Federal Geographic Data Committee
Subcommittee on Bathymetric and Nautical Charting Data
2002 Work Plan
Introduction
The Federal Geographic Data Committee's (FGDC) Marine and Coastal Spatial
Data Subcommittee's primary mission is to develop and promote the Marine
and Coastal National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI). The vision of
the Marine and Coastal NSDI is that current and accurate geospatial coastal
and ocean data will be readily available to contribute locally, nationally,
and globally to economic growth, environmental quality and stability,
and social progress. The advancement of the Marine and Coastal NSDI will
be accomplished collaboratively through the development of partnerships,
data, metadata, standards, and outreach.
During 2002, special emphasis will be placed on marine boundaries and
the shoreline. The FGDC Marine Boundary Working Group (MBWG) will undertake
the marine boundary theme. The MBWG was formed under the Marine and Coastal
Spatial Data Subcommittee and the Cadastral Subcommittee to address the
array of issues pertaining to the legal and technical aspects of marine
boundaries. It is the MBWG's ultimate goal to alleviate some of the cross-agency
problems with respect to marine boundaries. A special working group will
also be formed to address the interagency issues surrounding the shoreline.
The Marine and Coastal Spatial Data Subcommittee has identified both of
these themes as core marine and coastal data sets. Additionally, further
development of these themes will contribute to the E-Government Geospatial
One-Stop initiative and the Marine and Coastal NSDI. Although marine boundaries
and shoreline are focus areas this year, the subcommittee will continue
its role in outreach, standards development, partnerships, and other data
development critical to the NSDI.
The subcommittee supports the overall goals and missions of the FGDC
by having its members serve on several working groups and subcommittees
that have an interest in coastal and marine data. The subcommittee has
active representatives on the Standards Working Group, the Marine Boundary
Working Group, and the FGDC Coordination Group.
The subcommittee meets formally two to three times a year in the Washington,
D.C. area. Additionally, the subcommittee sponsors a number of community
meetings and outreach workshops throughout the country during the year.
To enhance communications, the Subcommittee has a home page on the World
Wide Web at the following URL: http://www.csc.noaa.gov/mcsd.
Items in the work plan will be led and funded by agencies that serve
on the subcommittee.
2002 Work Plan:
(in the format of the NSDI Strategic Plan)
Goal One: Increase the awareness and understanding of the vision,
concept, and benefits of the Coastal NSDI through outreach and education.
Members of the Marine and Coastal Spatial Data Subcommittee will host,
conduct, or participate in outreach meetings and workshops with the coastal
and ocean community. These will take various forms, including teaching
hands-on metadata classes targeted at this community, presenting workshops
and seminars on related activities, publishing papers on coastal data
within the NSDI, and facilitating community involvement in the NSDI.
Selected goals:
- Host coastal metadata workshops and geographic information systems
(GIS) training for coastal resource managers, including the National
Estuarine Research Reserve program, the National Marine Sanctuary program,
and coastal zone management agencies.
- Update and promote the subcommittee's Web site.
- Co-sponsor and hold a special session at the National States Geographic
Information Council (NSGIC) to promote the Marine and Coastal NSDI and
to start to build a coastal GIS caucus within the NSGIC organization.
Goal Two: Develop common solutions for discovery, access, and use
of geographic data in response to the needs of diverse communities.
- Continue to support data conversion, digitizing, formatting, and data
quality efforts for coastal zone GIS data-especially shoreline, bathymetry,
and Electronic Navigational Charting (ENC) data.
- Promote and implement the Shoreline Profile of the FGDC metadata standard.
- Continue to develop the Hydrographic Data Content Standard for Inland
and Coastal Waterways.
- Complete the development of Part 5 of the NSDI Data Accuracy Standard:
Hydrographic Data Accuracy Standard.
- Support state efforts to develop coastal and ocean data within the
NSDI.
- Develop an application that converts Electronic Navigational Chart
(ENC) data to widely accessible GIS formats.
- Publish Topo/Bathy project methodology.
- Participate in a United States Geological Survey-National Oceanic
Administration Agency Working Group to develop a common shoreline.
- Participate in the National Research Council/Ocean Studies Board survey
to identify national needs for geospatial information in the coastal
zone.
- Participate, as needed, in the study being conducted by the Pew Ocean
Commission on the policies needed to restore and protect living marine
resources in U.S. waters.
Goal Three: Use community-based approaches to develop and maintain
common collections of geospatial data for sound decision making.
- Actively participate on the FGDC Marine Boundary Working Group.
- Actively participate on the FGDC Standards Working Group.
- Promote common classification systems, content standards, and other
common models to facilitate data development, sharing and use in the
coastal and ocean zone.
- Continue participation in the development of the hydrography, cadastral,
and elevation NSDI framework themes.
- Solicit input from all levels of government and the private sector
in the development of data content standards to support the Geospatial
One-Stop initiative.
Goal Four: Build Relationships among organizations to support the continuing
development of the NSDI
- Continue to maintain and add to the e-mail directory of over 400 GIS
experts working in the coastal zone.
- Coordinate and host the 2003 Coastal GeoTools conference that will
bring together over 400 professionals working in the field of coastal
resource management.
- Work with members of the private sector and academia on issues relating
to shoreline, bathymetry, offshore cadastre, and data modeling.
- Work with state, county, and local organizations to develop NSDI coastal
framework data.
