Datum upgrade of the National Spatial Reference System (NSRS)

Template Draft NSRS Legislation PDF | Word File (Updated October 16, 2019)

The well-publicized datum upgrade of the National Spatial Reference System (NSRS) administered by the National Geodetic Survey (NGS) has reached another milestone. In conjunction with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), NGS has filed a notice with the Federal Register to deprecate the use of "U.S. Survey Foot" on December 31, 2022 and formally adopt the "foot" (previously known as the "international foot"). The Federal Register announcement and feedback page can be found here. Please review the information and provide any feedback on the Federal Register page.

This change is in concert with the upcoming overhaul of the NSRS and datum changes by NGS in 2022-2023. For more details on the timeline of the definition of the “foot,” visit the NIST U.S. Survey Foot page here: https://www.nist.gov/pml/us-surveyfoot.

Currently, there are a variety of legislative specification for measuring standards nationwide and within the U.S. territories. For your state, see the graphic below:

Dr. Michael Dennis of NGS has produced a webinar discussing the ramification of the “foot” and why the change is necessary. To view the webinar, please visit the NGS website here.

For additional information on the upcoming datum change, visit the NGS New Datums page here.