Northeastern United States Index County Polygon includes generalized State and County boundaries for Northeastern United States. Includes data for Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont. The index version is a faster drawing representation of counties for use in interactive map applications. The data layer was created by merging towns within the same county. The source was Northeast United States Index Town  Polygon which was, in turn, derived from Northeast United States Town Polygon. In the Index version boundary lines have been minimally generalized to reduce vertices. Features such as small and medium offshore islands were eliminated. It may contain some boundary line and county name errors for states other than Connecticut.

Northeastern United States Index County Boundary data are intended for geographic display of state and county boundaries at statewide and regional levels. Use it to map and label counties in an interactive map where drawing speed is important. Not suitable for analytic or similar GIS uses. This information should be displayed at scales appropriate for 1:100,000-scale data and smaller. The State of Connecticut, Department of Environmental Protection (CTDEP) assembled this regional data layer using data from other states in order to create a single, seamless representation of political boundaries within the vicinity of Connecticut that could be easily incorporated into mapping applications as background information.

publication date

None. The data is in the public domain and may be redistributed.

No restrictions or legal prerequisites for using the data. The data is suitable for use at appropriate scale, and is not intended for maps printed at scales greater or more detailed than 1:100,000 scale. Although this data set  has been used by the State of Connecticut, Department of Environmental Protection, no warranty, expressed or implied, is made by the State of Connecticut, Department of Environmental Protection as to the accuracy of the data and or related materials.  The act of distribution shall not constitute any such warranty, and no responsibility is assumed by the State of Connecticut, Department of Environmental Protection in the use of these data or related materials. The user assumes the entire risk related to the use of these data. Once the data is distributed to the user, modifications made to the data by the user should be noted in the metadata. When printing this data on a map or using it in a software application, analysis, or report, please acknowledge the State of Connecticut, Department of Environmental Protection as the data publisher. For example, include the following data source description when printing this layer on a map: Political Boundaries - From the Northeastern United States Index County Polygon layer, published by CT DEP.

Attributes identify and describe the geographic areas and boundaries between states and counties for the States of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Use the BOUNDARY attribute to cartographically represent state and county boundary lines. Use the LAND_CLASS attribute to cartographically distinguish land from water polygon features. Use the STATE_COD, STATE_NAME, COUNTY_NAME or MAP_LABEL attributes to label polygon features with state and county names. Use the LABEL_FLAG attribute to identify polygons large enough to label with county names at larger scales using the MAP_LABEL attribute. Or use the CT_LABEL_Y and CT_LABEL_N attributes to label just Connecticut counties or all but Connecticut counties without querying for the appropriate features and labeling them with the MAP_LABEL values, which is a slower technique. Use the CT_LEGEND, MA_LEGEND, ME_LEGEND, and other similarly named polygon attributes to classify and highlight features in the corresponding state. This dataset includes a large water polygon feature that may impact polygon drawing performance. To improve drawing performance, exclude all water features by using the following expression in a layer definition query: LAND_CLASS = "Land"

Includes line features representing State and county boundaries; the shoreline; island shorelines; and lines enclosing open water areas along the outer limits of the data extent.

State of Connecticut, Department of Environmental Protection

Polygon features conform to the following topological rules. Polygons are single part. There are no duplicate polygons. Polygons do not self overlap. Polygons do not overlap other polygons. Polygons are bound by lines. Line features conform to the following topological rules. Lines are single part. There are no duplicate lines. Lines do not self overlap. Lines do not overlap other lines. Lines intersect only at nodes, and nodes anchor the ends of all lines. Lines do not overshoot or undershoot other lines they are supposed to meet and intersect. The tests of logical consistency were not performed.

This map layer includes boundaries for Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Data completeness has been altered from the original through elimination of features consistant  with the goal of creating simplified, faster drawing data.

All attributes have valid values. These attribute values are directly based on or derived from attribute and or spatial (feature location) information supplied by the respective data sources. This information does not depict official boundaries established by the respective state and municipal governments. It may contain some state and county boundary line errors for all states and county name errors for all states other than Connecticut.

The horizontal positional accuracy of this data is unkown.

Northeastern United States Index County Polygon

Although this data set  has been used by the State of Connecticut, Department of Environmental Protection, no warranty, expressed or implied, is made by the State of Connecticut, Department of Environmental Protection as to the accuracy of the data and or related materials.  The act of distribution shall not constitute any such warranty, and no responsibility is assumed by the State of Connecticut, Department of Environmental Protection in the use of these data or related materials. The user assumes the entire risk related to the use of these data. Once the data is distributed to the user, modifications made to the data by the user should be noted in the metadata.

Geographic information sytem (GIS), computer-aided drawing or other mapping software is necessary to display, view and access the information.

The data distributor does not provide custom GIS analysis or mapping services. Data is available in a standard format and may be converted to other formats, projections, coordinate systems, or selected for specific geographic regions by the party receiving the data.