[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 187 (Monday, September 28, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Pages 51586-51588]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-25819]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Geological Survey
Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC); Public Comment on the
Proposal to Develop the ``Biological Nomenclature and Taxonomy Data
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 ``Biological Nomenclature and Taxonomy Data 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
[[Page 51587]]
participating in the development of the standard.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before October 15, 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-taxpro@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
``Biological Nomenclature and Taxonomy Data Standard''.
Project Title: Development of a Biological Nomenclature and
Taxonomy Data Standard.
Date of Proposal: June 3, 1998.
Submitting Organization: FGDC Biological Data Working Group.
Point of Contact: Barbara Lamborne, Environmental Protection
Agency, Washington, D.C. (202) 260-3643 [email protected].
Ojbectives: The objectives are to provide a standardized,
comprehensive, and consistent reference of scientific names
(nomenclature) and associated classification (taxonomy) for biological
species. This comprehensive standard will thus support the
coordination, discovery, comparison, exchange, organization and
integration of biological data among different government and non-
government agencies, organizations, and individuals. The standard will
be based on the cooperative activities of many groups (including
several federal agencies) that are maintaining active programs in
developing standardized credible nomenclatures and taxonomies for
specific biological groups of interest to meet their respective
missions. This data standard will also link to and support the
implementation of the existing FGDC Vegetation Classification Standard,
FGDC Wetlands Classification Standard, and the proposed Biological
Profile of the FGDC Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata,
as well other biologically oriented standards, by serving as the
accepted standard reference for biological nomenclature and taxonomy
for these standards.
Scope: This standard will focus on providing a standardized and
consistent reference for scientific names (including scientific
synonyms and common names) and taxonomy for plant, animal, fungal,
moneran and protist species. The standard should be used to support the
discovery, comparison, exchange, organization and integration of any
biological data (or related information product) that includes
scientific names of species (or higher taxonomic groups) as part of its
data structure.
Justification/Benefits: Most biological data sets include some data
on the scientific names (nomenclature) and/common (vernacular) names
and associated classification (taxonomy) of the species and/or higher
taxonomic groups (genera, familities, etc.) which are the focus of the
data set. Due to the long scientific history and inherent complexity of
the science of payments, many species have been assigned two or more
different scientific names and associated classifications by different
specialists. The application of common names to organisms is even less
consistent and thus more complex. This relatively common situation
obviously makes it difficult to locate, compare, share, exchange, and
integrate biological data among different agencies and organizations in
an accurate and efficient manner. Therefore, a key element in fostering
development of a distributed federal of biological data and information
through the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (and the complementary
National Biological Information Infrastructure) is the availability of
a comprehensive, standardized reference for biological nomenclature and
taxonomy that can be used by anyone interested in locating, comparing,
exchanging, and integrating two or more biolocial data sets. This
proposed standard will provide a consistent reference of the
``accepted'' scientific names for biological species, together with
synoynyms and common names. Users will thus be able to rely upon this
standard reference to determine the accepted scientific name which then
can be used to compare, relate, exchange and/or integrate biological
data that may use different scientific or common names for the same
species.
The proposed standard will also serve as the source of scientific
nomenclature and taxonomy for the existing FGDC Vegetation
Classification Standard, FGDC Wetlands Classification Standard, and for
the proposed Biological Profile of the FGDC geospatial metadata content
standard. It will thus support the further implementation of these FGDC
standards efforts.
Development Approach: Currently, six Federal agencies
(Environmental Protection Agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, Agricultural Research Service, Natural Resources
Conservation Service, the United States Geological Survey, and the
Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History) are
participating in the development and operation of the Integrated
Taxonomic Information System (ITIS), a WWW-accessible database of
scientific names and taxonomy for biota (http://www.itis.usda.gov/
itis).
ITIS relies on the continuance of independently-funded, scientific
activities of various agencies, organizations, and institutions to
contribute reliable data that are complaint with ITIS standards.
Through this federation of scientific entities agreeing to work
together through common standards, the creation and maintenance of a
standardized, comprehensive taxonomic reference for the Nation is
possible. It is inherent in the adoption of ITIS as the biological
nomenclature and taxonomic standard that the FGDC and its members
recognize the data contributors to ITIS, particularly supporting U.S.
Federal projects such as the PLANTS database of USDA, which has
previously been recognized as an FGDC standard.
ITIS was endorsed as a national-level standard in the National
Performance Review/Government Information Technology Services Board
recent report ``Access America--Reengineering Through Information
Technology''. The report recommends ``Implementing the national-level
standards that are needed to support greater sharing and use of
biological information'' and broadening the ITIS community of partners.
The FGDC Biological Data Working Group will work with an
interagency project team representing the ITIS Federal partner agencies
to develop a draft FGDC data standard, based on the consideration of
the existing ITIS system as the possible ``foundation'' for this
standard. The draft standard then will be submitted by the Biological
Data Working Group to the FGDC Standards Working Group for review and
approval prior to being distributed for full public review.
Development and Completion Schedule: The Biological Data Working
Group will ask ITIS Federal agency partners to form an ad hoc standards
project team to begin development of the draft data standard as soon as
the initial public review of the standards proposal is completed. It is
expected that development of a draft data standard will take the
standards project team approximately 3 full months, with another 2
months for the FGDC Biological Data Working Group to review and revise
the work of the standards project team as needed. The Biological Data
Working Group will
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then submit the draft standard to the Standards Working Group for
review and approval before release of the standard for the requisite
90-day public review period. Following public review, the standard
project team will evaluate and summarize all comments received, make
the necessary revisions to the standards, and prepare the final draft
for submission to the Standards Working Group, via the Biological Data
Working Group. It is expected that the standard could be completed and
approved by the FGDC Committee within approximately 10-12 months from
the time the Standards Working Group approves this standards proposal.
Resources Required: The members of the FGDC Biological Data Working
Group, working with the standards project team comprised of
representatives of the ITIS Federal agency partners, have adequate
resources (primarily staff time) available to support development of
the standard. If there is interest on the part of NSGIC and/or the
National Association of Counties (or other FGDC collaborating groups or
organizations) in attending and participating in meetings of the FGDC
Biological Data Working Group focused on development of the proposed
data standard, it is possible that FGDC funds may be needed to help
defray travel costs for these non-Federal participants.
Potential Participants: The FGDC Biological Data Working Group
includes representatives of eight different Federal agencies, plus The
Nature Conservancy. The ITIS partnership includes six different U.S.
Federal agencies, plus biological scientists from other government
agencies, natural history museums, universities, and international
organizations. ITIS has recently expanded its partnership to include
the Canadian government. This diverse group of existing participants
will be enhanced during the standards development process by an
aggressive ``outreach'' campaign to enlist the participation and input
of other agencies, organizations, and individuals with expertise,
responsibilities, and/or interests in the area of biological
nomenclature and taxonomy and biological data exchange.
Related Standards: The proposed standard related directly to and
will support full implementation of the FGDC Vegetation Classification
Standard and the proposed Biological Profile of the FGDC metadata
content standard. It also relates to the FGDC Wetlands Classification
Standard.
Other Targeted Authorization Bodies: This proposed standard is not
currently targeted for consideration by any other authorizing bodies.
Because of its direct linkage to the FGDC Vegetation Classification
Standard and FGDC metadata content standard (through the proposed
Biological Profile), it is anticipated that the proposed standard (once
approved by the FGDC) potentially could be ``linked'' with either or
both of these FGDC standards in any subsequent review and authorization
of these standards by ANSI, ISO, or other group.
Dated: September 3, 1998.
Richard E. Witmer,
Chief, National Mapping Division.
[FR Doc. 98-25819 Filed 9-25-98; 8:45 am]
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