Dual Independent Map Encoding (DIME) is an

encoding In communications and information processing, code is a system of rules to convert information—such as a letter, word, sound, image, or gesture—into another form, sometimes shortened or secret, for communication through a communication ...

scheme developed by the

US Bureau of the Census The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...

for efficiently storing

geographical Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...

data. The committee behind the case study that eventually resulted in DIME was established in 1965, although the term ''DIME'' itself was first coined by George Farnsworth in August 1967. The

file format A file format is a standard way that information is encoded for storage in a computer file. It specifies how bits are used to encode information in a digital storage medium. File formats may be either proprietary or free. Some file formats ...

developed for storing the DIME-encoded data was known as

Geographic Base Files Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...

(GBF). The Census Bureau replaced the data format with

Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing, or TIGER, or TIGER/Line is a format used by the United States Census Bureau to describe land attributes such as roads, buildings, rivers, and lakes, as well as areas such as census tra ...

(TIGER) in 1990.

External links

A short story of DIME
GIS file formats {{Cartography-stub

See also

External links