| Abstract: | The explosion of computer processing capabilities for manipulating geographic data has produced a concomitant increase in the number of geographic data file formats available. The many formats make it difficult to exchange and manipulate geographic data from several sources, and sometimes even from the same source. The U.S. Bureau of the Census has been a contributor to the “Yet Another Geographic File Format” movement over the past two decades with its Address Coding Guides (following the 1970 decennial census), the GBF/DIME-Files (following the 1980 decennial census), and four different versions of its TIGER/Line files at various times during the 1990 decennial census cycle. The TIGER data base is a massive computer file that provides geographic information about the entire United States and its territories in great detail, down to the individual city block and its component boundary features. Its value to more than Census Bureau activities is enormous. To enhance the value of the TIGER data base, and to make it easier to use, the Census Bureau is releasing the file in the new Spatial Data Transfer Standard (SDTS) format. The benefits of a standard transfer format are manifold. This paper discusses some of the intergovernmental activities that were required before the exchange standard was adopted and some of the problems of implementing the standard within the Census Bureau. The Census Bureau is not alone in its decision to release geographic data files in the SDTS format, and some of the benefits of using the standard for exchanging data among agencies also are described. |
