Parish Boundaries of Louisiana from LDOTD source data, Geographic NAD83, LOSCO (1999) [parishes]

Metadata also available as - [Outline] - [Parseable text]

Frequently-anticipated questions:

What does this data set describe?
    Title:
    Parish Boundaries of Louisiana from LDOTD source data, Geographic NAD83, LOSCO (1999) [parishes]
    Abstract:
    This dataset depicts the polygon boundaries of the 64 parishes comprising the state of Louisiana. Parish boundaries extend 3 miles out into the Gulf of Mexico from the coastline. This dataset was derived from many data sources and conveys the best currently (1999) available representation of the parishes of Louisiana and as a consequence, the best currently available representation of the territorial bounds of the state.

    The dataset has as attributes, many demographic variables from 1990 Census data.

    Supplemental_Information:
    These metadata describe the Arc/Info coverage of name 'parishes' and the shapefile of the same name derived from it. These metadata also describe the dataset 'parishes,' which is how this dataset was named on the 'Louisiana GIS CD: A Digital Map of the State.'

    The metadata for this data set are encapsulated into several documents and graphics files. The metadata are not complete if you did not receive the following files along in the data set: 

    parishes.mtd - this metadata in mp (metadata parser) compatible ASCII text form
parishes.html - this metadata in HTML form
parishes_faq.html - this metadata presented as Questions and Answers
parishes.sgml - this metadata in SGML form
parishes1.gif - thumbnail graphic of data set

  1. How should this data set be cited?

    Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinators Office (LOSCO), 1999, Parish Boundaries of Louisiana from LDOTD source data, Geographic NAD83, LOSCO (1999) [parishes].

    Online Links:

  2. What geographic area does the data set cover?

    West_Bounding_Coordinate: -94.0432
    East_Bounding_Coordinate: -88.7583
    North_Bounding_Coordinate: 33.0196
    South_Bounding_Coordinate: 28.8542

  3. What does it look like?

    <URL:parishes1.gif> (GIF)
    thumbnail of parishes (3K)

  4. Does the data set describe conditions during a particular time period?

    Calendar_Date: Dec-1999
    Currentness_Reference: date compilation of this dataset was completed

  5. What is the general form of this data set?

    Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form: vector digital data

  6. How does the data set represent geographic features?

    1. How are geographic features stored in the data set?

      This is a vector data set. It contains the following vector data types (SDTS terminology):

      • G-polygon (64)

    2. What coordinate system is used to represent geographic features?

      Horizontal positions are specified in geographic coordinates, that is, latitude and longitude. Latitudes are given to the nearest 0.00001. Longitudes are given to the nearest 0.00001. Latitude and longitude values are specified in Decimal degrees.

      The horizontal datum used is North American Datum of 1983.
      The ellipsoid used is Geodetic Reference System 80.
      The semi-major axis of the ellipsoid used is 6378137.
      The flattening of the ellipsoid used is 1/298.257.

  7. How does the data set describe geographic features?

    parishes.dbf
    attribute table for parish polygons (Source: 3001, Inc.)

    parish
    name of Louisiana parish (Source: ESRI)

    Formal codeset
    Codeset Name:county name
    Codeset Source:FIPS PUB 6-4, Counties and Equivalent Entities of the United States, Its Possessions, and Associated Areas

    Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated.

    area_sqm
    area of parish in square meters (Source: LSU Department of Geography and Anthropology)

    Range of values
    Minimum:524858999.409
    Maximum:6647606371.787
    Units:square meters

    Coordinates defining the features.

    perim_m
    perimeter of parish polygon in meters (Source: LSU Department of Geography and Anthropology)

    Range of values
    Minimum:125269.592
    Maximum:460239.623
    Units:meters

    area_ac
    area of parish in acres (Source: LSU Department of Geography and Anthropology)

    Range of values
    Minimum:129694.964
    Maximum:1642652.738
    Units:acres

    FIPS
    The concatenation of the FIPS numeric code for Louisiana, 22, and the FIPS numeric code for the parish. (Source: ESRI)

    Formal codeset
    Codeset Name:state numeric code / county numeric code
    Codeset Source:FIPS PUB 6-4, Counties and Equivalent Entities of the United States, Its Possessions, and Associated Areas

    PRSH_FIPS
    the parish FIPS code (Source: ESRI)

    Formal codeset
    Codeset Name:county numeric code
    Codeset Source:FIPS PUB 6-4, Counties and Equivalent Entities of the United States, Its Possessions, and Associated Areas

    POP1990
    the population of the county in 1990 based on the US Census (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:7103
    Maximum:496938

    POP90_SQMI
    the population of the parish in 1990 per square mile (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:6
    Maximum:2326

    AREA
    the area of the county in square miles based on an Albers Equal Area Projection (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:198.3781
    Maximum:1605.4614

    POP_1998
    population estimate for 1998 from the US Census (Source: Louisiana State University)

    Range of values
    Minimum:6631
    Maximum:465538

    HOUSEHOLDS
    total number of households (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:2515
    Maximum:188235

    MALES
    number of males (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:3242
    Maximum:230883

    FEMALES
    number of females (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:3861
    Maximum:266055

    WHITE
    number of people identified as white (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:3292
    Maximum:351170

    BLACK
    number of people identified as black (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:503
    Maximum:307728

    AMERI_ES
    number of people identified as American Indian, Eskimo, or Aleut (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:4
    Maximum:4905

    ASIAN_PI
    number of people identified as Asian or Pacific Islander (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:2
    Maximum:9986

    OTHER
    number of people identified as belonging to a race other than white, black, American Indian, or Asian (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:8
    Maximum:6355

    HISPANIC
    number of people of all races identified as being of Hispanic origin (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:40
    Maximum:26611

    AGE_UNDER5
    number of people 0 to 4 years of age (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:571
    Maximum:38574

    AGE_5_17
    number of people 5 to 17 years of age (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:1733
    Maximum:97888

    AGE_18_29
    number of people 18 to 29 years of age (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:1000
    Maximum:98481

    AGE_30_49
    number of people 30 to 49 years of age (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:1729
    Maximum:138571

    AGE_50_64
    number of people 50 to 64 years of age (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:873
    Maximum:59461

    AGE_65_UP
    number of people 65 years of age and over (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:887
    Maximum:64658

    NEVERMARRY
    number of people who have never been married (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:1352
    Maximum:145032

    MARRIED
    number of people who are married (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:2532
    Maximum:187667

    SEPARATED
    number of people who are separated from their spouse (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:156
    Maximum:19880

    WIDOWED
    number of people whose spouse died (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:397
    Maximum:37497

    DIVORCED
    number of people who are divorced (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:312
    Maximum:37944

    HSEHLD_1_M
    number of one-person male households (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:227
    Maximum:26520

    HSEHLD_1_F
    Number of one-person female households (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:279
    Maximum:34153

    MARHH_CHD
    Number of households with a married couple and related children (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:595
    Maximum:46462

    MARHH_NO_C
    Number of households with a married couple and no related children (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:603
    Maximum:43269

    MHH_CHILD
    Number of households with a man and children but no wife (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:63
    Maximum:3750

    FHH_CHILD
    Number of households with a woman and children but no husband (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:161
    Maximum:32339

    HSE_UNITS
    Total number of housing units (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:3334
    Maximum:225573

    VACANT
    Number of housing units that are vacant (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:434
    Maximum:37338

    OWNER_OCC
    Number of housing units that are occupied by the owner (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:1802
    Maximum:104611

    RENTER_OCC
    Number of housing units that are occupied by renters (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:470
    Maximum:105956

    MEDIAN_VAL
    Median value of all housing units (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:30100
    Maximum:74900

    MEDIANRENT
    Median rent charged for all housing units that are rented (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:99
    Maximum:334

    UNITS_1DET
    Number of housing units with one detached unit in the structure (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:2005
    Maximum:114515

    UNITS_1ATT
    Number of housing units with one attached unit in the structure (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:18
    Maximum:43248

    UNITS2
    Number of housing units with two units in the structure (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:2
    Maximum:27844

    UNITS3_9
    Number of housing units with three to nine units in the structure (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:13
    Maximum:36877

    UNITS10_49
    Number of housing units with 10 to 49 units in the structure (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:0
    Maximum:19194

    UNITS50_UP
    Number of housing units with 50 or more units in the structure (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:0
    Maximum:11908

    MOBILEHOME
    Number of mobile homes or trailers (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:371
    Maximum:9824

    NO_FARMS87
    Total number of farms (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:7
    Maximum:1189

    AVG_SIZE87
    Average farm size in acres (Source: ESRI)

    Range of values
    Minimum:2
    Maximum:982

    CROP_ACR87
    The total area of cropland in acres (Source: ESRI)

    ValueDefinition
    -99no information available

    Range of values
    Minimum:5324
    Maximum:256688

    AVG_SALE87
    Average sales of agricultural products per farm, in thousands of dollars (Source: ESRI)

    ValueDefinition
    -99no information available

    Range of values
    Minimum:6757
    Maximum:277441

    AVG_SALE87

Who produced the data set?

  1. Who are the originators of the data set? (may include formal authors, digital compilers, and editors)

  2. Who also contributed to the data set?

  3. To whom should users address questions about the data?

    DeWitt Braud
    Louisiana State University Department of Geography Anthropology
    Louisiana State University
    Baton Rouge, LA 70803

    (504) 388-6177 (voice)
    (504) 388-4420 (FAX)

Why was the data set created?
This data set provides a representation of parish polygons for the purposes of portraying nominal and statistical attributes for each parish. Individual (or groups of) parish polygons may be used to subset other geospatial data.

How was the data set created?
  1. From what previous works were the data drawn?

    LDOTDPARISH (source 1 of 6)
    Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (LDOTD), Parish boundaries.

    Type_of_Source_Media: computer file
    Source_Contribution:
    interior parish boundaries and remaining state boundary not compiled from other sources

    LOSLLAKES (source 2 of 6)
    Louisiana Office of State Lands (LOSL), Parish boundary descriptions.

    Type_of_Source_Media: legal descriptions
    Source_Contribution:
    Descriptions of interior parish boundaries over lakes, bays, and larger water bodies

    LOSLSABINE (source 3 of 6)
    LOSL, Texas/Louisiana boundary along Sabine River.

    Type_of_Source_Media: computer file
    Source_Contribution:
    Representation of Texas/Louisiana border along the Sabine River that had been compiled by LOSL from 1:62500 map sheets upon which a boundary was drawn in a recent Supreme Court decree

    LOSLPEARL (source 4 of 6)
    LOSL, Mississippi/Louisiana boundary along the Pearl River.

    Type_of_Source_Media: computer file
    Source_Contribution:
    Representation of the Louisiana/Mississippi boundary along the Pearl River that was digitized from legal description of mutually agreed coordinates.

    STATE_FEDERAL (source 5 of 6)
    Minerals Management Service (MMS), State Federal Offshore boundary.

    Type_of_Source_Media: computer file
    Source_Contribution: representation of the Louisiana offshore boundary

    MAPSDATA (source 6 of 6)
    Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI), 1998, U.S. Counties.

    This is part of the following larger work.

    ESRI, 1998, ESRI Data Maps 1998.

    Other_Citation_Details:
    This is a four CD-ROM package of data that is provided when a copy of ArcView is purchased
    Type_of_Source_Media: computer file
    Source_Contribution: attributes for parishes

  2. How were the data generated, processed, and modified?

    Date: 1999 (process 1 of 2)
    LDOTDPARISH data (64 files) were projected from polyconic to UTM zone 15, NAD27 coordinates to be compatible with reference data (DRGs). All other digital vector data (LOSLSABINE, LOSLPEARL, STATE_FEDERAL) were projected to UTM zone 15, NAD27 coordinates using Intergraph MGE software. The digital vector data in the common coordinate system were spliced together. The legal description data (LOSLLAKES) was converted to a digital representation and spliced into the other composite data. Line cleaning and processing was performed on the composite.

    The resultant .dgn file was converted to an Arc/Info coverage, topology was built, and the dataset projected to geographic coordinates NAD83. The Arc/Info dataset was converted to a shapefile and the attributes of each parish polygon populated using the MAPS&DATA data.

    Person who carried out this activity:

    LSU Department of Geography and Anthropology
    c/o Hampton Peele
    Louisiana State University
    Baton Rouge, LA 70803

    (225)388-3455 (voice)
    hampton@lsu.edu

    (process 2 of 2)
    Metadata imported.

    Data sources used in this process:

    • C:\DOCUME~1\vatnipp\LOCALS~1\Temp\xmlA95.tmp

How reliable are the data; what problems remain in the data set?
  1. How well have the observations been checked?

  2. How accurate are the geographic locations?

    The positional accuracy of these boundaries is estimated to be +/- 40 feet.

  3. How accurate are the heights or depths?

  4. Where are the gaps in the data? What is missing?

    All parishes present, all attributes populated.

  5. How consistent are the relationships among the observations, including topology?

    Anomalies will be noted between these data compiled from LDOTD realizations of legal descriptions of boundaries and boundaries that are depicted in other reference data sets (e.g. USGS DRGs). The depiction of boundaries in this data set has been heavily researched and is believed to be a better representation of the actual boundary than USGS sources.

    Two parishes in Louisiana each consist of two separated areas. These are St. Martin and West Feliciana. Because the data set is a 'region' dataset, both areas of a parish are selected as one object, and the attributes for that parish represents the sum for the two areas.

How can someone get a copy of the data set?
Are there legal restrictions on access or use of the data?

Access_Constraints: None
Use_Constraints:
These unaltered data may not be redistributed without all of the elements of the metadata listed in the Supplemental_Information section of this metadata document. It is recommended that third parties wishing to use these data obtain them from the Distributor listed in this metadata document.

If these data are altered or incorporated into another dataset, they are not to be redistributed without also: altering the name of the dataset, including a Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata (FGDC-STD-001-1998) compliant metadata file that describes the dataset and reflects the alteration steps that makes the new dataset different from this one, and citing this dataset in the metadata as a source for the altered dataset using the source citation specified below.

If these digital data are used in the production of a report or in the compilation of a standalone printed map, then this dataset is to be cited in the report or on the map using the source citation specified below.

The following source citation is to be used when citing this dataset: LOSCO Environmental Baseline Inventory Dataset 'Parish Boundaries of Louisiana from LDOTD source data, Geographic NAD83, LOSCO (1998) [parishes]'

Users hereby agree to abide by the use and reproduction conditions specified above. By using the data described in these metadata, the user acknowledges that the terms and conditions of use have been read and that the user is bound by these criteria.

  1. Who distributes the data set? (Distributor 1 of 1)

    Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinator's Office
    c/o David Gisclair
    Technical Assistance Program (TAP) Director
    Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinator's Office
    Baton Rouge, LA 70804

    (225) 219-5800 (voice)
    (225) 219-5802 (FAX)
    <URL:mailto:tapgis@linknet.idt.net>

  2. What's the catalog number I need to order this data set?

    parishes

  3. What legal disclaimers am I supposed to read?

    The data herein, including but not limited to geographic data, tabular data, analytical data, electronic data structures or files, are provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, or statutory, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties or merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. The entire risk as to the quality and performance of the data is assumed by the user. No guarantee of accuracy is granted, nor is any responsibility for reliance thereon assumed. In no event shall the Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinator's Office (LOSCO) be liable for direct, indirect, incidental, consequential or special damages of any kind, including, but not limited to, loss of anticipated profits or benefits arising out of use of or reliance on the data. The LOSCO does not accept liability for any damages or misrepresentation caused by inaccuracies in the data or as a result of changes to the data caused by system transfers or other transformations or conversions, nor is there responsibility assumed to maintain the data in any manner or form.

    These data have been developed from the best available sources. Although efforts have been made to ensure that the data are accurate and reliable, errors and variable conditions originating from physical sources used to develop the data may be reflected in the data supplied. Users must be aware of these conditions and bear responsibility for the appropriate use of the information with respect to possible errors, scale, resolution, rectification, positional accuracy, development methodology, time period, environmental and climatic conditions and other circumstances specific to these data. The user is responsible for understanding the accuracy limitations of the data provided herein. The burden for determining fitness for use lies entirely with the user. The user should refer to the accompanying metadata notes for a description of the data and data development procedures.

    Although these data have been processed successfully on computers at the LOSCO, no guarantee, expressed or implied, is made by LOSCO regarding the use of these data on any other system, nor does the act of distribution constitute or imply any such warranty. Distribution of these data is intended for information purposes and should not be considered authoritative for navigational, engineering, legal and other site-specific uses.

  4. How can I download or order the data?

Who wrote the metadata?
Dates:
Last modified: 10-Dec-1999

Metadata author:
3001, Inc.
c/o Hugh Phillips
GIS Analyst
3655 SW 2nd Ave., Suite 3C
Gainesville, FL 32607

(352) 379-3001 (voice)
(352) 377-4234 (FAX)
hphillips@gnv.3001data.com

Metadata standard:
FGDC Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata (FGDC-STD-001-1998)

Metadata extensions used:

Generated by mp version 2.7.3 on Wed Aug 13 09:23:45 2003