DCW Populated Places, Points

This is the largest scale unclassified map series in existence that provides consistent, continuous global coverage of essential basemap features. The coverage is is organized into 10 thematic layers which feature a vast number of files organized into libraries. These libraries, or coverages, are geographicially bounded areas, rather than feature-linked coverages.

DCW Layers in the Harvard Geospatial Library are feature-based as we have processed the multiple tiles from the VMAP0 libraries into a series of seamless coverages (e.g. aeronautical features appear in a single layer, "Aeronautical Facilities, Points") which depict a particular feature as it occurs throughout the available geographic coverage areas. Since different geographic areas were mapped by NIMA at different times using various types of feature capture and scanning and digitizing methods and software, multiple map sources of varying dates and multiple processing approaches are represented in each of these HGL layers.

We have necessarily generalized the discussion of data source material and process steps in the Data Quality section of this metadata document.