Spatial Data Taxonomy
Pam Keller
Bureau of Land Management
March 2011
SDT is a comprehensive framework for
organizing and standardizing geospatial data.
Photo credits-Bureau of Land Management, Burns District Office, Mark Armstrong & others
Fencing
Recreation
Sites
Watershed
Climate
Wildfire
Chemical
Treatment
County
Vegetation
Land
Status
Prescribed
Fire
Wilderness
Urban
Zoning
Cultural
Sites
Plant
Survey
Harvest
Fauna
Water
Sampling
Roads
Geology
Energy
Potential
Recreation
GIS
Fuels GIS
Realty GIS
Timber GIS
Range GIS
Wildfire
Land
Status
Harvest
Vegetation
Recreation
Sites
Water
Sampling
Prescribed
Fire
County
Fencing
Wilderness
Watershed
Roads
Urban
Zoning
Chemical
Treatment
Land
Status
Fauna
Cultural
Sites
Water GIS
Climate
Fuels GIS
Wildfire
Prescribed
Fire
Realty GIS
Land
Status
Wilderness
Timber GIS
Harvest
Chemical
Treatment
Range GIS
Vegetation
Recreation
GIS
Recreation
Sites
Watershed
Water GIS
Vegetation
Watershed
Fauna
Vegetation
County
Water
Sampling
Climate
Watershed
Wilderness
Energy
Potential
Fencing
Roads
Roads
Fencing
Climate
Chemical
Treatment
Harvest
Urban
Zoning
Climate
Urban
Zoning
Recreation
Sites
Cultural
Sites
Water
Sampling
Roads
Cultural
Sites
Land
Status
Water
Sampling
Prescribed
Fire
Chemical
Treatment
Land
Status
Roads
Chemical
Treatment
Design Flaws
• Perspective too narrow—designing for current
data and uses
• Complex data structures, hard to maintain
• Software dependent, not robust over time
SDT Design Principles
• Well-defined and understood data
• Holistic organization
• Store once, use many
• Simplify
Philosophy behind the SDT
What is a taxonomy?
A system for describing and representing similarity
of properties, behaviors, relationships and
constraints within a particular domain (group).
• What is spatial data? Both the location & data
about the location.
• What is geography? Study of the earth & its
lands, features, inhabitants & phenomena.
• Branches of geography
– Human geography
– Physical geography
– Environmental geography
Translate to high-level categories of the SDT
SDT
Resources
Boundaries
Activities
Physical Geography
Human Geography
Human Geography
Environmental Geography
SDT Domain is Natural Resources
And their Management
Philosophy of Categorizing Data
• Haecceity: discrete, unique properties, the
‘essence’ of a particular thing (John Duns Scotus)
• Quiddity: universal, shared qualities, the ‘whatness’
of a thing
• Somewhat like species and genus (Aristotle)
• Essence is the set of attributes that make an object
what it is, without which it loses it’s identity (Leibniz)
• Ontology: formal representation of knowledge by a set
of concepts within a domain (Heidegger)
• These concepts are important in identifying the
lowest level of SDT, the elemental,atomic entities
The Essence of Data Entities in SDT
•
•
•
•
•
What – inherent rather than interpreted or derived
What -- rather than who, how, when , why
What -- the definition of a thing
What -- inclusivity and mutual exclusivity
What – includes the characteristics that make it a
particular thing and those that it shares
Drives the SDT structure & feature classes
Fencing
Recreation
Sites
Watershed
Climate
Wildfire
Chemical
Treatment
Vegetation
Land
Status
Prescribed
Fire
Wilderness
Cultural
Sites
County
Urban
Zoning
Plant
Survey
Harvest
Fauna
Water
Sampling
Roads
Geology
Energy
Potential
Resources
Vegetation
Climate
GIS
Activities
Boundaries
Chemical
County
Harvest
Energy
Potential
Wilderness
Prescribed
Fire
Watershed
Land Status
Roads
Cultural
Sites
Recreation
Sites
Fencing
Wildfire
Urban
Zoning
Fauna
Water
Sampling
SDT Overview
Three categories at the highest level.
Resources : physically existing raw materials of
natural resource management.
Activities: human activities (physically manifested)
associated with natural resources.
Boundaries: human constructs (concept or
description) with no physical existence, bounding
areas of regulation/restriction on resource
management.
Vertical/Inherited Relationships
Resources
Species
Occurrence
Landscape
Cover
Potential
Resource
Activities
Treatments
Political
Structures
Administrative
Survey
Planning
Designations
Water
Sampling
Climate
Terrain
Boundaries
Land Status
Other inherent data qualities
•
•
•
•
•
Basic who/how/when/why attributes
Spatial characteristics
Creation and use of the data
Update frequency (dynamic vs static)
Accuracy needs
Similarities group naturally within the SDT hierarchy
and already defined atomic entities
Horizontal Relationships:
Cause&Effect
Interdependence
“Business Cases”
Activities take place on, in
or with Resources
inside some Boundary
Horizontal Relationships between Feature Classes
Species
Occurrence:
Survey ID
Sample ID
Survey:
Survey ID
Sampling:
Sample ID
Treatments:
Trtmt ID
Plan ID
Planning
Area:
Plan ID
Special
Designation
Area:
Plan ID
Landscape
Cover:
Current Veg
Sample ID
Structures:
Trtmt ID
Plan ID
Relationships between Feature Classes
and External Databases
Resources
Activities
Boundaries
Species
Occurrence
Landscape
Cover
Potential
Resource
Treatments
Political
Structures
Administrative
Survey
Planning
Designations
Water
Sampling
Climate
Terrain
Land Status
Basic - Detailed
Relationship
Master -- Derived Relationships
Species
Occurrence
Weeds
Treatments
Chemical
Overlay of Weeds Chemically
treated in County X on BLM.
County X
Political
Boundaries
BLM Surface
Jurisdiction
Land Status
Example Implementation: OR/WA BLM
• Called the Oregon Data Framework, ODF
• Taxonomy represented in UML
• Lowest levels (feature classes) automatically
inherit from higher levels (abstract classes)
• Domains shared among many feature classes
• New data standards quickly implemented
• Includes creation of the feature classes and
population from scattered data sources
• Full framework more than half implemented
Benefits
• Simplified data structures make
maintenance easier
• Reduced redundancy and
inconsistency
• Improved accuracy and currency
• Better defined data and data
analyses
• Data more accessible and sharable
• Robust when HW/SW changes
The art of ranking things in genera and species is of no small importance and very much
assists our judgment as well as our memory. You know how much it matters in botany,
not to mention animals and other substances, or again moral and notional entities as
some call them. Order largely depends on it, and many good authors write in such a way
that their whole account could be divided and subdivided according to a procedure
related to genera and species. This helps one not merely to retain things, but also to find
them. Gottfried Leibniz, New Essays on Human Understanding, 1704
The world of spatial data is in need of systematic taxonomy. The
spatial representation of geographical entities, as a whole, and
according to their inherent qualities is still lacking.
Questions or Comments?
Contact: Pam Keller
(541) 573-4486
pkeller@blm.gov
Resources Subcategories
Species Occurrence - Specific locations of plant and animal species and change over time.
Overlapping polygons . Core attributes include species, discovery date, revisit date, a link
to survey area, accuracy, season of use for fauna and % cover for flora.
Water – Inland water on the surface of the earth. Points, lines and polys. Core attributes
include USGS name, local or special name, flow, fish presence, riparian condition, water
quality, link to water rights data.
Landscape Cover – Entities that can be thought of as covering the surface of the earth from
“wall to wall” such as soil and plant communities. Ecological Potential (Soil and potential
plant community/ecological site) and Current Cover (dominant plant community).
Wildfire – Wildland fire started through natural, accidental or malicious causes. Overlapping
polygons and points for ignition points and very small fires. Core attributes include name,
incident number, date, cause code.
Geology – Formations , Faults
Climate – Precipitation isolines and zones, Lightning, Air Quality, Wind Zone, Temperature
Zone, Solar Insolation
Cultural Sites – location of archeological finds
Terrain – Entities describing the shape of the earth’s surface. Elevation contours and zones,
Landform, Viewshed, Aspect , Slope, Hydrologic Unit (watershed), Physiographic Province
Potential Resource – Group of entities for predicting the natural world when direct
measurement is not possible. These are futures or past oriented: what we think the
physical resource looked like in the past or will look like in the future. Does not refer to a
representative model. These are new entities created from two or more other entities.
Mineral potential, Energy Potential, Wildlife Habitat Potential, Fire Behavior, Cultural Site
Prediction, Flora Site Prediction, Visual Resources Inventory, Wilderness Characteristics
Inventory. Core attributes include date and method.
Activities Subcategories
Treatment – Deliberate human action for the purpose of natural resource management that results in
alteration of the landscape. Overlapping polygons track multiple treatments through time. Core
attributes include name, method, agent, purpose, target, date, and links to the authorizing plan and
planning databases. Prescribed Fire, Harvest, Mechanical, Revegetation, Chemical, Biological and
Protection with feature classes for both completed and proposed treatment. Proposed treatments
have an attributes for status.
Survey – Location of deliberately searched areas . Overlapping polygons track repeated surveys through
time. Core attributes include name, date, method, surveyor, survey target, found flag. links to
Species Occurrence if found. Flora Survey, Fauna Survey, Weed Survey, Archaeology Survey,
Reforestation Survey.
Sampling – Deliberately collected data recorded at specific point locations. Specific data and
methodology details and repeated measurements through time are kept in external, linked tables.
Point data. Includes vegetation sample plots, timber stand exams, soil pits, stream sample points,
prism (climate) plots, wildlife observation points, treatment monitoring points and many others.
Could all be combined on one feature class. Core attributes include XY coordinates with projection,
general sample type, sample identifier, method, last sample date, direction, accuracy, and links to
resource feature or treatment feature. One feature class.
Structures – Human-built structures, construction. Two feature classes, Lines and points. Existing and
proposed. Polygons created from lines or points if necessary using radius attribute. Lines created
from points if necessary with side length attribute. Core attributes include name, special name,
structure type, date constructed, maintenance responsibility, closure status, easement flag, condition,
material, agent, and links to the authorizing plan and to maintenance and budget databases. Line
structures include roads and trails, pipelines, fences. Point structures include gates, culverts, water
development, towers, toilets, quarries, buildings, boat ramps, airstrips. Smaller structure features
(picnic tables, signs, spigots, etc) kept in XY tables.
Boundaries Subcategories
Political & Administrative – Boundaries related to public policy and law or to the management of government entity
jurisdictions. Core attributes include name and information about the authorizing instrument. Feature classes include
Wilderness, declared Roadless Areas, National Historic Districts, Wild & Scenic River Corridors, National Monuments,
Endangered Species Critical Habitat, Grazing Allotments, Wildhorse Herd Areas, Urban Growth Boundary, BLM
Resource Areas, National Forests, Counties, Congressional Districts and Census Blocks. New Political & Administrative
boundary proposals are relatively rare.
Special Management Area – Boundaries for special areas created or updated through land use planning efforts. Core
attributes include name, special values, management restrictions, plan name. Wall-to-wall designation zones for OHV,
Mineral Stipulation, Land Tenure, Right-of-Way Avoidance, Visual Resource Management, Fire Management. Selected
areas for Riparian Preserve, Forest Preserve, Wildlife Management, Special Recreation Management, Research Natural
Areas, Special Products. Feature classes for proposed SMA boundaries are created when a new plan is initiated and
include an additional attribute for planning alternative. When the plan is approved Proposed SMA boundaries are
incorporated into existing SMA boundary features and then archived.
Land Status – Entities containing official description of land parcels and the legal rights and restrictions on land parcels. All
features are snapped to the Geographic Coordinate Database points (survey grid). Feature classes include
Township/Range/Section/¼ ¼ , Surface Jurisdiction, Subsurface (mineral estate) Ownership , Easement/Right-of-Way
areas and lines, Withdrawals, Claims and Leases , and Land Tenure Transfer (history of acquisition and disposal). Core
attributes include type, right holder name or code, and case file (serial) number that links to the legal record. Proposed
Land Tenure Transfer updates Surface and Subsurface ownership as well as existing Land Tenure Transfer.
Encumbrances (easement/right-of-way, withdrawal, claims, leases ) also have feature classes for proposed and include
an attribute for proposal status.
Plan or Project Boundary - Any area where a multi-year plan for specific action or set of actions will be analyzed and
perhaps undertaken. Many overlapping polygons. Core attributes include plan name, date, stage, and identifier used
as the link to treatments, surveys, structures and special management areas authorized by the plan.