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The State Plane Coordinate System

The State Plane Coordinate System (SPS or SPCS) is a set of 124 geographic zones or coordinate systems designed for specific regions of the United States. Each state contains one or more state plane zones, the boundaries of which usually follow county lines. There are 110 zones in the continental US, with 10 more in Alaska, 5 in Hawaii, and one for Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands. The system is widely used for geographic data by state and local governments. Its popularity is due to at least two factors. First, it uses a simple Cartesian coordinate system to specify locations rather than a more complex spherical coordinate system (the geographic coordinate system of latitude and longitude). By thus ignoring the curvature of the Earth, "plane surveying" methods can be used, speeding up and simplifying calculations. Second, the system is highly accurate within each zone (error less than 1:10,000). Outside a specific state plane zone accuracy rapidly declines, thus the system is not useful for regional or national mapping.

Most state plane zones are based on either a Transverse Mercator projection or a Lambert conformal conic projection. The choice between the two map projections is based on the shape of the state and its zones. States that are long in the east-west direction are typically divided into zones that are also long east-west. These zones use the Lambert conformal conic projection, because it is good at maintaining accuracy along an east-west axis. Zones that are long in the north-south direction use the Transverse Mercator projection because it is better at maintaining accuracy along a north-south axis. The panhandle of Alaska, whose maximum dimension is on a diagonal, uses an Oblique Mercator projection, which minimizes the combined error in the X and Y directions.


All State Plane zones in Iowa

Click here to go back to the list off all State Plane grids

County or City SPCS27 Code SPCS83 Code
Adair 11402 1402
Adams 11402 1402
Allamakee 11401 1401
Appanoose 11402 1402
Audubon 11402 1402
Benton 11401 1401
Black Hawk 11401 1401
Boone 11401 1401
Bremer 11401 1401
Buchanan 11401 1401
Buena Vista 11401 1401
Butler 11401 1401
Calhoun 11401 1401
Carroll 11401 1401
Cass 11402 1402
Cedar 11402 1402
Cerro Gordo 11401 1401
Cherokee 11401 1401
Chickasaw 11401 1401
Clarke 11402 1402
Clay 11401 1401
Clayton 11401 1401
Clinton 11402 1402
Crawford 11401 1401
Dallas 11402 1402
Davis 11402 1402
Decatur 11402 1402
Delaware 11401 1401
Des Moines 11402 1402
Dickinson 11401 1401
Dubuque 11401 1401
Emmet 11401 1401
Fayette 11401 1401
Floyd 11401 1401
Franklin 11401 1401
Fremont 11402 1402
Greene 11401 1401
Grundy 11401 1401
Guthrie 11402 1402
Hamilton 11401 1401
Hancock 11401 1401
Hardin 11401 1401
Harrison 11402 1402
Henry 11402 1402
Howard 11401 1401
Humboldt 11401 1401
Ida 11401 1401
Iowa 11402 1402
Jackson 11401 1401
Jasper 11402 1402
Jefferson 11402 1402
Johnson 11402 1402
Jones 11401 1401
Keokuk 11402 1402
Kossuth 11401 1401
Lee 11402 1402
Linn 11401 1401
Louisa 11402 1402
Lucas 11402 1402
Lyon 11401 1401
Madison 11402 1402
Mahaska 11402 1402
Marion 11402 1402
Marshall 11401 1401
Mills 11402 1402
Mitchell 11401 1401
Monona 11401 1401
Monroe 11402 1402
Montgomery 11402 1402
Muscatine 11402 1402
O'Brien 11401 1401
Osceola 11401 1401
Page 11402 1402
Palo Alto 11401 1401
Plymouth 11401 1401
Pocahontas 11401 1401
Polk 11402 1402
Pottawattamie 11402 1402
Poweshiek 11402 1402
Ringgold 11402 1402
Sac 11401 1401
Scott 11402 1402
Shelby 11402 1402
Sioux 11401 1401
Story 11401 1401
Tama 11401 1401
Taylor 11402 1402
Union 11402 1402
Van Buren 11402 1402
Wapello 11402 1402
Warren 11402 1402
Washington 11402 1402
Wayne 11402 1402
Webster 11401 1401
Winnebago 11401 1401
Winneshiek 11401 1401
Woodbury 11401 1401
Worth 11401 1401
Wright 11401 1401

Click here to go back to the list off all State Plane grids