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The political boundary coverage is a datalayer containing onshore and offshore boundaries for the 351 communities of Massachusetts.
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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 file size 6MB.
Manuscript
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.Attributes
Fields in the polygon attribute table:| FIELD NAME | TYPE | Contents |
| TOWN_ID | Int | MassGIS Town-ID Code (alphabetical, 1-351) |
| TOWN | Char | City or town name |
| FIPS_STCO | Int | Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) State/County Code |
| CCD_MCD | Char | US Census Town Code |
| FIPS_PLACE | Char | Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) Town Code |
| POP1980 | Int | US Census Town Population: 1980 |
| POP1990 | Int | US Census Town Population: 1990 |
| POP2000 | Int | US Census Town Population: 2000 |
| POP2010 | Int | US Census Town Population: 2010 |
| POPCH80_90 | Int | Population change, 1980-1990 |
| POPCH90_00 | Int | Population change, 1990-2000 |
| POPCH00_10 | Int | Population change, 2000-2010 |
| FOURCOLOR | Int | 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 | Char | C = City, T = Town, TC = Town with City form of governmentt, or (for AMESBURY and EASTHAMPTON) a City without wards or precincts. Source: http://www.sec.state.ma.us/cis/cispdf/City_Town_Map.pdf |
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.
Maintenance
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.
In September 2009, TYPE was changed to 'TC' for Braintree, Palmer, Randolph and Winthrop.
In February 2014, TYPE was changed to 'TC' for BRIDGEWATER, based on latest data from the Secretary of State's office. Also, the POP2010 and POPCH00_10 fields were added and the fields FIPS_MCD and FIPS_COUNTY were dropped.
Also see Community Boundaries (Towns) and the
most spatially-accurate datalayer Community Boundaries (Towns) from Survey
Points (both of which contain the coastline).
Last Updated 2/25/2014
Items
| Contributor | |
|---|---|
| Modified Date | 2017-12-26 |
| Release Date | 2017-12-26 |
| Identifier | 8ebba7ae-030f-49ca-989c-c1c7c28348e2 |
| Spatial / Geographical Coverage Location | Massachusetts |
| License | |
| Author | |
| Contact Name | MassGIS |
| Contact Email | |
| Public Access Level | Public |
| Data Quality | False |
| Content Type | |
| Language | English (United States) |