KCGIS Data Standards

• Standard Projection for King County GIS Data
• FGDC Spatial Reference Information for King County GIS Data
• What is State Plane?
• KCGIS Projection File for ArcGIS

Standard Projection for King County GIS Data

Projection: State Plane*
Zone: 5601  (Washington State Plane North; FIPS Zone 4601)
Datum: HPGN
Units: feet

*Technically, State Plane is a coordinate system, not a projection.

FGDC Spatial Reference Information for King County GIS Data

Spatial_Reference_Information:

Horizontal_Coordinate_System_Definition:

Planar:

Grid_Coordinate_System:

Grid_Coordinate_System_Name: State Plane Coordinate System 1983

State_Plane_Coordinate_System:

SPCS_Zone_Identifier: 5601

Lambert_Conformal_Conic:

Standard_Parallel_1: 47.5000

Standard_Parallel_2: 48.7333

Longitude_of_Central_Meridian: -120.8333

Latitude_of_Projection_Origin: 47.0

False_Easting: 1640416.66667

False_Northing: 0

Planar_Coordinate_Information:

Planar_Coordinate_Encoding_Method: coordinate pair

Coordinate_Representation:

Abcissa_Resolution: not determined

Ordinate_Resolution: not determined

Planar_Distance_Units: survey feet

Geodetic_Model:

Horizontal_Datum_Name: North American Datum of 1983

Ellipsoid_Name: Geodetic Reference System 80

Semi-major_Axis: 6378137

Denominator_of_Flattening_Ratio: 294.98

What is State Plane?

There are two zones in Washington State (NAD83 based on a Lambert Conformal Conic Projection). King County uses WA N.

KCGIS Projection File for ArcGIS

Get the file:

There are two ways to do this:

1. Download the file from our ftp: go to http://your.kingcounty.gov/ftp/gis/Resources/, and save the file kcgis_projection_file.prj  (560 bytes) to your local drive.

or

2. Copy and paste the below text into a new Notepad (or other generic text editor) document (make sure you don't miss the closing bracket). Save as a new document with a .prj extension. This is the same text that is in the downloadable version above, but with line breaks added to make it more readable. As far as we know, this does not affect performance.

PROJCS["NAD_1983_HARN_StatePlane_Washington_North_FIPS_4601_Feet",
GEOGCS["GCS_North_American_1983_HARN",
DATUM["D_North_American_1983_HARN",
SPHEROID["GRS_1980",6378137.0,298.257222101]],
PRIMEM["Greenwich",0.0],
UNIT["Degree",0.0174532925199433]],
PROJECTION["Lambert_Conformal_Conic"],
PARAMETER["False_Easting",1640416.666666667],
PARAMETER["False_Northing",0.0],
PARAMETER["Central_Meridian",-120.8333333333333],
PARAMETER["Standard_Parallel_1",47.5],
PARAMETER["Standard_Parallel_2",48.73333333333333],
PARAMETER["Latitude_Of_Origin",47.0],
UNIT["Foot_US",0.3048006096012192]]

Put the file where it belongs:

First, put the file in a folder where ArcMap can find it. You have two choices:

1. Add it to your Favorites.
This is the easier of the two ways. Just paste the file into ESRI's corner of your Windows user profile. Here's the pathname:

<username>\Application Data\ESRI\ArcMap\Coordinate Systems

or

2. Place it in a "Predefined" location.
If you want everyone who uses your computer to see the projection file, then you'll need to put it in the following folder:

C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\Coordinate Systems\Projected Coordinate Systems\State Plane\Nad 1983 harn

Use the file :

Now you can reference the file from within ArcMap to set your projection. Here's how:

• First, right-click on the Data Frame in the Table of Contents (usually named "Layers"). Select "Properties" from the menu. Pick the "Coordinate System" tab.
• Now for the fun part:
  • If you added the file to your Favorites, ArcMap should be able to see it in the "Favorites" folder. Select the file, click "OK" and you're done.

  • If you placed the file in the "Predefined" location, first select the "Predefined" folder, then the "Projected Coordinate Systems" folder, then "State Plane," then "NAD 1983 Harn." Finally, select the projection file, select OK and you're done.