The National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC) recently hosted a 75-minute online presentation on the U.S. National Grid (USNG) coordinate system. The recorded “WebEx” session is now available for free to anyone interested.
Talbot Brooks, Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Geospatial Information Technologies at Delta State University, and a leading national expert on USNG, was the presenter. During the session, Talbot digs extensively into the reasons why the U.S. National Grid was developed, why it’s important, and how it can be implemented.
Based on UTM and closely related to the Military Grid Reference System (MGRS), USNG is commonly described as a seamless, nationwide “geoaddressing” system. USNG geoaddresses are unique world-wide, and for this reason, the federal government has heavily promoted USNG as a common “language of location” for emergency response and recovery.
If you’ve heard about USNG and would like to learn more, the NSGIC video is worthwhile place to start.