USGS SDTS Mass Conversion Schedule

The USGS, as the SDTS maintenance agency, has taken the lead in converting its digital cartographic data holdings to SDTS format. USGS data holdings that conform to the first SDTS profile developed and approved, the Topological Vector Profile (TVP), are the first data holdings being converted. The USGS Digital Line Graph (DLG) data meet the TVP requirements.

The following is the status of the DLG mass conversion efforts:

   SCALE             STATUS          COMMENTS
   -----             ------          --------

   1:2,000,000       Complete        All available data
 
   1:100,000         Complete        All available data

   1:24,000          Complete        All available data
                                   
                                      

At this time, it is impossible to confidently predict DEM availability. Once mass conversion starts, it will take approximately 6 months to do the conversion of DEMs to the SDTS Raster Profile, and then it will take 2 months to stage and coordinate public release of the data at the USGS Geodata site. The two tasks will overlap as much as possible with small releases of DEMs as they are completed. We still plan to start with the 7.5-minute DEMs, and follow with the other series.

All available SDTS data can be found FREE on-line at the US GEODATA website at EROS Data Center (EDC).