[sbe-eas] Change to County-Equivalents in the State of Connecticut

[Sean Donelan]

That's good news.  However, the U.S. Geological Survey has removed/changed 
the "National Map" data files to use the new Connecticut Planning Region 
county-equivalents by default.

https://www.usgs.gov/programs/national-geospatial-program/national-map

This likely means all those consumer apps on people's mobile devices 
(which pull map data from various sources, but mostly USGS map data) will 
slowly change-over from county names to Connecticut planning regions names 
over the next few years.

While will be possible to get map shapefiles for the old county names, 
that's an extra step.  Other than the niche emergency community, general 
consumer Apps will likely stop using the old county names.

On ther other hand, New York City uses a combination of county/borough 
names. Geographic-aware Apps on your cell phone in New York City is fun 
:-)  In NYC, the boroughs and counties are coterminus, so you end up in 
the right place with either name.


On Tue, 1 Aug 2023, Tim Schott - NWS Federal via sbe-eas wrote:
> Sean and all,
> The National Weather Service was proactive when we first heard about this
> planned change via the proposal in the Federal Register.
> 
> The NWS (Weather Service Headquarters, NWS Eastern Region Headquarters, NWS
> local forecast offices in Albany and New York City, NY and Boston, MA
> serving the residents of Connecticut) participated in extensive meetings
> with: the Connecticut Department of Homeland Security and Emergency
> Management; county emergency managers; the Connecticut Broadcasters
> Association, the Census Bureau, the FCC and the FEMA IPAWS office.
> 
> The decision was made for all alerting via EAS in Connecticut -- for weather
> and non-weather emergency messages -- to continue using the current county
> equivalents which are well known to the citizens of Connecticut.
> 
>  The National Weather Service will continue with the current alerting
> paradigm for the current eight counties in Connecticut.
> 
> Thanks for bringing up this important topic.
> 
> Sincerely,
> Tim Schott
> NWS Lead for NOAA Weather Radio and the Emergency Alert System
> 
> Tim Schott
> Meteorologist
> AFS Dissemination Mission Support Team
> 301-427-9336
> The NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards (NWR) network consists of 1,034 stations
> reaching 95% of the nation's population, providing weather forecasts and
> warnings and non-weather emergency alerts.  
> "I guess we all like to be recognized not for one piece of fireworks, but
> for the ledger of our daily work."--Neil Armstrong
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Tue, Aug 1, 2023 at 11:33 AM Sean Donelan <sean at donelan.com> wrote:
>       The Census Bureau, Department of Commerce has started rolling
>       out its
>       previously announced changes to county-equivalents in the State
>       of
>       Connecticut.  The U.S. Board of Geographic Names and the U.S.
>       Geological
>       Survey have added the change to their products.
>
>       An easier to read blog post
> https://www.ctdata.org/blog/census-bureau-releases-first-population-estimat
>       es-for-connecticuts-county-equivalent-planning-regions
>
>       The official Federal Register
> https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/06/06/2022-12063/change-to-c
>       ounty-equivalents-in-the-state-of-connecticut
> 
>
>       Has anyone heard when FEMA IPAWS and the National Weather
>       Service will
>       start using the new Connecticut "FIPS codes" (I know "FIPS
>       Codes" are
>       legacy, but its what everyone calls them) for EAS and SAME?
>
>       EAS manufacturers will also need to add the new Connecticut
>       "County-Equivalent" Planning Regions to their software FIPS
>       tables.
>
>       Much like Alaska "census areas," Connecticut's Planning Regions
>       will be
>       treated as "County-Equivalent" for Federal Government purposes. 
>       I expect
>       the new Connecticut Planning Regions FIPS codes will be used by
>       all
>       federal agencies before 2030, because the next census and all
>       federal
>       budgets and grants will use it.
>
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> 
>