The vast majority of Federal Government business is
associated with a place and thus a sizable amount of data generated or
used by government staff and partners have a geospatial component.
These data when used in tandem with geospatial information systems
provide a critical tool to people who solve problems associated with
implementing Federal agency and partner missions. Ensuring this data is
accessible and of sufficient quality to meet the needs of these
programs is essential if programmatic objectives are to be fully
met.
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A–16 provides
management directions to Federal agencies that produce, maintain, or
use spatial data either directly or indirectly in the fulfillment of
their mission. The circular also provides processes for agencies that
if followed improve the coordination and use of spatial data. This
includes effective and economical use and management of spatial data
assets in the digital environment. The circular directs the
establishment of a National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) for the
benefit of the Nation and launches the Federal Geographic Data
Committee (FGDC) to facilitate its development.
The OMB Circular A–16 Supplemental Guidance, released November 10,
2010, further defines and clarifies implementation of OMB Circular
A–16. It also elucidates a process to modify Circular A–16 Appendix E
themes and associated datasets to reflect the current business of
Federal agencies and their partners. The objective of this coordinated
Federal-wide geospatial asset management is to increase the
effectiveness of geospatial data and associated services in supporting
mission-critical business requirements of the Federal Government and
its stakeholders.
Geospatial data is described for the first time in the Supplemental
Guidance as a capital asset, and its importance to the success of
Federal Government and partner programs is emphasized. This focus
provides the foundation for a portfolio management approach for Federal
geospatial datasets of National Significance—a National Geospatial Data
Asset (NGDA) portfolio called for by OMB in fiscal year 2011 budget
guidance. All NGDAs are associated with a National Geospatial Data
Asset Theme. These Themes serve as the management units for collections
of related NGDAs that would benefit from coordinated development and
management.
| National Geospatial Data Asset (NGDA) Theme Selection
Principles Principle 1: Themes and associated Datasets are logical groupings of national capital assets serving the needs of citizens and are readily discoverable and accessible to anyone. Principle 2: Themes and associated Datasets are national in scope and are created and managed in response to well-defined spatial data requirements that are common across multiple Federal agencies and other organizations. Principle 3: Themes and associated Datasets reflect legislated mandates, clearly defined directives, or core spatial reference datasets. Principle 4: Themes promote cohesive and collaborative development, maintenance, and evolution of multiple Datasets across Federal, State, Tribal, and local governments and the private or nonprofit sectors. Principle 5: Themes focus on the spatial representation of natural and manmade assets that are important to the Nation, including boundaries (jurisdictional, legal, statistical, and analytical). |
Management elements clarified by the Supplemental Guidance
to aid this portfolio management approach include: the geospatial data
life-cycle management approach, portfolio management roles and
responsibilities, the process for updating themes, and an outline of
the portfolio management investment strategy. The Supplemental Guidance
and its five reference documents, which provide further details and
information about implementing the portfolio management and the
Supplemental Guidance, are available on the FGDC website (www.fgdc.gov/policyandplanning/a-16).
In February 2013, the FGDC Steering Committee endorsed the revised
version of the A–16 National Geospatial Data Asset (NGDA) Data Themes
and Theme Lead Agencies list. This endorsement revises the earliest
list that was approved by the Steering Committee in 2011.
The FGDC Coordination Group continues identification of datasets
associated with each NGDA Theme and identification of the NGDA Theme
lead agencies, NGDA Theme Executive Champions, and Theme
Leads.
| Evolution of Data Themes Appendix E of OMB Circular A–16 identified 34 Data Themes. During the development of the OMB Supplemental Guidance it was observed that many of the Themes were actually individual datasets that would more appropriately be grouped as collections under a streamlined set of Themes. The Themes were consolidated into 16 Themes that were approved by the FGDC Steering Committee in 2013. The purpose of the consolidation was threefold: to develop an NGDA Theme and Dataset structure for portfolio management that enables more efficient management and reporting, to ensure that all relevant Datasets associated with a particular Theme effectively support the business processes reliant on them, and to ensure the Datasets are produced in the most cost-effective manner. As the portfolio management process matures the NGDA Themes and Datasets will continue to evolve. |
Number of NGDA Datasets by agency, as of August 9, 2013.
NGDA Datasets by Theme as of August 9, 2013.
Below are the NGDA Themes that are the organizational constructs grouping and managing the NGDA Datasets. The list of the over 200 NGDA Datasets is available on the FGDC website (www.fgdc.gov/initiatives/portfolio-management).
Theme: Biota
Theme Lead Agency: U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey
Description/Scope of Datasets: Pertains to, or describes, the dynamic processes, interactions, distributions, and relationships between and among organisms and their environments.
Theme: Cadastre
Theme Lead Agency: U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management
Description/Scope of Datasets: Past, current, and future rights and interests in real property including the spatial information necessary to describe geographic extents. Rights and interests are benefits or enjoyment in real property that can be conveyed, transferred, or otherwise allocated to another for economic remuneration. Rights and interests are recorded in land record documents. The spatial information necessary to describe geographic extents includes surveys and legal description frameworks, such as the Public Land Survey System, as well as parcel-by-parcel surveys and descriptions. Does not include Federal government or military facilities.
Theme: Climate and Weather
Theme Lead Agency: U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Description/Scope of Datasets: Meteorological conditions, including temperature, precipitation, and wind that characteristically prevail in a particular region over a long period of time. Weather is the state of the atmosphere at a given time and place, with respect to variables such as temperature, moisture, wind velocity, and barometric pressure.
Theme: Cultural Resources
Theme Lead Agency: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
Description/Scope of Datasets: Features and characteristics of a collection of places of significance in history, architecture, engineering, or society. Includes National Monuments and Icons.
Theme: Elevation
Proposed Theme Lead Agency: Co-Leads: U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Description/Scope of Datasets: The measured vertical position of the earth surface and other landscape or bathymetric features relative to a reference datum typically related to sea level. These points normally describe bare earth positions but may also describe the top surface of buildings and other objects, vegetation structure, or submerged objects. Elevation data can be stored as a three-dimensional array or as a continuous surface such as a raster, triangulated irregular network, or contours. Elevation data may also be represented in other derivative forms such as slope, aspect, ridge and drainage lines, and shaded relief.
Theme: Geodetic Control
Theme Lead Agency: U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Description/Scope of Datasets: Survey control points or other related data sets which are accurately tied to the National Spatial Reference System (the official, common federal system for establishing coordinates for geospatial data that are consistent nationwide). Geodetic control examples include: passive geodetic control marks, active geodetic observing systems, data from Global Navigation Satellite Systems (e.g., GPS), gravity measurements, and models of the earth’s gravity field (geoid).
Theme: Geology
Theme Lead Agency: Co-Leads: U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
Description/Scope of Datasets: Geographically referenced data pertaining to the origin, history, composition, structure, features, and processes of the solid Earth, both onshore and offshore. Includes geologic, geophysical, and geochemical maps, stratigraphy, paleontology, geochronology, mineral and energy resources, and natural hazards such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, coastal erosion, and landslides. Does not include soils.
Theme: Governmental Units and Administrative and Statistical Boundaries
Theme Lead Agency: U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S.
Census Bureau
Description/Scope of Datasets: Boundaries that delineate geographic areas for uses such as governance and the general provision of services (e.g. States, American Indian reservations, counties, cities, towns, etc.), administration and/or for a specific purpose (e.g. Congressional Districts, school districts, fire districts, Alaska Native Regional Corporations, etc.), and/or provision of statistical data (census tracts, census blocks, metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas, etc.). Boundaries for these various types of geographic areas are either defined through a documented legal description or through criteria and guidelines. Other boundaries may include international limits, those of federal land ownership, the extent of administrative regions for various federal agencies, as well as the jurisdictional offshore limits of U.S. sovereignty. Boundaries associated solely with natural resources and/or cultural entities are excluded from this theme and are included in the appropriate subject themes.
Theme: Imagery
Theme Lead Agency: Co-Leads: U.S. Department of
Agriculture, Farm Service Agency and U.S. Department of the Interior,
U.S. Geological Survey
Description/Scope of Datasets: Georeferenced images of the Earth’s surface, which have been collected via aerial photography or satellite data. Orthoimagery is prepared through a geometric correction process known as orthorectification to remove image displacements due to relief and sensor characteristics, allowing their use as base maps for digital mapping and analyses in a GIS. Specific imagery datasets created through image interpretation and classification, such as a land cover image, can be found under Themes specific to the subject matter. Includes imagery such as Landsat, National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP), Digital Orthophoto Quarter Quadrangles (DOQQs).
Theme: Land Use—Land Cover
Theme Lead Agency: Co-Leads: U.S. Department of
Agriculture, U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Department of the Interior,
U.S. Geological Survey
Description/Scope of Datasets: LU/LC is a term referring collectively to natural and man-made surface features that cover the land (Land Cover) and to the primary ways in which land cover is used by humans (Land Use). Examples of Land Cover may be grass, asphalt, trees, bare ground, water, etc. Examples of Land Use may be urban, agricultural, ranges, and forest areas.
Theme: Real Property
Theme Lead Agency: General Services
Administration
Description/Scope of Datasets: The spatial representation (location) of real property entities typically consist of one or more of the following: unimproved land, a building, a structure, site improvements, and the underlying land. Complex real property entities (that is, “facilities”) are used for a broad spectrum of functions or missions. This theme focuses on the spatial representation of real property assets only and does not seek to describe special purpose functions of real property, such as those found in the Cultural Resources, Transportation, or Utilities Themes.
Theme: Soils
Theme Lead Agency: U.S. Department of Agriculture,
Natural Resources Conservation Service
Description/Scope of Datasets: Depicts the geography and attributes of the many kinds of soils found in the landscape at both large and small map scales. A living, dynamic resource providing a natural medium for plant growth and habitat for living organisms, soil recycles nutrients and wastes, stores carbon, and purifies water supplies. Soil has distinct layers (called ‘horizons’) that, in contrast to underlying geologic material, are altered by the interactions of climate, landscape features, and living organisms over time. For more information on Soils, see soils.usda.gov.
Theme: Transportation
Theme Lead Agency: U.S. Department of
Transportation
Description/Scope of Datasets: Means and aids for conveying persons and/or goods. The transportation system includes both physical and non-physical components related to all modes of travel that allow the movement of goods and people between locations.
Theme: Utilities
Theme Lead Agency: Offshore Utilities: U.S.
Department of the Interior, Bureau of Safety and Environmental
Enforcement and Terrestrial Utilities: Lead to be determined.
Description/Scope of Datasets: Means, aids, and usage of facilities for producing, conveying, distributing, processing or disposing of public and private commodities including power, energy, communications, natural gas, and water. Includes sub themes for Energy, Drinking water and Water treatment, and Communications.
Theme: Water — Inland
Theme Lead Agency: Co-Leads: U.S. Department of the
Interior, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Department of the
Interior, U.S. Geological Survey
Description/Scope of Datasets: Interior hydrologic features and characteristics, including classification, measurements, location, and extent. Includes aquifers, watersheds, wetlands, navigation, water quality, water quantity, and groundwater information.
Theme: Water — Oceans and Coasts
Proposed Theme Lead Agency: U.S. Department of the
Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Description/Scope of Datasets: Features and characteristics of salt water bodies (i.e., tides, tidal waves, coastal information, reefs) and features and characteristics that represent the intersection of the land with the water surface (i.e., shorelines), the lines from which the territorial sea and other maritime zones are measured (i.e., baseline maritime) and lands covered by water at any stage of the tide (i.e., Outer Continental Shelf), as distinguished from tidelands, which are attached to the mainland or an island and cover and uncover with the tide.
| Surface Waters and Wetlands Inventory: A More Comprehensive
Dataset of the Nation’s Water Resources Often referred to as version 2.0 of the National Wetlands Inventory, the Surface Waters and Wetlands (SWI) dataset provides more inclusive geospatial data of all wetlands and surface water features. This national geospatial data product will contribute substantially to improved modeling of flow and water movement in surface water basins, channels, and wetlands. The SWI dataset is a more comprehensive characterization of all surface water features on the landscape. It stems from the need to represent all surface waters and wetlands as polygons in a geospatial dataset to facilitate accurate area calculations and provide consistent, standardized ecological classification to allow for adaptive management, geospatial summaries, and modeling. The SWI has been created by retaining the wetland and deepwater polygons that compose the NWI digital wetlands spatial data layer and reintroducing any linear wetland or surface water features that were orphaned from the original NWI hard copy maps by converting them to narrow polygonal features. Additionally, the data are supplemented with hydrography data, buffered to become polygonal features, as a secondary source for any single-line stream features not mapped by the NWI and to complete segmented connections. Due in part to how wetlands were mapped in the past, coupled with improved geospatial processing techniques, the SWI dataset is a departure from the legacy NWI data in several ways. The SWI depicts all surface water and wetland features in a single database; it applies the FGDC Classification of Wetlands and Deepwater Habitats (Cowardin and others (1979), www.fws.gov/wetlands/Documents/classwet/index.html) system to provide consistent ecological descriptors intended to address wetlands and water bodies; and it imparts new and improved information about wetland extent and hydrologic connectivity. There are many opportunities to apply SWI data to assist in resource management, planning, and strategic habitat conservation efforts. Applications include various geospatial analyses, tracing contaminant pathways through aquatic systems, identifying and prioritizing habitat restoration opportunities, examining continuity or dissection of habitat corridors, quantifying aquatic and wetland resource types, and facilitating ecological modeling. Additional information is available at www.fws.gov/wetlands/. |
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Appendix C