COUNTY PARCEL MAP - SEARCH TAB - SUPPORT LAYERS

Support Layers are backgrounds which may be added to the map as desired. The intent of Support Layers are to place a parcel within the context of its surrounding area. To use the Support Layers tool:
The Support Layers Tool Tab Layers with Exposed Legend
The following support layers are available:
Layer Name Layer Definition
50 foot Contours These datasets consists of shapefiles representing selected contour intervals for the State of Arizona. Datasets are available for 50',100, 250', and 500' intervals. Each file covers an Arizona county or part of a county and as a collection covers the entire state. The data were created by processing hillshade TIF files derived from the U.S. Geological Survey National Elevation Dataset. The processing produced ESRI formatted coverages for each county or part of a county. The U.S. Geological Survey has developed a National Elevation Dataset (NED). The NED is a seamless mosaic of best-available elevation data. The 7.5-minute elevation data for the conterminous United States are the primary initial source data. In addition to the availability of complete 7.5-minute data, efficient processing methods were developed to filter production artifacts in the existing data, convert to the NAD83 datum, edge-match, and fill slivers of missing data at quadrangle seams. One of the effects of the NED processing steps is a much-improved base of elevation data for calculating slope and hydrologic derivatives. The specifications for the NED 1 arc second and 1/3 arc second data are - Geographic coordinate system, Horizontal datum of NAD83, except for AK which is NAD27, Vertical datum of NAVD88, except for AK which is NAVD29, Z units of meters.
Census Blocks This data set consists of the polygonal boundaries for the Census 2000 Blocks for Arizona. Census Blocks are statistical areas bounded on all sides by visible features such as streets, roads, streams and railroad tracks, and by invisible boundaries such as city, town, township, and county limits and short imaginary extensions of streets and roads. Generally census blocks are small in area, for example a block in a city bounded by streets. However, census blocks in remote areas may be large and irregular and contain hundreds of square miles. Census blocks never cross county or census tract boundaries.
Census Groups This data set consists of the polygonal boundaries for the 2000 Census Block Groups for Arizona. A census block group (BG) is a cluster of census blocks having the same first digit of their four-digit identifying numbers within a census tract. For example, Block Group 3 (BG 3) within a census tract includes all blocks numbered from 3000 to 3999. Block groups generally contain between 600 and 3,000 people, with an optimum population size of 1,500. Block groups never cross the boundaries of States, Counties or census tracts.
Census Tracts This data set consists of the polygonal boundaries for the 2000 Census Tracts for Arizona. Census tracts are small, relatively permanent statistical subdivisions of a county delineated by local participants as part of the U.S. Census Bureau's Participant Statistical Areas Program. The U.S. Census Bureau delineated census tracts in situations where no local participant existed or where local or tribal governments declined to participate. The primary purpose of census tracts is to provide a stable set of geographic units for the presentation of decennial census data. Census tracts generally have between 1,500 and 8,000 people, with an optimum size of 4,000 people. (Counties with fewer people have a single census tract.) When first delineated, census tracts are designed to be homogeneous with respect to population characteristics, economic status, and living conditions. The spatial size of census tracts varies widely depending on the density of settlement. Census tract boundaries are delineated with the intention of being maintained over many decades so that statistical comparisons can be made from decennial census to decennial census. However, physical changes in street patterns caused by highway construction, new developments, and so forth, may require occasional boundary revisions. In addition, census tracts occasionally are split due to population growth or combined as a result of substantial population decline. Census tracts are identified by a four-digit basic number and may have a two-digit numeric suffix; for example, 6059.02. The decimal point separating the four-digit basic tract number from the two-digit suffix is shown in the printed reports and on census maps. In computer-readable files, the decimal point is implied.
Congressional Boundaries This data set consists of US Congressional Districts for Arizona for 2010.
Faults This data set consists of geologic fault formations in Arizona.
Flood Hazard Areas Flood hazard areas.
Vegetation This data set consists of Arizona's natural vegetation. The data are created to serve as base information for use in GIS systems for a variety of planning and analysis purposes. These data do not represent a legal record. The manuscripts were drawn during 1976 by the various wildlife managers (game wardens) of the Arizona Game and Fish Department. The scale of the manuscript maps was one half inch to one mile (1:126,720) and the base maps were the 'County General' series provided by the Arizona Department of Transportation. The map attributes represent Arizona's natural vegetation as delineated in the 'Journal of the Arizona Academy of Science', Volume 9, supplement 2, Appendix F, published May 1974 using a classification scheme developed by David E. Brown and Charles H. Lowe. The University of Arizona did the digitizing of the gfveg manuscript during 1992 and 1993. Note: This is a different classification than the one appearing on Brown and Lowe's, 'Natural Vegetation of the Southwest' which is the cover NAVEG.
Geology This data set consists of geologic formations in Arizona. The data are created to serve as base information for use in GIS systems for a variety of planning and analysis purposes. These data do not represent a legal record.
Lakes This dataset consists of various hydro polygon features found within Arizona.
Mines This data set is derived from the Bureau of Mines Minerals Availability System (MAS) data set. Most of the information is from the Minerals Industry System Location (MILS) table. The data are created to serve as base information for use in GIS systems for a variety of planning and analysis purposes. These data do not represent a legal record.
Native Vegetation Digital representation of Brown and Lowe's "Biotic Communities of the Southwest" map (1979) developed by The Nature Conservancy in Arizona (2004). This map is intended for broad, regional, landscape-scale analysis. The source scale of these data is 1:1,000,000.
Ownership Type The LAND data set was first started in 1984 and updated in the spring 1988 by the State Land Department Forestry Division and ALRIS. The PLSS data originated from the Department of Transportation (ADOT). The data was then projected into ARC/INFO format and edited using the procedures from the ASLD 'Land Status Map Digitizing Procedure' guide. The data set covers the entire State of Arizona, is regularly updated and managed cooperatively by the ASLD GIS section and the Arizona BLM GIS Department. The data are created to serve as base information for use in GIS systems for a variety of planning and analysis purposes. These data do not represent a legal record.
PLSS This dataset consists of the Township, Range and Section grid lines.
Springs This data set consists of spring locations in Arizona and incorporates information extracted from both the USGS Geonames database and the USGS Digital Line Graphs (DLG's).
Streams Converted in the fall of 1988 from USGS 1:100,000 scale DLG data to ARC format. Since then, multiple and extensive corrections have taken place. Early on, several Arizona agencies were part of rectification including: attributes, features, edgematching and the re-tiling of the data into the USGS Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC) library tiling format. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has since added critical attributes to the Arizona database, including: A nationally recognized management link code (the Reach Id), names, and hydrologic information. Arizona has enhanced the theme further by adding ergonomic Descriptive Attribute Codes, Cartographic Order, more Names, and intense Quality Assurance Controls.
School Districts These polygonal datasets consist of the 2010 Census School District boundaries for Arizona. Either Elementary, Secondary or Unified School District boundaries are available through ALRIS. This particular metadata sample is from the Elementary School District boundaries dataset. The TIGER/Line Files are shapefiles and related database files (.dbf) that are an extract of selected geographic and cartographic information from the U.S. Census Bureau's Master Address File / Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (MAF/TIGER) Database (MTDB). The MTDB represents a seamless national file with no overlaps or gaps between parts, however, each TIGER/Line File is designed to stand alone as an independent data set, or they can be combined to cover the entire nation. School Districts are single-purpose administrative units within which local officials provide public educational services for the area's residents. The Census Bureau obtains the boundaries, names, local education agency codes, grade ranges, and school district levels for school districts from State officials for the primary purpose of providing the U.S. Department of Education with estimates of the number of children in poverty within each school district. This information serves as the basis for the Department of Education to determine the annual allocation of Title I funding to States and school districts. TIGER/Line Files include separate shapefiles for elementary, secondary, and unified school districts. The 2010 Census school district boundaries are those in effect for the 2009-2010 school year.
Watershed Boundaries This data set consists of Hydrologic unit code areas (drainage basins) in Arizona. This data set, whose sole purpose was to be used as the Hydro Library's Index Coverage (Map Library Tiles), was digitized from both 1:24,000 scale and 1:250,000 scale USDI Geological Survey (USGS) quadrangle maps. When using source maps at a scale of 1:250,000, a special effort was made to digitize the boundaries in conformance with the STREAMS hydrography data layer (e.g., the tile boundaries never crossed stream features except at appropriate stream confluences).