NAD 83, NAVD 88 and “SPCS ’83” are finally giving way to a modern, GNSS- and gravity-based National Spatial Reference System. The technical pieces are arriving now. For surveyors and GIS professionals, the hard work will be managing the transition while keeping projects on track.

For more than a decade, NOAA’s National Geodetic Survey (NGS) has been warning that the National Spatial Reference System (NSRS) would move on from NAD 83 and NAVD 88. That change is no longer theoretical. The new terrestrial reference frames, the replacement vertical datum and the State Plane Coordinate System of 2022 (SPCS2022) are now emerging on NGS’s beta platforms, with a phased rollout running through 2026 and a formal Federal Geodetic Control Subcommittee (FGCS) decision expected once testing is complete. On its “New Datums” page, NGS describes the NSRS as “a consistent coordinate system that defines latitude, longitude, height, scale, gravity, and orientation throughout the United States and its territories,” and explicitly states that NAD 83 and NAVD 88 will be replaced as part of this modernization. 

For survey and GIS professionals, this is not just a new datum. It is a shift in how coordinates are defined, maintained and documented for the next generation of work, across cadastral survey, infrastructure, floodplain mapping, reality capture and Scan-to-BIM. The technology stack (GNSS, lidar, SLAM, scanners, GIS) is already there; the question is whether our standards, workflows and contracts are ready to live in a dynamic, plate-based, gravity-aware world.

What’s Actually Changing

Today’s NSRS is built on NAD 83 for horizontal position and NAVD 88 for heights. Both have known, quantified issues. NGS estimates that NAD 83 is misaligned with the Earth’s center of mass by about 2.2 meters, and that NAVD 88 is both biased by about 0.5 meters and tilted by about 1 meter coast-to-coast relative to modern global geoid models. NGS summarizes these shortcomings as “NAD83 non-geocentric by ~2.2 m” and “NAVD88 biased (~0.5 m) and tilted (~1.0 m coast to coast) relative to current global geoid models.” 

The modernized NSRS addresses those issues with three big changes:

1. New terrestrial reference frames (TRFs)

NAD 83’s three frames will be replaced by four plate-fixed terrestrial reference frames that are explicitly tied to ITRF2020:

• NATRF2022 – North American plate
• PATRF2022 – Pacific plate
• CATRF2022 – Caribbean plate
• MATRF2022 – Mariana plate

These frames are defined relative to ITRF2020 and accessed via GNSS, so geodetic latitude, longitude and ellipsoid height will be naturally aligned with GNSS orbits, rather than retrofitted onto a pre-GNSS terrestrial network. NGS’s “Track Our Progress” page notes that these four 2022 frames “will serve as the future reference for all measurements of latitude, longitude, and ellipsoid height in the United States” and are defined by transformation from international models using Euler pole parameters for each plate.

2. A new geopotential datum: NAPGD2022

The North American-Pacific Geopotential Datum of 2022 (NAPGD2022) becomes the gravity-based vertical backbone of the NSRS. NAPGD2022 is defined by NGS as the geopotential basis for the vertical and gravity components of the NSRS, providing mutually consistent orthometric heights, geoid undulations, gravity anomalies, deflections of the vertical and other gravity-field quantities across the U.S. and its territories. The NAPGD2022 beta home explains that it “will serve as the future geopotential datum within the National Spatial Reference System (NSRS)” and will cover the North American–Pacific region, Guam and CNMI, and American Samoa.

In plain language: NAVD 88 leveling and aging bench-mark networks give way to GNSS heights plus a high-resolution gravimetric geoid (the culmination of GRAV-D). Height access will rely primarily on CORS and geoid models, with passive marks still useful locally but no longer the defining fabric of the vertical datum. NGS’s “New Datums” one-pager frames this as replacing “NAVD 88 benchmarks” with a modern, gravity-based system and encourages users to pay attention to GPS-on-benchmarks and metadata in preparation.

3. SPCS2022: the third-generation State Plane system

SPCS2022 is the third generation of State Plane, following SPCS 27 and SPCS 83. It is referenced to the new 2022 TRFs and provides statewide and regional projected systems for all 50 states and six territories. NGS’s zone-design maps show that each state and territory will have a statewide zone and, in many cases, multiple additional zone layers, yielding on the order of 900–1,000 SPCS2022 zones nationwide. The State Plane Coordinate System of 2022 Policy formally designates SPCS2022 and describes it as the official projected coordinate reference system associated with the 2022 terrestrial reference frames, with policy-level technical characteristics and unit conventions.

Many states have worked with NGS to define low-distortion zones tuned to their survey practice; others have opted for simpler, fewer zones. Either way, SPCS2022 is not just a re-labeling of SPCS 83, it is a substantial redesign aimed at improving distortion characteristics at the topographic surface.

Correcting NAD 83’s origin and NAVD 88’s tilt means that every coordinate in the official NSRS—latitudes, longitudes, ellipsoid heights and orthometric heights—will change, in some areas by up to several decimeters or more. NGS and several state geodetic offices have highlighted that users should expect coordinate shifts of this order when transforming from NAD83(2011)/NAVD 88 to NATRF2022/NAPGD2022.

Why This Matters in the Next 3–5 Years

NSRS modernization will show up in three very practical ways:

New numbers for familiar places.
Control points, project baselines and flood elevations you’ve known for years will change on paper, even though nothing moved on the ground. You’ll have to explain that to clients, regulators and internal stakeholders, and document it.

More choices on every job.
Frame, epoch, SPCS2022 zone, geoid model—each becomes an explicit choice, not a hidden default. If you don’t choose deliberately, software will choose for you. That is where subtle, hard-to-diagnose inconsistencies creep in.

Mixed-datum projects become the norm for a while.
For years, you’ll be reconciling NAD 83/NAVD 88 work with NATRF2022/NAPGD2022 and SPCS2022. That is where most of the risk and confusion lives, and where clear workflows and metadata will pay off.

Timeline: Where We Really Are in 2026

The modernization schedule has slipped more than once, but NGS’s current guidance is reasonably clear:

• NGS will roll out components of the modernized NSRS for public testing over 2024–2026 on its beta site (beta.ngs.noaa.gov). Each component—GEOID2022, GRAV2022, the 2022 TRFs, NAPGD2022, SPCS2022, and updated tools like NCAT—will be available there for at least six months of evaluation and feedback.
• During that period, NAD 83 and NAVD 88 remain the official NSRS datums, with ITRF2020 and related products used as a bridge.
• Once all components have completed beta testing, NGS plans to ask FGCS to vote on making the modernized NSRS the official system, a decision NGS and the Federal Register now describe as “scheduled to occur in 2025 or 2026.” If approved, the current NSRS will be replaced with the modernized NSRS within a few months of that decision.

These line up with NGS’s “NSRS Modernization Timeline” page, which implements the October 2024 Federal Register notice: NGS will “roll out components of the modernized NSRS over time (2024–2026)” on beta.ngs.noaa.gov, keep the current NSRS as the sole official system while testing, and then ask FGCS to vote on the new datums “likely in early to mid 2026,” after which the modernized NSRS will be moved from the beta site to geodesy.noaa.gov.

The practical takeaway: 2025–2026 is the live testing and preparation window. The official switch-over will follow FGCS approval, but practitioners have this interim period to validate tools, workflows and data handling on real projects.

Horizontal: Plate-Fixed Frames, Epochs and Velocities

From a survey/GIS perspective, the horizontal change is less about new labels and more about explicitly embracing time.

• The 2022 TRFs are plate-fixed, not locked forever. Coordinates are defined at a reference epoch (for example, 2020.00), and velocities are part of the model.
• NGS has been clear that users will need to track both reference frame and epoch when reporting coordinates, especially in tectonically active regions where motion is non-trivial over the life of a project.

NGS’s technical report Blueprint for the Modernized NSRS, Part 3: Working in the Modernized NSRS states that NGS “will embrace time-dependency” in the new system, distinguishing Survey Epoch Coordinates (SECs), which estimate a mark’s location on the dates it was surveyed, from Active Coordinates (ACs) that estimate positions continuously (for example at a CORS).

For control networks, RTN operators and high-accuracy GIS, this means:

• You cannot treat “NATRF2022” as a static replacement for “NAD 83.” You will need frame + epoch + velocity (explicitly, or implicitly via NGS tools).
• Long-lived assets—pipelines, transportation corridors, utilities—will see position changes over time. The NSRS will support re-computation of coordinates at future epochs; your database and metadata need to be ready for that.

NGS is updating NCAT and other transformation tools to handle conversions between NAD 83, the new TRFs and multiple epochs; those tools will be critical in managing legacy-to-modern transformations. The New Datums FAQ notes that, at rollout, “NCAT will be updated and users will be able to transform between any NGS-defined historic datum and the new datums.”

Vertical: A Geoid-First World

NAPGD2022 is the other half of the story. Instead of an adjustment frozen to a 20th-century leveling network, heights will be defined by GNSS + a gravimetric geoid derived from GRAV-D and auxiliary data. NGS’s Track Our Progress page lists NAPGD2022 as the new geopotential datum, with GEOID2022, DEFLEC2022, GRAV2022 and GM2022 as key products supporting orthometric heights and gravity-field modeling.

For field practice, that implies:

• Passive marks remain important, but they are no longer the primary defining infrastructure for the vertical datum. The authoritative definition of height resides in the geoid model and its relationship to the terrestrial reference frames.
• GNSS workflows—RTK, RTN, PPP—become the standard way to access both horizontal and vertical datums, provided your software is using the correct geoid and frame.

VDatum and other vertical transformation tools are being updated to support NAPGD2022 and to move between legacy and modern heights, as described in NGS webinars and modernization materials that outline planned updates to the Data Delivery System and transformation services along with NCAT.

From a QA standpoint, this increases the importance of:

• Documenting which geoid model and version were used.
• Understanding how vertical uncertainty propagates when you transform legacy NAVD 88 heights into NAPGD2022.
• Communicating to clients that apparent “jumps” in elevation are systematic, not errors.

SPCS2022: Where Policy, Engineering and Practice Collide

SPCS2022 is where standards language, software configuration and field procedures all meet.

NGS’s SPCS2022 policy and subsequent technical work have produced a system with:

• Up to three zone layers in each state (statewide, full-coverage multizone, and partial multizone) plus multistate “special use” zones.
• A significantly larger number of zones overall, on the order of 900–1,000, with designs tailored to reduce linear distortion at ground elevations.
• A richer mix of projections, including variants of Lambert Conformal Conic and Hotine Oblique Mercator tuned to local geometries.
• Explicit ties to the 2022 TRFs and to NAPGD2022 for orthometric heights.

The SPCS2022 Policy specifies the system’s “official name, authority of NGS, scope, uniqueness with respect to previous versions of SPCS, coordination with other federal agencies, and documentation,” and describes fundamental technical attributes and requirements that can only be changed with NGS executive approval.

For survey and GIS professionals, the implications include:

• Contract language that currently hard-codes “SPCS 83” will need to be revisited; you may need to specify SPCS2022 zone names, reference frames and epochs explicitly.
• Firms operating across multiple states will have to manage more CRS definitions and EPSG codes, both in survey software and in GIS databases.
• Many “low distortion projection” practices that grew up on top of SPCS 83 are now being formalized inside SPCS2022, which is good for consistency, but it means you must re-learn some of your defaults.

Three Lenses on the Transition

We can think about NSRS modernization through three lenses that practitioners will recognize: policy/standards, engineering, and practice—plus a fourth, Scan-to-BIM.

1. Policy and Standards: Defensibility and “Fit for Purpose”

Standards bodies such as ASPRS and FGDC have spent years talking about positional accuracy classes, metadata and “fit-for-purpose” accuracy. NSRS modernization makes those discussions concrete.

• Accuracy specifications written in NAD 83/NAVD 88 terms will need to be updated.
• RFPs that say “State Plane 83, NAVD 88” without more detail may become ambiguous in a few years.
• Practitioners will need to demonstrate that they not only hit numeric tolerances but also used the correct frame, epoch, and transformation path.

The risk is not so much a technical failure as a governance gap, projects delivered with beautiful numbers that turn out to be defined in the “wrong” coordinate system for regulatory or legal purposes.

2. Engineering: Managing Mixed Datums and Repeatability

From an engineering perspective, the hard problems are:

• Mixed legacy and modern datasets: How do you maintain a project database where some features are still in NAD 83 / NAVD 88, others in NATRF2022 / NAPGD2022, and some have uncertain provenance?
• Repeatability and QA: How do you prove that a survey performed before and after the NSRS transition is “the same,” even though coordinates differ by decimeters or meters?

The answers will live in:

• Documented, repeatable transformation workflows (for example, using NCAT/VDatum or vendor-implemented equivalents).
• Strong metadata: CRS name, frame, epoch, geoid model, tool version.
• QA procedures that check in both the “old” and “new” systems during the transition period.

3. Practice: Field Workflows, Reality Capture and Daily Production

On the front lines, in RTK rovers, lidar rigs, mobile scanners and SLAM backpacks, the modernization will feel like a series of incremental changes:

• RTN operators re-publishing mountpoints in NATRF2022 and NAPGD2022.
• Vendors pushing firmware updates with new TRFs and geoid models.
• Project setup screens gaining more options: “NATRF2022(2020.00) / SPCS2022 zone X” instead of “NAD83(2011) / SPCS 83.”

Reality-capture workflows are especially sensitive because they often combine long acquisition times, multiple sensors and downstream uses (design, digital twin, asset management) that depend on precise alignment. Teams will need to:

• Decide when to “flip” project baselines to the new NSRS.
• Establish internal conventions for naming and storing coordinate systems.
• Train staff to recognize when they are mixing datums or epochs unintentionally.

4. Scan-to-BIM and AEC: Coordinating Across Sites and Systems

For Scan-to-BIM providers and AEC owners, NSRS modernization shows up as a multi-site consistency problem:

• Campus or portfolio-scale digital twins often tie dozens of buildings, utilities and civil features into a single coordinate framework.
• When the official framework moves, you need a plan to migrate not only raw survey data but also BIM models, CAD drawings and asset databases.

That raises practical questions:

• Do you freeze existing BIM deliverables in NAD 83/NAVD 88 and reference new work in NATRF2022/NAPGD2022?
• Or do you perform a controlled migration of legacy models, with documented transformations and QA, so that the entire portfolio lives in the modern NSRS?

Either way, early capture decisions—control strategy, target coordinate system, metadata discipline—will determine how painful that migration is.

A Practical Preparation Checklist

1. Inventory your datums and CRSs.
   Know which datums, epochs, SPCS zones and geoids your current projects and archives use.
2. Engage your RTN and vendor ecosystem.
   Ask your CORS/RTN providers and software vendors about their NATRF2022 / NAPGD2022 / SPCS2022 roadmaps and test builds.
3. Standardize on metadata.
   Decide how you will encode frame, epoch, zone and geoid model in your job files, GIS schemas and deliverables.
4. Pilot transformations now.
   Use NGS beta tools (and vendor equivalents) to transform a few representative projects from NAD 83/NAVD 88 into the modernized NSRS and back. Document surprises.
5. Update your contracts and specs.
   Replace vague phrases like “State Plane” or “NAD 83” with explicit references to SPCS2022 zones, TRFs, epochs and vertical datums, while you still have time to educate clients.
6. Train your teams.
   Treat NSRS modernization as continuing-education material for field crews, CAD/GIS staff and project managers, not just the resident geodesist.

NGS’s “Get Prepared” guidance for New Datums explicitly identifies three transition methods—“Resurvey,” “Readjust,” and “Transform”—and recommends running existing data through NCAT now to check whether your metadata are sufficient to support later transformations to the modernized NSRS.

If You’re…

Here’s what NSRS modernization means in different seats around the table.

A small survey or geomatics firm

• Pick a house standard (default frame, epoch, SPCS2022 zones, geoids) and stick to it unless a contract says otherwise.
• Make sure your field software, RTK/RTN subscriptions and office packages all support that standard; avoid having one lingering package trapped in NAD83(2011)/NAVD 88 with no clear path forward.
• Build a simple “client explainer” one-pager on why their coordinates will change and how you handle it. You will use it often.

A public-agency GIS or DOT manager

• Map out which enterprise systems (asset management, permitting, CAD, GIS) reference NSRS and in what form. Those are your dependencies.
• Work with IT to plan a phased migration: which layers and systems move to NATRF2022 / NAPGD2022 first, which stay in legacy datums for a while, and where you’ll maintain dual representations.
• Require explicit CRS and datum metadata in every new dataset you ingest or procure—no more “just State Plane.”

A Scan-to-BIM / reality-capture lead

• Decide at the capture-planning stage which datums and SPCS2022 zones will govern multi-site or portfolio projects. Don’t improvise per building.
• Ensure registration, QC and BIM modeling teams all understand the chosen frame/epoch and vertical reference; misalignment here will haunt you later.
• For existing campuses, start testing controlled transformations of a few representative models to NATRF2022 / NAPGD2022 so you know what issues to expect before doing it at scale.

NGS likes to say that the modernized NSRS will make coordinates more accurate, accessible and sustainable. That may be true in the long run. In the near term, success for survey and GIS professionals will depend less on the math, NGS has done that, and more on how deliberately you manage the transition in standards, workflows and client communication. Much of the official thinking on that transition is already captured in NOAA Technical Report NOS NGS 67 Blueprint for the Modernized NSRS, Part 3: Working in the Modernized NSRS. 

Key NGS Resources on NSRS Modernization

NOAA/NOS/National Geodetic Survey – “New Datums” (NSRS Modernization Hub)
High-level overview of why NAD 83 and NAVD 88 are being replaced, what the modernized NSRS will include, and how it affects users.
NGS Datums & Reference Frames → New Datums
https://geodesy.noaa.gov/datums/newdatums/

NSRS Modernization Timeline / Federal Register Notice
Official rollout plan for modernized NSRS components (2024–2026), FGCS vote, and transition from beta.ngs.noaa.gov to geodesy.noaa.gov.
NSRS Modernization Timeline
https://geodesy.noaa.gov/datums/newdatums/NSRSModernizationTimeline.shtml

Track Our Progress: NSRS Modernization Components
Status page for the core pieces of the modernized NSRS—2022 terrestrial reference frames, NAPGD2022, GEOID2022, SPCS2022, tools (NCAT, OPUS, DDS), and related products.
Track Our Progress
https://geodesy.noaa.gov/datums/newdatums/TrackOurProgress.shtml

NAPGD2022 Home (Beta)
Defines the North American–Pacific Geopotential Datum of 2022 and its gravity-field products (GEOID2022, DEFLEC2022, GRAV2022, GM2022), with links to beta data and documentation.
NAPGD2022 Home
https://beta.ngs.noaa.gov/NAPGD2022/

NATRF2022, PATRF2022, CATRF2022, MATRF2022 (Beta)
Technical summaries of the four 2022 terrestrial reference frames that will replace NAD 83, including relationship to ITRF2020 and plate-fixed behavior.
2022 Terrestrial Reference Frames
https://beta.ngs.noaa.gov/datums/2022/

State Plane Coordinate System of 2022 (SPCS2022) – Policy and Technical Info
Formal NGS policy establishing SPCS2022 as the official projected CRS for the 2022 frames, with unit conventions, constraints on zone design, and links to preliminary parameters and distortion maps.
SPCS2022 Policy & Info
https://geodesy.noaa.gov/library/pdfs/SPCS2022_Policy.pdf
https://beta.ngs.noaa.gov/SPCS/

“Get Prepared” for New Datums – User Guidance
Practical NGS guidance for agencies and practitioners on preparing for NSRS modernization, including the “Resurvey, Readjust, Transform” transition methods and recommended use of NCAT and metadata checks.
Get Prepared
https://geodesy.noaa.gov/datums/newdatums/GetPrepared.shtml

Blueprint for the Modernized NSRS, Part 3: Working in the Modernized NSRS (NOAA Tech. Rep. NOS NGS 67)
D. R. Smith (2021). Core conceptual document on how geospatial professionals will work in the time-dependent NSRS, including Survey Epoch Coordinates (SECs), Active Coordinates (ACs), and CORS-based realization.
NOAA Institutional Repository
https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/50910