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Geographic Information Infrastructure
National Geospatial Data Framework (NGDF) – The UK Model
Remit and Strategy
The Mission of the NGDF is to develop an over-arching framework to facilitate and encourage efficient linking, combining and widespread use of geospatial data which is fit for purpose. And that of the Management Board to enable the unlocking and improvement of geospatial information for the benefit of the citizen, business growth and good government The Strategic Plan, revised last year, sets out the strategic objectives, targets and deliverables. The strategic objectives fall into 5 groups
In contrast to some other SDI’s, NGDF is NOT a database, a set of basic data, or a government-driven initiative. It concentrates on creating an environment rather than a structure. Projects The majority of the work is conducted through two major projects. The first is the Metadata Project, and the second the UK Standard Geographic Base (UKSGB) Project. The Metadata Project has concentrated on setting up the Data Locator service, and populating it with metadata. The UKSGB Project is a more ambitious project that will seek eventually to define a standard set of geographical units for the UK. The service delivered from this project is called the Data Integrator. Both services are delivered through askGIraffe and are discussed below. askGIraffe – The Service NGDF delivers its services through askGIraffe. askGIraffe aims to become the first choice web-site to provide the gateway to geospatial information provided by the public and private sector across the UK. This gateway allows access to the Data Locator service and the Data Integrator service. askGIraffe Data Locator The provision of metadata has been on the agenda for many years. Government had a metadata service called SINES (Spatial INformation Enquiry Service) running with telephone enquiries in 1994. This was later extended to email and on-line searches. However, this was limited to government datasets, and considerable effort was expended to bring the metadata into one format. As a result it was not easily maintained. With the exponential growth in the use of the Internet and its adoption as a service within organisations (Intranets) a means is now available to use World Wide Web based search tools to locate sources of geospatial information. This increases the importance of providing standard methods for describing data that can be analysed by computer based systems. The askGIraffe Data Locator service exploits this technology. It provides a facility to search in a variety of different ways, through a map, through an index, through keywords or through a simple phrase. The information returned falls into broad categories; identification, subject matter, originator, access use and restrictions, time of capture, geographic extent and data supplier. From there you can either follow the hypertext links to the data provider’s web site or e-mail, or you can phone, fax or write to them to access the information. 
Fig 1: NGDF Gateway Metadata Infra Structure The askGIraffe Data Locator uses the NGDF Gateway Metadata Infrastructure that provides a national focus but enables local maintenance of the information (See Figure 1). |