GIS Vector Data

Description - The parcel data was intended to be used for further analysis of the anthropogenic influences on the water quantity and quality. This parcel data was obtained from Macon County GIS and has been clipped to only include the parcel data of the synoptic sampling watersheds.
Note: Parcel data for the synoptic sampling watersheds outside of Macon County are not included. Macon County GIS Discaimer: This map is prepared for the inventory of real property found within this jurisdiction, and is compiled from recorded deeds, plats and other public records and data. Users of this map are hereby notified that the aforementioned public primary information sources should be consulted for verification of the information contained on this map. The county and mapping department assume no legal responsibility for the information contained on this map.

Description - These data were collected to reconstruct spatially-explicit land use/land cover change trajectories that were temporally consistent and at very high accuracies. The data were developed for four watersheds in Macon County, NC: Cartoogechaye, Coweeta, Skeenah Creek Watershed and Watauga. Buildings (pts) and roads (lines) were digitized from historic maps and aerial photographs and aligned where necessary for temporal consistency. Land cover was simultaneously classified across all years for each 25x25m pixel (1/16 ha) in order to maximize temporal consistency. This file includes the watershed boundary used for data development. Watershed boundary Shapefiles were collected from other Coweeta researchers.

Description - These data were collected to reconstruct spatially-explicit land use/land cover change trajectories that were temporally consistent and at very high accuracies. The data were developed for four watersheds in Macon County, NC: Cartoogechaye, Coweeta, Skeenah Creek Watershed and Watauga. Buildings (pts) and roads (lines) were digitized from historic maps and aerial photographs and aligned where necessary for temporal consistency. Land cover was simultaneously classified across all years for each 25x25m pixel (1/16 ha) in order to maximize temporal consistency. This shapefile includes the watershed boundary used for data development. Watershed boundary Shapefiles were collected from other Coweeta researchers.

Description - These data were collected to reconstruct spatially-explicit land use/land cover change trajectories that were temporally consistent and at very high accuracies. The data were developed for four watersheds in Macon County, NC: Cartoogechaye, Coweeta, Skeenah Creek Watershed and Watauga. Buildings (pts) and roads (lines) were digitized from historic maps and aerial photographs and aligned where necessary for temporal consistency. Land cover was simultaneously classified across all years for each 25x25m pixel (1/16 ha) in order to maximize temporal consistency. This file includes the watershed boundary used for data development. Watershed boundary Shapefiles were collected from other Coweeta researchers.

Description - The TIGER/Line Files are shapefiles and related database files (.dbf) that are an extract of selected geographic and cartographic information from the U.S. Census Bureau's Master Address File / Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (MAF/TIGER) Database (MTDB). The MTDB represents a seamless national file with no overlaps or gaps between parts, however, each TIGER/Line File is designed to stand alone as an independent data set, or they can be combined to cover the entire nation. Census Blocks are statistical areas bounded on all sides by visible features, such as streets, roads, streams, and railroad tracks, and/or by nonvisible boundaries such as city, town, township, and county limits, and short line-of-sight extensions of streets and roads. Census blocks are relatively small in area; for example, a block in a city bounded by streets. However, census blocks in remote areas are often large and irregular and may even be many square miles in area. A common misunderstanding is that data users think census blocks are used geographically to build all other census geographic areas, rather all other census geographic areas are updated and then used as the primary constraints, along with roads and water features, to delineate the tabulation blocks. As a result, all Census 2000 blocks nest within every other Census 2000 geographic area, so that Census Bureau statistical data can be tabulated at the block level and aggregated up to the appropriate geographic areas. Census blocks cover all territory in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Island Areas (American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands). Blocks are the smallest geographic areas for which the Census Bureau publishes data from the decennial census. A block may consist of one or more faces.

Description - The TIGER/Line Files are shapefiles and related database files (.dbf) that are an extract of selected geographic and cartographic information from the U.S. Census Bureau's Master Address File / Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (MAF/TIGER) Database (MTDB). The MTDB represents a seamless national file with no overlaps or gaps between parts, however, each TIGER/Line File is designed to stand alone as an independent data set, or they can be combined to cover the entire nation. Block Groups (BGs) are defined before tabulation block delineation and numbering, but are clusters of blocks within the same census tract that have the same first digit of their 4-digit census block number from the same decennial census. For example, Census 2000 tabulation blocks 3001, 3002, 3003,..., 3999 within Census 2000 tract 1210.02 are also within BG 3 within that census tract. Census 2000 BGs generally contained between 600 and 3,000 people, with an optimum size of 1,500 people. Most BGs were delineated by local participants in the Census Bureau's Participant Statistical Areas Program (PSAP). The Census Bureau delineated BGs only where the PSAP participant declined to delineate BGs or where the Census Bureau could not identify any local PSAP participant. A BG usually covers a contiguous area. Each census tract contains at least one BG, and BGs are uniquely numbered within census tract. Within the standard census geographic hierarchy, BGs never cross county or census tract boundaries, but may cross the boundaries of other geographic entities like county subdivisions, places, urban areas, voting districts, congressional districts, and American Indian / Alaska Native / Native Hawaiian areas. BGs have a valid code range of 0 through 9. BGs coded 0 were intended to only include water area, no land area, and they are generally in territorial seas, coastal water, and Great Lakes water areas. For Census 2000, rather than extending a census tract boundary into the Great Lakes or out to the U.S. nautical three-mile limit, the Census Bureau delineated some census tract boundaries along the shoreline or just offshore. The Census Bureau assigned a default census tract number of 0 and BG of 0 to these offshore, water-only areas not included in regularly numbered census tract areas.

Description - The TIGER/Line Files are shapefiles and related database files (.dbf) that are an extract of selected geographic and cartographic information from the U.S. Census Bureau's Master Address File / Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (MAF/TIGER) Database (MTDB). The MTDB represents a seamless national file with no overlaps or gaps between parts, however, each TIGER/Line File is designed to stand alone as an independent data set, or they can be combined to cover the entire nation. Census tracts are small, relatively permanent statistical subdivisions of a county or equivalent entity, and were defined by local participants as part of the Census 2000 Participant Statistical Areas Program (PSAP). The Census Bureau delineated the census tracts in situations where no local participant existed or where all the potential participants declined to participate. The primary purpose of census tracts is to provide a stable set of geographic units for the presentation of census data and comparison back to previous decennial censuses. Census tracts generally have a population size between 1,500 and 8,000 people, with an optimum size of 4,000 people. When first delineated, census tracts were designed to be homogeneous with respect to population characteristics, economic status, and living conditions. The spatial size of census tracts varies widely depending on the density of settlement. Physical changes in street patterns caused by highway construction, new development, etc. may require boundary revisions before a census. In addition, census tracts occasionally are split due to population growth, or combined as a result of substantial population decline. Census tract boundaries generally follow visible and identifiable features. They may follow legal boundaries such as minor civil division (MCD) or incorporated place boundaries in some States and situations to allow for census tract-to-governmental unit relationships where the governmental boundaries tend to remain unchanged between censuses. State and county boundaries are always census tract boundaries in the standard census geographic hierarchy. In a few rare instances, a census tract may consist of noncontiguous areas. These noncontiguous areas may occur where the census tracts are coextensive with all or parts of legal entities that are themselves noncontiguous.

Description - TIGER, TIGER/Line, and Census TIGER are registered trademarks of the Bureau
of the Census. The Redistricting Census 2000 TIGER/Line files are an extract
of selected geographic and cartographic information from the Census TIGER
data base. The geographic coverage for a single TIGER/Line file is a county
or statistical equivalent entity, with the coverage area based on January 1,
2000 legal boundaries. A complete set of Redistricting Census 2000 TIGER/Line
files includes all counties and statistically equivalent entities in the United
States and Puerto Rico. The Redistricting Census 2000 TIGER/Line files will
not include files for the Island Areas. The Census TIGER data base represents
a seamless national file with no overlaps or gaps between parts. However, each
county-based TIGER/Line file is designed to stand alone as an independent data
set or the files can be combined to cover the whole Nation. The Redistricting
Census 2000 TIGER/Line files consist of line segments representing physical
features and governmental and statistical boundaries. The Redistricting Census
2000 TIGER/Line files do NOT contain the ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs) and
the address ranges are of approximately the same vintage as those appearing in
the 1999 TIGER/Line files. That is, the Census Bureau is producing the
Redistricting Census 2000 TIGER/Line files in advance of the computer processing
that will ensure that the address ranges in the TIGER/Line files agree with the
final Master Address File (MAF) used for tabulating Census 2000. The files contain
information distributed over a series of record types for the spatial objects of a
county. There are 17 record types, including the basic data record, the shape
coordinate points, and geographic codes that can be used with appropriate software
to prepare maps. Other geographic information contained in the files includes
attributes such as feature identifiers/census feature class codes (CFCC) used to
differentiate feature types, address ranges and ZIP Codes, codes for legal and
statistical entities, latitude/longitude coordinates of linear and point features,
landmark point features, area landmarks, key geographic features, and area
boundaries. The Redistricting Census 2000 TIGER/Line data dictionary contains
a complete list of all the fields in the 17 record types.