All contributors to the Community Maps Program have a geographical extent associated with their account. This polygon boundary is used to define the extent of data provided to the program. We refer to this as the contribution extent. The program currently supports one contribution extent per contributor, with plans to support multiple extents per contributor in the future.
In the program application process users select an extent from the online map on the Geography page. This extent is used for initial program application and to determine if other Community Maps participants are providing similar data within the same geography. The features in the map are administrative boundaries from a commercial data source. This is done to ensure minor boundary discrepancies between two Community Maps contributors do not trigger conflicts when applying to the program. We do not want 2 square feet of overlap between two contribution extents to cause issues; therefore, we use a consistent data source for the program application process.
Program applicants have the option to provide Esri with their own contribution extent during the application process in the event that their administrative boundary was not found or does not match the current boundary (possibly due to a recent annexation). Boundaries may not be found for various reasons such as a recently incorporated area, communities without recognized political boundaries within the commercial data used by Esri, the extent of the data include areas outside a formal political boundary or are a combination of multiple jurisdictions, or because the contribution extent is for a Special Area of Interest like a university, regional park, etc.
To support applicants whose contribution extent is not found the option to provide a boundary file to Esri during the program application process is made available.
By selecting this option applicants will be able to bypass the selection of a contribution extent during the program application process. Boundary files need to be sent to Esri at CommunityMaps@esri.com.
The following instructions should be followed for delivering the extent file:
- Description: The data should represent the extent of the data you plan to contribute to the Community Maps Program. At this time the program supports a single extent for all data submitted.
- File Type: Zipped File Geodatabase
- File geodatabase should contain a single feature class with a single feature (multipart feature is acceptable)
- Projection: Do not reproject the data; keep the data in the same project as the rest of your data. Esri will reproject the data.
The actual contribution extent associated with each contributor is provided by the contributor after being admitted to the program. This extent is used to exclude data outside of this extent from being loaded into the system. Currently the Administrative Boundary is used as the default contribution extent, unless otherwise worked out with Esri. In the future we will provide additional support for contributors to manage their own extents.
If you have any questions regarding the contribution extent, just contact us.
