1
The number of geospatial data resource catalogs are too numerous to attempt to list, as many of 2
the geospatial community (federal, state, local, private, international, and academia) have on- 3
going initiatives to provide a variety of these data resources. The following examples are offered 4
as examples of (primarily) government geospatial data resources available to users. 5
4.6.1 GEOSPATIAL PLATFORM
6
“The Geospatial Platform (GeoPlatform) is a managed portfolio of common geospatial data, 7
services, and applications contributed and administered by trusted sources and hosted on a 8
shared infrastructure, for use by governmental agencies and partners to meet their mission 9
requirements and the broader needs of the Nation.”81 The GeoPlatform.gov was developed by the
10
member agencies of the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC), in coordination with the 11
Federal CIO Council, as an interagency Federal initiative and OMB shared service and is hosted by 12
the U.S. Department of Interior, as the Managing Partner for the Geospatial Platform.82
13
The GeoPlatform provides open standards compliant catalog web services supporting the 14
GeoPlatform and Data.gov83 (e.g., official U.S. government site providing increased public access
15
to federal government datasets). The shared catalog provides access via the Catalog Service for 16
the Web (CSW) standard for both first-order and all metadata (including members of large 17
collections) for harvested data, services, and applications. The Catalog Service for the Web is an 18
Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)84 standard that defines common interfaces to discover,
19
browse, and query metadata for data and services. The catalog enables both data and services 20
searching via several methods (e.g., Categories, Types, Groups, Tags, Name, Keyword, etc.) and 21
provides the metadata on that specific dataset or tool. Some datasets are downloadable, while 22
others are extraction tool or widgets. The user must also be aware of and acceptable to the data 23
policy use conditions for the requested dataset. 24
Many of the Federal datasets available on the GeoPlatform are part of the National Geospatial 25
Data Asset (NGDA) portfolio management approach prescribed by OMB Circular A-16
26
Supplemental Guidance.85To ensure quality and usability, the data must be:
27
• Discoverable – published and available. 28
• Reliable – coordinated by a recognized national steward. 29
81 Geospatial Platform. https://www.geoplatform.gov/overview-page
82 Federal Geographic Data Committee, Steering Committee meeting minutes, April 19, 2012.
http://www.fgdc.gov/participation/steering-committee/meeting-minutes/april-2012/meeting-minutes-public-sc-20120419.pdf
83 Data.gov. https://www.data.gov/ 84 http://www.opengeospatial.org/
85 OMB Memorandum M-11-03, Issuance of OMB Circular A-16 Supplemental Guidance, November 10, 2010, available at
• Consistent – supported by defined schema, standards and understood content 1
definitions to ensure their integrity (including conformance with FGDC Standards as 2
applicable). 3
• Current and applicable – maintained regularly and adaptable to current needs. 4
• Resourced – established and recognized as an enterprise investment. 5
The GeoPlatform provides a Datasets Published per Month for the previous 12-month period and
6
the most recent summary at the time of this writing is displayed in
7
Table 4-5. 8
9
Table 4-5. GeoPlatform Datasets Published per Month86
10
AGENCY NAME
NUMBER OF DATASETS PUBLISHED BY MONTH TOTAL IN THE PAST 12 MONTHS May ‘13 Jun ‘13 Jul ‘13 Aug ‘13 Sep ‘13 Oct ‘13 Nov ‘13 Dec ‘13 Jan ‘14 Feb ‘14 Mar ‘14 Apr ‘14 Department of Agriculture – – – – – – 48 – – 3 5 – 56 Department of Commerce 25217 – – 317 3422 64 236 41 61 22 76 116 29572
Department of Homeland Security – – – 1 – – – – – – – – 1
Department of the Interior – – – 388 461 2 41 275 9 9 5 – 1190
Department of Transportation – – – – – – – – – 49 – – 49
Total 25217 – – 706 3883 66 325 316 70 83 86 116 30868
Data as of 04/03/2014 1:08 AM.
At the time of this writing, the GeoPlatform listed 80,603 datasets found with the dataset type of 11
“geospatial.” 12
4.6.2 GEOSPATIAL CONCEPT OF OPERATIONS
13
The Homeland Security Geospatial Concept of Operations (GeoCONOPS)87 is a multiyear effort
14
focused on the geospatial communities supporting the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) 15
and the Federal Emergency Management Agency activities under the National Response 16
Framework (NRF) and in coordination with Presidential Policy Directive 8: National Preparedness 17
(PPD-8), which describes the Nation’s approach to preparing for the threats and hazards that pose 18
the greatest risk to the security of the United States. The GeoCONOPS, in its sixth year, is a 19
multiyear product to document the current geospatial practices and serves as a guide to federal 20
departments and agencies providing support under the NRF, PPD-8, and Stafford Act activities. 21
86 Geospatial Platform. Available at https://www.geoplatform.gov/node/509
87 Geospatial Concept of Operations (GeoCONOPS), Version 6.0, June 2014, available at
The GeoCONOPS is an interagency collaboration with strategic direction provided by a federal 1
interagency Geospatial Interagency Oversight Team (GIOT). The participants and intended 2
audience of the GeoCONOPS include the GIOT Members, 15 Emergency Support Functions (ESF), 3
both primary and support, and other federal mission partners. The GeoCONOPS is updated on a 4
yearly basis to ensure it meets the needs of all mission partners. 5
The intended audiences for this document are the geospatial communities supporting homeland 6
security and emergency management activities from the Joint Field Offices and operations 7
centers to NRF headquarter entities. The GeoCONOPS outlines federal geospatial capabilities in 8
support of state, local, and tribal authorities during homeland security and emergency 9
management operations across the entire emergency management life cycle. The GeoCONOPS 10
website88 is a resource that provides:
11
• Geospatial mission blueprint of the resources and capabilities available for support 12
in the Homeland Security Enterprise. 13
• Identifies points of coordination and collaboration. 14
• Documents authoritative geospatial data sources. 15
• Describes best practices. 16
• Identifies technical capabilities. 17
18
Table 4-6 is an extract from the GeoCONOPS Appendix: Authoritative Data Matrix, which lists over 19
1,200 data themes (datasets) by subcategory (Appendix C-2). These datasets are the desired 20
resources, although many of those assets may not be available or have a URL link to their source 21
availability. Users can search the on-line catalog for data listing content through the GeoCONOPS 22
taxonomy using attributes, including; Type, Keywords, Category/Subcategory, etc. 23
Table 4-6. GeoCONOPS Authoritative Data Matrix (Extract)
24
HOMELAND SECURITY GEOSPATIAL CONCEPT OF OPERATIONS (GeoCONOPS)
SUB
CATEGORY THEME TYPE POC RESTRICTIONS SOURCE URL ESF# PPD-8 MISSION
Egg Production
Farms Polygon USDA n/a
http:www.ers.usda.gov/topics/animal-
products/poultry-eggs.aspx#.UbcWJpxyaYk 5, 11 Protection, Response Sheep/Goat Farms Polygon USDA n/a
http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/animal- products/sheep,-lamb- mutton.aspx#.UbcWYpxyaYk 5, 11 Response Support Facilities Agriculture Chemical
Manufacture Point USDA n/a unavailable 5, 10, 11 Protection, Response State Fairgrounds Point NGA-PMHP No HSIP Gold https://gii.dhs.gov/arcrest/services 5, 8, 11 Protection, Mitigation,
Response U.S. Agriculture Point USDA n/a unavailable 5, 11
88 https://www.geoplatform.gov/geoconops-home Tea m Memb er s
Census Veterinary Pharmaceutical Manufacture
Point USDA n/a unavailable 5, 10, 11 Protection, Response
Veterinary Services Point Dun & Bradstreet (D&B)
n/a HSIP Gold https://gii.dhs.gov/arcrest/services 1 thru 13
Prevention, Protection, Mitigation, Response, Recovery BANKING/FINANCE Banking and Credit Automated Check Clearing Houses Point
Federal
Reserve n/a unavailable 5, 13 Protection, Response Banking Institutions– National Credit Union Administration (NCUA)
Point NCUA n/a http://www.ncua.gov/Legal/GuidesEtc/Pages/CUDirectory.aspx 5, 13 Protection, Response
Branches/Agencies
of Foreign Banks Point FDIC Yes HSIP Gold https://gii.dhs.gov/arcrest/services 5, 13 Protection Credit Unions HQ Point NCUA Yes HSIP Gold https://gii.dhs.gov/arcrest/services 5, 13 Protection
Farm Credit Administration (FCA) Financial Institutions
Point FCA n/a unavailable 5, 13 Protection
1
4.6.3 NATIONAL STATES GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION
2
COUNCIL GIS INVENTORY
3
The GIS Inventory89 of the National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC) is a tool for
4
states and their partners. Its primary purpose is to track data availability and the status of 5
Geographic Information System (GIS) implementation in state and local governments to aid the 6
planning and building of Spatial Data Infrastructures. The random access metadata for online 7
nationwide assessments (RAMONA) database is a critical component of the GIS Inventory. 8
RAMONA moves its FGDC-compliant metadata for each data layer to a web folder and a Catalog 9
Service for the Web (CSW) that can be harvested by Federal programs (e.g., GeoPlatform.gov) and 10
others. This provides far greater opportunities for discovery of user information. The GIS 11
Inventory allows the user to search by keywords including Theme or Place Names, Layer Category, 12
Layer Name, Production Date, and Production Status. The GIS Inventory is maintained by 13
individual users that document their own organizational information and data holdings. 14
At the time of this writing, the NSGIC GIS Inventory listed 23,012 results under its “Browse Data 15
Layers” tab. 16
89 National State Geographic Information Council (NSGIC), available at http://www.gisinventory.net/
PPD -8 Miss ion A rea s Req u iremen ts & Cap abi lit ie s G eoC ONOP S