[UW-GIS-L] data for the Burke

[Ralph Haugerud]

Aimee-

I don't know about the limits of a single shapefile, but generally I think
you are right.

1) Geology--WaDGER 1:100K coverages are the best thing going. (And are
pretty cool--Washington is a leader in having fairly uniform state-wide
digital geology coverage.) 50 some tiles, 1 for each 30x60 minute quad.
They are in WAGDA (UW Restricted) and can be pasted together fairly
easily.  I have a version distributed by WaDGER late in 2002 that I could
contribute to the library, if your version is not as current.

2) Land cover I know nothing about

3) Contours?!  I've heard that we have statewide 10m DEMs because WaDNR
discovered that it was impractical to work with large-area contour
coverages. Indexing/clipping to get the part you want is simply too
expensive.  It's easier --if you must have contours-- to clip part of a
grid and re-contour on the fly.


Ralph Haugerud
Geologist, U.S. Geological Survey
USGS at University of Washington
Dept. Earth and Space Sciences, Box 351310
Seattle, WA 98195
   rah at geophys.washington.edu
------------------------------------------
        public-domain high-resolution
        topography for western Washington:
            http://pugetsoundlidar.org
        Pacific NW geologic mapping project:
            http://geology.wr.usgs.gov/wgmt/pacnw

On Wed, 29 Jan 2003, Aimee A. Pierce wrote:

> Hello list,
> 
> I had a patron come in today interested in finding all sorts of base
> data for Washington State.  He is trying to improve GIS at the Burke
> Museum.  We have found some data, but he is hoping to find complete
> shapefiles of geology, landcover and contours for the entrie state of
> Washington-not shapefiles of sections of Washington.  Is this type of
> information available?  It seems to me this type of data would be too
> large to put in a single shapefile, and while I have found the little
> section shapefiles I cannot find a larger state shapefile.  Am I
> correct in my assumption or am I missing some leads?  The information
> I have found seems to be too general in detail for what he is looking
> for.  He would be interested in scales from 1:24,000 to 1:200,000.
> 
> Thanks for any help. 
> Aimee A. Pierce
> GIS Assistant, Map Library
> University of Washington
> aimeeap at u.washington.edu
> 206.543.9392
>