The National Coal Mining
Geospatial Committee
(=NCMGC)
Who Does NCMGC represent?
Department of the Interior’s Office of Surface
Mining (=OSM)
Headquarters,
Regional offices (3), &
Field offices in coal producing regions of the US.
Coal producing states (23)
Native American tribes (5)
Coal producers
The public
Purpose of NCMGC
Promote development of geospatial
technology to support Surface Mining
Control and Reclamation Act (=SMCRA)
Help migration OSM’s Technical
Innovation & Professional Services
(=TIPS) users to enterprise GIS
Improve business processes
Benefits of NCMGC
Provide sound scientific information
Enhance analysis
Improve understanding
Better decision-making
Reduce risk
Meet requirements with available resources
Reduced budget
Limited personnel
Find qualified geospatial expertise
Share technological successes
Share government information resources
Compliance with federal data requirements
NCMGC Members
Interstate Mining Compact Commission
(=IMCC)  Larry Evans, WV
National Association of Abandoned Mine
Lands Program (=NAAMLP)  Doug Mullins,
VA
Western Interstate Energy Board (=WIEB) 
Rick Koehler, NM
OSM/Appalachian  Bill Card, TN (Chairman)
OSM/Mid-Continent  Len Meier, IL
OSM/Western  Alan Wilhelm, CO
OSM HQ  Vacant
History
May 4, 2005 – Office of Surface Mining
(=OSM) Director TIPS Steering Committee
approved creation of the NCMGC.
August 15, 2005 – 1st NCMGC teleconference
September 13, 2005 – 1st NCMGC meeting in
Denver
January 11 & 18, 2006 – OSM regional
managers briefed
February 28, 2006 – meeting in Santa Fe, NM
March 24, 2006 – Geospatial Questionnaire
released
Technical Support Group
Subject matter experts
Extension of committee
Advise committee on technical matters
Short term tasking
Cooperation among TSG members
promotes sharing of technology
Communicating about NCMGC
Internal website for committee
members
Operational
External website for public access
Web pages in draft, under review
Contained on TIPS website
(http://www.tips.osmre.gov)
FY 2006 Significant Activities
Support OSM MCR geospatial infrastructure
SMCRA Geospatial Technology
Development Questionnaire (issued
March 24, 2005)
National Meeting of SMCRA Geospatial Data
Stewards week of June 27-28, 2006
Microsoft SQL Server Training
Possible ESRI ArcSDE training at MidContinent Region
Prototype SMCRA geospatial infrastructure
Highlights of Questionnaire Results
42
38
38
13
28
29
33
responses from SMCRA organizations
geospatial data stewards identified
SMCRA organizations use GIS
do not use MS SQL Server or Oracle
do not use ArcSDE
do not share spatial data by Internet
do not have a written plan
Geospatial Data Stewards
Category
Alternate
No
Geospatial
Geospatial Geospatial
Data
Data
Data
Steward
Steward
Steward
Federal
8
1
1
State
27
3
3
Tribal
3
1
0
Coal Mining Data is a National Asset
Executive Order 12906
Public access to geospatial data  Sec. 3(c)
OMB Circular No. A-16
Themes of national significance Sec 2.b.(1) and
Appendix E
Applies to all agencies using geospatial data 
Sec 5.
Applies to all spatial activities funded with federal
funds  Sec 6.
Agency responsibilities and reporting  Sec 8.a.
Spatial data are subject to Exhibit 300  Sec 8.b.
Coal Mining Data Examples
Mining boundaries
Permit, critical earth fills, sediment basins,
haul roads, etc.
Geologic drill holes
Surface water monitoring locations
Ground water monitoring locations
Underground mining extents
Underground mine entry locations
Initial Coal Mining Datasets
Datasets common to SMCRA workers
Surface mining boundaries
Underground mining boundaries
Quick index to location of other coal
mining data
Geographic locator of potential impacts
Surface Mining Boundaries
Surface mining boundaries are polygons representing
the boundary of the permitted area of a surface coal
mining operation as described on the most recent
mining operations map contained in a coal mining
permit approved by the regulatory authority.
Each approved permit has a single record in a spatial
database of surface mining boundaries. Each record
in the spatial database identifies the permit number
of the surface coal mining operation and contains one
or more polygons identifying the areas for conducting
surface coal mining operations approved by the
regulatory authority.
Surface Mining Boundary
Underground Mining Boundary
Underground mining boundaries are polygons
representing the boundary of the underground mine
workings of an underground coal mining operation as
described on the best available mine workings maps.
Each mine has a single record in a spatial database of
underground mining extents. Each record in the
spatial database identifies the underground coal
mining operation and contains one or more polygons
identifying the areas of underground mine workings.
Underground Mining Boundary
The Problem …
How can TIPS users organizations
implementing GIS partner together more
effectively?
Time for a “geospatial collective”
mindset 
Citrix (terminal services)
Citrix is hugely successful in WVDEP.
Citrix can play an important role in a TIPS
GIS collective … here’s how
Some participating states or tribes will be
resource limited  Insufficient monies, not
enough staff.
How does Citrix
work?
Applications install
and run 100% on
server (A)
Only screens, mouse
clicks and
keystrokes
travel the network
(B)
Applications
accessed from
desktop PC or thin
clients (C)
B
C
A
Scaling Up to Include the Unchallenged
States
OSM’s Citrix servers would run ArcGIS
and host challenged States’ data.
Now let’s look at how TIPS users
deploying SDE/RDMS might work
collectively 
The TIPS GIS B-ORG
(= Broadband-Orchestrated
Regional Group)
one possible way to implement a
geospatial collective to deploy and
share national mining datasets
How Does B-ORG Work?
The hive provides
the ability to share
geospatial data
using broadband
access via SDE
servers
New SDE
servers can be
added to the
collective.
NM
SDE
NM LAN
Internet
Backbone
DEP LAN
DEP
SDE
How well does B-ORG work?
Test
Load/display County layer
Load/display Roads (TIGER)
Pan & redraw (~ 10 mile
extent)
Time in seconds
20
96
3-5
Select Roads in Kanawha
County
24
Export selected Roads to local
shapefile
27
WV B-ORG connection testing:
DEPuser (M. Shank) to RTI SDE server – Jan 17, 2006
Major benefits of operating as a
geospatial collective
Possible mining emergencies extending
across state boundaries
Will share a common national data structure
and map accuracy standard
• Saves time trying to combine dissimilar dataset
from adjoining states
All mining emergencies  eliminates
future poor spatial accuracy!
Major benefits of operating as a
geospatial collective (2)
Would allow new users of this new
national information resource
Federal  BLM, MSHA, etc.
State  Emergency response, WVMHS
Local  County, municipal.
Public  Speed up the permit review process,
check for mining below properties changing
hands, etc.
Others interested in sharing geospatial data
assets.
The TIPS Broadband-Orchestrated
Regional Group (B-ORG) ...
a collective of technologies
empowering ALL users with the
ability to access national coal mining
geospatial data far more efficiently.