Geog 458: Map Sources and Errors Contextualizing Geospatial Data January 6, 2006

Outlines 1.Introduction: Why geospatial data? 2.Why geospatial metadata standards? 3.NSDI: backgrounds 4.Three national cross-agency initiatives –FGDC, –Geospatial One Stop –The National Map 5.Conclusion: the Vision of NSDI Appendix: spatial, geographic, geospatial

1. Geospatial data Think where geospatial data is used Overriding concerns of today? Disaster recovery Climate change Environmental protection Emergency Management Growth managementHomeland security

Transformation from data to information Decision Making InformationDataEnvironment Representation Analytics Presentation Data modeling Measurement Reference system Query Analysis Modeling geovisualization PPGIS

2. Geospatial metadata standards

Scenario There is no data There is data, but no metadata There is data and metadata, but not sure what is described in metadata There is data and metadata, and I understand what is described in metadata, but the way of data documentation differs across data

Finally, you have data and metadata and content standard, so you can decide whether data is suitable for a problem This is what CSDGM does! CSDGM (Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata) includes seven contents as follows

What’s in CSDGM 1 Identification Information 2 Data Quality Information 3 Spatial Data Organization Information 4 Spatial Reference Information 5 Entity and Attribute Information 6 Distribution Information 7 Metadata Reference Information

Metadata: how it works Used to provide information to data users –Fitness of use of data Can be indexed for search –Finding data in data clearinghouse Ensures the quality of data –Data developers should document what has been done to the data

3. NSDI: backgrounds Timeline Problems Strategies Core components of NSDI

Timeline of NSDI FGDC formed 1994 NSDI formed by Presidential Executive Order OMB Circular A-16 updated 2002 E-Gov Initiatives (Geospatial One- Stop)

FGDC’s statement of problem Geographic data collection is expensive Most of data are duplicated Sharing data is difficult Public access to data is a concern Datasets are poorly documented If finding and sharing geographic data were easier and more widespread, the economic benefits to the nation could be enormous

Addressing problems… Share the data to eliminate duplication efforts  partnerships Document datasets  metadata Provide base data  framework data Unify the format of data and metadata  standards Make access to data easier  clearinghouse

Partnerships Metadata GEOdata Clearinghouse (catalog) Framework Standards Core components of NSDI

Do-it-yourself now! Browse fgdc.gov to answer the following questions –According to FGDC-STD (CSDGM), which contents are mandatory? –What are seven NSDI framework themes? –How does clearinghouse work? For example, does the search result let you download data? What kinds of data are usually available? More specifically, are they mainly public data or private data? –How is the clearinghouse different from GOS (Geospatial One-Stop)?

4. National cross-agency initiatives FGDC Geospatial One Stop The National Map What are they? How do they fit together?

FGDC Inter-agency committee responsible for the implementation of the NSDI Fgdc.gov

Geospatial One-Stop Created as one of the e-government initiatives to provide federal and state agencies with a single point of access to geographic information Geodata.gov

The National Map The vision of creating up-to-date base topographic data by USGS with partnerships Nationalmap.gov Do you know how old USGS topographic data (e.g. National Atlas of the United States) are on average?

How do they fit together? They shares the same goal with distinctive roles –FGDC ties it together –GOS provides portal for discovery –TNM forms the base Clear division of roles are desirable –FGDC: policy, standards, and advocacy –GOS: discovery and access –TNM: integrated, certified base mapping content

5. The Vision of NSDI What is NSDI? What are tenets of NSDI?

What is NSDI? The technology, policies, standards, human resources, and related activities necessary to acquire, process, distribute, use, maintain, and preserve spatial data

Tenets of NSDI Assures that spatial data from multiple sources (federal, state, local, and tribal governments, academia, and the private sector) are available and easily integrated to enhance the understanding of our physical and cultural world

Spatial, geographic, geospatial Geospatial has been used since mid- 1990s especially among government agency to describe data activities –e.g. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (Formerly National Imagery and Mapping Agency: NIMA) Geospatial has more of technology and data concepts compared to spatial or geographic –e.g. geospatial science =/= geoscience