Selected US Federal Government Efforts in Coastal and Marine Geospatial

Data Standards and Access

Tony LaVoiNOAA Coastal Services Center

Digital Atlas WorkshopUniversity College Cork

July 26, 2006

Presentation Goal and Outline

Objective: Workshop attendees will have an understanding of selected existing

and planned coastal and marine geospatial data sharing systems within the US

federal government

Existing Systems

– NOAA Coastal Services Center Overview and IMS Template

– National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) and Federal Geographic Data

Committee (FGDC)

– Geospatial One-Stop Data Portal

– National Ocean Service (NOS) Data Explorer

Planned Systems

– Ocean Action Plan Ocean Mapping Priorities

• Inventory of Ocean and Coastal Mapping Programs and Datasets

• Integrated Ocean Observing Systems Data Transport Methods

NOAA Coastal Services Center

Mission– Linking People, Information, and Technology in the

Coastal Zone

Customers and Partners = State and Local Coastal Managers

– Regulatory agencies

– GIS and remote sensing staff

– Planners

– Scientists

– Emergency preparedness

Primary Themes– Coastal Hazards

– Coastal Habitat

– Integrated Ocean Observing Systems

Annual Operating Plan– Approximately 125 projects per year

– 90% have local partner who sets requirements

Agency Funding– CSC funded through government appropriations

Primary Geospatial Products and Services

Data Development (private contract and in-house)• Coastal topography (IfSar and Lidar)

• Coastal landcover and change (Landsat-based)

• Coastal imagery (high res satellite, digital cameras)

• Benthic and Submerged Aquatic Vegetation

• Open licensing and data distribution

Application Development (ESRI and OpenSource)• Maintain 3-tier development architecture and testing lab

• Desktop and Internet; DSS and data distribution

Geospatial Standards• Active in multiple standards bodies (OGC, ISO, FGDC, FEA)

• Dual role – develop and promote standards

Training• Develop and teach full range of GIS (intro and intermediate),

Remote Sensing, GPS, and metadata courses

Grants• Competitive grant programs to fund state-level projects (CSC

support includes both $$$ and staff support [data, coding])

CSC Web Mapping Template

• CSC maintains approximately 50 IMS sites for a wide variety of purposes– Hurricane Tracks, Lidar Data Distribution, River Flood Modeling, Coastal Landcover

Change, Ocean Planning and Boundaries

• Decision made three years ago to move to a standard template for almost all IMS sites (except when requirements dictate otherwise)

• Template implementation uses ESRI ArcIMS HTML viewer– Emphasis on reusable and sharable code, new functionality is added regularly

– Reduces development time and costs + eases migration with new code releases

– Enhances user experience – learn CSC tools once, use on many sites

• Newest version in development provides the same look & feel and functionality but built on MapServer code base

– OpenSource solution

– MapServer is not as feature rich or scalable as ArcIMS

Presentation Outline

Existing Systems

– NOAA Coastal Services Center Overview and IMS Template

– National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) and

Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC)– Geospatial One-Stop Data Portal

– National Ocean Service (NOS) Data Explorer

Planned Systems

– Ocean Action Plan Ocean Mapping Priorities

• Inventory of Ocean and Coastal Mapping Programs and Datasets

• Integrated Ocean Observing Systems Data Transport Methods

FGDC and NSDI

• Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) is a 19-member interagency

committee, organized in 1990 under OMB Circular A-16, that promotes the

coordinated use, sharing, and dissemination of geospatial data on a national basis

– FGDC funded through Dept of Interior appropriations and in-kind support from others

• In 1994, Presidential Executive Order 12906 called for the nation’s development of

the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) (US component of Global NSDI)

– Current and accurate geospatial data will be readily available to contribute locally, nationally,

and globally to economic growth, environmental quality and stability, and social progress

• NSDI Components

– Clearinghouse - need to find and access data (now GOS)

– Metadata - need to know characteristics of data

– Framework - need for common sets of data

– Standards/Technology - need to transfer/integrate data

– Partnerships - need to leverage resources

• NSDI composed of 33 data themes of national significance

– Seven Framework Themes – e.g. geodetic control; transportation; hydrography; topography

– Marine and Coastal included – e.g. maritime baseline; marine boundaries; shoreline; bathymetry

FGDC and Marine and Coastal Data

Presentation Outline

Existing Systems

– NOAA Coastal Services Center Overview and IMS Template

– National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) and Federal

Geographic Data Committee (FGDC)

– Geospatial One-Stop Data Portal

– National Ocean Service (NOS) Data Explorer

Planned Systems

– Ocean Action Plan Ocean Mapping Priorities

• Inventory of Ocean and Coastal Mapping Programs and Datasets

• Integrated Ocean Observing Systems Data Transport Methods

Geospatial One-Stop (GOS)

What is it?– One of 24 E-GOV projects initiated to enhance federal government service

delivery (only geospatial project)

– GOS Goal – provide single point of access for all federal (and some state and private) geospatial data sets

– All FGDC member agencies required to participate and fund project (cash and in-kind resources) – operating budget of ~$3.0M + agency in-kind support

– Managed by one federal agency (Department of Interior) but overseen by 8-member Board of Directors (4 Federal representatives and 4 non-Federal)

– Site organized around Communities (Data and Special Topics)

Technical Implementation– Site developed and managed by ESRI with

Google (enhanced searching) and IBM (portlets)

– System driven by FGDC metadata records (125K)

– Components include search interface, IMS tool, communities, geospatial marketplace, metadata development tools

GOS – How it Works

Main Navigation Tabs

Communities

Google Search

GOS – How it Works

Result OptionsView SummaryFull MetadataAdd to MapGo to Web site

Perspectives on GOS

Positives

– Participation by all federal agencies (some more than others)

– Stable funding and support (agencies are taxed and required to

provide in-kind support)

– Dedicated GOS project office and staff

– Strong private sector involvement (ESRI, Google, IBM)

– Diverse Board of Directors Structure

Negatives

– Searching results need to be refined to prioritize ‘best’ datasets

• Too much information given current searching algorithms

– Automated metadata harvesting never realized (manual process)

– Need to provide site usage (amount and profile) to partner agencies

– No data delivered via site – links to data provider

– GOS Marketplace has not met initial goals

Presentation Outline

Existing Systems

– NOAA Coastal Services Center Overview and IMS Template

– National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) and Federal

Geographic Data Committee (FGDC)

– Geospatial One-Stop Data Portal

– National Ocean Service (NOS) Data Explorer

Planned Systems

– Ocean Action Plan Ocean Mapping Priorities

• Inventory of Ocean and Coastal Mapping Programs and Datasets

• Integrated Ocean Observing Systems Data Transport Methods

• NOAA\National Ocean Service creates many of the key US coastal datasets

– Geodetic control– Nautical Charts - ENCs– Shoreline– Bathymetry– Marine boundaries– Environmental Sensitivity Index– Coastal Hazards– Tides and Water Levels

• Prior to Data Explorer, users must navigate multiple sites to find data

• Variety of data delivery approaches

• No single interface for previewing composite data at one location

• Complexity of discovery and delivery

NOS Data Explorer - Why Build It?

Data Explorer Basics and Roles

Data Explorer Basics

– Goal - centralized searching and delivery of datasets and metadata from multiple NOS program offices from one Internet site

– Does not replace existing program office data access sites or require any substantial additional work from them (do no harm + add no burden)

– Connectivity provided through open standards (OpenGIS, XML, TCP/IP, HTTP)

– Hosts 75 unique data layers and 350+ unique metadata records

– Governance – core developer team and program office representatives

– Funded via support of key program offices doing DE development (three offices)

What does the Data Explorer core site hold?

– Metadata records from program offices

– Inventory files or “footprints” for each dataset

– Inventory of “services” – how to connect to each dataset

What do the program offices maintain?

– Keep metadata and footprint inventory up to date

– Store all data and provide access via database connection, ArcIMS, OGC service, or FTP files

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Existing Agency Data Access Interfaces

Consistent Interfaces

Application Framework TierData Access Interface “Adaptors”

NauticalCharts

GeodeticControl

Tides & Water

Shore-line

Corals

Agency Data Holdings Repository

DataExplorerPortal

Technologies and Framework

Software– ESRI ArcIMS – Map image and data stream construction

– ESRI ArcSDE – Broker inventory and portal knowledge repository

– JSP/JSTL – Web-UI construction, system flow control and error handling

– JDBC – data source connectivity

Technologies– Client: HTML,

JavaScript

– Application: Java, XML

– Database: SQL Server & office specific access

Data Explorer Front Page

Site OptionsData by TopicsData Web SitesTools and ResourcesSearch for Data

Data Explorer – How it Works

Search OptionsBy GeographyBy KeywordCombination

Data Explorer – How it Works

Data Exploration OptionsView MetadataVisit Data Web SiteGet Data

Data Explorer – How it Works

Final StepsEnter email addressDE clips datasets from all host sitesDatasets and metadata zipped into one packageNotification emailed to user when readyResultant zip package resides on site for 72 hoursSearch parameters maintained in case needed

Add additional data to same geography

Perspectives on Data Explorer

Positives– Good participation across all program offices

– True access to distributed datasets across multiple offices

– Code sharing and building networks among software developers

– Model for NOAA-wide implementation

Negatives– Need more ownership from program offices

– Legacy systems caused data access difficulties and required specialized coding to implement system

– Scaling and hardening of site needed (buried during Hurricane Katrina)

– Not enough done with marketing of site to date (25K unique visits per month average)

Presentation Outline

Existing Systems

– NOAA Coastal Services Center Overview and IMS Template

– National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) and Federal Geographic

Data Committee (FGDC)

– Geospatial One-Stop Data Portal

– National Ocean Service (NOS) Data Explorer

Planned Systems

– Ocean Action Plan Ocean Mapping Priorities

• Inventory of Ocean and Coastal Mapping Programs and

Datasets

• Integrated Ocean Observing Systems Data Transport

Methods

Future Directions for Coastal and Marine Data Access

External Drivers for Mapping• National Research Council Coastal Mapping and Charting

Study (2004)– Study suggests the FGDC Marine & Coastal Spatial Data SC pursue

shoreline coordination and coastal and ocean data access

• U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy (2004-05)– Recommendation “The Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC)

should coordinate federal ocean and coastal mapping and charting activities with the goal of creating standardized, easily accessible national maps”

• U.S. Ocean Action Plan (2005-06)– Recommendation to “Coordinate Ocean and Coastal Mapping

Activities”

External Drivers for Integrated Ocean Observing Systems• U.S. Ocean Action Plan (2005-06)

– Multiple recommendations on need to develop robust data transport technologies and methodologies for ocean and coastal observing systems

OAP Integrated Ocean & Coastal Mapping Inventory

• Federal Interagency Working Group on Ocean & Coastal Mapping formed

• Tasked with “development of an annual inventory of Federal, Federally-

funded, and non-Federal government ocean and coastal mapping and

charting programs, operations, and prioritized needs”

• No directed funding support from Administration

• Currently in requirements development phase

– Must be based on FGDC-compliant metadata

– Must be accessible via Geospatial One-Stop portal

– Must be easy to use and update

– Must have query capability

• Initial Thoughts on Products

– Online Web form to capture programmatic and data set level information (metadata)

– Web-based tools to search and access metadata records (both existing & planned)

– Web mapping interface to display existing data sets and planned data acquisition

IOOS Data Management and Communications

• Increased efforts in coordinating data

transport for ocean observing systems

• Opportunity to bring together common

geospatial datasets (Coastal Atlases)

with observing system data streams

• Initial focus on a suite of tools and

methodologies including OGC

Services, OpenSource tools, and COTS

software

– NetCDF

– OPeNDAP

– MapServer

– XML/GML

– ArcIMS

– Vocabularies and Ontologies

– Metadata

Presentation URLs

NOAA Coastal Services Center: www.csc.noaa.gov

Federal Geographic Data Committee: www.fgdc.gov

FGDC Marine & Coastal Spatial Data Subcommittee: www.csc.noaa.gov/mcsd

FGDC Marine Boundary Working Group: www.csc.noaa.gov/mbwg

Geospatial One-Stop: www.geodata.gov

NOS Data Explorer: www.nos.noaa.gov/dataexplorer

US Ocean Action Plan: ocean.ceq.gov/actionplan.pdf

Ocean.US Community Information Repository: www.ocean.us/cir

Coastal GeoTools ’07 Conference (March 2007): www.csc.noaa.gov/geotools

Contact Information:Tony LaVoiNOAA Coastal Services CenterCharleston, South CarolinaTony.Lavoi@noaa.gov