US National Grid (USNG)

FGDC-STD-011-2001

Harnessing a national grid as a

preferred language of location ...

… optimized for local applications.

For information, see:

www.fgdc.gov/usng

Please note, there are many ways to

describe a location with coordinates.

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The US National Grid being discussed

here is just one of them.

A Standard Grid...

- A communications enabler.

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- Geoaddress on maps.

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- Universal Map Index

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• An enabler… a bridge between

hardcopy maps and digital.

- Frictionless interoperability

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…a consensus based standard.

… a nationally consistent language of location.

USNG… framing issues.

• USNG is an FGDC process standard
• - It is a presentation process standard.

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• It is not intended to define internal storage structure

of any GIS or to the transfer of coordinates between

databases or appliances.

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• Intended for ground operations. For the general public,

public safety, and commerce.

- For maps generally >1:1,000,000-scale.

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• Not applicable to aeronautical and nautical operations

as such.

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Jefferson Pier: 18S UJ 2337 0651

Often asked question: Why not use Lat/Long, state plane, 5’ grids,

2.5’ grids, etc, instead of UTM/USNG, etc….?

1. Latitude / Longitude

a. Many different position reporting formats.

b. Just how far is 1 minute of longitude anyway?

c. Ever tried to accurately fix a position to within

10-m using a paper map and lat/long?

10 out of 12 authors of GPS “How to” books

recommend UTM over Lat/Long.,

Ease of use, fewer human errors.

2. But we have GPS!!!

a. GPS is wonderful at providing a position (PNT).

b. As a map… not so good!

Small GPS screen: 1,600-mm² Small, low resolution screen

Large 7.5’ quad: 256,000-mm² Large synoptic, high res view.

c. Applying GPS position to map in the field.

– See 1.c. above.

- But the # 1 REASON IS THAT THE US NATIONAL GRID IS A

NATIONAL STANDARD! Why? See Reason 1.c. above!

Map and GPS same relative size.

“Lack of a uniform method for describing incident

locations has long been a major impediment to rapid

and effective emergency response in diverse metropolitan and rural areas...

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…the immediate impact of USNG will be to ensure that GPS is directly usable with properly gridded map products to quickly enable multi-agency and multi-jurisdictional emergency responders, and the public in general, to precisely identify geolocations in the real world.

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…the USNG will be a principal integrating mechanism to create spatial interoperability nationwide...among multi-jurisdictional civil emergency response organizations and when necessary, between those organizations and the military to support any and all domestic emergency response and disaster relief operations.”

- Appendix E Spatial Interoperability

Defense Science Board Task Force on the Future of the

Global Positioning System, October 2005.

Multiple non-standard reference systems:

= Not compatible with GPS, C2 systems, etc.

= Does not enable trained forces or interoperability.

= Operational friction during mutual assistance.

Local (state) quadrangle reference system.

Grids are good but...

...a standard grid reference system is essential.

The alternative is operational friction.

What exactly is a 911 Grid Map?

Location, location, location...

“3. The implementation of a standardized reference

system. We recommend the use of the US National Grid

(USNG). We made the mistake of initially improvising a

search and rescue grid and then modifying that grid for

local use. Hundreds of copies of each were published.

The USNG is a readily available standard that is yet to

be adopted by emergency response agencies

due to lack of education.”

From proposed:

Joint Emergency Mapping System for Mississippi (JEMS),

Center for Interdisciplinary Geospatial Information Technologies

Delta State University, Mississippi

19 November, 2005

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KATRINA Lessons Learned in Mississippi:

Common Ground Alliance

“Miss Utility”

map reference system

- Nonstandard notations

- Adds operational friction

The value of an alternative approach:

Results of Research at an ABCA Conference

Hypothesis: Standards, doctrine, and training based

on a standard grid will substantially reduce operational

friction and improve operational effectiveness.

Scenario: Disaster has struck Blues City in Blue Land, requiring

formation of a coalition to support civil authorities in disaster

response.

Part I: Without prior notice or special training coalition officers

are provided a 1:50,000 topographic map of Blues City, romer

scale, and requested to locate features provided by USNG/

MGRS grid coordinates.

Part II: Given rapid planning requirements, coalition countries

must produce their own maps of Blues City located on a UTM

zone junction.

The value of an alternative approach:

Results of Research at an ABCA Conference

Part I: Without prior notice or special training

coalition officers are provided a 1:50,000 topographic

map of Blues City, romer scale, and requested to locate

features provided by USNG/MGRS grid coordinates.

Results: Of 64 attempts, 63 points located.

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USNG geoaddress and

universal map index value.

“Turn right at 438 Northing.”

438n

“Street Sign-in-a-Box”

concept

43

44

83

84

- Education.

• Maps

with USNG grids.

(hard copy

& digital)

- User

Friendly GPS/

Internet and

Wireless Connectivity

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Community

Consensus

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(Public/Business/Government)

Four Pillars of Implementation

- Geoaddress

Availability

US National Grid

Done

FGDC’s

US National Grid

Questions?

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Comments?

Analog-----------------Bridge--------------------Digital

For information, see:

www.fgdc.gov/usng

Backup Slides

St. Louis, MO GIS Web Site

Street address look up...

Functions like a Universal Map Index

ppt

80° S

90° W

90° W

87° W

84° W

0°

84° N

500,000-mE

0-mN

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EQUATOR

93° W

0°

96° W

500,000-mE

500,000-mE

UTM Zone Junction - Zones 15 - 16

UTM grid lines

7.5’ quads

Zone 15

Zone 16

Point

of

tangency

USNG Zone Junction

• GIS technician training requirements emerge from Hurricane KATRINA, 2005.

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• Additional issue. It has been suggested that MGRS/USNG cannot be used by aircraft supporting ground operations.

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New Orleans, LA

FGDC US National Grid (WG84) = Military Grid Reference System (WGS84)

See www.fgdc.gov/usng for additional information

USNG Zone Junction

• Training requirements emerge from Hurricane KATRINA, 2005.

- “We tried to implement the USNG in New Orleans early on but based on the visual confusion of the product (see Doug’s example), it was dropped for a Lat/Long grid.” - FEMA, GIS Coordinator, DHS/FEMA Region X,

email of Friday, May 5, 2006, 11:00

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Next slide depicts how the grid was used.

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New Orleans, LA

Sample of how FEMA GIS depicted the USNG at the zone junction

in New Orleans, LA during Hurricane KATRINA, 2005.

Warning: This is not how the USNG zone junction is cartographically handled

and this method does not work with low-cost GPS receivers.

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(“Doug’s FEMA Example”)

• Proper way to handle the grid at zone junction:
• Survey ops: Uses UTM numerical coordinates. Extend one zone across into the other (not both). Carry survey across and then establish control in new zone.

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• Position referencing: Uses USNG alpha-numeric format.
• Do not extend zones across into adjacent zones. Each point has an absolute value based on the zone that point is located in.

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USNG Zone Junction

Examining use of the USNG/MGRS in

the field across a range of technologies;

• paper to integrated GPS/INS
• at the UTM Zone Junction.
• air/ground operations.

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New Orleans, LA, 22 August 2006

The grid zone junction was immaterial to the success of this evolution.

Situations the US National Grid will remedy...

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Miami, FL -- The story of a lady’s drowning quickly gained National

coverage after she dialed 9-1-1 on her wireless phone from her

sinking car in a Miami, FL canal. Not able to escape the car and

with dispatchers unable to locate the accident scene, the woman

perished before emergency help could reach her.

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Fort Lauderdale, FL – A lady was forced to wait seven minutes

and make three separate 9-1-1 calls from her cellular phone

before help was dispatched after her daughter was impaled by

a three-foot steel rod that had crashed through their windshield.

The lady was forced to exit the interstate and find a major

intersection in order to give the dispatchers her location.

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From National Emergency Number Association web site

and other sources.

Day County, SD – A lady spent 40 hours in temperatures that

dropped to -30° F when a blizzard stranded her in her pickup truck.

Although she was able to dial 9-1-1, she was unable to tell her

rescuers where she was. While the Day County Sheriff’s office

was eventually able to locate the car, it took them five hours to

place the vehicle within a 35-mile radius.

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Rural Michigan – A lady was rear-ended and suffered minor

damages while driving in rural Michigan. While no one was

injured, she did call 9-1-1. She informed the dispatcher of her

location and then waited 30 minutes for the cruiser to arrive.

When he failed to materialize, she called again. The two roads

that she had given to the dispatcher to help them locate her

actually crossed twice, and the cruiser was looking at the

wrong intersection.

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From National Emergency Number Association web site

and other sources.

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Washington, DC – In 2001, a visitor to the FDR Memorial was

struck with a heart attack. A passing police officer and the

dispatcher could not agree on an appropriate address for the

incident location at this large campus like memorial.

Eventually an intersection several blocks away was selected,

but the ambulance was never able to find the incident.

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Arlington County, VA. - In 2003, a motorcyclist was seriously

injured after being thrown over the guardrails of an overpass.

A pedestrian nearby immediately called 9-1-1 but had trouble

determining an address for the incident. He did have a GPS

receiver, and finally asked in frustration if the 9-1-1 operator

could use a coordinate from it. The operator replied that no,

they did not use that technology.

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From National Emergency Number Association web site

and other sources.

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Fairfax County, VA – A caller to 9-1-1 reported having been stung

by a bee, and was beginning to have trouble breathing. The 9-1-1

operator could see clearly on the map where the caller was

located with Phase II wireless location technology, but had no

actionable way of describing the caller’s location in the 493 acre

park to first responders.

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From National Emergency Number Association web site

and other sources.

In Rhode Island, cell phones equipped with GPS chip sets can be rapidly located to within 15-m of true position. 9-1-1 organizations remain focused on conventional addresses, yet only about a fifth of the street addresses have been correlated to a coordinate. For incidents where the provided coordinate cannot be correlated to a street address there is no way to readily communicate a location to first responders who can only use street addresses to find places. As the Rhode Island 9-1-1 Director Ray LaBelle stated, "If I give an ambulance driver latitude and longitude coordinates, he's going to tell me where to go." (Lagesse, 2003).

“...In Iraq, Coalition Forces (particularly the U.S. Govt and U.S. Military) are using MGRS coordinates almost exclusively. They have GIS software and data that allows them to search for a particular address (building #, street # and house #) within the 9 districts of Baghdad and in a few other cities/regions of Iraq. The operators in the field will get intel about a person of interest being located at a particular address. We will use the GIS sw/data to locate that address on a map or imagery of the city. Then, using our data, we can provide an MGRS coordinate for that location. The operator can then plug that coordinate into his GPS and easily navigate to the building of interest in order to do surveillance.” - US Government person, December 2005

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Two perspectives on using coordinates...

“The map was my most important tool.

With that, a compass, and a radio,

I was God in the wilderness.

Preserving the map from the weather,

I had learned from bitter experience,

was a lifesaving effort,…”

- 1st Lt Michael C. Hodgins, USMC

Reluctant Warrior, Vietnam, March 1970

The Modern Devil Dog….

…synergistically using analog and digital tools.

A GPS receiver

in the pocket.

A paper map

in hand.

• Paper map: Does not

manipulate or

communicate data.

- Allows basic geospatial analysis (KOCOA)

- Provides a synoptic view.

- Batteries never die.

- Billet holders will be

getting D-DACT.

Briefing and rehearsal

Digital 3D modeling

and simulations,

interconnected

simulators,

but sometimes...

Note sand table/terrain model.

Sand Tables

Note use of grid lines

Physical Implementations

of Geoaddresses

http://http://nmviewogc.cr.usgs.gov/viewer.htm

DC Master Address Repository

http://http://dcatlashttp://dcatlas.http://dcatlas.dcgishttp://dcatlas.dcgis.dc.http://dcatlas.dcgis.dc.govhttp://dcatlas.dcgis.dc.gov/MAR/

The National Map

http://http://stlcin.missouri.org/citydata/newdesign/index.cfm

St. Louis, MO Parcel Data by Address

http://stlcin.missouri.org/citydata/newdesign/addressparser.cfm?addresssearchhttp://stlcin.missouri.org/citydata/newdesign/addressparser.cfm?addresssearch=&http://stlcin.missouri.org/citydata/newdesign/addressparser.cfm?addresssearch=&previouspagehttp://stlcin.missouri.org/citydata/newdesign/addressparser.cfm?addresssearch=&previouspage=data

1620 L St NW

USNG: 2331 0803

Relevant URLs

FGDC US National Grid resource site:

http://www.fgdc.gov/usng

DC GIS

http://http://dcgishttp://dcgis.dc.http://dcgis.dc.gov

A two-dimensional earth referenced address based on the U.S. National Grid (USNG) that supplements conventional one-dimensional street addresses. Geoaddresses unambiguously communicate the surface location at which an organization or person can be reached, and act as a universal map index for properly gridded topographic, street, highway, and general purpose maps. Geoaddresses may serve a temporary (i.e.reporting an accident location), or permanent purpose, (i.e. associated with cultural features). Away from the road network, or in the event of major disaster, geoaddresses may be the only readily usable ‘address’. Geoaddresses enable the widespread use of the Global Positioning System (GPS) in society, and enhance the use of web based/digital and hardcopy maps.

Geoaddress

Example: USGS National Center

18S TJ 9473 1361

• User friendly way to describe precise locations for all users.

Easier to use than lat/long. Reduced training requirements.

• Provides a cross check between a street address and geoaddress to

ensure information is not garbled in transmission.

• Increase the speed and accuracy with which places can be identified on

a map or in a GIS. No ambiguity. Includes all places--not just roads.

• Enables creation of a universal map index of places and facilities.
• Improves navigation to, and within, incident areas by responding

external forces/mutual assistance situations.

• Sets a presentation format standard. USNG does not replace GIS data

storage formats or SPCS in survey and engineering operations.

• Improves coordination between different responding agencies

(to include local, state, federal, and general public).

• Nonproprietary standard facilitates rapid implementation by

commercial maps and software applications.

• Facilitates use of simple, digital, communications systems such as

Short Messaging Service (SMS) when cell phone voice circuits are

overloaded during crisis.

• ENABLES THE USE OF GPS! USNG now used in commercial GPS.

Value of a Standardized Grid

Human factors: Types & Percentages of Positional Errors

Terry, 1994, Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing, Vol 63, No. 4, Apr 1997, p.381 - 383.

From research into,

“Why not lat/long instead of plane coordinates.”

Green (15m) equates

approximately to (12m)

the National Map

Accuracy Standard (NMAS).

08/27/98

UTM or SPCS?

08/27/98

Pos Accuracy Bullseye

Terry, 1994, Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing, Vol 63, No. 4, Apr 1997, p.381 - 383.

Meets National Map

Accuracy Standard

08/27/98

User’s Preference (91%)

Terry, 1994, Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing, Vol 63, No. 4, Apr 1997, p.381 - 383.

Threshold Automobile GPS Initiative

TAGI

Think of it as a “street sign-in-a-box”

“We should promote voluntary standards that

enhance the effective coordination of disaster responses, such as the U.S. National Grid map

standard for geospatial information system;”

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- The Honorable John H. Marburger, III

Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Testimony of Dec 5, 2001 before the Subcommittee on Science,

Technology and Space Committee on Commerce, Science, and

Transportation, United States Senate.

FGDC-STD-011-2001

United States National Grid

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www.fgdc.gov/usng

“Problems/Issues/Gaps:

Responders’ lack ability to share information between the MAC (Multi-Agency Coordination Entities) and

area command posts is partially due to weak communications and interoperability standards.

This is evidenced by situations where MAC and area commands may both be utilizing digital maps, but with different indexing standards. The result may be an inability to easily exchange map coordinates.”

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• A Project Responder Report: Technology Opportunities for Implementing the National Incident Management System (NIMS)

Of October 2005, p. 31, by Hicks and Associates, Inc., for The Memorial

Insitute for the Prevention of Terrorism and the United States Department of Homeland Security.

A Brief MGRS - USNG History

MGRS

1914 - WW I: Convergence of technologies. Necessity mother

of invention. French develop use of grids. Lat/Long too

hard for average soldier. WW I Lesson: Grids are great.

Everybody develops one.

1940’s WW II: Many different grids in use. Projection issues.

Operational friction.

WW II Lesson: Get everyone on standard grid.

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1945 - 1949: US and British armies develop and implement

UTM and Military Grid Reference System (MGRS).

Great success story; Used in combat ever since.

USNG

Mid - 1990’s: No standard civil grid equiv. GPS arrives. 9/11.

USNG development at FGDC. MGRS could answer the

requirement, no need to be original… but NAD27 US issue.

USNG/WGS84 = MGRS/WGS84 USNG/NAD27 not = MGRS/27