GCDB is the graphic portrayal of the Public Land Survey System (PLSS) in the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) Land and Resource Information System (LRIS). This PLSS "coverage" in ARC/INFO is the depiction many land management agencies will use on their maps in the near future.

For the National GCDB Site, Click Here.

The BLM is building an automated Land Information System(LIS) for improved public land management. The BLM will use the LIS in making resource management decisions such as processing applications for mineral leases, designating utility corridors, issuing land use permits, locating wildlife habitat improvements, preparing timber sales, evaluating alternatives in environmental assessments and land use plans, and generating reports and maps.

The BLM is automating fundamental types of information for its Land Information System: The Geographic Coordinate Data Base from the National Public Land Survey System; land and mineral records; natural resource data files; and base maps. Thus, the Land Information System will for the first time tie BLM's records and natural resource data to legal descriptions of specific land parcels through a unified automated system.

Fundamental to this approach is the use of a common reference system for the different types of data - a Geographic Coordinate Data Base built from the Public Land Survey System. The collection, analysis, and management of the data is the responsibility of the Branch of Cadastral Survey.