Coastal Services Center

Federal Geographic Data Committee
Subcommittee on Bathymetric and Nautical Charting Data

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2003 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 2003, special emphasis will be placed on building the marine and coastal component of the E-Government Geospatial One-Stop Project. This will be accomplished through outreach, development and sponsorship of framework data standards, and active participation in the data documentation, planned data acquisition, and data portal components of the project. Additionally, the marine boundary theme of Circular A-16 will be given special consideration through the work of the FGDC Marine Boundary Working Group (MBWG). 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. The subcommittee will also 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, the Cadastral Subcommittee, 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.

2003 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:

1. 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.
2. Update and promote the subcommittee's Web site.
3. Hold a special meeting of the Marine and Coastal Spatial Data Subcommittee at the 2003 Coastal Geotools Conference in Charleston, SC to promote the Marine and Coastal NSDI.
4. Publish the results of the 2002 NOAA Coastal Services Center's Coastal Resource Management Customer Survey.
   

Goal Two: Develop common solutions for discovery, access, and use of geographic data in response to the needs of diverse communities.

1. 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.
2. Promote and implement the Shoreline Profile of the FGDC metadata standard.
3. Continue to develop the Hydrographic Data Content Standard for Inland and Coastal Waterways.
4. Complete the development of Part 5 of the NSDI Data Accuracy Standard: Hydrographic Data Accuracy Standard.
5. Support state efforts to develop coastal and ocean data within the NSDI.
6. Publish Topo/Bathy project methodology.
7. Participate in a United States Geological Survey-National Oceanic Administration Agency Working Group to develop a common shoreline.
8. Participate on the Cadastral, Elevation, and Geodetic Control framework standards teams for Geospatial One-Stop.
   

Goal Three: Use community-based approaches to develop and maintain common collections of geospatial data for sound decision making.

1. Actively participate on the FGDC Marine Boundary Working Group.
2. Actively participate on the FGDC Standards Working Group.
3. Actively participate on the FGDC Cadastral Subcommittee.
4. Promote common classification systems, content standards, and other common models to facilitate data development, sharing and use in the coastal and ocean zone.
5. Continue participation in the E-Gov Geospatial One-Stop initiative.

Goal Four: Build Relationships among organizations to support the continuing development of the NSDI

1. Continue to maintain and add to the e-mail directory of over 400 GIS experts working in the coastal zone.
2. Coordinate and host the 2003 Coastal GeoTools conference that will bring together over 400 professionals working in the field of coastal resource management.
3. Work with members of the private sector and academia on issues relating to shoreline, bathymetry, offshore cadastre, and data modeling.
4. Work with state, county, and local organizations to develop NSDI coastal framework data.