A DIGITAL MAPPING APPROACH TO 
U.S. PUBLIC LAND SURVEY DATA 
Michael R. Elliott 
U.S. Geological Survey 
345 Middlefield Road 
Menlo Park, California 94025 
Alan M. Mikuni 
U.S. Geological Survey 
345 Middlefield Road 
Menlo Park, California 94025 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 
Michael R. Elliott joined the U.S. Geological Survey in 
1959, where he spent his first 9 years executing field con 
trol and mapping surveys in the seven Western States. From 
1968 to 1972 he attended San Jose State University, major 
ing in Civil Engineering, and from 1972-1981 has been 
engaged in geodetic control processing and crustal deforma 
tion research. He is presently Chief of the Digital Line 
Graph Unit at the U.S. Geological Survey's Western Mapping 
Center in Menlo Park, California. 
Alan M. Mikuni is Chief of the Digital and Orthophoto 
Section at the U.S. Geological Survey's Western Mapping 
Center in Menlo Park, California. He received his B.S. in 
Civil Engineering from Fresno State University, Fresno, 
California in 1970 and is affiliated with ACSM, ASCE, ASP 
and NSPE. He is a Registered Civil Engineer in the State 
of California. 
ABSTRACT 
In an effort to expedite completion of 7.5-minute quad 
rangle map coverage of the conterminous United States, 
the National Mapping Division (NMD) of the U.S. Geological 
Survey (USGS) has begun production of a Provisional edition 
map series. The provisional maps will contain essentially 
the same level of information as a standard topographic map 
and will be prepared to National Map Accuracy Standards, 
but will reflect a provisional rather than a finished map 
appearance. A procedure to decrease the time and effort 
required to produce the land-net separation plate is being 
developed to aid in the production of provisional maps. 
Record of Survey and land plat notes will be utilized as 
data sources for the input bearing and distance values. 
Interactive display, editing, and computation techniques 
will be employed on the input data to arrive at a quad 
rangle-formatted file of adjusted digital land-net data. 
Data suitable for further processing into a digital line 
graph (DLG) will also be produced. The photographic 
plotting of the data on a cartographic line plotter will