README for “Military Bases 1995-Present” dataset. U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Energy, Installations, and Environment (OASD(EI&E)); U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) [distributor] 2025-05-29 ---------------------------------------------------------------- LINKS TO DATASET ---------------------------------------------------------------- A. Dataset archive link: https://doi.org/10.21949/1520817 B. NTAD catalog dataset link (Current Year): https://doi.org/10.21949/1522149 ---------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY OF DATASET ---------------------------------------------------------------- The Military Bases 1995-Present dataset, formerly known as Military Installations, is from the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Energy, Installations, and Environment (OASD(EI&E)), and is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT)/Bureau of Transportation Statistics’s (BTS's) National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD). The dataset depicts the authoritative locations of the most commonly known Department of Defense (DoD) sites, installations, ranges, and training areas world-wide. These sites encompass land which is federally owned or otherwise managed. This dataset was created from source data provided by the four Military Service Component headquarters and was compiled by the Defense Installation Spatial Data Infrastructure (DISDI) Program within the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Energy, Installations, and Environment. Only sites reported in the BSR or released in a map supplementing the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 (FIRRMA) Real Estate Regulation (31 CFR Part 802) were considered for inclusion. This list does not necessarily represent a comprehensive collection of all Department of Defense facilities. For inventory purposes, installations are comprised of sites, where a site is defined as a specific geographic location of federally owned or managed land and is assigned to military installation. DoD installations are commonly referred to as a base, camp, post, station, yard, center, homeport facility for any ship, or other activity under the jurisdiction, custody, control of the DoD. While every attempt has been made to provide the best available data quality, this data set is intended for use at mapping scales between 1:50,000 and 1:3,000,000. For this reason, boundaries in this data set may not perfectly align with DoD site boundaries depicted in other federal data sources. Maps produced at a scale of 1:50,000 or smaller which otherwise comply with National Map Accuracy Standards, will remain compliant when this data is incorporated. Boundary data is most suitable for larger scale maps; point locations are better suited for mapping scales between 1:250,000 and 1:3,000,000. If a site is part of a Joint Base (effective/designated on 1 October, 2010) as established under the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure process, it is attributed with the name of the Joint Base. All sites comprising a Joint Base are also attributed to the responsible DoD Component, which is not necessarily the pre-2005 Component responsible for the site. ---------------------------------------------------------------- TABLE OF CONTENTS ---------------------------------------------------------------- A. General Information B. Sharing/Access & Policies Information C. Data and Related File Overview D. Methodological Information E. Data-Specific Information for: Military Bases 1995-Present [datasets] F. Update Log ---------------------------------------------------------------- A. GENERAL INFORMATION ---------------------------------------------------------------- 0. Title of Dataset: Military Bases 1995-Present [dataset] 1. Description of Dataset: The Military Bases 1995-Present dataset, formerly known as Military Installations, is from the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Energy, Installations, and Environment (OASD(EI&E)), and is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT)/Bureau of Transportation Statistics’ (BTS's) National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD). The dataset depicts the authoritative locations of the most commonly known Department of Defense (DoD) sites, installations, ranges, and training areas world-wide. These sites encompass land which is federally owned or otherwise managed. This dataset was created from source data provided by the four Military Service Component headquarters and was compiled by the Defense Installation Spatial Data Infrastructure (DISDI) Program within the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Energy, Installations, and Environment. Only sites reported in the BSR or released in a map supplementing the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 (FIRRMA) Real Estate Regulation (31 CFR Part 802) were considered for inclusion. This list does not necessarily represent a comprehensive collection of all Department of Defense facilities. For inventory purposes, installations are comprised of sites, where a site is defined as a specific geographic location of federally owned or managed land and is assigned to military installation. DoD installations are commonly referred to as a base, camp, post, station, yard, center, homeport facility for any ship, or other activity under the jurisdiction, custody, control of the DoD. While every attempt has been made to provide the best available data quality, this data set is intended for use at mapping scales between 1:50,000 and 1:3,000,000. For this reason, boundaries in this data set may not perfectly align with DoD site boundaries depicted in other federal data sources. Maps produced at a scale of 1:50,000 or smaller which otherwise comply with National Map Accuracy Standards, will remain compliant when this data is incorporated. Boundary data is most suitable for larger scale maps; point locations are better suited for mapping scales between 1:250,000 and 1:3,000,000. If a site is part of a Joint Base (effective/designated on 1 October, 2010) as established under the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure process, it is attributed with the name of the Joint Base. All sites comprising a Joint Base are also attributed to the responsible DoD Component, which is not necessarily the pre-2005 Component responsible for the site. 2. Dataset archive link: https://doi.org/10.21949/1520817 3. Authorship Information: Principal Data Creator or Data Manager Contact Information Institution: U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Energy, Installations, and Environment (OASD(EI&E)) Address: 4800 Marks Center Dr., Alexandria VA, 22311 Contact: osd.pentagon.ousd-atl.mbx@mail.mil Data Distributor Contact Information Name: National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD) Institution: U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), Office of Spatial Analysis and Visualization (OSAV) Address: 1200 New Jersey Ave. SE, Washington D.C. 20590 Email: ntad@dot.gov 4. Date of data collection and update interval: This dataset is updated annually. 5. Geographic location of data collection: United States of America 6. Information about funding sources that supported the collection of the data: Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Energy, Installations, and Environment (OASD(EI&E)), U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) ---------------------------------------------------------------- B. SHARING/ACCESS & POLICIES INFORMATION ---------------------------------------------------------------- 0. Recommended citation for the data: U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Energy, Installations, and Environment (OASD(EI&E)), U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) [distributor]. Military Bases 1995-Present [datasets]. https://doi.org/10.21949/1520817 1. Licenses/restrictions placed on the data: These data are in the Public Domain. 2. Was data derived from another source?: Yes. The Military Bases dataset was created from source data provided by the DOD Components (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Washington Headquarters Services) and was compiled by the Defense Installations Spatial Data Infrastructure (DISDI) Program within the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment. 3.This document was created to meet the requirements enumerated in the U.S. Department of Transportation's 'Plan to Increase Public Access to the Results of Federally-Funded Scientific Research' Version 1.1 << https://doi.org/10.21949/1520559 >> and guidelines suggested by the DOT Public Access website << https://doi.org/10.21949/1503647 >>, in effect and current as of December 03, 2020. ---------------------------------------------------------------- C. DATA & RELATED FILE OVERVIEW ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1. File List for the Military Bases 1995-Present dataset A. Filename: Military_Bases_NTAD1995_Present.zip Short description: Compressed file folders containing the geospatial data for Military Bases 1995-Present dataset. File folders are classified by NTAD publication year and data vintage year or date respectively. B. Filename: bts_NTAD_Military_Bases_DMP_20250529.pdf Short description: A PDF file containing the Data Management Plan that was created for current and future management of the data and associated files. C. Filename: bts_NTAD_Military_Bases_README_20250529.txt Short description: The README.txt file that includes human-readable information about the data, variable definitions, contact information, and other contextual information. The file you are reading now. 2. File List for the Military_Bases_NTAD1995_Present.zip collection. A. Filename: NTADXXXX_SHP_Final_Military_Bases_XXXX*.zip or NTADXXXX_GDB_Final_Military_Bases_XXXX_XX_XX.zip Short description: Compressed file folders containing the geospatial data for Military Bases 1995-Present dataset. File folders are classified by NTAD publication year and data vintage year respectively. 3a. File List for the NTADXXXX_SHP_Final_Military_Bases_XXXX*.zip collection. A. Filename: milbase.shp Short description: A shapefile containing the geospatial data for Military Bases 1995-Present dataset. This includes associated files with extensions .prj, .dbf, .sbn, .sbx, .shx. B. Filename: milbase.met, or milbase, milbase.htm, and milbase.shp.xml Short description: Text files containing key metadata and documentation information such as methodology, procedures, data dictionary, etc. 3b. File List for the NTADXXXX_GDB_Final_Military_Bases_XXXX_XX_XX.zip collection A. Filename: NTADXXXX_GDB_Final_Military_Bases_XXXX_XX_XX.gdb.zip Short description: A file geodatabase containing the geospatial data for Military Bases 1995-Present dataset. Geodatabase (GDB) folders contain all the necessary components to view and otherwise interact with their data. B. Filename: Military_Bases.xml Short description: Text files containing key metadata and documentation information such as methodology, procedures, etc. C. Filename: Military_Bases.xlsx Short description: Excel spreadsheet containing the dataset's data dictionary. ---------------------------------------------------------------- D. METHODOLOGICAL INFORMATION ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Description of methods used for collection/generation of data: The dataset depicts the authoritative locations of the most commonly known Department of Defense (DoD) sites, installations, ranges, and training areas world-wide. These sites encompass land which is federally owned or otherwise managed. This dataset was created from source data provided by the four Military Service Component headquarters and was compiled by the Defense Installation Spatial Data Infrastructure (DISDI) Program within the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Energy, Installations, and Environment. Sites were selected from the Base Structure Report (BSR), a summary of the DoD Real Property Inventory. 2. Instrument- or software-specific information needed to interpret the data: The data and documentation files can be opened with Esri ArcMap and any GIS software package. ---------------------------------------------------------------- E. DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Military Bases data table This dataset is updated annually. Dataset Manager is contacted to verify changes to data resulting in NTAD update. The metadata is updated in the same manner. For the most recent data, please visit the NTAD catalog at https://doi.org/10.21949/1522149 A. Number of variables (columns): The data dictionary found in (PDF documentation) provides definitions for the variables B. Data Dictionary/Variable List: Because of the large number of variables, please refer to the Data Dictionary found within the file Military_Bases.txt for names, definitions, and formats of variables. C. Missing data codes: None ---------------------------------------------------------------- F. UPDATE LOG ---------------------------------------------------------------- This bts_Military_Bases_20250529_README.txt file was originally created on 2021-03-12 by Dominic Menegus, Geographer, dominic.menegus@dot.gov [Note changes or update to the readme.txt file, e.g.:] 2021-03-12: Original file created 2025-05-29: Revised document, including data descriptions and file organization.