[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 96 (Wednesday, May 17, 2000)]
[Notices]
[Pages 31343-31345]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-12333]


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DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR

Geological Survey


Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC); Public Review of the 
National Hydrographic Data Content Standard for Coastal and Inland 
Waterways

ACTION: Notice; request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The FGDC is conducting a pubic review of the National 
Hydrographic Data Content Standard for Coastal and Inland Waterways 
(hereafter called the Hydrographic Standard). The purpose of this 
public review is to

[[Page 31344]]

provide software vendors and data users and producers an opportunity to 
comment on this standard in order to ensure that it meets their needs.
    Participants in the public review are encouraged to provide 
comments that address specific issues/changes/additions that may result 
in revisions to the draft Hydrographic Standard. After formal 
endorsement of the standard by the FGDC, the standard and analysis of 
the comments will be made available to the public.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before August 31, 2000.

ADDRESSES: The draft standard may be downloaded via Internet address 
http://www.fgdc.gov/standards/status/sub5__5.html.
    Request for printed copies of the standard should be addressed to 
``Hydrographic Data Content Standard,'' FGDC Secretariat, U.S. 
Geological Survey, 590 National Center, 12201 Sunrise Valley Drive, 
Reston, Virginia 20192 or facsimile 703-648-5755 or Internet at 
[email protected].
    Reviewer's comments may be sent to FGDC via Internet mail to [email protected]. Reviewer's comments may also be sent to the FGDC 
Secretariat at the above address. Please send one hardcopy version of 
the comments and a softcopy version on 3.5-inch diskette in 
WordPerfect, Microsoft Word, or Rich Text Format. Reviewers are 
strongly urged to use the template for sending comments that may be 
downloaded from Internet address http://www.fgdc.gov/standards/directives/dir2d.html.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Introduction

    Geospatial hydrographic data for waterways, shorelines, coastlines, 
etc. that supports transportation applications has been specified as 
one of the key framework information layers for the National Spatial 
Data Infrastructure (NSDI). The objective of the Hydrographic Standard 
project is to develop a nationally focused hydrographic data content 
standard for spatial data that supports safety of navigation. When 
complete, this standard will provide a consistent catalog of terms and 
definitions (semantics) to ensure uniform interpretation of information 
across a variety of organizations that develop and use hydrographic 
feature data and applications. This standard is based upon a well known 
logical data model for geospatial data of features, attributes, and 
domain values that is consistent with the spatial Data Transfer 
Standard/Federal Information Processing Standard (SDTS/FIPS 173 part 
2).

Scope

    The scope of this Hydrographic Standard project first focused on 
developing a catalog of hydrographic feature terms and definitions 
pertaining to navigation of coastal and inland waterways. In that the 
guidance from the NSDI concentrated on transportation/navigation, the 
team limited the scope to information relating to charting and 
electronic chart display applications. This standard will not address 
data distribution formats, extraction criteria, or accuracy reporting 
methods.

Justification/Benefits

    There has never been a national data content standard for 
hydrographic data that support navigation applications; yet there has 
been interest from federal agencies, private industry, and the public 
for a uniform presentation of this type information for some time. A 
data content standard that supports navigation applications will ensure 
effective use of geospatial data across different agencies, 
organizations, and other users.

Standards Development Process

    This standard was developed under the guidance and procedures 
specified by the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) under the 
authority of the Bathymetric Subcommittee. The FGDC announced the 
initiation of this Hydrographic Standard project in the Federal 
Register approximately a year ago and issued a call for any interested 
party to participate on the project development team. Composed of 
experts from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration 
(NOAA), National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA), the U.S. Army Corps 
of Engineers, the U.S. Coast Guard, several pilot associations, and 
private industry representatives, the project team has been working 
together for the past year to develop this Hydrographic Standard. In 
addition to the expertise brought to this project team from the various 
organizations represented, key documents were used in the development 
of this standard. These are cited as references below.
    The first step after the formation of a Hydrographic Standard 
project team was to agree upon the scope of this Hydrographic Standard. 
The project team then reviewed key documents that consisted of adopted 
standards and systems that had developed and used hydrographic feature 
data. The next step for the project team was to develop a master list 
of candidate features extracted from the following standards documents:
     International Hydrographic Organization's S57 (IHO S-57) 
Appendix A, Object Catalog for Digital Hydrographic Data, an 
intergovernmental consultative and technical organization working to 
support the safety of navigation and the protection of the marine 
environment.
     North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) Digital 
Geographic Information Exchange Standard (DIGEST) Part 4, Feature 
Attribute Coding Catalog (FACC), a comprehensive coding scheme for 
features and their attributes. This allows for joint naval operations 
between sovereign countries and requires naval personnel to have 
familiarity amongst traditional S-57 and FACC.
     Tri-Service Spatial Data Standard (TSSDS Release 1.8), 
which is primarily used for civil and military installation mapping and 
facility management.
     U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Regional Engineering 
and Environmental Geographic Information System (REEGIS) project's data 
dictionary for inland waterways and primarily used by the USACE for 
engineering, navigation and flood control structures along the 
Mississippi River.
    Next, the project team reviewed the master feature list and 
eliminated those clearly outside of the agreed to scope. A detailed 
comparison of feature terms and definitions extracted from the 
aforementioned standards was conducted. From this effort, the team was 
able to derive a standard feature term and definition for each feature. 
As a byproduct of this activity, a matrix was developed, which provides 
a mapping to related terms, or features, contained in each or the 
source standards. These matrices are included as appendices.
    The project team has extracted all the attributes derived from the 
aforementioned standards and culled this list of attributes down to a 
subset of core attributes to include in the hydrographic standard. The 
project team created a domain list for each ``category'' of feature to 
facilitate the cross-reference. Other attributes have been grouped into 
logical collections applicable to individual features to ease 
implementation. Finally, a draft Hydrographic Standard document was 
generated to include the features, attributes, and domain terms and 
definitions lists, and additional descriptive documentation as 
specified by the FGDC directives on creating an NSDI standard.

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Target Authorization Body

    The Bathymetric Subcommittee originally proposed the development of 
this Hydrographic Standard as an FGDC standard. The Bathymetric 
Subcommittee and the Standards Working Group of the FGDC will pursue a 
joint FGDC and American National Standards Institute (ANSI) adoption of 
this standard. This joint approach will require the development of an 
ANSI standard proposal and potentially a joint ANSI and FGDC public 
review. The Bathymetric Subcommittee will consider (at a later date) 
promoting parts of this standard (e.g., inland waterways information) 
that are not currently part of the S-57 standard to International 
Hydrographic Organization for inclusion in their standard.

Conclusion

    This Hydrographic Data Content Standard for Coastal and Inland 
Waterways will facilitate semantic consistency when capturing 
geospatial hydrographic information in a GIS or CADD database. This 
standard will support the exchange of spatial data between different 
GIS/CADD software packages. The standard will also facilitate effective 
exchange of geospatial data across multiple agencies, organizations and 
other users. This standard will provide for consistency of semantics 
contained in spatial hydrographic data that enable the development of 
consistent military and commercial navigation applications for that 
query, analyze this information and interpreted this information for 
display of electronic charts. Cost savings associated with reducing the 
translating geospatial hydrographic information and building navigation 
applications should also be realized.

Maintenance

    The U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration (NOAA), National Ocean Service (NOS), NOAA Coastal 
Services Center will maintain the National Hydrographic Data Content 
Standard for Coastal and Inland Waterways for the Federal Geographic 
Data Committee. Address general questions concerning the content of 
this standard to David Stein, Secretary, FGDC Bathymetric Subcommittee 
at NOAA Coastal Services Center; 2234 South Hobson Avenue, Charleston, 
SC 29405-2413 or by E-mail: [email protected].

    Dated: May 8, 2000.
Richard E. Witmer,
Chief, National Mapping Division.
[FR Doc. 00-12333 Filed 5-16-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-Y7-M