Acquiring  GIS  Data: Utah

Quadrangle Index files:

Due to the fact that various scales of data exist and need to exist, the United States Geological Survey (USGS), as well as other agencies around the world, have broken areas into quadrangles.  Quadrangles are grid areas usually divided at latitude and longitude lines.  A USGS 1:24k quadrangle is a smaller area but with more detail than a quadrangle at 1:100k or 1:250k.   USGS index files for Utah are provided to help find data in the various quadrants at a variety of scales.  The following FTP URL can be used to access the quadrangle index files for Utah.  ( ftp://ftp.agrc.state.ut.us/state_wide/  )

Navigate to this site and select the following files by holding down the Ctrl key while selecting: (index_100.e00, index_24.e00, index_250.e00).  After all files are selected right click on the mouse and choose the ‘Copy to folder…’ option.  Save these files to the agrc_data directory you created in the beginning of the exercise. 

(If the agrc_data directory does not exist, create it before you start the download or use the new folder option in the download dialog box)

The following images depict the three index quadrangle breakdowns.

As you can see each quadrangle size covers a significantly different amount of ground. Later in the exercise we will import these files.

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