With the Q3 2010 release of WhiteStar Grid, out this week, subscribers now have access to the Pennsylvania Municipality data. This layer is very useful for people working in the Marcellus Shale Play. The data has been seamless integrated with the other layers within WhiteStar Grid.

Here at WhiteStar we are committed to ongoing updates of our data to put out the best possible digital cartographic products.   The Texas Land Survey updates for Q1 2010 have been completed.  Following is a summary of layer updates and additions:

Blocks - 10
Surveys - 471
Abstract - 535

Overlapping Blocks - 17
Overlapping Surveys - 75
Overlapping Abstract - 86

Hemphill and Jefferson Counties realized the most changes.  In addition, portions of  Brazos, Denton, Duval, Hardin, Harris, Harrison, Robertson, Shelby, Terry, Wheeler and Wilbarger Counties show updates.  Keep an eye on the blog for additional data update announcements.

Thanks,
Mike

We’ve recently added to our library the 2009 1m Color Imagery for the State of California. This data makes a great addition to any California project you may be working on. Let us know if you have a requirement for this type of data.
Thanks!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday! As promised we have added more great 1 meter imagery data to our collection. This time we have added Colorado and New Mexico. If you’re working in these areas, this imagery would make a fantastic backdrop to any project. Let us know if you have a need for this layer.

Today updates for our Unlimited Product line were shipped out.  Current subscribers can look forward to numerous data updates and enhancements.  In our blog posts over the past few weeks we have talked about a number of the data and program enhancements users will find and they are described below:

Unlimited Base Map Access:
Data Update - Updated pipeline information for the State of Texas.
Data Enhancement - Breakout tanks and pipeline information for the State of
Oklahoma
Data Enhancement - Pipeline information for the Gulf of Mexico that edge-
matches the State of Texas.
Data Enhancement - Oil and Gas Fields/ Pool outlines will be found all
throughout the Appalachian Basin, as well as the following states:  Alaska,
Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, New
Mexico, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada & California.
Data Enhancement - Added US Forest Service National Forest/Grasslands
Boundaries
Enhancement - CDF format support for smartSECTION 4.8.1.  This allows users
to load CDF formatted data directly into smartSECTION.

Unlimited Grid Access:

Data Update - Survey updates/corrections for parts of Texas

Enhancement - CDF format support for smartSECTION 4.8.1.  This allows users
to load CDF formatted data directly into smartSECTION.

Unlimited Well Access:

Data Update - Well updates for Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Gulf of
Mexico, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee,
Texas, Utah and Wyoming.

We’re really excited about these features and trust you will be also.

Quite often I’m asked if landgrid changes. It sure does. Since March 2005 we have added data to over 13,000 townships across the US. As Jeff Smith stated in his September 1st blog, most of the changes have occurred with the addition of BLM and other government data. The US Forest Service publishes maps that include newly added sections and townships. We have been working on capturing this data as well.

In addition to the PLSS, Texas has seen it’s fair share of edits. Since March 2005 over 30,000 data modifications have been made. At WhiteStar we take pride in the continual improvement of our databases.  Our Unlimited Grid Access subscribers are able to take advantage of these continual improvements.  For more information on Unlimited Grid Access click here.

If you have any questions about Unlimited Grid Access feel free to contact us and we’ll give you a personal demo.

-Mike Schiewe

From time to time we are asked why there are “holes” in the land survey. This is particularly true in western states. There are a couple of reasons for this - originally the public land survey system was designed to patent “useful” lands such as agricultural land, which didn’t include mountainous terrains. Surveying funds were first expended on areas where the return to the government would be greater, i.e. arable lands. Secondly, Spanish and French Land grants already existed in many western states, most notably California, Arizona, New Mexico and up into Oregon and Washington. The plss had to “infill” around these existing land grants and honor the existing land claims. Many of these grants are quite large, for example the Tierra Amarilla Spanish Land Grant in New Mexico, and do not have any internal subdivisions. Nonetheless, over time government agencies have on occasion “protracted” pseudo townships and ranges into these areas to provide for a more complete fabric. Where possible, we have captured this data into our enhanced data products and have attributed it accordingly.

With the next release of GeoGraphix users will be able to consume web map services within GeoAtlas.  We’ve been working closely with the folks at GeoGraphix for the past few weeks and now have a beta version in-house.  Public and proprietary imagery, topo maps, landgrid or any other type of map service wrapped up in an ESRI .lyr file can be consumed and quickly rendered in a GeoAtlas map.  Have a look at this.  This image is an overview map of the wells, imagery and PLSS data for the State of Wyoming.  Once the wells were imported into WellBase, the township and imagery layers were quickly added.  Nationwide imagery, Land grid, Well locations, Topo Maps are avaialble via this model from WhiteStar.   If you’d like to see more, please contact either Steve Pickett or Adam Feldman at 800-736-6277.

Once in a while a customer will call to question the positioning of a Texas land survey line. Usually that client is comparing the Texas Railroad Data with information from another source or vendor. Many times a dataset from another source lacks metadata or information about the quality of the data. Often the shape file simply contains lines and an abstract number with no information about data quality, origin, or currency.

WhiteStar has a serious and longstanding commitment to metadata, or “data about our data”. If you subscribe to our Unlimited products, you’ll always know the last date that the map feature was edited or entered into the system. When it is updated, you will know that too.

When it comes to the Texas land survey, we have a great relationship with the state of Texas. When we hear a concern, we contact our land experts at the state who can tell us whether there or not there is an error in the data (usually the comparison source is wrong) and whether the line work corresponds to the original survey notes. The point is, we have a process in place, and a chain of information we can furnish to you to verify the accuracy, currency, and origin of the Texas land survey data. From other sources, this chain of information either never was collected or has been lost with employee turnover or company ownership changes.

Our subscription process includes research and maintenance (often a very large additional expense) and is not offered as a complete subscription package by any other vendor. If you are looking to improve your data and to use your exploration dollars more wisely, then we would be happy to have a more detailed discussion with you.

This map shows a portion of the Colorado Interstate Pipeline system.  I buffered it a half mile on either side using FME.  Then I converted legal descriptions to polygons using  legal2map for land owners along the right of way of the pipeline.  Pretty cool, huh?  I also added some well information from our Unlimited Well Access product.   ArcGIS from ESRI does a great job of exporting PDF files at user defined resolutions. 

These types of map can be created anywhere in the country using our Unlimited products.  One might imagine that some simple proximity analysis could provide pipeline owners with information about wells drilled within a certain distance of their pipelines on a timely basis.  Maybe the system could even send out an urgent email to the sales force!

The pipeline data shown here are from the old Energy Information Administration database files.  After 9/11 the EIA took these data offline.  Pipeline data are now only available from private vendors who do their own research.