Lectures 6 and 7
Spatial Data Infrastructures
Partnerships in Action
Longley et al.
Chapter 19
Partnerships = SDIs, Spatial Data Infrastructures
What is a National Spatial Data
Infrastructure?
“The technology, policies, standards, and
human resources necessary to acquire,
process, store, distribute, and improve
utilization of geospatial data.”
Source: Presidential Executive Order #12906 (1994):
“Co-ordinating Geographic Data Acquisition and
Access: The National Spatial Data Infrastructure”
W. Clinton.
Partnerships via NSDIs
The problem:
Too much data duplication = waste
Not enough data duplication = respond to emergencies
Ad hoc data sharing has many difficulties
Data often tailored to one application
Best data often collected in greatest detail at local level
but not accessible to regional or national folk
Indexes/metadata to available GI unknown until recently
No general protocols for any of this until NSDI…
Ground Zero site a few days
after 9/11; the New York City
Emergency Operations Center
had been located in the World
Trade Center complex and was
destroyed
(Courtesy James Tourtellotte/MAI/Landove LLC)
The depth of flooding in
New Orleans as a
consequence of Hurricane
Katrina on August 31, 2005
(Courtesy NOAA)
What does it mean in practice?
US NSDI
Defined standards (mandated on federal
agencies and encouraged for others)
Minimizing inconsistency
Clearinghouse – metadata descriptions of
existing data. Advertising what is available
National geospatial data framework - a
common “template” on which to assemble
other data
The US NSDI is composed of
Clearinghouse
Metadata
Partnerships
Geo data
Standards
The data provide a core...
Geographic/Geospatial Data
Categories of Geographic Data
Community-developed data sets
single purpose
potential re-use
common content specification
“Framework” data
Categories of Geographic Data
Framework Specialized
Framework Data
Federal
State
Local
Private
Utilities
Elevation and bathymetry
Hydrography
Geodetic
Cadastral
Railroads
Roads
Boundaries
Digital orthoimagery
Spatial Analysis
Base for Other Data
Finished Maps
Web Sites of the Week
Describing your data...
Metadata
Framework Specialized
Metadata: “nutritional” label for
GIS data sets
Internally - saves 4 hrs research 10 times a
year = (4x10x$50) = $2,000 (time it takes to
look up or contact someone for information
about a dataset)
External Questions
- refer 30 inquires/year
(1hr/inquiry) = (30x1x $50)=$1,500 (time it
takes to answer calls from people who want to
use the data or find out more about it)
Future reuse/enhancement - $5,000
to $25,000
Liability (lawyers, courts) - $$$$
The uses of metadata
Provides documentation of existing
internal geospatial data resources
within an organization (inventory)
 Permits structured search and
comparison of held spatial data by
others (advertising)
 Provides end-users with adequate
information to take the data and use it
in an appropriate context (liability)

Don’t follow
Don’t buy
Don’t
use
Never use
again…
from Bedard et al., U. of Laval
Making data discoverable...
Clearinghouse (catalog)
Metadata
Framework Specialized
Clearinghouse provides...
Discovery of spatial data
 Distributed search worldwide
 Uniform interface for spatial data
searches
 Advertising for your data holdings

Clearinghouse operates as...
Entry point to constellation of servers
 Collection of distributed servers, using
a common protocol (e.g., Z39.50)
 A virtual “Google” for geographic data

This is all “Clearinghouse”
Gateway
NOAA
Web
Client
Clearinghouse
“Nodes” or
Servers
Oregon
USGS
NMD
NGS
Consistent approaches...
Clearinghouse (catalog)
Metadata
Framework Specialized
Standards
Who builds standards?
ISO - Intl Standards Organization
 FGDC Standards working group in
partnership with . . .


FGDC Thematic subcommittees
Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)
 Concerned organizations
 Producers and users of geospatial data

Types of standards

Data content
— Common
classifications
— Common collection criteria

Data management
Metadata
Spatial Data Transfer Standard (SDTS)
Data transfer protocols (e.g., WMS)
Clearinghouse/Catalog & Standards
Important differences:
Data models, data structures (formats),
query languages, (syntactic)
meaning of terms in metadata, meaning
of values in data (semantic)
 E.g.:
 Metadata:
– Different metadata standards (ISO vs. FGDC)
– Different terms: ‘Seabed’ vs. ‘Seafloor’
‘Coastline’ vs. ‘Shoreline’
Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)
OGC Web Service:
OGC specification
Interface allowing requests for
geographic “resources” across the Web
using platform-independent calls
Main OGC services:
• Catalogue Service for the Web (CSW)
• Web Map Service (WMS)
• Web Feature Service (WFS)
• Web Coverage Service (WCS)
Catalog Services for the Web (CSW) Example
International Coastal Atlas Network (ICAN)
Connect individual coastal atlases to an integrated
global atlas
Global atlas
ican.science.oregonstate.edu
ican.ucc.ie
Local atlases
…
mida.ucc.ie
www.coastalatlas.net
Catalog Services for the Web (CSW) Example
ICAN CSW based on open source GeoNetwork
Geonetwork-opensource.org
“Seabed”
“Seafloor”
Atlas X
ISO Metadata
&
MIDA terminology
FGDC Metadata
&
OCA terminology
…
X Standard
&
X terminology
Next step for ICAN is WMS
Linking of terms in
metadata helps ultimate
link to data:
ICAN:Coastline
is similar to
OCA:Shoreline
CSW
WMS
WFS
CSW
WMS
WFS
CSW
…
WMS
X
WFS
Web Mapping Service (WMS) Example
DISMAR: Data Integration System for Marine Pollution and Water
Quality. More current projects at http://interrisk.nersc.no/
International Coastal Atlas Network
ican.science.oregonstate.edu
Partnerships
Clearinghouse (catalog)
Metadata
Framework GEOdata
Standards
Lots of people involved…
Federal government (many agencies)
State government
Local government
Private sector – contractors, value-adders,
exploiters
Not for profit organizations
Citizenry
Others…
No one is in charge…
Data.gov
INSPIRE – INfrastructure for SPatial
InfoRmation in Europe
www.inspire-geoportal.eu
The distribution of 3,325 ARGO drifters (buoys) in the world’s oceans at 0605 UTC
on March 22, 2009—the data from these buoys are updated in almost real time
from satellite observations. The ARGO project is a partnership of 44 countries.
Viewing of the ARGO data is facilitated by a GIS viewer.
Each drifter collects data on temperature and salinity to 2000 m depth, and their
movements indicate the direction and strength of ocean currents—important
information for predicting weather.
Web Sites of the Week
GEOSS – Global Earth Observation
System of Systems
A Global Spatial Data Infrastructure?
Difficult enough to get national players
to work together…
Is GSDI a process, a general framework
or a product?
Who are the stakeholders?
Who needs it? (military doing what they
need themselves?)
www.gsdi.org