benchmarks

The Delaware DataMIL is Retired

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The Delaware DataMIL, an online web mapping application that has provided accurate, up-to-date Delaware Geospatial Framework (basemap layers), current and historic aerial photography, and topographic maps for Delaware since 2002 is retired as of June 30, 2013. Originally built as a state of the art, crowd source editing and map delivery system and pilot project for the US Geological Survey National Map, the DataMIL is being replaced by newer mapping technology through the Department of Technology and Information (DTI) which will have a new system in place shortly.

DGS Cooperative and Joint-Funded Programs

The DGS is, by statute, the state agency responsible for entering into agreements with its counterpart federal agencies, including the U.S. Geological Survey, the USGS Office of Minerals Information (formerly the U.S. Bureau of Mines), and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (formerly the U. S. Minerals Management Service), and for administering all cooperative programs of the State with these agencies. The DGS also works with many in-state and out-of-state partner agencies and organizations.

The Mason-Dixon Line, that land is your land

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The Mason-Dixon Line wasn’t created to divide North and South, but to settle a dispute between Colonial landowners. The Mason-Dixon Line, the iconic dividing line between North and South, is an invisible line running across the backyard of many Delawareans. Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon’s milestone markers still dot the Maryland-Delaware-Pennsylvania border more than 240 years after they completed their survey.

OFR17 A Guide to Information on Benchmarks in Delaware

To conduct an elevation survey, a surveyor needs a starting point for which the exact elevation above mean sea level is known. These starting points are called benchmarks. State and federal agencies install benchmarks throughout every State, creating a network of elevation points which covers the entire continental United States. These benchmarks are considered to be permanent, and usually consist of a brass, bronze, or aluminum disc about 4 inches in diameter mounted in a cement post or in a drill hole in a permanent foundation.