Subcommittee on Bathymetric and Nautical Charting Data 1998 Annual Accomplishments Report

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The Federal Geographic Data Committee's Subcommittee on Bathymetric and Nautical Charting Data’s primary mission is to develop and promote that aspect of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) that supports the marine navigation and coastal zone geographic information system (GIS) community through the development of data, metadata, standards, data exchange agreements, and data quality issues. The subcommittee supports the overall goals and missions of the FGDC by participating on several working groups and subcommittees that have an interest in coastal and marine geographic data issues. The Subcommittee is an active member of the Standards Working Group and the Framework Working Group.

The subcommittee meets formally approximately twice a year in the Washington, D.C. area. Additionally, the subcommittee sponsors a number of community meetings and outreach workshops throughout the country during the year. To enhance communications, the subcommittee has a home page on the World Wide Web at the following URL http://chartmaker.ncd.noaa.gov/ocs/text/bathy.htm.

Significant 1998 Accomplishments:

Goal One: Increase the awareness and understanding of the vision, concept, and benefits of the NSDI through outreach and education.

Members of the Bathymetric Subcommittee hosted, conducted, or participated in outreach meetings and workshops with the coastal and ocean community. This has taken various forms including teaching hands-on metadata classes target at this community, presenting workshops and seminars on metadata, publishing papers on coastal data within the NSDI, and facilitating community involvement in the NSDI.

A few selected highlights of the committee participation are:

  1. Held a two-day metadata workshop for coastal data providers in Anchorage Alaska.
  2. Hosted a three-day metadata training class for National Estuarine Research Reserve Staff.
  3. Presented a metadata overview to the Coastal Georgia GIS User’s Group.
  4. Presented three papers at the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA) Annual conference on topics related to coastal data within the NSDI.
  5. Presented one paper at the Coastal Society in July 1998 in Williamsburg, VA. On NSDI related topics.
  6. Presented a session on coastal data accuracy at the International Symposium on Marine Positioning in December 1998.
  7. Published a Special Issue in September 1998 for the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping in the Surveying and Land Information Systems Journal. The Special Content Title was - Coastal Zone GIS - and many of the articles specifically promoted the NSDI.
  8. Hosted an internal NOAA meeting in November 1998 to discuss agency wide compliance with NSDI with respects to shoreline data.
  9. Developed a Shoreline Homepage to support the development of the Shoreline Data Content Standard. URL: http://www.csc.noaa.gov/shoreline/
  10. Conducted semi-annual Bathymetric Subcommittee meeting on May 1998. December meeting was not held due to extended illness of Subcommittee Executive Secretary.

Goal Two: Develop common solutions for discovery, access, and use of geographic data in response to the needs of diverse communities

  1. Continued to support data conversion, digitizing, formatting, and data quality efforts for coastal zone GIS data -- especially shoreline and bathymetric data.
  2. Continued to work on a "profile" to the FGDC metadata standard to support information necessary for hydrographic and bathymetric data
  3. Support for the NSDI clearinghouse effort through the extension of the bathymetric homepage to include search procedures to help locate coastal data held by NOAA and other federal agencies.
  4. Provided technical assistance to affected agencies and offices to implement the FGDC metadata standard.
  5. Supported state efforts to develop coastal and ocean data within the NSDI.
  6. Marketed the NSDI to the state with respect to coastal and ocean data.
  7. Assisted state and local FGDC C-CAP, Clearinghouse, and Framework grant recipients with data issues relative to the coastal zone.
  8. Contributed $150, 000 to the FGDC Program in order to increase the available funds for coastal and ocean projects.

    9. Goal Three: Use community-based approaches to develop and maintain common collections of geospatial data for sound decision making

     

    1. Continued to assist the Tri Services CADD/GIS center to complete the integrated feature registry for the data objects and attributes related to marine area using the S-57 standard.
    2. Develop a plan for the NSDI shoreline data layer as part of the FGDC NSDI framework data.
    3. Developed the FGDC Shoreline Data Standard, which will be available for Public Review in early 1999.

     

    Goal Four: Build Relationships among organizations to support the continuing development of the NSDI:

    1. Participated as government representative in two research teams of the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS) at the June 1998 Annual Assembly. The teams were Spatial Information Infrastructure and Interoperability. In both cases, the NSDI was highlighted.
    2. Worked with members of the private sector, GIS vendors on issues relating to shoreline and bathymetric data.
    3. Continued to assist the NIMA IPT and HYSAS as necessary working with the Open Geospatial Data Foundation and other efforts.
    4. Worked with state, county, and local organizations that are developing NSDI coastal framework data and implementing standards. Established an EMAIL directory of approximately 200 GIS experts working in the coastal zone.
    5. Participated in the National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC) meetings to support the interaction of the state geographic councils in the development of coastal and ocean data.
    6. Conducted a special session on the shoreline data and the Shoreline Data Standard at the ASPRPS. Session name: Community Perspective on a Proposed National Shoreline Standard.