1. National Boundaries Group Update to Coordination Group Laura Waggoner, US Census Bureau and Robert Pierce, US Geological Survey, Co-Chairs March 18, 2014 Coordination Group Meeting Date v1

2. 2 Introduction The Purpose of the National Boundaries Group (NBG) Work Group is to develop nationally consistent boundaries that are integrated using the same geographic base. The goal is to make sure federal boundary sources are consistent, accurate, and integrated.

3. 3 NBG Participating Agencies Bureau of Land Management (BLM) U.S. Forest Service (USFS) National Park Service (NPS) U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) U.S. Census Bureau (Census) Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Library of Congress (LOC) Oak Ridge National Labs (ORNL) U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Department of Defense (DOD - DISDI) Department of Energy (DOE) National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Department of Homeland Security (DHS) International Boundary Commission (IBC) International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) Department of State Veterans Administration (VA)

4. 4 NGDA’s for the Governmental Units Theme The following are examples of datasets that fall under the purview of the Governmental Units Theme and the NBG: Governmental Unit Boundaries: Ex: County Boundaries Administrative Boundaries: Ex: School Districts Statistical Boundaries: Ex: Census Tracts

5. 5 Recent Meetings The NBG met at the ESRI Federal Users Conference on February 11, 2014 The topics discussed at this meeting include: Activities of the Federal Lands Subgroup Development and availability of the Surface Management Agency (SMA) datasets Wilderness Steering Committee – mapping since the Wilderness Land Act of 1964 Statistical Area Boundaries Presentation

6. 6 Coordination Group Vote Establishing the NBG as an FGDC Working Group The Charter was sent to the CG and is available on the myUSGS website.

7. 7 Charter - Scope The NBG coordinates boundary information sharing among federal, state, local, tribal, and private organizations. In scope are the following goals: Creating an open exchange of information about boundary data Assuring availability of, and public access to, boundary data and associated metadata from distributed databases Investigating, evaluating, promoting, and implementing new technologies to improve boundary accuracy and integration Supporting coordination and standards goals, and objectives established by federal, national and international standards organizations

8. 8 Charter - Objectives Identification of the national authoritative sources and national authoritative integrators for boundary data Application of enterprise supply/value chain principles. Who collects what? When is the data needed? Identification and development of boundary standards including recommendations for legal documentation Identification of boundary data used by each agency including it’s current status, quality, and availability Coordinating boundary data with the FGDC A-16 and Data Life Cycle efforts Work closely with other FGDC subcommittees – e.g. the Coastal Subcommittee in the development of an authoritative coastline dataset of the U.S.

9. 9 Next Meeting The next meeting of the NBG will be held in May 2014. It will take place via teleconference. The primary topic to be discussed at the next meeting will be: Activities and status of international boundaries for Canada and Mexico.

10. 10 Next Steps In the coming months, the NBG hopes to discuss: Use of the Geospatial Platform Theme Community of Interest for placement of documents and meeting announcements. Creation of a ListServe Review of datasets on the GeoPlatform

11. 11 Questions? Laura Waggoner Laura.L.Waggoner@Census.gov Robert Pierce rrpierce@usgs.gov