After the announcement of the 1990 Urbanized Areas, the Census Bureau had to
quickly come up with a map product that showed the extent of the 1990 UAs to
support the planning activities of the MPOs. With that experience in mind,
the Census Bureau's Geography Division is planning to produce several
products that show Census 2000 urbanized areas (UAs) and the new urban
clusters (UCs).
The products we are planning to produce include the UA Census 2000
TIGER/Line files, UA Outline Maps, and generalized boundary files for the
UAs/UCs (the shape files will be similar to what we have produced for other
geographic areas for Census 2000). We expect the first product to be
available will be the UA Census 2000 TIGER/Line files which we hope to have
available for all counties shortly after the announcement of the Census 2000
UAs in the Federal Register, tentatively scheduled to be late March, 2002.
(Note: The Federal Register Notice with the final criteria is still being
drafted -- we received a substantial number of responses to the draft
criteria that we
will respond to in the Federal Register Notice. We do not yet have a target
date for the publication of the final criteria.) We are working on having
Chapter 6 of the UA Census 2000 TIGER/Line file documentation (the record
layouts) available shortly on our web site. Maps for the UAs and
generalized boundary files also would be available although probably not as
quickly.
To ensure that we design these map products to meet most users' needs, we
are asking that you take a few minutes and provide us with information that
will help us plan for the necessary content and design of a map type. We
expect these maps to be "large format" -- E-size -- and use color. One map
type you might want to look at when thinking about the questions below is
the Census 2000 Census Tract Outline Map that you can download from the web
in PDF format:
http://www.census.gov/geo/www/maps/CP_MapProducts.htm
1. How do you plan to use a map that shows the extent of an urbanized
area/urban cluster? Try to describe what you would do with the map to
support your work and interests using urbanized areas and urban clusters.
2. What information (content) is important beyond the actual boundary?
For example, do you need to know the type of feature that forms the
boundary?
Do you need to know every segment or feature type in areas where the
boundary frequently changes direction? Do you need to know the name of the
feature (road, river, railroad etc.), where there is one available?
Please provide comments back to the Geography Division within the next 10
days (before TRB). You may e-mail your
questions/comments/suggestions/answers to:
ua(a)geo.census.gov
Geography Division staff expect to be at the TRB Subcommittee on Census
Data for Transportation Planning meeting (A1D08(1) Ed J. Christopher, chair;
Wednesday, 2:30 p.m.-6:00 p.m., Hilton, Georgetown East).
Bob LaMacchia
Geography Division
301-457-1022
rlamacchia(a)geo.census.gov
