National Spatial Data Infrastructure: Concepts and Components

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National Spatial Data InfrastructureConcepts
and Components

• Douglas Nebert
• U.S. Federal Geographic
• Data Committee Secretariat
• September 2004

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What is a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI)?

• The SDI provides a basis for spatial data
  discovery, evaluation, and application for users
  and providers within all levels of government,
  the commercial sector, the non-profit sector,
  academia and by citizens in general.
• --The SDI Cookbook http//www.gsdi.org

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Who needs access to coordinated geographic
information?

• Land Records Adjudication
• Disaster Response
• Transportation Management
• Water, gas electric planning
• Public Protection
• Defense
• Natural Resource Management
• Telecommunications Infrastructure
• Economic Development
• Civic Entrepreneurs
• Regional Stewards

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Components of a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI)

• Policies Institutional Arrangements
  (governance, data privacy security, data
  sharing, cost recovery)
• People (training, professional development,
  cooperation, outreach)
• Data (digital base map, thematic, statistical,
  place names)
• Technology (hardware, software, networks,
  databases, technical implementation plans)

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Why build an SDI?

• Build data once and use it many times for many
  applications
• Integrate distributed providers of data
  Cooperative governance
• Place-based management
• Share costs of data creation and maintenance
• Support sustainable economic, social, and
  environmental development

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The outcomes of an NSDI

• The participant members (contributors and users)
  are known and can interact
• Core and specialized map and data services are
  easily discoverable and accessible
• Decision-makers and analysts have ready access to
  the right geo-information for input to analytical
  and visual models indicators, models, trends,
  patterns

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Benefits of an NSDI

• Development of a private sector involved with
  data sales and added value
• A chance for communities of all sizes and
  capabilities to participate in the knowledge
  economy
• A more informed voter/citizen
• Increased access to distributed geo-information
  through standards

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Creating the motivation

• Development of an SDI should be a voluntary and
  have long-term vision
• Government roles may require both incentives and
  directives
• Commercial and non-commercial participants
  should find SDI appealing as a market
• The correct solution for NSDI must be defined by
  the community

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Government Role in Infrastructure

• National Interstate Highway system built for
  defense logistics, now baseline for commerce
• DARPA/ARPA advanced Internet infrastructure
  design, establishing the backbone
• Promotes standards to enable compatible
  solutions
• We cannot imagine the fullest extent of how the
  NSDI will be populated or what applications will
  live upon it!

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Heres one overview of the pieces of the NSDI
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• The first task is to inventory who has what data
  of what type and quality
• A standardized form of metadata was published in
  June 1994 by the FGDC. An international standard
  now exists and will be adopted by the US
  beginning in 2005

Metadata
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Metadata...

• Provides documentation of existing internal
  geospatial data resources within an organisation
  (inventory)
• Permits structured search and comparison of held
  spatial data by others (catalog)
• Provides end-users with adequate information to
  take the data and use it in an appropriate
  context (documentation)

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• Metadata describes existing data holdings for
  order, retrieval, or local use
• Metadata should be used to describe all types of
  data, emphasis on truth in labeling

Metadata
Geospatial Data
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• Special-use thematic layers are built and
  described as available geospatial data
• Common data layers are being defined in the
  Framework activity

Metadata
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Framework supports...

• Community development of sets of spatial
  features, feature representation, and attribution
  to a lowest common denominator
• Participant collecting, converting, or
  associating information to common Framework data
  standards with an encoding format to facilitate
  exchange
• Multiple representations of real-world features
  at different scales and times by feature
  identifier and generalization

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The NSDI includes the services to help discover
and interact with data
Services
Metadata
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An important common service in SDI is that of
discovering resources through metadata
Discovery
Access
Processing
Services
Metadata
This Discovery Service is the core function of
the NSDI Clearinghouse for geospatial information
and the GOS geodata.gov portal
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NSDI Clearinghouse Network and geodata.gov portal

• Supports uniform, distributed search through a
  single user interface to all domestic metadata
  collections to find data and maps
• A free advertising mechanism to provide world
  access to your holdings under the principle of
  truth-in-labeling
• Search for spatial data through fields and
  full-text in the metadata and categorical
  browsing
• Links through to full data access and online web
  mapping services, where available

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• A second class of services provides standardised
  access to geospatial information

Discovery
Access
Processing
Services
Metadata

• This may be made via static files on ftp or via
  online data streaming services. These services
  deliver raw data, not maps.

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Data Access Concepts

• Standardisation of data access implies several
  things
• Definition of model used for the data to be
  exchanged
• Adoption of an exchange or encoding format
• Agreement on data access protocol(s)
• Organisations should strive to identify the
  mode(s) of operation to simplify data exchange

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Data Access Examples

• Administrative boundary data conforming to the
  GlobalMap data model, packaged as Vector Product
  Format (VPF), made accessible over ftp
• Panchromatic 10m, single-band, rectified imagery
  to a specific coordinate reference system,
  packaged as GEOTIFF with LZW compression, made
  accessible on CD-ROM

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A third class of services provides additional
processing on geospatial information
Discovery
Access
Processing
Services
Metadata
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Processing Services

• These include capabilities that extend and
  enhance the delivery of data through processes
  applied to raw data
• Web Mapping Services
• Symbolization
• Coordinate Transformation
• Analysis or topologic overlay services
• Routing services

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• Standardization makes SDI work
• Standards touch every SDI activity

Discovery
Access
Processing
Services
Metadata
Standards
Standards include specifications, formal
standards, and documented practices
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FGDC Standards...

• Created by thematic subcommittees as national
  standards, representing community consensus view
  of data theme or common approach
• Submitted for 90-day public review
• Reviewed across disciplines for uniformity
• Published as US Federal Standards
• Standards by ISO, OGC, W3C and other
  standardization bodies are used FIRST, if they
  exist!

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Roles of standards bodies
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Partnerships extend our capabilities
Partnerships
Discovery
Access
Processing
Services
Metadata
Standards
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Partnerships are the glue...

• FGDC has recognized 40 geographic data councils
  across the country to establish 2-way
  coordination mechanisms
• FGDC has funded numerous agencies with seed
  funding to further existing efforts along common
  lines
• Partnerships extend local capabilities in
  technology, skills, logistics, and data
• The National Map is a partnership designed to
  serve Framework data themes from distributed
  participating organizations for multiple purposes

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Regional consortia

• Locally formed, interdependent
• Inclusive, voluntary, open
• State, local, federal, tribal, academic, private
  sector
• Expanded from existing collaborations

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Best practices

• Treat data as strategic, capital assets and
  public goods
• Collaborate and Coordinate
• Align roles, responsibilities and resources for
  data stewardship
• Organize Effective and Efficient Production and
  Stewardship of Data
• Pool and Leverage Investments

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Effective regional consortia

• Address Institutional Barriers
• Identify most effective ways to collect, maintain
  and distribute Data
• Determine business needs, inventory data assets,
  identify gaps, estimate investment cost
• Designate data stewards
• Develop Enterprise Plans for Data production and
  publication by the most appropriate partner at
  accuracy and scale needed by local jurisdictions

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Effective regional consortia

• Aid State/local participation in Geospatial
  One-Stop
• Work with OGC on cutting edge of technology
  (Semantic Translators and exchange schemas, Web
  Services)
• Help OMB and agencies in budget process
• Enable role, responsibility, resource alignment
• Provide, steward, and publish Americas Data
  Assets

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Treated together this comprises the NSDI
Partnerships
Partnerships
Discovery
Access
Processing
Clearinghouse (catalog)
Services
Metadata
Metadata
GEOdata
Framework
Standards
Standards
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Douglas Nebert

• Federal Geographic Data Committee Secretariat
• ddnebert_at_fgdc.gov
• http//www.fgdc.gov
• [phone]

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CAP Categories and the NSDI
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Metadata Implementation
Partnerships
Discovery
Access
Processing
Services
1
Metadata
Standards
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Metadata Outreach and Training
Partnerships
Discovery
Access
Processing
Services
2
Metadata
Standards
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Institution Building and Coordination
3
Partnerships
Discovery
Access
Processing
Services
Metadata
Standards
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Web Mapping
Partnerships
Discovery
Access
Processing
4
Services
Metadata
Standards
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Web Feature Service and Framework
Partnerships
Discovery
Access
Processing
5
Services
Metadata
Standards
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Participation in The National Map
6
Partnerships
Discovery
Access
Processing
Services
6
Metadata
6
Standards