ASGDC > About Metadata
Introduction:
Metadata, often referred to as "data about data", is structured information that describes, explains, locates, or otherwise makes it easier to retrieve, use, or manage an information resource. It represents the who, what, when, where, why and how of the resource.
Metadata found on this website is organized by category and theme. Each metadata record also includes a link to the data being described.
While the Department of Natural Resources hosts the data found on this website, it comes from a variety of sources, including the Department of Fish & Game and Department of Transportation & Public Facilities.
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Available Datasets:
The following datasets are available:
- Biological
Contains anadromous fish species and steams
metadata
- Boundaries
Contains statewide boundary metadata, including but not limited to the following
boundaries: coastal district, administrative large parcel, borough, election district,
incorporated city, recording district, and state park trail and unit
- Cultural
Contains Alaska Place Name, city, populated place and recording office
metadata
- DNR Land Records
Contains base, land estate, mineral estate, ownership, surface classification
and water estate metadata
- Environmental
Contains statewide Environmental Sensitivity Index metadata - General Land Status
Contains statewide land ownership metadata - Geoscience
Contains Minerals Data Information Rescue in Alaska (MDIRA) data set
metadata
- Graticule
Contains graticule metadata, including but not limited to the following: survey
monument, nautical chart, state plane zone, UTM zone, Public Land Survey
System, and USGS Quadrangle
- Natural Resources
Contains aquaculture and tidelands, mining and oil and gas metadata
- Physical Features
Contains coast, elevation, glacier, hydrography and volcano metadata - Transportation
Contains airport and runway, Alaska Marine Highway, infrastructure, pipeline,
power line, railroad, road, telephone line and trail metadata
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Biological:
Anadromous Fish
| THEME |
DESCRIPTION |
| 1998 |
| Species |
Depiction of the known anadromous fish bearing streams within Alaska (1998) |
| Streams |
Depiction of the known anadromous fish bearing streams within Alaska (1998) |
| 2002 |
| Species |
Depiction of the known anadromous fish bearing streams within Alaska (2002) |
| Streams |
Depiction of the known anadromous fish bearing streams within Alaska (2002) |
| 2005 |
| Species |
Depiction of the known anadromous fish bearing streams within Alaska (2005) |
| Streams |
Depiction of the known anadromous fish bearing streams within Alaska (2005) |
| 2006 |
| Species |
Depiction of the known anadromous fish bearing streams within Alaska (2006) |
| Streams |
Depiction of the known anadromous fish bearing streams within Alaska (2006) |
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Boundaries:
| THEME |
DESCRIPTION |
| ACMP Coastal District |
Statewide 1:250,000-scale or better vector representation of the Alaska Coastal District Boundaries |
| ACMP Coastal Zone Management |
Statewide 1:250,000-scale or better vector representation of the Alaska Coastal Zone Management Boundaries |
| ACMP Permit Notification Area |
Component of the statewide 1:250,000-scale or better vector representation of the Alaska Coastal Zone |
| ACMP Special Area Management Plan |
Commonly known and referred to as the Areas which Merit Special Attention (AMSA) dataset, even though it includes SAMPs that are not AMSAs. |
| ADEC Contingency Planning Regions |
The Contingency Plan (c-plan) Regions reflect the c-plans published by ADEC. There are 10 regions. |
| ADFG Game Management Unit |
Game management units (GMUs), Subunits, and uniform coding units (UCUs) are the underlying geographic foundation of the wildlife and habitat management and regulations for ADFG-DWC. |
| ANSCA Corporation |
The boundaries of the native regional corporations created by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) were derived in March 1992 from the 1990 TIGER database, prepared by the US Census Bureau. |
| Administrative Large Parcel |
This data contains the administrative large parcel boundaries for both the state and federal government. It combines the formerly known Legislatively Designated Areas (LDA's), or state parcels, and the Conservation System Units (CSU's), or federal parcels, with data improvements. |
| Alaska Seaward Boundary |
Includes cases depicting the State's three nautical-mile territorial limit |
| Borough |
Alaska borough boundaries |
| DNR Region |
Regional boundaries of DNR Offices |
| Election Districts 1994 |
The compilation of these boundaries represent Governor Hickel's Reapportionment and Redistricting Plan as required by Article VI of the State Constitution |
| Election Districts 2002 |
The compilation of these boundaries represent election districts as of 2002 |
| Incorporated City Boundary |
Boundaries of incorporated cities |
| Recording District |
State of Alaska Recording Districts |
| Rural Education Attendance Areas |
The REAA boundaries are important to state funding of school programs throughout Alaska. The boundaries were extracted from the LAS Land File and adjusted to follow organized borough boundaries, where applicable and to follow legal descriptions for those portions not corresponding to borough boundaries. |
| State Park Trails through ILMA |
Trail location of state parks created through the process called Interagency Land Management Agreement (ILMA) process |
| State Park Units through ILMA |
Boundaries of state parks created through the process called Interagency Land Management Agreement (ILMA) process |
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Cultural:
| THEME |
DESCRIPTION |
Alaska Place
Names |
The USGSNAMES coverage was generated from the latitude, longitude coordinates provided by USGS. These locations reflect the coordinates and names cited in the Dictionary of Alaska Place Names. |
| Cities |
A subset of Populated Places that is used primarily for large scale mapping |
| Populated Places |
Locations of statewide towns and villages entered by latitude-longitude, digitized from USGS 1:250,000 quadrangle maps, and heads-up digitizing from USGS 1:250,000 maps based on relative positioning of digital hydrography and digital township lines. Many locations were later updated by snapping them to points in the USGSNAMES coverage obtained from USGS. |
| Recording Offices |
Locations of the 14 recording district offices |
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DNR Land Records:
This section is divided into the following categories:
Base
| THEME |
DESCRIPTION |
| Airstrip |
Depicts airstrip and runway locations in Alaska |
Alaska
Seaward
Boundary |
Includes cases depicting the State's three nautical-mile territorial limit |
BLM
Monuments -
Digitized |
Survey monument locations that have been screen or hand digitized from a variety of sources and from a variety of media |
BLM
Monuments -
GCDB |
GCDB geographic data collected and processed for the Bureau of Land Management's Alaska Geographic Coordinate Data Base Project under contract YA-652-RFP9-440003 by Infotech Development Inc. between December 1989 and June 1996 |
BLM
Monuments -
SDMS |
Spatial representation of the Public Land Survey System (PLSS) in Alaska, generated from land survey records |
Borough
Boundary |
Alaska borough boundaries |
| Electrical |
Depicts electrical power line locations in Alaska |
| Highway |
Depicts highway locations in Alaska |
| Hydrography |
Detailed hydrographic features |
Incorporated
City Boundary |
Boundaries of incorporated cities |
National
Geodetic
Survey |
National Geodetic Survey Monuments are stations having known, precise positions established by geodetic methods |
| Pipeline |
Depicts pipeline locations in Alaska |
| Railroad |
Depicts railroad locations in Alaska |
Recording
District
Boundary |
State of Alaska Recording Districts |
Secondary
Road |
Depicts road locations in Alaska |
| Section |
Protracted section boundaries electronically generated using aliquot part algorithms developed by DNR staff |
State
Control
Survey |
Alaska State Control Survey Monuments |
Survey
Boundary |
Contains miscellaneous state, federal, and private surveys |
| Telephone |
Depicts telephone line locations in Alaska |
| Township |
Township boundaries generated from radian measurements of township corner coordinates |
| Trail |
Depicts trail locations in Alaska |
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Land Estate
| THEME |
DESCRIPTION |
| Easement |
Includes private and public easements and right-of-ways granted by the State of Alaska |
| Land Disposal |
Available,
Potential Reoffer |
State land that is available or will potentially be reoffered to the public for land sale |
| Conveyed |
Parcels conveyed to private individuals through a DNR land disposal program |
| Other |
DNR land disposal parcels currently unavailable to private individuals |
| |
| Other Activities |
Includes Miscellaneous and Trespass case types |
| Other Land Designation |
Agreement,
Settlement,
Reconveyance |
Includes cases in which the State may convey land to another party as a condition of a legal agreement or settlement concerning the other party's claim to state land |
| Federal Action |
Includes federal actions that are depicted on State status plats in order to identify any exclusions, reservations, or other stipulations that affect the transfer of the land to the State |
Management
Agreement |
Agreements where management authorization is transferred from the federal government to the State, or from DNR to another agency |
Mental Health
Trust Land |
Lands managed by the Mental Health Trust Authority |
Municipal
Entitlement |
Selected and conveyed Municipal Entitlement parcels |
| Municipal
Tideland |
Conveyance of tide and submerged land to municipalities per AS 38.05.825 |
| Native
Allotment |
BLM Native Allotments involving State interests as outlined in ANILCA, Section 905 |
| |
| Permit or Lease |
Includes a variety of competitive and non-competitive permits, leases, and authorizations issued by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources |
| Resource Sale |
A sale of a non-mineral resource by the State |
| State Owned, Managed |
Other State
Acquired Land |
Lands conveyed to the State of Alaska with a variety of cases such as general purpose, expansion of communities, University of Alaska, and recreational purposes |
| RS2477 Trails |
Rights-of-way (ROW) acquired under RS 2477 |
State Tentatively
Approved or
Patented |
Lands conveyed to the State of Alaska with a variety of cases such as general purpose, expansion of communities, University of Alaska, and recreational purposes. |
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Mineral Estate
| THEME |
DESCRIPTION |
Annual Placer
Mining Application
|
The APMA is a permit application process for mining and reclamation of locatable as well as saleable minerals |
Federal Mining
Claim |
Non-surveyed boundaries of active (recorded or interim) federal mining claims within the State of Alaska |
Leasehold
Location |
Order limiting mineral entry on State land to leasehold locations and prohibiting new mining claims. Unlike a mining claim, a leasehold location must be converted to a lease before mining is allowed. |
| Mineral Order |
An order that closes State land to all forms of mineral entry, making it unavailable for staking mining claims, leasehold locations or prospecting site locations; or a mineral order that reopens land closed to mineral entry by a previous mineral closing order. |
Mineral Permit
or Lease |
Oil and Gas Lease, Shallow Gas Lease, Exploration License, Geothermal Permit or Lease, Mining Lease, Offshore Prospecting Permit or Lease, Coal Prospecting Permit or Lease |
| Other Land Designation |
Agreement,
Settlement,
Reconveyance |
Includes cases in which the State may convey land to another party as a condition of a legal agreement or settlement concerning the other party's claim to state land |
| Federal Action |
Includes federal actions that are depicted on State status plats in order to identify any exclusions, reservations, or other stipulations that affect the transfer of the land to the State |
Management
Agreement
|
Agreements where management authorization is transferred from the federal government to the State, or from DNR to another agency |
Mental Health
Trust Land |
Lands managed by the Mental Health Trust Authority |
| Native Allotment |
BLM Native Allotments involving State interests as outlined in ANILCA, Section 905 |
| |
Prospecting
Site |
Includes prospecting site for locatable minerals (A.S. 38.05.245) |
State Mining
Claim |
Includes mining claim for locatable minerals (A.S. 38.05.195 and .210) |
| State Owned, Managed |
Other State
Acquired Land |
Lands conveyed to the State of Alaska with a variety of cases such as general purpose, expansion of communities, University of Alaska, and recreational purposes |
State Selected
Land |
Lands conveyed to the State of Alaska with a variety of cases such as general purpose, expansion of communities, University of Alaska, and recreational purposes. |
State
Tentatively
Approved or
Patented |
Lands conveyed to the State of Alaska with a variety of cases such as general purpose, expansion of communities, University of Alaska, and recreational purposes. |
| |
| Well Site |
Includes areas of land or water that contain one or more active or abandoned oil and gas wells within a 1/4 mile radius |
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Ownership
| THEME |
DESCRIPTION |
| Other Land Designation |
Agreement,
Settlement,
Reconveyance |
Includes cases in which the State may convey land to another party as a condition of a legal agreement or settlement concerning the other party's claim to state land |
| Federal Action |
Includes federal actions that are depicted on State status plats in order to identify any exclusions, reservations, or other stipulations that affect the transfer of the land to the State |
Land Disposal
Conveyed |
Parcels conveyed to private individuals through a DNR land disposal program |
Management
Agreement |
Agreements where management authorization is transferred from the federal government to the State, or from DNR to another agency |
Mental Health
Trust Land |
Lands managed by the Mental Health Trust Authority |
Municipal
Entitlement |
Selected and conveyed Municipal Entitlement parcels |
| Municipal
Tideland |
Conveyance of tide and submerged land to municipalities per AS 38.05.825 |
| Native Allotment |
BLM Native Allotments involving State interests as outlined in ANILCA, Section 905 |
| State Owned, Managed |
Other State
Acquired Land |
Lands conveyed to the State of Alaska with a variety of cases such as general purpose, expansion of communities, University of Alaska, and recreational purposes |
| RS2477 Trails |
Geographic representation of land parcels within the State of Alaska contained by the RS2477 Trails category |
State Selected
Land |
Lands conveyed to the State of Alaska with a variety of cases such as general purpose, expansion of communities, University of Alaska, and recreational purposes. |
State Tentatively
Approved or
Patented |
Lands conveyed to the State of Alaska with a variety of cases such as general purpose, expansion of communities, University of Alaska, and recreational purposes. |
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Surface Classification
| THEME |
DESCRIPTION |
| Classification |
Disposable
Interest |
Geographic representation of land parcels within the State of Alaska
contained by the Surface Classification - Disposable Interest category |
| General Land |
Geographic representation of land parcels within the State of Alaska contained by the Surface Classification - General Land category |
| Habitat Land |
Geographic representation of land parcels within the State of Alaska contained by the Surface Classification - Habitat Land category |
| Miscellaneous |
Geographic representation of land parcels within the State of Alaska
contained by the Surface Classification - Miscellaneous category |
| Recreation Land |
Geographic representation of land parcels within the State of Alaska
contained by the Surface Classification - Recreation Land category |
| Reserved Use |
Cases used to flag public needs or interests such as proposed parks and fish and game designations |
| Special Use Land
|
A designation placed on certain land identified as having special resource values needing protection |
| State Managed |
Legislatively
Designated
Area |
Areas established by the Legislature for management of forest; recreational and historical purposes; to protect and preserve natural habitat for fish and/or wildlife; and, special restrictions not specifically tied to any of the previously mentioned purposes |
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Water Estate
| THEME |
DESCRIPTION |
| Temporary Water Use Permit |
| Subsurface |
Geographic representation of land parcels within the State of Alaska contained by the Temporary Water Use Permit - Subsurface category |
| Surface |
Geographic representation of land parcels within the State of Alaska contained by the Temporary Water Use Permit - Surface category |
| Water Reservation |
Instream Flow
Reservation
|
Geographic representation of land parcels within the State of Alaska contained by the Instream Flow Reservation category |
| Water Right |
| Subsurface |
Geographic representation of land parcels within the State of Alaska contained by the Subsurface Water Rights category |
| Surface |
Geographic representation of point locations within the State of Alaska contained by the Surface Water Rights category |
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Environmental:
Environmental Sensitivity Index
| THEME |
DESCRIPTION |
| Aleutian Islands |
Environmentally Sensitive Areas for the Aleutian Islands |
| Bristol Bay |
Environmentally Sensitive Areas for the Bristol Bay region |
| Cook Inlet |
Environmentally Sensitive Areas for the Cook Inlet region |
| Kodiak Island |
Environmentally Sensitive Areas for the Kodiak Island region |
| North Slope |
Environmentally Sensitive Areas for the North Slope region |
| Northwest Arctic |
Environmentally Sensitive Areas for the Northwest Arctic region |
Prince William
Sound
|
Environmentally Sensitive Areas for the Prince William Sound region |
| Southeast
|
Environmentally Sensitive Areas for the Southeast Alaska region |
| Western |
Environmentally Sensitive Areas for the Western Alaska region |
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General Land Status:
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Geoscience:
MDIRA
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Graticule:
This section is divided into the following categories:
Other
| THEME |
DESCRIPTION |
Alaska State
Control Monuments
|
Alaska State Control Survey Monuments |
BLM Monuments -
Digitized |
Survey monument locations that have been screen or hand
digitized from a variety of sources and from a variety of media |
BLM Monuments -
GCDB |
GCDB geographic data collected and processed for the Bureau of
Land Management's Alaska Geographic Coordinate Data Base
Project under contract YA-652-RFP9-440003 by Infotech
Development Inc. between December 1989 and June 1996 |
BLM Monuments -
SDMS |
Spatial representation of the Public Land Survey System (PLSS) in
Alaska, generated from land survey records |
Latitude Longitude
Lines 1 Degree
|
Latitude and longitude lines for every degree spanning the state of
Alaska |
Latitude Longitude
Lines 2 Degrees |
Latitude and longitude lines for every two degrees spanning the state
of Alaska |
NOAA Nautical
Charts
|
Index of the nautical charts within Alaska |
National Geodetic
Survey Monuments
|
National Geodetic Survey Monuments are stations having known,
precise positions established by geodetic methods |
| State Plane Zones |
Longitude lines which define the Alaska Coordinate System of 1927,
state plane zones one through ten |
| UTM Zones |
Longitude lines which define the Universal Transverse Mercator
(UTM) Grid, zones 1 through 9 and 59 through 60 |
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Public Land Survey System
| THEME |
DESCRIPTION |
| Section Grid |
Protracted section boundaries electronically generated using aliquot part algorithms developed by DNR staff |
| Township Grid |
Township boundaries generated from radian measurements of township corner coordinates |
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USGS Quadrangle
| THEME |
DESCRIPTION |
| 250,000 |
Boundaries of the USGS protracted 1:250,000 quadrangle maps covering Alaska |
| 63,360 |
Boundaries of the USGS protracted 1:63,360 quadrangle maps covering Alaska |
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Natural Resources:
This section is divided into the following categories:
Aquaculture and Tidelands
| THEME |
DESCRIPTION |
| Aquatic Farms
|
Depicts the boundaries of current aquatic farm permits and leases issued by the State of Alaska |
| Easements |
Depicts the location of current easements on tide and submerged land issued by the State of Alaska |
| Leases |
Depicts the location of current tidelands leases issued by the State of Alaska |
| Shore Fisheries |
Depicts the location of current shore fishery leases issued by the State of Alaska |
Tidal
Conveyances |
Depicts the boundaries of current tidal conveyances issued by the State of Alaska |
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Mining
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Oil and Gas
| THEME |
DESCRIPTION |
Oil and Gas
Basins |
Digitized from DGGS publication - Special Report 32 - Oil and Gas Basins Map of Alaska 1983, by Arlen Ehm |
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Physical Features:
This section is divided into the following categories:
Coast
| THEME |
DESCRIPTION |
| Alaska Coast |
| 1,000,000 |
Coverage taken from ESRI's Digital Chart of the World and clipped to the State of Alaska |
| 250,000 |
Coastline coverage of Alaska representing a collective effort by many organizations over the course of the last 15 years |
| 63,360 |
First cut at a statewide 1:63,360 coastline, only where data was available as of January 1998 |
63,360 Excluding
Small Islands
|
Same as 1:63,360 coastline, excluding the small islands that are difficult to visually map at 1:1,000,000 (area < 500,000 square meters) |
| Simplified |
Generalized Alaska Coast |
| |
| Canada |
Coastline containing only the Canadian boundaries close to Alaska |
| Russia |
General outline of Russia |
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Elevation
| THEME |
DESCRIPTION |
Contours
1,000,000 |
Coverage containing elevation contours at every 1,000 feet |
Elevation Points
1,000,000
|
Coverage of the hypsography elevation points obtained from the Digital Chart of the World tile coverages |
Summit Points
1,000,000
|
Coverage of the hypsography elevation points obtained from the Digital Chart of the World tile coverages |
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Glaciers
| THEME |
DESCRIPTION |
| 1,000,000 |
Combined coverage of glaciers for several Digital Chart of the World (DCW) tiles |
| 2,000,000 |
Statewide glaciers assembled from seventeen files in the USGS 1:2,000,000 Digital Line Graphs (DLG) dataset |
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Hydrography
| THEME |
DESCRIPTION |
| 1,000,000 |
Combined coverage of lakes and rivers for several Digital Chart of the World (DCW) tiles |
| 2,000,000 |
Statewide lakes assembled from seventeen separate files in the USGS 1:2,000,000 Digital Line Graphs (DLG) dataset |
| 63,360 |
Detailed hydrographic features |
| Major Lakes |
Selected major lakes extracted from lakes in the USGS 1:2,000,000 Digital Line Graphs (DLG) dataset |
| Major Rivers |
Selected major rivers extracted from all rivers and streams in the USGS 1:2,000,000 Digital Line Graphs (DLG) dataset (major rivers include the Copper, Susitna, Kuskokwim, Yukon, Koyukuk, Kobuk, Noatak, and Colville Rivers) |
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Other
| THEME |
DESCRIPTION |
| Volcanoes |
Coverage created from a file of volcano names and locations from and Alaska Earthquake Information Center |
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Transportation:
This section is divided into the following categories:
Airports and Runways
| THEME |
DESCRIPTION |
| FAA |
Airport and runway locations received from the FAA in February 1995 |
| USGS |
Depicts airstrip and runway locations in Alaska |
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Alaska Marine Highway
| THEME |
DESCRIPTION |
| Ferry Ports |
Communities with Alaska State Marine Highway ferry ports |
| Routes |
General representation of the Alaska State Marine Highway system |
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Infrastructure
| THEME |
DESCRIPTION |
| 63,360 |
Depicts infrastructure locations in Alaska |
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Pipelines
| THEME |
DESCRIPTION |
| 63,360 |
Depicts pipeline locations in Alaska |
Trans-Alaska
Pipeline System |
Route of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline received from Alyeska Pipeline Service Company |
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Power Lines
| THEME |
DESCRIPTION |
| 63,360 |
Depicts electrical power line locations in Alaska |
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Railroads
| THEME |
DESCRIPTION |
| 1,000,000 |
Combined coverage of railroads for several Digital Chart of the World (DCW) tiles |
| 2,000,000 |
Statewide railroads taken from the USGS 1:2,000,000 Digital Line Graph (DLG) dataset, includes the existing railroad system in Alaska |
| 63,360 |
Depicts railroad locations in Alaska |
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Roads
| THEME |
DESCRIPTION |
| 1,000,000 |
Combined coverage of roads for several Digital Chart of the World (DCW) tiles |
| 2,000,000 |
Statewide roads selected from the USGS 1:2,000,000 Digital Line Graphs (DLGs) database |
| DOT Centerline |
| Milepost |
Centerline and roadway inventory feature data collected for the Alaska Department of Transportation |
| Route |
Centerline and roadway inventory feature data collected for the Alaska Department of Transportation |
| |
| Highway 63,360 |
Depicts highway locations in Alaska |
| Major Roads |
Major roads selected from the USGS 1:2,000,000 Digital Line Graphs (DLGs) database |
| Secondary 63,360 |
Depicts road locations in Alaska |
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Telephone Lines
| THEME |
DESCRIPTION |
| 63,360 |
Depicts telephone line locations in Alaska |
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Trails
| THEME |
DESCRIPTION |
| 63,360 |
Depicts trail locations in Alaska |
Historic
Transportation
Routes (RS2477)
|
Geographic representation of land parcels within the State of Alaska contained by the RS2477 Trails category |
| Iditarod |
The main routes of the historic Iditarod Trail, received from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Anchorage Office in 1992 |
| Irondog 1994 |
The main routes of the 1994 Irondog snowmobile race |
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