February 6, 2001 FGDC Coordination Meeting Summary — Federal Geographic Data Committee

Host: Chris Clarke, Department of Agriculture

Introduction and Announcements - John Moeller

The 2001 NSDI Cooperative Agreements Funding Program is now open for submission of proposals. On-line information and application materials can be found at http://www.fgdc.gov/funding/cap2001.html. For more information contact David Painter at 703.648.5513 or dpainter@usgs.gov. Submission period closes March 15, 2001.

The NSDI Community Demonstration Projects report is now on-line at http://www.fgdc.gov/nsdi/docs/cdp/. This collaborative effort demonstrated the utility of geographic data for community decision-making and the role that Federal agencies can play in meeting community information needs. The report provides a summary of project efforts highlighting the challenges faced by the communities, their approaches to dealing with the challenges, lessons learned in the process, and presents recommendations for other organizations thinking of engaging in similar efforts.

Standards Recommendations for Public Review

Address Data Content Standard - Leslie Godwin, Fred Broome; Census
The Address Data Content Standard will provide semantic definitions for components integral to the creation, maintenance, sharing, usability, and exchange of addresses and/or address lists. Within this scope, addresses are broadly defined as locators to places where a person or organization may reside or receive communications, but excluding electronic communications.

Action: Approved 90-day public review period for the Address Data Content Standard.

Powerpoint presentation (43 KB)

Framework Transportation Identification Standard - Mark Bradford, Bruce Spear; DOT
Framework Transportation Identification Standard provides a logical data model for identifying unique road segments that are independent of cartographic or analytic network representation. These road segments will form the basis for maintenance of NSDI framework road data (through transactions or other means), and for establishing links among road segments and attribute data.

Action: Approved 120-day public review period for the Framework Transportation Identification Standard.

Framework Transportation Id Factsheet (2,747 KB PDF)

U.S. National Grid - Richard Hogan, DOI
The U.S. National Grid for Spatial Referencing Standard defines a United States National Grid (USNG) for use in spatial addressing type applications. It is intended to serve as a preferred system that is easier to use than latitude and longitude by the average citizen. It is intended for use in mapping at scales from approximately 1:5,000 to 1:1,000,000. Technically, it will be the same as the Military Grid Reference System (MGRS), taking advantage of that public domain system's use of the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) grid and truncation and variable precision features.

Action: Approve 90-day public review period for the U.S. National Grid standard.

Powerpoint presentation (69 KB)

Sustainable Forest Data Working Group - Paul Geissler, DOI
This working group is proposed to foster standardization and implementation of criteria and indicators of sustainability. Initial focus of this group will be on Montreal Process Criteria and Indicators for the Conservation and Management of Temperate and Boreal Forests. The working group charter was provided for review at the 1/9/01 CG meeting. Comments on the working group establishment, including changing the working group name, can be found in the attachment.

Action: Coordination Group approved establishment of the Sustainable Forest Data Working Group.

Action: Paul Geissler, chair of the Sustainable Forest Data Working Group will coordinate with Jeff Goebel, chair of the SIMNRE Working Group on merging the working groups and on addressing common issues and report back to the Coordination Group in two months.

The Sustainable Forest Data Working Group website can be found at http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/brd/sfd.htm and through the FGDC Working Group webpage http://www.fgdc.gov/fgdc/fgdcwg_org.html. Paul Geissler, DOI and Rich Guldin, DOA will be co-chairs.

Review and Comments on SFDWG establishment (26 KB Word Document).

OMB Circular A-16 Revision - Milo Robinson, Carl Zulick; FGDC
The current status of the OMB A-16 Circular revision was presented. Briefing included purpose of the revision, history of A-16 and description of differences between existing and revision documents. Concern was expressed about how the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) regulations on non-federal participation impact or relate to the FGDC and the A-16 Circular. It was suggested that a FACA waiver be sought but to keep separate from the A-16 revision process. It was also noted that state and other non-federal organizations recognize FGDC support of their participation, and that the actual reality of that participation needs to be improved.

Action: Carl Zulick will take lead to research language that would better facilitate a FACA wavier that maybe found in existing circulars and layout options that could be applied to the A-16 revision.

The consensus is that the A-16 revision should promote the broadest interagency participation in the FGDC and NSDI but that the A-16 process should be simple. Federal agency thematic responsibility and descriptions will be included in the appendices. It was noted that the number of themes have grown and that many overlap in thematic content definition.

Action: John Moeller will request A-16 participating agencies to identify and document their lead thematic responsibilities and describe (approximately 25 words per theme) those themes. This information will be incorporated into the A-16 revision.

Action: Carl Zulick and Milo Robinson will prepare final A-16 draft for the March 2001 Coordination Group Meeting.

Circular A-16 Revision, 6 February presentation (73 KB PPT)
A-16 Revision, Version 2/9/01 (196 KB Word Document)

Next Meetings:

FGDC Coordination Group

FGDC Steering Committee Meeting