Description:
This report documents the design framework and purpose of a set of tools developed by the Arizona
Geological Survey (AZGS) for use in geologic map production using the NCGMP09 database schema and
ESRI ArcGIS software. Since the year 2000, the Arizona Geological Survey (AZGS) has published 103
geologic maps in digital format under the U.S. Geological Survey's National Cooperative Geologic
Mapping Program (USGS NCGMP). These digital maps are published as Adobe Acrobat documents, and
the data are maintained at the AZGS in GIS databases. The AZGS uses ESRI ArcGIS software for the
production and management of geologic map data, starting with PC-ArcInfo in 1994, through an
evolution of several database designs (Richard and Thieme, 1997; Richard and Orr, 2001; Richard, 2003;
Richard et al., 2004; Richard et al., 2005). One of the earliest adopters of ArcGIS, the AZGS has been
using ArcGIS for geologic map compilation, production and archiving for nearly 20 years.