Geospatial One-Stop
J. Milo Robinson
Federal Geographic Data Committee
590 National Center Reston, VA 20192
Abstract
Electronic government (e-government) is one of the five elements of the President’s
Management Agenda and Performance Plan, because it’s critical to meeting today’s
expectations for government. Geospatial Information One Stop is one of 24 Federal egovernment
initiatives. The vision of Geospatial One-Stop is “To spatially enable the
delivery of government services.” It builds upon the National Spatial Data Infrastructure
(NSDI). NSDI promotes sharing of geospatial data throughout all levels of government,
the private and non-profit sectors, and the academic community. Geospatial One-Stop is
will accelerate the implementation of the NSDI. This paper will present an overview of
the Geospatial One-Stop effort, a status report on the progress made to date and
highlights ways in which Geospatial Information Technology Association members, as
well as others, can participate in the initiative.
Introduction
As technology is increasingly becoming an important part of every day life, and as
everything is somewhere, we turn to electronic maps to help us get to where we are
going. If you are going to an unfamiliar location, do you use an Internet based map
service like MapQuest to help you? The fuel behind these services is geospatial data.
Unlike traditional fuel, geospatial data is not depleted when used in information engines,
but can be reused countless times. The key to this reuse and sharing of geospatial data is
standards. Like a log that doesn’t fit into a fireplace it must first be cut and split into the
right size, geospatial data must packaged and delivered in a well-known-way, with useful
well known content. The simple goal of Geospatial One-Stop is to establish a portal to
deliver basic geospatial data, framework data, over the Internet in a well-known-way
using a national framework data content standard.
This paper will describe the Geospatial Information One-Stop initiative and its current
status. It will provide background on the development of the initiative, the organizational
structure of the initiative, explain details on the five work modules, and lastly point out
opportunities for participation.
Background
There is a long history of mapping activities within the United States. The Department of
Interior has played a major role in the nation’s mapping. In particular, the U. S.
Geological Survey (USGS) has developed a topographic map series that covers the nation
and which contain an estimated 5.5 trillion bits of information. As computer information
technology has advanced, USGS has lead efforts to develop new concepts for mapping
that lead to the emergence of the NSDI and the Federal Geographic Data Committee
(FGDC).
Currently, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) provides policy guidance and
coordination for spatial data activities to Federal agencies through OMB Circular No. A-
16. Spatial data refers to information about places or geography, and has traditionally
been shown on maps. The Circular was first issued in 1953 and the third revision was
recently released in August 2002.
OMB Circular A-16 affirms and describes the NSDI as the technology, policies,
standards, human resources, and related activities necessary to acquire, process,
distribute, use, maintain, and preserve spatial data. The vision of NSDI is to assure that
spatial data from multiple sources (federal, state, local, and tribal governments, academia,
and the private sector) are available and easily integrated to enhance the understanding of
our physical and cultural world. The Circular establishes the FGDC as the interagency
coordinating body for NSDI-related activities. While much has been accomplished to
implement the NSDI, there is still much to be done to have current and accurate
geographic data readily available across the country.
Opportunities to advance NSDI through e-government are encouraged in Circular A-16.
The President’s Management agenda, announced in the summer of 2001, included
expanding e-government as one of the five government wide agenda items. Furthermore,
expanding e-government is a key enabler for many of the other Presidential initiatives.
Later that same summer, OMB created a task force to identify priorities for the egovernment
initiative. The task force identified 24 high-payoff e-government projects as
part of the action plan for e-government. The Geospatial Information One-Stop is one of
these projects and is included in the Government-to-Government (G2G) portfolio. The
Geospatial One-Stop will provide access to the Federal government’s spatial data at a
single location while helping to make other government held spatial data more accessible.
Geospatial Information One-Stop
In general terms, Geospatial One-Stop builds upon and accelerates the implementation of
the NSDI as expressed in OMB Circular A-16. More specifically the FGDC identified
five Geospatial One-Stop work modules for completion in an 18-24 month time frame.
The work modules or tasks consist of:
- Framework Standards Development
- Inventory and Document Existing Data
- Inventory and Document Planned Data Collection Activities
- Interoperable Web Services & Portal Design
- Portal Implementation
These modules build upon existing NSDI capabilities, while supporting one-stop access
to the Federal government’s geospatial data assets. Geospatial One-Stop is designed to
benefit all spatial data users including Federal, state, local, and other governments, as
well as private citizens, by providing a common, consistent source of geospatial data.
