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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 Louisiana

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

County or City SPCS27 Code SPCS83 Code
Acadia 11702 1702
Allen 11702 1702
Ascension 11702 1702
Assumption 11702 1702
Avoyelles 11701 1701
Beauregard 11702 1702
Bienville 11701 1701
Bossier 11701 1701
Caddo 11701 1701
Calcasieu 11702 1702
Caldwell 11701 1701
Cameron 11702 1702
Catahoula 11701 1701
Claiborne 11701 1701
Concordia 11701 1701
De Soto 11701 1701
East Baton Rouge 11702 1702
East Carroll 11701 1701
East Feliciana 11702 1702
Evangeline 11702 1702
Franklin 11701 1701
Grant 11701 1701
Iberia 11702 1702
Iberville 11702 1702
Jackson 11701 1701
Jefferson 11702 1702
Jefferson Davis 11702 1702
Lafayette 11702 1702
LaFourche 11702 1702
La Salle 11701 1701
Lincoln 11701 1701
Livingston 11702 1702
Madison 11701 1701
Morehouse 11701 1701
Natchitoches 11701 1701
Orleans 11702 1702
Ouachita 11701 1701
Plaquemines 11702 1702
Pointe Coupee 11702 1702
Rapides 11701 1701
Red River 11701 1701
Richland 11701 1701
Sabine 11701 1701
St. Bernard 11702 1702
St. Charles 11702 1702
St. Helena 11702 1702
St. James 11702 1702
St. John the Baptist 11702 1702
St. Landry 11702 1702
St. Martin 11702 1702
St. Mary 11702 1702
St. Tammany 11702 1702
Tangipahoa 11702 1702
Tensas 11701 1701
Terrebonne 11702 1702
Union 11701 1701
Vermilion 11702 1702
Vernon 11701 1701
Washington 11702 1702
Webster 11701 1701
West Baton Rouge 11702 1702
West Carroll 11701 1701
West Feliciana 11702 1702
Winn 11701 1701

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