Gazetteers

Page history last edited by Anonymous 1 yr ago

 

Gazetteers

Summary

Type of tool

Searchable databases

Function

Georeferencing

Online / Desktop

Online and desktop

Computer infrastructure

 

Development status

 

Time of use

In preparing data, while checking data, and at time of user request

Licence

 

Gazetteers are a source of place names giving feature identification and geographic coordinates.

 

Description

Gazetteers are available for Australia from a range of sources.

 

Gazetteer of Australia

This is available as a CD. There is also an Online Place Name Search.

The Gazetteer of Australia provides information on the location and spelling of 322,328 geographical names across Australia as of March 2006. Supply of data is coordinated by the Intergovernmental Committee on Surveying and Mapping (ICSM) and derived from state, territory, and Australian government agencies. Copyright of the gazetteer data and postcode data resides with the relevant state, territory and Australian government agencies within Australia who are custodians of the data.

 

The gazetteer fields include:


Field

Description

Record ID

Unique feature identifier for each feature.

Authority ID

Custodian state or territory.

State ID

State or territory that feature falls in.

Name

Name of the feature.

Feature Code

Code indicating the type of feature - (Feature Codes Listing)

Status

Indicates if the name is authorised.

Variant name

Variant or alternative name used for feature.

Postcode

Australia Post Postcode for that feature.

Concise Gazetteer

Indicates if feature is included in the Concise Gazetteer.

Longitude

Longitude of the feature in decimal degrees.

Latitude

Latitude of the feature in decimal degrees.

100K map number

1:100,000 scale map number in which feature is located.

CGDN

Indicates if the place name can be used in the state.au second level domains by community website portals that reflect community interests.

Please note: Any organisation or individual wanting to use the Gazetteer data in a similar capacity as the Online Place Name Search or any other online application requires an Internet use licence.1

 

The custodians of the place name data do not guarantee that the data is free from errors and omissions.

 

Product Specifications2

Coverage: Australia

Currency: 2006

Coordinates: Geographical

Datum: GDA94

Format: Fixed width ASCII and Microsoft Access Database

Medium: CD-ROM

Forward Program: Annual revision

 

Australian National Placenames Survey

The aim of the Australian National Placenames Survey (ANPS) is to prepare a national database of geographical names. It forms a supplement to the National Gazetteer, and formed on established principles within the disciplines of history, geography, linguistics, cultural studies, surveying and mapping. It will record all known Australian names, documenting their pronunciation, generic class, status (gazetted, obsolete, non-gazetted, sensitive, disputed etc.), origin, meaning, history, cultural significance (of both name and site), and map reference and location. The database is accessible for public enquiry via the Web and will be available to enable the production of place name dictionaries, both local and national.3

 

Maritime Gazetteer of Australia

The Maritime Gazetteer of Australia (MGA) is a searchable database containing all the place names used in Australia's official navigational charts.

 

Positions relating to a feature name are displayed to the nearest minute of latitude and longitude together with a limited number of other attributes, such as all the charts that include each name. The MGA does not provide the gazetted geographic position of features.

 

Place names contained in Australia's official navigational charts for the Australian mainland, offshore territories, Antarctica and PNG are in the MGA. The MGA is updated and enhanced as new charts are published.

 

The MGA database currently displays the following fields:

  • Feature Name: The Name as it appears on the official navigational chart.
  • Feature Type: This shows the Code of the feature type which the name represents. For details see the Feature Code Index.
  • Latitude and Longitude: The position of the name on the chart.  Note this is not necessarily the position of the feature itself, which may only lie partially on the chart (for example an ocean).
  • Charts on which the name appears.
  • Grouping: This field shows the association of a collection of features to a group (for example a collection of Islands which form an Island Group).
  • Feature ID - a unique identifier for each name in the database.

 

The MGA can be searched online by Feature Name.4

 

Australian Heritage Places Inventory

The Australian Heritage Places Inventory contains summary information about places listed in State, Territory and Commonwealth Heritage Registers. The information is updated regularly. The website includes a search, results, metadata and links to the parent databases.5

 

Antarctic Gazetteer

A catalogue of Antarctic Names from the SCAR Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica, the Australian Antarctic Gazetteer and lists of other less formal names.

The Australian Antarctic Names and Medal Committee (AANMC) is the authority on Australian names in the Australian Antarctic Territory, and the Territory of Heard Island and the McDonald Islands.6

 

States and Territories

There are also gazetteers for the states and territories. See reference to Online Gazetteers below.

 

World-wide Gazetteers

BioGeomancer

BioGeomancer is an online georeferencing tool, with an inbuilt gazetteer, and returns the geographic coordinates of a location submitted as plain text.

 

GEBCO Names of Undersea Features

GEBCO – General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans. Undersea feature names to appear on sheets/products of GEBCO and Regional International Bathymetric Charts projects, and on international nautical charts are selected by the GEBCO Sub-Committee on Undersea Feature Names (SCUFN). All names selected by SCUFN are contained in the GEBCO Gazetteer of Undersea Feature Names, available as an Excel spreadsheet and as a PDF file.7

 

FuzzyG – The Fuzzy Gazetteer - enables you to find geographic features even when you do not know their exact names. Returns a list of similar names. Datum is WGS84 and precision to nearest minute. Original coordinate system Degrees, Minutes, Seconds (DMS). Based on NIMA GeoNET names server data.8

 

Falling Rain – a gazetteer site that gives latitude and longitude in decimal degrees, and elevation in feet. Derived from NIMA data, this is a useful gazetteer for countries where gazetteers are generally lacking eg. Papua New Guinea.

 

The Alexandria Digital Library Gazetteer - Gazetteer that’s especially useful for historic and variant names. Datum is WGS84. Data based on US NIMA, precision usually to the nearest minute. Original coordinate system= DMS.9

 

Maporama - For finding coordinates for street addresses anywhere in the world. Coordinate precision to the nearest minute.10

 

Function

  • Data cleaning and manipulation
    • Data cleaning – spelling, misnaming
    • Data validating – taxonomy, geography
    • Georeferencing – applying latitude and longitude
  • Provider interaction
    • Data preparation
  • Metadata
    • Creation
  • Non-biological data
  • User interface
    • Personal and institutional use
    • Raw data and visual presentation

 

Why use this tool?

  • To enable consistent georeferencing of collections where placenames are known

 

Who will use this tool?

  • Data creation
  • Data capture
    • Curators
  • Data providers
    • Institutions
    • Private collections
    • Casual users
  • ALA infrastructure

 

How will the tool be used?

  • These gazetteers can be online searchable databases, or CDs containing databases for desktop use
  • Generally user input is required.
  • BioGeomancer will run batch jobs11

 

Where in the data chain could this tool be used?

  • Data source
  • ALA central
  • User’s machine

 

When could this tool be used?

  • Before data is made available to ALA
  • While data is stored with ALA
  • At the time of a user request

 

Availability

Links

 

Online Gazetteers

 

Comments

Historical gazetteers have an important role for georeferencing collections where place names may have changed or disappeared.

 

See also: Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection, Historical Maps of Australia and the Pacific

 

Gazetteers are databases. The ALA may choose to host its own rather than to use the services of online gazetteers.

 

 

 

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