Posted on December 16, 2024
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ (USACE) Navigation and Civil Works Decision Support Center (NDC) is proud to offer a Geographic Information System (GIS) public web service for port areas. Per Engineering Regulation 1130-2-520, the port area polygons are defined by legislative enactments of state, county, or city governments, or corporate limits of a municipality. USACE’s NDC works with port authorities from across the United States to develop the statistical port boundaries through an iterative and collaborative process. The GIS service includes attribution on port name, boundary description, and associated legislative documentation. The primary use of the new GIS layer is for public reporting on waterborne commerce statistics related to tonnage and commodity types, which USACE’s Waterborne Commerce Statistics Center (WCSC) performs annually.
Port boundary information is prepared by USACE to increase transparency on public waterborne commerce statistic reporting, as well as to modernize how the data type is stored, analyzed and reported. The port boundary GIS file allows users to visualize each statistical port, and it can be combined with other dock and vessel statistics compiled by USACE, the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The statistical port boundary file is designed in accordance with the U.S. Department of Defense’s Spatial Data Standards for Facilities, Infrastructure, and Environment (SDSFIE). To access the web service file, please visit https://geospatial-usace.opendata.arcgis.com/.
