outlines the structure of
Vermont's road centerline data layer (TransRoad_RDS), herein referred
to as RDS. This document will act as a road map to the future of this
data layer. This standard will be phased in over a period of time. It will
not be implemented all at once. Financial and organizational constraints
will dictate the pace of implementation.

The purpose of the surface waters standard is to adopt nationally accepted “framework” data models, their standards
and associated programs as the foundation for developing and
maintaining surface water and hydrologic unit boundary data in
Vermont.

This standard defines codes for various incorporated and widely-used geographic areas in Vermont. Existing federal standards are leveraged by this standard to ensure maximum compatibility with state and federal data.
A primary use of these standard codes is to store and link data related to these geographies. One capability of GIS is the creation of thematic maps (maps in which towns or other areas are shaded in based on the values for the different areas). An example would be a thematic map of population density for Vermont's towns. Thematic maps will be easier to produce from various data sources if users adhere to these standard geographic codes.
The inclusion of these codes within state data at both the local and statewide level will also enable the linking of data from different sources and regions to perform analyses across municipalities, statewide, and at the national level.

.zip archive of metadata templates referenced in the VT GIS Metadata Standard.

Maps of land use and land cover are fundamental tools for natural
resource management and planning. These land use/cover codes
provide a standard system by which units of land can be categorized.
Land use/cover maps serve to: assess the area and distribution of individual land use/cover
categories (such as cropland and pasture, code 21), show the diversity of the landscape, contrast the land diversity of different regions, monitor changes in land use and/or cover over time.

The VGIS Land Use/Land Cover Codes have been developed to provide compatibility with existing USGS codes, provide codes tailored to Vermont's landscape, permit land coding at a various resolutions (local, regional and
state), avoid and clarify redundant classifications which depend on interpretation.

Standards for a map coordinate system are critical to retaining the
integrity of Vermont Geographic Information System (VGIS) spatial
data. Therefore geographic data stored in other coordinate systems
require conversion for use in VGIS.

The purpose of this document is to provide guidelines covering the
digital conversion of existing manually drawn data into GIS format.
The goal is to obtain the best possible digital map representing an
original analog map. As such, it is assumed that a suitable source map
exists. While the ultimate quality of the database is dependent on the
quality of the source materials and the care used in automation, the
procedures for original mapping are not discussed. It must be
remembered that precise automation procedures will not improve an
inferior base map.