OVERVIEW

The political boundary coverage is a datalayer containing onshore and offshore boundaries for the 351 communities of Massachusetts. Note that no coastline appears in this data. The ArcSDE layers are named BOUNDARY_POLY and BOUNDARY_ARC. Also see the List of Town Numbers and Names and Towns Index Map.

Sources of this data are Chapter 196 Acts of 1881 boundaries drafted onto 1:80,000 NOAA charts and town boundaries from the USGS 1:25,000 topographic series published on stable based film.

Items in the polygon attribute table:
 

ITEM NAME		WIDTH		TYPE		ALTERNATE NAME		Contents
TOWN-ID		3		I		MASSGIS-TOWN-COD		MassGIS Town-ID Code (alphabetical, 1-351)
TOWN		21		C		TOWN-NAME		City or town name
FIPS-STCO		5		I		FIPS-ID		Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) State/County Code
CCD/MCD		3		C		CENSUS-TOWN-CODE		US Census Town Code
FIPS-PLACE		5		C		FIPS-TOWN-CODE		Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) Town Code
POP1980		6		I		CEN-POPULATION80		US Census Town Population: 1980
POP1990		6		I		CEN-POPULATION90		US Census Town Population: 1990
POP2000		6		I		CEN-POPULAT2000		US Census Town Population: 2000
POPCH80_90		5		I		POPCHANGE_80-90		Population change, 1980-1990
POPCH90_00		5		I		POPCHANGE_90-00		Population change, 1990-2000
FOURCOLOR		1		I				Codes (1,2,3,4) allowing shading of all towns using 4 symbols (based on four-color theorem, where no adjacent polygons have same symbol)
TYPE		2		C				C = City, T = Town, TC = Town with City form of government
ISLAND		1		I				Polygon is (1) / is NOT (0) an island - many towns are composed of many polygons
FIPS_MCD		8		I		FIPS+CEN-TOWN-CO		FIPS State & County & Census Town Code concatenated (redefined item FIPS-MCD in coverage format)
FIPS_COUNTY		3		I		COUNTY-CODE		FIPS County only code (redefined item FIPS-COUNTY in coverage format)

The arc attribute table has an item, TYPE, that allows you to choose either onshore boundaries ('dry') with TYPE = 1, or offshore boundaries ('wet') with TYPE = 2.

PRODUCTION

The onshore community boundaries were digitized by MassGIS from a set of stable based film prints of the 1:25,000 7.5' USGS quadrangles. Offshore boundaries were digitized by Mass. Dept. of Fish and Game's GIS program from 1:80,000 NOAA charts. The two were merged into one complete boundaries coverage. Along the eastern portion of the state offshore boundaries include those town boundaries that fall within rivers and other water bodies. For western Massachusetts all town boundaries are currently coded as onshore, 'dry' boundaries. 

Note: The outer boundaries based on the Acts of 1881 do not necessarily coincide with the limits of the state territorial waters or state or town jurisdiction. 

MassGIS maintains this datalayer.

In October, 2002, the polygona attribute table was modified to include population figures (total and change) based on the 2000 U.S. Census. Also at this time the arcs were modified to correct a small section of the Florida-Savoy border.

Also see the Community Boundaries (Towns) datalayer (which contains the coastline).

Last Updated 10/3/2005
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