1 Geographic Support System Proposed Initiative – FY 2011 and Beyond Michael Ratcliffe U.S. Census Bureau 1

2 2 What is the Proposed Geographic Support System Initiative? A budget increase over our base funding for Geographic Support System for: –Address coverage and source improvement –Feature maintenance (roads and attributes) –Quality Improvements For the 2020 Census, the proposed GSS Initiative supports the goal of a targeted (vs. nationwide) address canvassing

3 Why do we need the GSS Initiative? Between 2003 – 2008 we worked with partners to update and improve the positional accuracy of TIGER The MAF/TIGER Accuracy Improvement Project was a significant investment that we want to build upon Now focus is on improving our address coverage and quality and maintaining the spatial data

4 4 GSS Initiative - Addresses Currently, our primary sources for address updates: –USPS Delivery Sequence File (DSF) –Field updates from censuses and surveys For FY 11 and beyond, additional sources will focus on best available data from partnership and commercial files

5 Complete and current address coverage in areas without city-style address (particular focus on rural areas) Beyond the annual American Community Survey, current surveys will be using the Master Address File to support their statistical frames and surveys Positively impacts the address frame for sample surveys GSS Initiative - Addresses

6 Continuous update of street network and attributes Sources will focus on best available data from partnership and commercial files Extensive use of imagery –Data acquisition –Data verification –Data quality assurance GSS Initiative - Features

7 GSS Initiative - Quality Quality improvements apply to: –Address and Spatial Data –IT Processes –Geographic Products Quantitative measures of address and spatial data quality are needed

8 Supporting a Targeted Address Canvassing There will be a shift in focus –from canvassing each street to… –establishing an acceptable address list for each level of government What defines “acceptable” will be a partnership collaboration between governments and the Census Bureau Address quality will be an important component 8

9 Where are we now? Our FY 2011 budget is waiting for approval by Congress Geography Division management devoted a 2 day session to begin planning for the FY2011 proposed initiative Census Bureau is forming teams to address specific topics such as: –Address coverage –Address and spatial data sources –Policy –Partnerships –Quality assessment and evaluation –Research and Development –Technology

10 How you can help Stronger relationship with Census Bureau Regional Office geographers to support our geographic programs Working with local government partners as another channel to us Identifying areas with new and different address and spatial data activities within your state –E-911 –USPS –Parcels

11 Questions? Michael Ratcliffe Geography Division U.S. Census Bureau