​The National Spatial Reference System: a shared resource for surveying and GIS

The National Spatial Reference System (NSRS) is the common foundation shared by both surveying and GIS.  NOAA’s National Geodetic Survey (NGS) defines, maintains, and provides access to the NSRS, which serves as the basis for civilian surveying and mapping in the United States.  This presentation gives an overview of existing NGS products and services, and how they will change as part of NSRS Modernization.  Those include coordinate conversions and transformations, geodetic control, GNSS data processing, the Continuous Operating Reference Station (CORS) network, aerial imagery, and the many tools and datasets that make the NSRS possible.  But the NSRS is not static; it must evolve as positioning technology and our understanding of the dynamic Earth improve.  Among the changes coming within the next few years is replacement of the current U.S. horizontal and vertical datums, including an entirely new State Plane Coordinate System.  For both the existing and future NSRS, the goal of NGS is the same: to best meet the diverse positioning needs of the entire U.S. geospatial community.  That goal includes both surveyors and GIS professionals, who together are finding the middle ground of their professions and collaborating more than ever before.