United States National Grid
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.
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.
Adoption of a national grid system has been identified as ‘critical’ in a number of after action reports, investigations and studies dating as far back as Hurricane Andrew. FEMA, DHS, the National GeoSpatial Intelligence Agency, and the Federal Geographic Data Committee all promote the adoption of the USNG.
This project will pull together representatives from the various disciplines and agencies to form an implementation group, and training curriculum and materials are being identified.
USNG Mashups
Support for the USNG has been added to our Incident Mapper. USNG coordinates follow the pointer across the map, you can click on the map and obtain USNG coordinates, and even enter USNG coordinates and zoom to that location!
For more information on how this mash up was built, as well as for some great information on the USNG and how to use the site, please visit Larry Moore's site at http://www.fidnet.com/~jlmoore/usng.
Downloadable GIS Data at UF's Florida Geographic Data Library
Courtesy of the University of Florida's GeoPlan Center, USNG data for all of Florida is now available for download at the Florida Geographic Data Library.
Please visit http://www.fgdl.org, click on FGDL Metadata Explorer, enter "usng" under the keyword search, click Start Search, and select the grid size and appropriate UTM zone...
Reminder -- the UTM 16/17 junction runs down Jefferson county, so counties west are in UTM 16 and counties east are in UTM 17.
USNG Mapbook Templates
Courtsey of Delta State University, standard USNG map book templates have been created for each of Florida's counties. Zip files containing a 5,000m x 4,000m index grid, an index template, and 1:24,000 template page may be downloaded for each county. With these templates, the 5,000m x 4,000m grid, and the free DSMapbook extension for ArcGIS, a USNG mapbook may easily be created for each county. Then you may add your local data, including facilities, hazards, roads, and/or aerials, and easily create standard mapbook products. Make sure to check out the Readme.txt for more instructions.
USNG Mapbooks
Another goal of this project is that map books with USNG grids be created for each county. All counties that produce map books for fire and rescue are strongly encouraged to adopt a standard procedure for creating county-wide, 1:24,000 8.5"x11" USNG map books. Anyone interested in tackling this challenge are encouraged to view the material provided by Delta State University, including this video generating USNG mapbooks in ArcGIS.
If you produce a county map book (with USNG or not), please let us know so that we can include it here --
| County | Produced By | Contact |
| Brevard (37 MB) | Brevard County Planning and Development | David Jordan |
| Brevard (36 MB) | Delta State University | Talbot Brooks |
| Collier (16 MB) | Delta State University | Talbot Brooks |
| Duval (8 MB) | Delta State University | Talbot Brooks |
| Lake (17 MB) | Lake County Information Technology | Sue Carroll |
| Monroe (329 MB) | Delta State University | Talbot Brooks |
| Tampa UASI (16 MB) | Delta State University | Talbot Brooks |
| Volusia (multiple PDFs) | Volusia County GIS | Al Hill |
