1. USGS Thesaurus
  2. Common geographic areas

Common Geographic Areas web services: Point location

Given a geographic point location, return the common geographic areas that contain the point. Coordinates should be given in decimal degrees, with horizontal datum WGS84. West longitudes and south latitudes should be negative, east longitudes and north latitudes should be positive.

Service URL
https://apps.usgs.gov/thesaurus/cga/box.php
Input parameters
longitude, lon, or x Longitude, in decimal degrees WGS84. West longitudes negative.
latitude, lat, or y Latitude, in decimal degrees WGS84. South latitudes negative.
format or f Format of the data. May be JSON, XML, or HTML, not case sensitive. Default is JSON.
callback This parameter is used by Javascript libraries to request information in JSONP format.
Coordinates may be specified using degrees, minutes, and seconds, as follows:
londeg Degrees of longitude, a positive integer between 0 and 180.
lonmin Minutes of longitude, a positive integer between 0 and 59.
londeg Seconds of longitude, a positive integer between 0 and 59.
ew W for west longitude, E for east longitude.
latdeg Degrees of latitude, a positive integer between 0 and 90.
latmin Minutes of latitude, a positive integer between 0 and 59.
latdeg Seconds of latitude, a positive integer between 0 and 59.
ns N for north latitude, S for south latitude.
Output

A JSON object is returned. Properties of the object are as follows:

fips

Array of controlled place terms indicating political areas overlapping the bounding coordinates given as input.

code Unique identifier of the area within the thesaurus, a non-numeric character value.
name Preferred text of the term as specified by the thesaurus.
type Scope note for the term as specified by the thesaurus indicating the type of area.
quad

Array of controlled place terms indicating map quadrangles overlapping the bounding coordinates given as input.

code Unique identifier of the area within the thesaurus, a non-numeric character value.
name Preferred text of the term as specified by the thesaurus.
type Scope note for the term as specified by the thesaurus indicating the type of area.
huc

Array of controlled place terms indicating hydrologic units overlapping the bounding coordinates given as input.

code Unique identifier of the area within the thesaurus, a non-numeric character value.
name Preferred text of the term as specified by the thesaurus.
type Scope note for the term as specified by the thesaurus indicating the type of area.
fedland

Array of controlled place terms indicating US federally-administered land areas overlapping the bounding coordinates given as input.

code Unique identifier of the area within the thesaurus, a non-numeric character value.
name Preferred text of the term as specified by the thesaurus.
type Scope note for the term as specified by the thesaurus indicating the type of area.

Example

https://apps.usgs.gov/thesaurus/cga/point.php?longitude=-73.297&latitude=44.2405&f=json