MASSACHUSETTS COMMUNITIES

Status: Obtained in 1996, Data completed in March 1991

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

The political boundaries of the 351 communities in Massachusetts.

SOURCE/CONVERSION METHODOLOGY

This datalayer is from MassGIS. The data accuracy is at 1:25,000 scale with the seaward boundary of coastal communities defined at mean high water. According to the MassGIS data layer description, "this datalayer, except the coastline, was digitized by MassGIS from a set of stable based film prints of the 1:25,000 scale 7.5’ quadrangles purchased from the USGS by the Massachusetts Dept. of Public Works. The coastline was taken from the USGS 1:100,000 hydrography DLG database. It was selected visually and appended to the digitized town boundaries".

COVERAGE NAME

TOWNS

FEATURE TYPE

POLYGONS

ATTRIBUTES

Arc Attribute Table (TOWNS.PAT):
COLUMN ITEM NAME WIDTH OUTPUT TYPE N.DEC ALTERNATE NAME INDEXED?
1 AREA 4 12 F 3 -  
5 PERIMETER 4 12 F 3 -  
9 TOWNS# 4 5 B - -  
13 TOWNS-ID 4 5 B - -  
17 TOWN-ID 4 5 B - MASSGIS-TOWN-COD -
21 TOWN 21 21 C - TOWN-NAME -
42 FIPS-STCO 5 5 I - FIPS-ID -
47 CCD/MCD 3 3 C - CENSUS-TOWN-CODE -
50 FIPS-PLACE 5 5 C - FIPS-TOWN-CODE -
55 POP80 7 9 I - CEN-POPULATION80 -
62 POP90 7 9 I - POP -
69 ISLAND 1 1 I - -  
70 POP_CH 4 5 B - -  
74 #CASE1 4 5 B - -  

**REDEFINED

 ITEMS**            
42 FIPS-MCD 8 8 I - FIPS+CEN-TOWN-CO -
44 FIPS-COUNTY 3 3 I - COUNTY-CODE -

* See Appendix G for detail

Sample record from the TOWNS polygon attribute table:

3

AREA = ************
PERIMETER = 87146.875
TOWNS# = 3
TOWNS-ID = 2
TOWN-ID = 7
TOWN = AMESBURY
FIPS-STCO = 25009
CCD/MCD = 005
FIPS-PLACE = 01185
POP80 = 14563
POP90 = 14997
ISLAND = 0
POP_CH = 434
#CASE1 = 8

COORDINATE SYSTEM

Massachusetts State Plane North America Datum (NAD) 83 Feet