The Geographic Support
System Initiative (GSS-I)
Partnership Program
Donna Bullock
U.S. Census Bureau
donna.bullock@census.gov
404-331-1339
November 2, 2012
Census Geographic Support –
Major Initiatives Over Time
For the 1990 Census – Introduced TIGER
For the 2000 Census – Introduced the Master Address File
For the 2010 Census – conducted the MAF/TIGER
Enhancement Program
For the 2020 Census – The GSS Initiative
What is the GSS Initiative?
Address Updates
Quality Measurement
123 Testdata Road
Anytown, CA 94939
Lat 37 degrees, 9.6 minutes N
Lon 119 degrees, 45.1 minutes W
• An integrated program consisting of:
 Improved address coverage
 Ongoing address and spatial database updates
 Enhanced quality assessment and measurement
Street/Feature
Updates
Major Components of 2010 Census
Address List Development
2010 Address Canvassing Facts
• Number of housing unit addresses that needed
verification: 145 million
• Number of census workers hired for Address
Canvassing: 140,000
• Number of hand-held computers used: 151,000
• Number of local census offices that managed
operations: 151
• Dates of operation: March 30 - Mid-July 2009
Goal: A Shift in Focus for the 2020
Census
• From a complete Address Canvassing to
a targeted Address Canvassing
– Hinges on establishing an acceptable address list for
each level of government
6
Why a “Targeted” Address
Canvassing?
• $$$! It is VERY expensive
– Field an ARMY of address canvassers
– “Walk” EVERY street in the nation…
• Goal: developing regular update and change
detection processes
• Result: “Target” only areas with uncertainty
– Quality of Addresses
– Currency of Addresses
Quality Assurance Goals
1: Establish quantitative
measures of
address and spatial data
quality
Existing
MAF/TIGER
Data
3: Monitor
and Improve
the quality
of the:
2: Assign Quality
Indicators to
MAF/TIGER data
Geographic
products
output from
the MTDB
IT processes
for updating
the MTDB
Partnerships are Key!
• Local governments are the authoritative sources for
address and spatial data!
• Expanding our Partnerships is Critical
– Key step towards establishing an accurate and up-todate address list
• The GSS-I Partnership Program seeks government,
organizational, and commercial partners willing to share
high-quality data on:
– Addresses
– Housing Unit Structures
– Street Centerlines and Attributes
What Kind of Address Data?
• City-style addresses
and/or
• Non city-style addresses (i.e., Rural Route #)
that “ideally” meet:
1. USPS minimum delivery requirements, and
2. The FGDC Address Standard (U.S. Thoroughfare, Landmark, and Postal
Address Data Standard)
See the Draft Census Bureau Address Data Content
Guidelines:
http://www.census.gov/geo/www/gss/gdlns/addgdln.html
What Kind of Housing Unit Structure Data?
• Latitude/Longitude Coordinates for a Housing Unit structure
or access point (i.e., from E-911 or Next-Gen E-911
database)
• Structure centroids
• Latitude/Longitude Coordinates for a real property parcel or
parcel centroid
• Other points used by partner?
See the Draft Census Bureau Address Data Content
Guidelines:
http://www.census.gov/geo/www/gss/gdlns/addgdln.html
What Kind of Street Feature Data?
• Street centerline geometry
• Street attributes – names, address ranges, etc.
Why?
• Expand Census centerline and attribute coverage
• Spatially-correct misaligned streets in conjunction with
high-quality imagery
See also the Draft Census Bureau Feature Data and Metadata
Content Guidelines:
hhttp://www.census.gov/geo/www/gss/gdlns/addgdln.html
GSS-I Progress in last year
• Pilot projects from Address Summit (Sept. 2011)
• Address Authority Outreach and Data Sharing
• FGDC Address Standards and Implementation
• Federal/State/Tribal/Local Address Coordination
• Data Sharing Model– Local/State/USPS/Census
• Hidden/Hard to Capture Addresses
• Researched/acquired “test” county data for development
of GSS-I processing systems. In AL: Bullock and Shelby.
Community TIGER
• New tool being developed in partnership with
ESRI.
• Web-based data sharing/upload system.
• Open for all to use; no software license
requirements.
• Input of state/local/tribal data produces
standardized output format used to update
MAF/TIGER.
• Beta version due in Feb 2013.
Planned Schedule
• Fiscal Year 2012 (Oct 2011 – Sept 2012)
– Process Development, pilot work, research, system
development, initiated Community TIGER
• October 2012
– Kickoff GSS Partnership Program (~51 partners, TBD)
• February 2013
– Start Providing Feedback to Partners
• March 2013
– Identify 300-400 supplemental FY13 partners based on quality
audit of MAF/TIGER data
– Community TIGER beta testing
• October 2013
– Planning for open participation!
New Geographic Products
• TIGERweb v2.0: WMS and viewer app with 2010, 2011, and more
geographic area vintages <WFS coming soon…?>
http://tigerweb.geo.census.gov/tigerwebmain/tigerweb_main.html
• 2012 TIGER/Line Shapefiles:
http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/index.html
• 2010 Geodatabases and shapefiles pre-joined with 2010 SF1
Demographics:
http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/tgrshp2010/2010DP1.html
• KMLs for 2010 Counties and Census Tracts:
http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/kml/kml.html
• 2010 Urbanized Areas, Urban Clusters, and “rural” areas:
ftp://ftp2.census.gov/geo/tiger/TIGER2010/UA/2010/
• 2010 Block shapefiles pre-joined with population and HU numbers:
ftp://ftp2.census.gov/geo/tiger/TIGER2010BLKPOPHU/
• **America’s Economy App (for Android or Apple phones or tablets):
http://www.census.gov/mobile/
Questions?
Donna Bullock
U.S. Census Bureau
Atlanta Regional Office
donna.bullock@census.gov
404-331-1339
November 2, 2012