# Presentation: 523929

## USNG in Florida

**Richard Butgereit**
**GIS Administrator**
**850-413-9907**
**richard.butgereit@dca.state.fl.us **

## United States National Grid

**Lessons learned have taught us that standardized grids are needed for positional reporting.**
**As far back as Hurricane Andrew, problems were recognized for emergency managers...**

**Notes:**
Lessons learned from recent hurricane seasons have taught us that standardized grid maps for search and rescue and other activities are a necessity. In an effort to standardize maps in Florida for both emergency and other operations, the State Fire Marshal, as the coordinating agency for search and rescue under the State Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan, and the Division of Emergency Management are embarking on a program to adopt the US National Grid (USNG) as the standard in Florida. This project will ensure a uniform grid mapping system across cities and counties in Florida, and will match the system used by the National Guard, the US Coast Guard and the US military when they are deployed into our state. 

All GPS units are programmed with the National Grid (or the compatible military grid). Users just have to switch their unit to the proper format to find a grid address.

## What’s wrong with current systems?

**We already have...**
** ****Latitude/Longitude**
** ****Township/Range/Section**
** ****Street Address and Zip**
** ****UTM**

## Latitude/Longitude

** ****Multiple formats are confusing**
**DD  ****	****-85.990151, 30.272240**
**DM ****	****-85 59.409089, 30.16.334386**
**DMS ****	**** 85 59’24.545”W, 30 16’20.063”N**
**All the same location!!!**

##  How far is a second anyway?

** ****What is the distance from....**
**85 59’24.545”W, 30 16’20.063”N**
** ****To here....**
**85 59’26.292”W, 30 16’14.546”N**

## Worse yet...

** ****What is the distance from**
**-85.990443, 30.275358**
** ****To here....**
**85 59.364547, 30 16.504539**

## Township/Range/Section

**Township/Range/Section grid from the Public Lands Survey System is an important and good system...**
** ****basis of land ownership records**
** ****been in use for over 180 years**

## Township/Range/Section

**But a perfect section really doesn’t exist**
** ****irregular in coastal areas **
** ****too large to meet needs of ground crews**

**Notes:**
Florida’s unique geography of miles of coastlines, multiple river corridors, and large watersheds make the use of the common Township/Range/Section grid (PLSS) all but impossible except for a handful of inland counties. As the grid approaches wetlands, river corridors and the coast line, sections become irregular in shape and can be significantly larger than the typical square mile, which is too large to accommodate the needs of ground crews.

## Street Address and Zip

**Problematic due to...**
** ****rural routes**
** ****post office boxes**

## What do you do when the SIGNS are gone?

## What do you do when the ROADS are gone?

**What do you do when the ROADS are gone?**

## Universal Transverse Mercator

**Measuring distances and obtaining positional accuracy has always been a challenge.**
**Following World War II, several European allies demonstrated the utility of grid-based conformal maps.**
**Abbreviated as “UTM”**

## Calculating the distance between two points on these maps could be performed more easily in the field using the Pythagorean theorem instead of using trigonometric formulas required under the Latitude and Longitude system. 

**UTM**

## UTM

## Developed by the United States Army in 1947
A position is reported by the UTM longitude zone, the distance from the central meridian (called the easting) and the distance from the equator (called the northing)
16R 766000 3364820

**A position is reported by the UTM longitude zone, the distance from the central meridian (called the easting) and the distance from the equator (called the northing)**
**16R 766000 3364820**

**UTM**

## 
Based on UTM
Newer standard used by United States Armed Forces and NATO

Abbreviated as “MGRS”

**Based on UTM**
**Newer standard used by United States Armed Forces and NATO**
**Abbreviated as “MGRS”**

**Military Grid Reference System**

## Uses a 2 to 10 character geocode
 2 digits implies precision of 10 km
 10 digits implies precision of 1 m
 100,000 m grids truncated and replaced with alpha-numeric grid 
16R GU 66000 64820

** ****2 digits implies precision of 10 km**
** ****10 digits implies precision of 1 m**
** ****100,000 m grids truncated and replaced with alpha-numeric grid **
**16R GU 66000 64820**

**MGRS**

## Essentially the same as Military Grid Reference System...
So same format...
16R GU 66000 64820

Abbreviated as “USNG”

**So same format...**
**16R GU 66000 64820**
**Abbreviated as “USNG”**

**United States National Grid**

## How to read USNG

**16R GU 66000 64820**

**Grid Zone Designation – for a world-wide unique address, identifies the longitude zone number and the latitude band letter**

**100,000 Meter Grid – identification for regional areas**

**Grid Coordinates – Easting and Northing position**

## Truncate for less accuracy...

**16R GU 66000 64820**

**Locates within 1000 meters**

**66 64**

**6600 6482**

**Locates within 10 meters**

**660 648**

**Locates within 100 meters**

**66000 64820**

**Locates within 1 meter **

## USNG

**USNG**

**Easily scaleable**
**Pin-point and cell**
**    ****based locational reporting**
**“****Grid within a Grid”**

## Global Positioning Systems

**I have GPS...why do I need to care about any of this? **
** ****USNG can be used with GPS**
** ****GPS supplements USNG**
** ****However, USNG can also work when GPS won’t**

## USNG Sample Maps

## Florida Adopts the USNG

**USNG was officially adopted by the FFCA**
**FDEM to adopt the USNG in the States CEMP**
**Updates of GIS/Maps in the 11 Regional Evacuation Studies will include USNG grids**
**Florida Fire College, Florida Fire Chiefs Association, Fl National Guard to develop curriculum and instructor manuals**
**FFC will be incorporating an intro module in the Firefighter II curriculum**

## FDEM Adopts the USNG

**Creating downloadable shapefiles by county**
**Will handle requests for production of shapefiles for specific areas**
**Has made available training materials and presentations via web**
**Working with DEP to create coordinate transformation tools available via web**
**With Sue McLellan and others at DOF**

## ESRI Adopts the USNG

**PLTS and Military Analyst extensions contain tools to work with USNG **
**USNG tool available for download from ArcScripts**
**USNG toolbar available for download elsewhere on ESRI site**
**ArcGIS 9.2 includes USNG tools **

## More information...

- _[http://www.floridadisaster.org/gis/usng](http://www.floridadisaster.org/gis/usng)__ _

**Notes:**
To stay informed of GIS projects at the Florida DEM, visit our webpage.