{"id":122431,"date":"2013-01-14T06:00:32","date_gmt":"2013-01-14T06:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/product\/uncategorized\/whats-in-a-name-the-usgs-on-nhd-feature-names-inspection\/"},"modified":"2013-01-14T06:00:32","modified_gmt":"2013-01-14T06:00:32","slug":"whats-in-a-name-the-usgs-on-nhd-feature-names-inspection","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/product\/water\/whats-in-a-name-the-usgs-on-nhd-feature-names-inspection","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s in a name? The USGS on NHD Feature Names Inspection"},"author":4911,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":""},"categories":[23051],"tags":[24981,39281,38881,26931,31821,32891,31841,32901,26541],"industry":[],"product":[],"class_list":["post-122431","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-water","tag-hydro","tag-lake","tag-national-hydrography-dataset","tag-nhd","tag-river","tag-stream","tag-streams","tag-surface-water","tag-usgs"],"acf":{"short_description":"by Cynthia Deischer and Ray Postolovski\n\nJuliet: \"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.\"\n\nR...","flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<p><strong>by Cynthia Deischer and Ray Postolovski<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Juliet:<\/strong><strong> <\/strong>&#8220;What&#8217;s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Romeo and Juliet meet in Shakespeare&#8217;s tale. \u00a0They are predestined from the start because of their surnames. Juliet tells Romeo that a name is an artificial and meaningless convention. \u00a0Meaning what matters is what something is, not what it is called. \u00a0However in the geospatial community, a name is far from meaningless and what something is named is just as important as what something is.\u00a0 <!--more-->Working within the US Topo program, it can be seen how names add meaning and value to the products. \u00a0Not only do we revere names as cartographers, but our constituents expect and rely on them. \u00a0So with that, it is the goal of the USGS to help populate NHD features with their respective names so to provide meaning and information.<\/p>\n<p>Beginning with the State of Texas, hydrography feature names were inspected and updated in the NHD using current Geographic Names Information System, Gazetteer (Gaz) data. \u00a0A total of 1,263 NHDArea, Waterbody, and Flowline features were identified with missing or non-matching Gaz names. \u00a0From the total, 835 waterbodies and 428 flowlines were identified with missing names. \u00a0None were found in area features.\u00a0 This affected 20 subregions which were then reviewed and corrected, taking about 5-6 days to complete the necessary edits. \u00a0Working a subregion at a time, about 800 missing features names were added. \u00a0Approximately 180 features with a discrepancy between the NHD and Gaz are being researched by the Names group to determine the appropriate name. \u00a0Once a decision is made, the features may need to be updated at a later date. Approximately 300 Gaz features, mainly bays, guts, channels, and sloughs didn\u2019t have an associated NHD feature to attribute.\u00a0 Now that these names have been identified and updated, the community can benefit from this effort.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Fig1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Fig1.jpg\" alt=\"Numerous NHD flowline and waterbody features were updated with correct names attributes\" width=\"395\" height=\"329\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Figure 1: Numerous NHD flowline and waterbody features were updated with correct names attributes<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>The USGS plans to continue this effort with each subsequent state during the 2013 fiscal year. These include, in order; New York, Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Iowa, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Colorado. Coordination with the state partners will occur prior to starting any work. A list of names that may potentially be addressed will be shared with each state.<\/p>\n<p>Special thanks to\u00a0Cynthia Deischer and Ray Postolovski for providing this post. Questions? Email NHD (<strong><a href=\"mailto:nhd@usgs.gov\">nhd@usgs.gov<\/a>).<\/strong><\/p>\n"}],"authors":[{"ID":4911,"user_firstname":"Caitlin","user_lastname":"Scopel","nickname":"Caitlin Scopel","user_nicename":"coscopel","display_name":"Caitlin Scopel","user_email":"CScopel@esri.com","user_url":"","user_registered":"2018-03-02 00:16:31","user_description":"Senior Project Manager for the ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World Environment Team. Caitlin works on projects that utilize environmental data from local, state, national and global institutions.","user_avatar":"<img data-del=\"avatar\" src='https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2019\/04\/G68235_CaitlinScopel_22-150x150.jpg' class='avatar pp-user-avatar avatar-96 photo ' height='96' width='96'\/>"}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.9 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What\u2019s in a name? 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