[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 130 (Wednesday, July 8, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Pages 36933-36934]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-18071]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Geological Survey


Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC); Public Comment on the 
Proposal To Develop the ``NSDI Framework Road Data Model Standard'' as 
a Federal Geographic Data Committee Standard

ACTION: Notice; Request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The FGDC is soliciting public comments on the proposal to 
develop a ``NSDI Framework Road Data Model Standard.'' If the proposal 
is approved, the standard will be developed following the FGDC 
standards development and approval process and will be considered for 
adoption by the FGDC.
    In its assigned federal leadership role in the development of the 
National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI), the Committee recognizes 
that FGDC standards must also meet the needs and recognize the views of 
State and local governments, academia, industry, and the public. The 
purpose of this notice is to solicit such views. The FGDC invites the 
community to review the proposal and comment on the objectives, scope, 
approach, and usability of the proposed standard; identify existing 
related standards; and indicate their interest in participating in the 
development of the standard.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before July 25, 1998.

CONTACT and ADDRESSES: Comments may be submitted via Internet mail or 
by submitting electronic copy on diskette. Send comments via internet 
to: www.fgdc.gov">gdc-rdmod@www.fgdc.gov.
    A soft copy version, on a 3.5 x 3.5 diskette in WordPerfect 5.0 or 
6.0/6.1 format, along with one hardcopy version of the comments may be 
sent to the FGDC Secretariat (attn: Jennifer Fox) at U.S. Geological 
Survey, 590 National Center, 12201 Sunrise Valley Drive, Reston, 
Virginia, 20192.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Following is the complete proposal for the 
``NSDI Framework Road Data Model Standard''.

Project Title: NSDI Framework Road Data Model Standard
Submitting Organization: FGDC Ground Transportation Subcommittee
Point of Contact: Bruce D. Spear, U.S. Department of Transportation, 
Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), (202) 366-8870, 
[email protected]

Objectives

    To provide a logical data model for identifying unique road 
segments which are independent of cartographic or analytic network 
representation. These road segments will form the basis for maintenance 
of NSDI framework road data (through transactions or other means), and 
for establishing links among road segments and attribute data.

Scope

    In accordance with the FGDC Standards Reference Model, the NSDI 
Framework Road Data Model is being proposed under the classification of 
a data content standard. However, it also includes mandatory standards 
for assigning and reporting identification codes as well as voluntary 
guidelines for data collection under the classification of a process 
standard.
    This standard will specify a conceptual model for identifying 
physical road segments that are temporally stable and independent of 
any cartographic representation, scale, level of detail or network 
application, and a process for combining the road segments to create 
topologically connected analytical networks. The model will include a 
set of locational descriptors for each road segment included in the 
NSDI framework road layer, and a format for a unique identification 
code to be assigned to each identified segment. The standard will also 
specify a process for assigning, modifying and recording road segment 
identification codes.
    Guidelines for selecting and locating the end points of appropriate 
road segments will be included as an informative appendix. The user of 
the standard does not have to follow the guidelines to be in 
conformance with the standard.
    The basic road data model can be extended to cover other 
transportation networks including railroads, commercial waterways, 
pipelines, and public transit guideways. Other network layers may 
require different process standards for assigning and recording 
identification codes. These additional process standards are not 
included as part of this initial standard.

Justification/Benefits

    There are currently no national standards for identifying, 
segmenting, or representing road segments in digital geo-spatial 
databases. Database developers segment road networks to satisfy their 
specific application needs; however, the specific segmentation scheme 
may not be appropriate for other applications. Furthermore, there is no 
standard approach for documenting the relationship between a digitized 
road segment and the physical road feature that it represents. 
Consequently, the exchange of attribute information between two 
different road databases representing the same geographic area is 
difficult, time consuming and error prone.
    A national standard for identifying and documenting road segments 
will facilitate data exchange among different users by providing well 
defined, common reference segments that are tied to the physical road 
feature, rather than to any cartographic or network abstraction of that 
feature. Furthermore, the proposed standard road data model will allow 
users to create customized topological networks from the reference 
segments without modifying the properties of the reference segments 
themselves. This will facilitate transactional updates to framework 
road databases by allowing new road features to be added without 
changing existing road segments.

Development Approach

    A Road Data Model Team will be assembled to review the technical 
development of the standard and to provide appropriate outreach to the 
transportation community. (See POTENTIAL PARTICIPANTS, below.)
    An initial draft of the road data model will be prepared under 
contract, funded by BTS (in progress). The initial draft will be based, 
in large part, on the preliminary road data models emerging from the 
NSDI Framework Road Data Modeling Workshop, held at Wrightsville Beach, 
NC, in December 1997. These preliminary data models are compatible with 
the generic linear data model developed under the National Cooperative 
Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Project 20-27.
    The initial draft will be reviewed by the Road Data Model Team and 
revised based on concerns and recommendations expressed by team 
members. Depending on the nature of the review comments, one or more 
meetings may be convened to resolve differences among the team. Team 
members will also be responsible for informing their constituencies 
about the road data model standard and for collecting and summarizing 
the requirements of their respective stakeholders groups.

[[Page 36934]]

    The road data model development effort will be closely coordinated 
with NCHRP Project 20-27 (Phase 3), which focuses in the development of 
implementation guidelines for multimodal transportation location 
reference systems. It will also provide a focus for possible follow-up 
workshops to Wrightsville Beach.
    Once there is general agreement among the Road Data Model Team that 
the model meets agreed-upon requirements, the model will be submitted 
for formal public review through the FGDC's Standards Development 
Process.

Development and Completion Schedule

     Solicitation and selection of Road Data Model Team--May 
1998.
     Initial draft of road data model by BTS contractor--June 
1998.
     Review and revisions to road data model--summer and fall 
1998.
     At least one meeting of the full team will take place 
after the initial road data model has been delivered and distributed to 
team members.
     Team members will be responsible for informing and 
soliciting feedback from their constituencies about the standards 
development effort through presentations at annual meetings, articles 
in newsletters, etc.
     The road data model will be prototyped on one or more road 
databases to assess implementation and maintenance issues, requirements 
for additional tools, etc.
     Revised draft of road data model prepared by BTS 
contractor and approved by majority of road data model team--December 
1998
     Road Data Model Standard submitted for public review 
through FGDC--January 1999
     Informational presentations on road data model to be made 
at major transportation and GIS conferences, including TRB, GIS-T 
Symposium, etc.
     Final Road Data Model Standard approved as FGDC standard--
June 1999.

Resources Required

    Funding support for contractor to prepare initial road data model 
and to revise model in response to review comments will be borne by the 
Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
    Participation on the Road Data Model Team will be on a voluntary 
basis. Time spent by team members to familiarize themselves with the 
NSDI framework and linear data models, review draft documents, 
participate in team meetings, and serve as liaison to their respective 
constituencies will be borne by each member's agency or organization. 
Some additional FGDC funding may be needed to support travel to 
meetings for some team members.

Potential Participants

    Team members will include representatives from the FGDC Ground 
Transportation Subcommittee, Facilities Working Group, Base 
Cartographic Subcommittee, Cultural and Demographic Subcommittee, and 
Framework Focus Group. Additional representation will be sought from 
key transportation and spatial data stakeholders, including the 
Transportation Research Board (TRB) GIS-T Task Force, the Intelligent 
Transportation Systems (ITS) standards working group, the American 
Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), the 
Open GIS Consortium (OGC) Transportation Work Group, NSGIC, NaCO, and 
other interested stakeholders.

Related Standards

    There are a number of standards for roads and other transportation 
currently being promulgated by different stakeholders. In general these 
standards have been designed to meet the specific requirements of the 
stakeholder groups sponsoring their development, and do not generally 
satisfy the basic NSDI requirements for database sharing and 
transactional updating. Nevertheless, these standards will be 
investigated as part of this development effort to determine 
commonalities and opportunities for integration.
    The ITS Standards and Protocol Subcommittee has proposed adoption 
of the Geographic Data Files (GDF) as its standard for digital road 
databases. This standard does not meet all of the requirements of the 
broader GIS for transportation (GIS-T) community, particularly with 
respect to location referencing.
    The DIGEST/Vector Product Format standard is an interchange 
standard for spatial data used by the U.S. Department of Defense, NATO, 
and the Transportation Association of Canada. DIGEST/VPF. This 
standard, like GDF does not meet all of the requirements of the GIS-T 
community.
    A draft Transportation Network Profile (TNP) was developed for the 
Spatial Data Transfer Standard (SDTS) several years ago, but was never 
submitted for formal adoption due to a number of unresolved issues. 
Adoption of a standard road data model may help resolve many of these 
outstanding issues, and lead to resumption of the SDTS TNP development.
    A Ground Transportation Data Content Standard is being proposed to 
provide a common set of entity/attribute/domain definitions for 
transportation features. These two efforts will be closely coordinated, 
and the road data model will provide the foundation on which 
transportation features in the content standard will be defined.
    ITS is also proposing the establishment of a national linear datum, 
consisting of well defined and accurately located control points from 
which linear measurements can be made along a road segment. The 
proposed road data model is compatible with the ITS linear datum. Every 
effort will be made during the development of the road data model to 
maintain this compatibility so that framework road segments can fully 
utilize the linear datum, if it is actually implemented.

Other Targeted Authorization Bodies

    None at this time. However, depending on the acceptance of the 
proposed road data model by the transportation community, it may be 
appropriate to submit it to ANSI and ISO at a later date.

    Dated: June 29, 1998.
Richard E. Witmer,
Chief, National Mapping Division.
[FR Doc. 98-18071 Filed 7-7-98; 8:45 am]
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