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Recommended Formats Statement


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VII. GIS, Geospatial and Non-GIS Cartographic

i. Geographic Information System (GIS) - Vector Data
i. Geographic Information System (GIS) - Vector Data
  Preferred Acceptable
A. Formats

Most complete data (all layers, appendices), even if proprietary, with a preference for preserving the native format and projection of the data

Vector formats compatible with widely adopted GIS including

  • Shapefile, which is comprised of at least a SHP, SHX, and DBF file and optionally a PRJ (highly recommended), XML (highly recommended), SBN, and/or SBX.
  • Esri File Geodatabase
  • OGC GeoPackage
  • GeoJSON (may have scalability issues)
  • KML
  • GML
B. Delivery method, in order of preference
  1. Public download URLs
  2. Automated private download URLs with any necessary API keys or credentials
  3. Hard drives
 
C. Metadata
  • For metadata information see 191xx ISO standards and