Trail System includes summary information about each system of trails in the Connecticut Statewide Trails Database. A trail system is defined as a set of trails maintained by an agency or organization for a particular geographic area. For example, trail systems exist for a state park, state forest, land-trust park, or system of Blue-Blazed Hiking Trails. Trail systems may connect and overlap each other in certain areas. There is one record per trail system, with the Trail System Id attribute as the primary key.

Includes summary information such as whether hiking, walking, running, inline skating, bicycling, mountain biking, motorbiking, all terraine vehicle use, snowmobiling, cross-country skiing, and horseback riding activities are permitted anywhere within a trail system.

To facilitate the management and sharing of information for trail mapping, management, planning, and information dissemination purposes.

Statewide Trails Database model version number 1.0. Refer to the Getting_Started.htm document for how to prepare and load existing trail data into the Statewide Trails Database format. A Statewide Trails extension (statewidetrails.avx) is also available for ArcView 3x software for creating identical field attributes in Shapefile format. The extension is useful in preparing data initially collected and maintained in Shapefile format for loading into GeoDatabase Feature Class format.

publication date

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

No restrictions or legal prerequisites for using the data. Trail line feature information was prepared by collecting trail positions in the field using GPS equipment, digitizing trail maps, compiling information onto a planimetric correct base and digitizing, or by copying previously digitized road and trail centerline features. Horizontal accuracy varies depending on the methodology used to map and digitize each trail system. Consequently, as a whole, these data are generally not intended for maps printed at scales greater or more detailed than 1:24,000 scale (1 inch = 2,000 feet). Refer to the Horizontal Accuracy Notes attribute in the Trail line feature and Roadway line feature class for more specific horizontal accuracy assessments when mapping individual trail systems at larger (more accurate) scales. Trail Access point and Trail Interest point feature information was prepared using similar methods, with horizontal accuracy varying accordingly. Although this data set has been used by the State of Connecticut, Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, no warranty, expressed or implied, is made by the State of Connecticut, Department of Energy and 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 Energy and 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. The State of Connecticut, Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and all other Originators (referenced in the Citation section of this metadata), should be acknowledged as the data source in products derived from the trail data. For example, include the following data source description on a map: Trails - From the Connecticut Statewide Trails layer, compiled and published by CT DEEP and other trail data collecting agencies and organizations. Source map scale varies.

Table Relationships:

1. Trail line features are joined to the Trail_System table via the TrailSysId field. 
2. Trail_Access point features are joined to the Trail_System table via the TrailSysId field. 
3. Trail_Interest point features are joined to the Trail_System table via the TrailSysId field. 
4. Roadway line features are joined to the Trail_System table via the TrailSysId field.

Attributes:

1. Trail System Id - Uniquely identifies a logical system of trails and is a common identifier found in all tables. All Trail line, Trail Access point, Trail Interest point, and Roadway line features for a given Trail System are assigned the same Trail System Id. An agency or organization wishing to provide trail data for inclusion in the Connecticut Statewide Trails Database must use Trail System Ids assigned by the State of Connecticut, Department of Energy and Environmental Protection so that they do conflict with Trail System Ids used by other trail data providers. Please contact the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection at 860-424-3540 to obtain a block of Trail Systems Ids for your use. Trail System Ids are allocated to data providers in blocks of 50. 

2. Field Types - Most fields are text fields except for Trail System Id (TrailSysId) and the Town Number (TownNo) field in the Trail Access Point feature class.

3. Text Fields - Most fields without domains are free-form text fields. Depending on the field, certain rules and conventions need to be applied when entering data in these fields. For example, the Trail Marker (TrailMark) field in the Trail line feature class is to be left blank if a trail is not marked. Do not populate the field with the words "unmarked" or "unblazed", for example. Leave all free-form text fields blank if information is not applicable.

4. Field Domain Range - Attribute domains represent a fixed list of values to choose from for a particular field. Domain values are case sensitive text field values that must be entered exactly as specified in the metadata enumerated domains. For example the Bike attribute uses a true-false domain that stores text information as either "True" or "False", not "TRUE" or "FALSE"; "true" or "false"; "yes" or "no", or 0 or -1, etc. Any value other than "True" or "False" is invalid, with the exception of the NULL option, which is a field value that is only available to data in GeoDatabase and not Shapefile format. Adhering to domain values is important to keep in mind when using the field Calculate option in ArcView 3x or ArcGIS 9x to assign domain attribute values to selected features at once. It is easy to inadvertently calculate values outside the range of a field's domain.

5. Default Values - The default domain values for each field is indicated in the metadata for the field such as "True" for the Hiking or "Unpaved" for the Trail Surface (TrailSurf) field in the Trail line feature class. These are the default values when adding new table records or digitizing new features.

6. Null Field Values - For fields with enumerated domains in GeoDatabase format, NULL is a valid domain value that can be used to signify information is unknown. NULL implies that the information is Unknown. It does not imply that the information is not applicable. 

7. Null Field Values (Shapefile format) - For fields with enumerated domains in Shapefile format, NULL is not a valid value so do not enter NULL or "NULL" even though NULL is allowed in GeoDatabase format. For data in Shapefile, leave the field blank if the value is unknown.

Trail System includes summary information about each system of trails. There is one record per trail system, with the Trail System Id attribute as the primary key. A trail system is defined as a set of trails maintained by an agency or organization for a particular area. For example, trail systems exist for a state park, state forest, land-trust park, or system of Blue-Blazed Hiking Trails. They may connect and overlap each other in certain areas. Relate this data table to the Trail, Trail Access Point, Trail Point of Interest and Roadway feature classes.

State of Connecticut, Department of Energy and Environmental Protection

As complete as data is collected by data collectors and supplied by data providers to the Statewide Trails Database. Because it is designed to include more and more information over time, the Statewide Trails Database does not represent a complete inventory of all greenways, trails, and bike routes. Rather, it is intended to be a Statewide repository of currently available information.

All attributes have valid values. Values are within defined domains. Accuracy tests performed by data collector and data provider.

Connecticut Statewide Trails Database

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.