Geospatial Information: Better Coordination Needed to Identify	 
and Reduce Duplicative Investments (23-JUN-04, GAO-04-703).	 
                                                                 
From homeland security to tracking outbreaks of disease, to	 
investigating the space shuttle disaster to responding to natural
disasters, the collection, maintenance, and use of location-based
(geospatial) information has become critical to many federal	 
agencies' abilities to achieve their goals. Local governments and
the private sector also rely on such data to support essential	 
functions. GAO was asked to determine the extent to which the	 
federal government is coordinating the sharing of geospatial	 
assets, including through oversight measures in place at the	 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB), in order to identify and  
reduce redundancies in geospatial data and systems.		 
-------------------------Indexing Terms------------------------- 
REPORTNUM:   GAO-04-703 					        
    ACCNO:   A10615						        
  TITLE:     Geospatial Information: Better Coordination Needed to    
Identify and Reduce Duplicative Investments			 
     DATE:   06/23/2004 
  SUBJECT:   Data collection					 
	     Geographic information systems			 
	     Information resources management			 
	     Intergovernmental relations			 
	     Redundancy 					 
	     Strategic information systems planning		 
	     Strategic planning 				 
	     Electronic government				 
	     Program coordination				 
	     OMB Geospatial One-Stop Project			 

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GAO-04-703

Report to Congressional Requesters

June 2004

GEOSPATIAL INFORMATION

Better Coordination Needed to Identify and Reduce Duplicative Investments

Contents

Tables

Figures

Abbreviations

June 23, 2004Letter

The Honorable Adam H. Putnam Chairman, Subcommittee on Technology,
Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and the Census Committee
on Government Reform House of Representatives

The Honorable Pete Sessions House of Representatives

The federal government collects, maintains, and uses geospatial
information-information linked to specific geographic locations-to help in
decision making and to support many functions, including national
security, law enforcement, health care, the environment, and natural
resources conservation. States, counties, cities, tribal governments, and
the private sector also use geospatial information to support essential
functions. Among the many activities that can depend on critical analysis
of geospatial information are conducting the decennial census, the
maintenance of roads and other critical transportation infrastructure, and
actions in response to natural disasters such as floods, tornadoes, and
fires.

Federal agencies, states, and local governments may each provide services
at the same geographic locations and may independently collect similar
geospatial information about those locations, thus raising the question of
how well the nation's geospatial assets1 are coordinated. You requested
that we determine the extent to which the federal government is
coordinating the sharing of geospatial assets, including through oversight
measures at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), in order to
identify and reduce redundancies in federal geospatial data and systems.
To address this objective, we identified key federal geospatial projects
and reviewed capital asset plans, project plans, and other project
documentation; conducted interviews with agency and OMB officials; and
conducted focus groups with state, local, and private-sector
representatives. Details of our objective, scope, and methodology are
provided in appendix I. We conducted our work from October 2003 through
May 2004 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing
standards.

Results in Brief

OMB, individual federal agencies, and cross-government committees and
initiatives such as the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) and the
Geospatial One-Stop project have each taken actions to coordinate the
government's geospatial investments across agencies and with state and
local governments. FGDC, Geospatial One-Stop, and other cross-government
entities have established Internet-based information-sharing portals to
support development of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI);
one goal of this effort is to address redundancy and incompatibility of
geospatial information collected by many different organizations and
stored and maintained at many different physical locations. In addition,
FGDC has led geospatial standards-setting activities, and conducted
various outreach activities. Individual federal agencies have also taken
steps to coordinate specific geospatial investments in certain cases-the
Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and the Interior (DOI), for example,
have collaborated on a land management system. Finally, OMB has attempted
to oversee and coordinate geospatial investments by collecting and
analyzing relevant agency information.

However, these efforts have not been fully successful in reducing
redundancies in geospatial investments for several reasons:

o A complete and up-to-date strategic plan has not been in place. The
government's existing strategic plan for the NSDI is out of date and does
not include specific measures for identifying and reducing redundancies.

o Federal agencies have not always fully complied with OMB direction to
coordinate their investments. Many agency geospatial data holdings are not
compliant with FGDC standards or are not published through its Internet
clearinghouse.

o OMB's oversight methods have not identified or eliminated specific
instances of duplication. The processes used by OMB to identify
potentially redundant geospatial investments have not been effective,
because the agency has not been able to collect key investment information
from all agencies in a consistent way so that it could be used to identify
redundancies.

As a result of these shortcomings, federal agencies are independently
acquiring and maintaining potentially duplicative and costly data sets and
systems. Without better coordination, such duplication is likely to
continue.

We are making recommendations to the Director of OMB and to the Secretary
of the Interior to direct the development of a national geospatial data
strategy with outcome-related goals and objectives; a plan for how the
goals and objectives are to be achieved; identification of key risk
factors; and performance measures. We are also making recommendations to
the Director of OMB to encourage better agency compliance with Circular
A-16 by developing criteria for assessing the extent of interagency
coordination on proposals for potential geospatial investments; and to
strengthen oversight actions to better ensure that agencies do not invest
in potentially redundant geospatial systems or data gathering efforts.

We received oral comments on a draft of this report from representatives
of OMB's Offices of Information and Regulatory Affairs and Resource
Management and from the Assistant Secretary of the Interior-Policy,
Management, and Budget. Both agencies generally concurred with the content
of our report and our recommendations. In addition, the Departments of
Defense and Health and Human Services, and the Bureau of the Census
provided technical comments, which have been incorporated into the final
report where appropriate.

Background

Geospatial information describes entities or phenomena that can be
referenced to specific locations relative to the Earth's surface. For
example, entities such as houses, rivers, road intersections, power
plants, and national parks can all be identified by their locations. In
addition, phenomena such as wildfires, the spread of the West Nile virus,
and the thinning of trees due to acid rain, can also be identified by
their geographic locations.

A geographic information system (GIS) is a system of computer software,
hardware, and data used to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, and
graphically present a potentially wide array of geospatial information. A
GIS combines the disciplines of geography, cartography, computer science,

and mathematics to permit users to query and analyze the attributes2 of
any entity or phenomenon that has been identified by its geographic
location, providing a powerful ability to integrate different kinds of
location-based information. A fully functional GIS includes hardware and
software to support data input, output, storage, retrieval, display, and
analysis. A variety of platforms support GIS processing, ranging from
large mainframe computers and minicomputers to scientific workstations and
personal computers. In many cases, hardware used to support other
applications (e.g., payroll, accounting, and digital image processing) can
also be used.

A variety of technologies, including remote sensing systems and the Global
Positioning System (GPS), are used to collect the geospatial data in a
GIS.3 Remote sensing systems collect data that are either emitted or
reflected by the Earth and the atmosphere from a distance-such as from a
satellite, airplane, or balloon. The GPS is a constellation of orbiting
satellites that provides navigational data to military and civilian users
around the world. With the proper equipment, users can receive signals
from these satellites to calculate time, location, and velocity. GPS
equipment is now being used on aircraft, ships, and land-based vehicles,
and mobile hand-held units provide individuals with these capabilities as
well.

The primary function of a GIS is to link multiple sets of geospatial data
and display the combined information as maps with many different layers of
information. Assuming that all of the information is at the same scale and
has been formatted according to the same standards, users can potentially
overlay spatial information about any number of specific topics to examine
how the layers interrelate. Each layer of a GIS map represents a
particular "theme" or feature, and one layer could be derived from a data
source completely different from the others. For example, one theme could
represent all of the streets in a specific area. Another theme could
correspond to all of the buildings in the same area, and others could show
vegetation or water resources. As long as standard processes and formats
have been used to facilitate integration, each of these themes could be
based on data originally collected and maintained by a separate
organization. Analyzing this layered information as an integrated whole
can significantly aid decision makers in considering complex choices, such
as where to locate a new department of motor vehicles building to best
serve the greatest number of citizens.

Typical geospatial data layers (or themes) include cadastral-describing
location, ownership, and other information about real property; digital
orthoimagery-containing images of the Earth's surface that have the
geometric characteristics of a map and image qualities of a photograph;
and hydrography-describing water features such as lakes, ponds, streams
and rivers, canals, oceans, and coastlines. Figure 1 portrays the concept
of data themes in a GIS.

Figure 1: GIS Layers or Themes

Geographic Information Systems and Data Provide a Broad Range of Benefits

State and local government agencies rely on geographic information systems
to provide vital services to their customers. For example, local fire
departments can use geographic information systems to determine the
quickest and most efficient route from a firehouse to a specific location,
taking into account changing traffic patterns that occur at various times
of day. Highway departments use geographic information systems to identify
intersections that have had a significant number of personal injury
accidents to determine needs for improved traffic signaling or signage.

The usefulness of a GIS in disaster response situations was also
demonstrated in connection with the Space Shuttle Columbia recovery
effort. After the loss of Columbia on February 1, 2003, debris was spread
over at least 41 counties in Texas and Louisiana (see fig. 2). Analysis of
GIS data was critical to the efficient recovery and documentation of that
debris. The Texas state GIS program provided authorities with precise maps
and search grids to guide field reconnaissance and collection crews.
Officials in charge of the effort used maps of debris fields, combined
with GIS data about the physical terrain, to carefully track every piece
of debris found.

Figure 2: Columbia Recovery Map

A GIS can also be an invaluable tool in helping to ensure homeland
security by facilitating preparedness, prevention, detection, and recovery
and response to terrorist attacks. For example, according to a March 2002

Gartner report,4 New York City's GIS system was pivotal in the rescue,
response, and recovery efforts after the September 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks. The city's GIS provided real-time data on the area around the
World Trade Center, so that the mayor, governor, federal officials, and
emergency response agencies could implement critical rescue, response, and
recovery efforts. Specifically, daily flyovers were performed to monitor
changes in the elevation of the site to detect weaknesses in the
underground structure. In addition, thermal imagery was compared with
underground infrastructure maps to determine the locations where fires
were still smoldering and to help the New York City Fire Department and
emergency crews in detecting potential new explosion sites from nearby
flammable substances. Further, maps generated by geospatial information
systems were used to transmit critical information to the public and
emergency personnel and provided the Army and Police Department with
critical data on other potential terrorist targets such as bridges,
tunnels, and reservoirs.

Another use for GIS is in the tracking and responding to natural disasters
such as hurricanes. For example, the Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA) used its GIS capabilities and those of the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to generate maps to track hurricane
Isabel in September 2003. FEMA officials generated maps that estimated
Isabel's track, and used a hurricane wind model to produce maps of
projected damage-prone areas in affected states. These officials also
produced wind damage estimates for structures and infrastructures, such as
sewage treatment plants, nursing homes, schools, and hospitals. Further,
the officials performed various demographic analyses that estimated the
population and number of housing units in affected counties or other
areas. Figure 3 shows an example of a hurricane-tracking map.

Figure 3: Hurricane Isabel Tracking Map

Similarly, many other federal departments and agencies use GIS technology
to help carry out their primary missions. Examples include the following:

o The Department of Housing and Urban Development worked with the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop an enterprise geographic
information system, which combines information on community development
and housing programs with other types of data, including environmental and
transportation data. The program provides homeowners and prospective home
buyers with ready access to detailed local information about environmental
hazards and other information that otherwise would likely be difficult to
obtain.

o The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) uses GIS technology
for a variety of public health functions, such as reporting the results of
national health surveys. In addition, there are a variety of GIS-based
atlases of national mortality from causes such as injury, cardiovascular
disease, cancer, and reproductive health problems. Other GIS activities
focus on disease surveillance and prevention of infectious diseases that
are caused by environmental exposure. A variety of mapping tools are
published on the Web to facilitate citizen access to public health
resources and other information.

o The Census Bureau maintains the Topologically Integrated Geographic
Encoding and Referencing (TIGER) database to support its mission to
conduct the decennial census and other censuses and surveys by spatially
locating all habitations within the United States and reporting the
resulting census estimates and counts. Census provides the spatial
information (not individual addresses) in this publicly accessible
database through its Web site at
http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/index.html.

o NOAA provides access to maps and other geospatial information on
subjects such as the weather and climate, oceans and fisheries, and
satellite imagery used for global weather monitoring at
http://www.noaa.gov.

o EPA maintains a variety of databases with information about the quality
of air, water, and land in the United States. EPA's Envirofacts system
(http://www.epa.gov/enviro/index.html) provides public access to selected
EPA environmental data.

Appendix II provides additional examples of federal geospatial activities.

Coordination of Federal Geospatial Activities

The federal government has for many years taken steps to coordinate
geospatial activities both within and outside the federal government. In
1953, the Bureau of the Budget5 first issued its Circular A-16,
encouraging expeditious surveying and mapping activities across all levels
of government and avoidance of duplicative efforts. In 1990, OMB revised
Circular A-16 to, among other things, establish FGDC within the Department
of the Interior, to promote the coordinated use, sharing, and
dissemination of geospatial data nationwide.

Building on that guidance, the President in 1994 issued Executive Order
12906, assigning to FGDC the responsibility to coordinate the development
of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) to address redundancy
and incompatibility of geospatial information. The infrastructure is
defined by FGDC as the technologies, policies, and people necessary to
promote sharing of geospatial data throughout all levels of government,
the private and nonprofit sectors, and the academic community. The NSDI's
goals are to reduce duplication of effort among agencies; to improve
quality and reduce costs related to geographic information; to make the
benefits of geographic data more accessible to the public; and to
establish key partnerships with states, counties, cities, tribal nations,
academia, and the private sector to increase data availability.

Further, in August 2002, OMB again revised Circular A-16 to reflect
changes in geographic information management and technology and to more
clearly define agency and FGDC roles and responsibilities. In addition to
the responsibilities identified for FGDC, Circular A-16 outlines
responsibilities and reporting requirements for individual federal
agencies to help ensure that geospatial resources are used efficiently and
contribute to building the NSDI. Among other things, the circular requires
that agencies prepare geographic information strategies, use FGDC data
standards, and coordinate and work in partnership with federal, state, and
local governments and the private sector. These responsibilities are
assigned to all agencies that collect, use, or disseminate geographic
information or carry out spatial data activities.

More recently, in December 2002, the E-Government Act of 2002 was signed
into law, requiring OMB to coordinate with state, local, and tribal
governments as well as public-private partnerships and other interested
persons on the development of standard protocols for sharing geographic
information to reduce redundant data collection and promote collaboration
and the use of standards.6

In addition to its responsibilities for geospatial information under the
E-Government Act, OMB has specific oversight responsibilities regarding
federal information technology (IT) systems and acquisition
activities-including GIS-to help ensure their efficient and effective use.
For example, the Clinger-Cohen Act of 19967 requires the Director of OMB
to promote and be responsible for improving the acquisition, use, and
disposal of information technology by the federal government to improve
the productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness of federal programs. These
requirements help to advance OMB's federal IT management responsibilities
under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995,8 which has a similar but more
general requirement that the Director of OMB oversee the use of
information resources to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of
government operations to serve agency missions. Appendix III provides
brief descriptions of key federal legislation, policies, and guidance that
apply to IT and geospatial information and systems investments.

To help carry out its investment oversight role, OMB established
requirements for the acquisition and management of IT resources in its
Circular A-11. The circular establishes policies for planning, budgeting,
acquisition, and management of federal capital assets. Specifically, it
requires agencies to submit business cases to OMB for planned or ongoing
major IT investments.9 These business cases require agencies to answer
questions to help OMB determine if the investment should be funded. Agency
business case submissions must also include (1) the type of data used by
the IT investment, including geospatial data; (2) whether the data needed
for the investment already exist at the federal, state, or local level,
and plans to gain access to that data; (3) potential legal reasons why
existing data cannot be transferred; and (4) compliance with FGDC
standards. According to Circular A-11, agency responses to these questions
are reviewed as part of OMB's evaluation of the overall business case.

In addition to activities associated with Circulars A-11 and A-16, in a
June 2003 congressional hearing, OMB's Administrator, Office of Electronic
Government and Information Technology, stated that the strategic
management of geospatial assets would be accomplished, in part, through
development of a robust and mature federal enterprise architecture. In
2001, the lack of a Federal Enterprise Architecture was cited by OMB's
E-Government Task Force as a barrier to the success of the
administration's e-government initiatives.10 In response, OMB began
developing the FEA, and over the last two years it has released various
versions of all but one of the five FEA reference models. According to
OMB, the purpose of the FEA, among other things, is to provide a common
frame of reference or taxonomy for agencies' individual enterprise
architecture11 efforts and their planned and ongoing investment
activities.

State and Local Government and Private-Sector Geospatial Information and
GIS Activities

State and local governments and the private sector independently provide
information and services apart from those provided by the federal
government, including maintaining land records for nonfederal lands,
property taxation, local planning, subdivision control and zoning, and
direct delivery of many other public services. These entities use
geographic information and GIS to facilitate and support delivery of these
services. In fact, local governments often possess more recent and higher
resolution geospatial data than the federal government, and in many cases
private-sector companies collect these data under contract to local
government agencies.

For example, the state of New York hosts a Web site to provide citizens
with a gateway to state government services at
http://www.nysegov.com/map-NY.cfm. Using this Web site, citizens can
access information about state agencies and their services, and locate
county boundaries, services, and major state highways. New York also
developed a clearinghouse (http://www.nysgis.state.ny.us/) to disseminate
information about statewide GIS programs and provide information and
services including state maps, aerial photographs, and a help desk to
provide support for both general questions and specific questions
regarding the use of GIS software. Many other states, such as Oregon
(http://www.gis.state.or.us/), Virginia
(http://www.vgin.virginia.gov/index.html), and Alaska
(http://www.asgdc.state.ak.us/), provide similar Web sites and services.

For local governments, GIS applications have become integral resources for
public works, and financial, public safety, and economic developments. A
2003 survey sponsored by Interior showed that GIS technology is recognized
as an essential tool by many local governments. For example, Fairfax
County in Virginia developed GIS applications to provide online products
and services to the public that include

o a digital map viewer to see and download property, zoning, topography,
or contour maps;

o an aerial orthoimagery12 photo viewer to access aerial photographs of
specific parcels, areas of interest, or addresses;

o a department of tax administration parcel finder to locate detailed
information about a specific property and to view that parcel with the
parcel viewer; and

o a map gallery that contains many common maps produced by the Fairfax
County GIS and Mapping Department. The maps are letter size and available
in many formats for downloading and printing.

The private sector also plays an important role in support of government
GIS activities because it captures and maintains a wealth of geospatial
data and develops GIS software. Private companies provide services such as
aerial photography, digital topographic mapping, digital orthophotography,
and digital elevation modeling to produce geospatial data sets that are
designed to meet the needs of government organizations.

Figure 4 provides a conceptual summary of the many entities-including
federal, state, and local governments and the private sector-that may be
involved in geospatial data collection and processing relative to a single
geographic location or event. Figure 5 shows the multiple data sets that
have been collected by different agencies at federal, state, and local
levels to capture the location of a segment of roadway in Texas.

Figure 4: Conceptual Diagram of Multiple Geospatial Data Collections and
Processing Associated with a Single Geographic Location

Figure 5: Multiple Street Centerline Data Sets Covering the Same Location
in Texas

Costs Associated with Gathering, Maintaining, and Using Geospatial Data
Are Significant

Costs associated with collecting and maintaining geographically referenced
data and systems for the federal government are significant. Specific
examples of the costs of collecting and maintaining federal geospatial
data and information systems13 include

o FEMA's Multi-Hazard Flood Map Modernization Program-estimated to cost $1
billion over the next 5 years;

o Census's TIGER database-modernization is estimated to have cost over
$170 million between 2001 and 2004;

o Agriculture's Geospatial Database-acquisition and development reportedly
cost over $130 million;

o Interior's National Map-development is estimated to cost about $88
million through 2008;14

o The Department of the Navy's Primary Oceanographic Prediction, and
Oceanographic Information systems-development, modernization, and
operation were estimated to cost about $32 million in fiscal year 2003;
and

o NOAA's Coastal Survey-expenditures for geospatial data are estimated to
cost about $30 million annually.

In addition to the costs for individual agency GIS systems and data, the
aggregated annual cost of collecting and maintaining geospatial data for
all NSDI-related data themes and systems is estimated to be substantial.
According to a recent estimate by the National States Geographic
Information Council (NSGIC), the cost to collect detailed data for five
key data layers of the NSDI-parcel, critical infrastructure, orthoimagery,
elevation, and roads-is about $6.6 billion. The estimate assumes that the
data collection will be coordinated among federal, state, and local
government agencies, and the council cautions that without effective
coordination, the costs could be far higher.

Although Steps Have Been Taken to Coordinate Geospatial Activities,
Redundant Investments Remain

OMB, individual federal agencies, and cross-government committees and
initiatives such as the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) and the
Geospatial One-Stop project have each taken actions to coordinate the
government's geospatial investments. FGDC and other cross-government
entities have established Internet-based information-sharing portals to
support development of the NSDI, led geospatial standards-setting
activities, and conducted various outreach activities. In addition,
individual federal agencies have taken steps to coordinate specific
geospatial investments in certain cases-Agriculture and Interior have
collaborated on a land management system. Finally, OMB has attempted to
oversee and coordinate geospatial investments by collecting and analyzing
relevant agency information.

However, these efforts have not been fully successful in reducing
redundancies in geospatial investments for several reasons. First, a
complete and up-to-date strategic plan has not been in place. The
government's existing strategic plan for the NSDI is out-of-date and does
not include specific measures for identifying and reducing redundancies.
Second, federal agencies have not always fully complied with OMB direction
to coordinate their investments. Many agency geospatial data holdings are
not compliant with FGDC standards or are not published through the
National Geospatial Data Clearinghouse. Third, OMB's oversight methods
have not identified or eliminated specific instances of duplication. The
processes used by OMB to identify potentially redundant geospatial
investments have not been effective, because the agency has not been able
to collect key investment information from all agencies in a consistent
way so that it could be used to identify redundancies.

As a result of shortcomings in all three of these domains, federal
agencies are independently acquiring and maintaining potentially
duplicative and costly data sets and systems. Without better coordination,
such duplication is likely to continue.

FGDC and Others Have Taken Steps to Coordinate GIS Activities
Governmentwide, but Lack a Complete and Up-to-Date Strategic Plan to Guide
Them

Both Executive Order 12906 and OMB Circular A-16 charge FGDC with
responsibilities that support coordination of federal GIS investments.
Specifically, the committee is designated the lead federal executive body
responsible for (1) developing, implementing, and maintaining spatial data
standards; (2) promoting and guiding coordination among federal, state,
tribal, and local government agencies, academia, and the private sector in
the collection, production, sharing, and use of spatial information and
the implementation of the NSDI; (3) communicating information about the
status of infrastructure-related activities via the Internet; and (4)
preparing and maintaining a strategic plan for developing and implementing
the NSDI.

According to OMB Circular A-16, FGDC is to develop standards, with input
from a broad range of data users and providers. Geospatial standards are
intended to facilitate data sharing and increase interoperability among
automated geospatial information systems. In addition, according to
Circular A-16, the committee is to adopt national and international
standards in lieu of federal standards, whenever possible, and restrict
its standards-development activities to areas not covered by other
voluntary standards-consensus bodies.

To address these responsibilities, FGDC has created a standards working
group that includes federal agencies, states, academia, and the private
sector. The working group has developed, and the committee has endorsed, a
number of different geospatial standards, including metadata15 standards,
and are working to continue developing additional standards. The
committee's working group also coordinates with national and international
standards bodies to ensure that potential users support their work.

Regarding coordination with federal and other entities and development of
the NSDI, FGDC has taken a variety of actions. It established a committee
structure with participation from federal agencies and key nonfederal
organizations such as NSGIC, and the National Association of Counties, and
established several programs to help ensure greater participation from
federal agencies as well as other government entities. The committee
structure is composed of (1) a steering committee that sets the high-level
strategic direction for FGDC and (2) agency-led subcommittees and working
groups. The subcommittees and working groups provide the basic structure
for institutions and individuals to interact and coordinate with each
other during the implementation of the NSDI. FGDC membership includes 19
federal agencies, with the Secretary of the Interior and the Deputy
Director for Management, OMB, serving as Chair and Vice-Chair,
respectively.

Key actions taken by FGDC to develop the NSDI include implementing a
National Geospatial Data Clearinghouse and establishing a framework of
data themes. The clearinghouse is a decentralized system of Internet-based
servers that contain descriptions of available geospatial data-over
300,000 metadata records, and information on over 2 million digital images
are currently available through the clearinghouse. It allows individual
agencies, consortia, or others to promote their available geospatial data.
The framework of data themes is a collaborative effort in which commonly
used data "layers" are developed, maintained, and integrated by public and
private organizations within a geographic area. Local, regional, state,
and federal organizations and private companies can use the framework as a
way to share resources, improve communications, and increase efficiency.
Appendix IV provides detailed descriptions of the framework data themes
and other geospatial data layers.

OMB Circular A-16 also calls for FGDC to communicate information, via the
Internet, about its activities related to NSDI development; committee
memberships; and the status of agencies' work on committees,
subcommittees, and working groups. FGDC is also to provide a collection of
technical publications, articles, and reports related to the NSDI. To
address these responsibilities, FGDC has established a Web site at
www.fgdc.gov that provides information on its organizational structure and
agencies' activities on its committees and subcommittees-including minutes
of meetings for each. The Web site also provides, among other information,
technical articles, fact sheets, newsletters, and news releases.

In addition to FGDC's programs to support developing and implementing the
NSDI, two other efforts are under way that aim to coordinate and
consolidate geospatial information and resources across the federal
government-the Geospatial One-Stop initiative and the National Map
project.

Geospatial One-Stop. Geospatial One-Stop is intended to accelerate the
development and implementation of the NSDI to provide federal and state
agencies with a single point of access to map-related data, which in turn
will enable consolidation of redundant geospatial data. OMB selected
Geospatial One-Stop as one of its e-government initiatives,16 in part to
support development of an inventory of national geospatial assets, and
also to support reducing redundancies in federal geospatial assets. The
Department of the Interior was designated as the managing partner to lead
the project, with development support from various other federal agencies.
As of April 2004, over 9,000 metadata records were accessible through the
Geospatial One-Stop portal, located at www.geodata.gov. According to the
initiative's executive director, the portal will continue to add metadata
records by implementing a metadata "harvesting" program to actively gather
metadata from many sources, beginning with the clearinghouse. In addition,
the portal includes a "marketplace" that provides information on planned
and ongoing geospatial acquisitions for use by agencies that are
considering acquiring new data to facilitate coordination of existing and
planned acquisitions.

The National Map. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is developing and
implementing The National Map as a database to provide core geospatial
data about the United States and its territories, similar to the data
traditionally provided on USGS paper topographic maps. Through this
project, USGS maintains an archive for the historic preservation of data
and science applications; provides products and services that include
paper maps, digital images, data download capabilities, and scientific
reports; and promotes geographic integration and analyses. USGS relies
heavily on partnerships with other federal agencies as well as states,
localities, and the private sector to maintain the accuracy and currency
of the national core geospatial data set as represented in The National
Map.

According to Interior's Assistant Secretary-Policy, Management, and
Budget, FGDC, Geospatial One-Stop, and The National Map are coordinating
their efforts in several areas, including developing standards and
framework data layers for the NSDI, increasing the effectiveness of the
clearinghouse, and making information about existing and planned data
acquisitions available through the Geospatial One-Stop Web site.

Table 1 summarizes the NSDI, Geospatial One-Stop, and National Map
programs.

Table 1: Sum

               National Spatial Data    Geospatial One-Stop      The National Map     
                  Infrastructure                             
            The technology, policies,   An e-government                               
            standards, human resources, initiative sponsored A resource to enable and 
            and related activities      by OMB to enhance    communicate information  
Description necessary to acquire,       government           related to geographic    
            process, distribute, use,   efficiency and       science.
            maintain, and preserve      improve citizen      
            geospatial data.            service.             
            To ensure that geospatial   To develop a                                  
            data from multiple sources  geospatial portal to To provide trusted,      
            (federal, state, local, and make easier, faster, integrated, seamless,    
            tribal governments,         and less expensive   and continually          
Purpose     academia, and the private   access to geospatial maintained geospatial    
            sector) are available and   information          base data and archives,  
            easily integrated to        available for all    along with related       
            enhance the understanding   levels of government models and applications.
            of our physical and         and the public.      
            cultural world.                                  
            Data themes that include                         Eight base data themes,  
            geodetic control,           Seventeen data       including five NSDI      
Data        orthoimagery, elevation,    categories,          framework themes, and    
collected   transportation,             representing all     related scientific       
            hydrography, cadastral, and NSDI data themes.    models and applications. 
            government units.                                
                                        Adopts, adapts, or                            
                                        develops standards                            
            Common and repeated rules,  and Internet         Encourages and promotes  
            conditions, guidelines, or  protocols necessary  the use of standards for 
            characteristics for data    for effective        database creation and    
            and related processes. NSDI implementation of    developing and assuring  
Standards   standards are developed and the NSDI; currently  conformance to           
            promulgated by FGDC using   completing work on   standards, guidelines,   
            an established process with FGDC information     and characterizations of
            input from a broad range of content standards    technology.
            data users and providers.   for the NSDI         
                                        framework data       
                                        themes.              
Web site    www.fgdc.gov/nsdi/nsdi.html www.geo-one-stop.gov www.nationalmap.usgs.gov 

mary of the NSDI, Geospatial One-Stop, and National Map Programs

Source: GAO.

In addition to its other responsibilities, OMB Circular A-16 charges FGDC
with leading the preparation of a strategic plan for the implementation of
the NSDI. Such a plan could ensure coherence among the many geospatial
coordination activities that are under way and provide ways to measure
success in reducing redundancies. In 1994, FGDC issued a strategic plan
that described actions federal agencies and others could take to develop
the NSDI, such as establishing data themes and standards, training
programs, and partnerships to promote coordination and data sharing. In
April 1997, FGDC published an updated plan-with input from many
organizations and individuals having a stake in developing the NSDI-that
defined strategic goals and objectives to support the vision of the NSDI
as defined in the 1994 plan. No further updates have been made.

As the current national geospatial strategy document, FGDC's 1997 plan is
out of date. First, it does not reflect the recent broadened use of
geospatial data and systems by many government agencies. In conjunction
with EPA, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), for
example, now makes geospatial information about housing available to
potential home buyers over the Internet. This is one of several agency
geospatial projects that did not exist in 1997. Second, significant
governmentwide geospatial efforts-including the Geospatial One-Stop and
the National Map projects-did not exist in 1997 and are therefore not
reflected in the strategic plan. Finally, the 1997 plan does not take into
account the increased importance that has been placed on homeland security
in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks. Geospatial data and
systems have a key role to play in supporting decision makers and
emergency responders in protecting critical infrastructure and responding
to threats.

In addition to being out of date, the 1997 document lacks important
elements that should be included in an effective strategic plan. According
to the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993,17 such plans should
include a set of outcome-related strategic goals, a description of how
those goals are to be achieved, and an identification of risk factors that
could significantly affect their achievement. The plans should also
include performance goals and measures, with resources needed to achieve
them, as well as a description of the processes to be used to measure
progress.

While the 1997 NSDI plan contains a vision statement and goals and
objectives, it does not include other essential elements. For example,
FGDC's plan does not include a set of outcome-related goals, with actions
to achieve those goals, that would bring together the various actions
being taken to coordinate geospatial assets and achieve the vision of the
NSDI. Specifically, the plan does not include a description of how the
development and implementation of geospatial standards could foster
coordination of national geospatial investments, and what actions FGDC is
taking to help ensure that standards are implemented to effectively
support such coordination. The plan also does not identify how the
programs that FGDC uses to promote coordination among federal agencies and
other entities fit together in a cohesive approach to support and
facilitate collaboration.

In addition to not developing a plan that integrates each of FGDC's
activities to ensure that the actions it takes effectively contribute to
its vision, the strategy does not identify key risk factors that could
significantly affect the achievement of the goals and objectives.
Identifying such risk factors would be the first step in mitigating them,
helping to ensure that the plan's goals and objectives are achievable.

Finally, the current plan does not include performance goals and measures
to help ensure that the steps being taken are resulting in the development
of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure. Performance goals and
measures, with processes in place to measure progress, are important
factors to ensuring the overall effectiveness of the plan and whether the
objectives of the plan are being met.

FGDC officials, in consultation with the executive director of Geospatial
One-Stop, USGS, and participating FGDC member agencies, have initiated a
"future directions" effort to begin the process of updating the plan.
However, this activity is just beginning, and there is no time frame as to
when a new strategy will be in place. Until a complete and up-to-date
national strategic plan, with measurable goals and objectives for
developing the NSDI, is in place, coordination will continue to be
limited, resulting in unnecessary duplication of geospatial assets and
activities.

Individual Federal Agencies Have Coordinated Specific Geospatial
Investments, but Have Not Fully Complied with OMB Guidance

OMB Circular A-16 directs federal agencies to coordinate their investments
to facilitate building the NSDI. The circular lists 11 specific
responsibilities for federal agencies, including

o preparing, maintaining, publishing, and implementing a strategy for
advancing geographic information and related spatial data activities
appropriate to their mission, in support of the NSDI;

o using FGDC standards, including metadata and other appropriate
standards, documenting spatial data with relevant metadata; and

o making metadata available online through a registered NSDI-compatible
clearinghouse site.

In certain cases, federal agencies have taken steps to coordinate their
specific geospatial activities. For example, Agriculture's U.S. Forest
Service and Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) collaborated to
develop the National Integrated Land System (NILS), which is intended to
provide land managers with software tools for the collection, management,
and sharing of survey data, cadastral data, and land records information.
BLM and the Forest Service signed a formal interagency agreement at the
outset of the project, coordinated project planning and management, and
shared project funding. At an estimated cost of about $34 million, a
single GIS-NILS-was developed that can accommodate the shared geospatial
needs of both agencies, eliminating the need for each agency to develop a
separate system. In another example, HUD and the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) worked together to develop an enterprise GIS that combines
information on HUD's community development and housing programs with EPA's
environmental data, as well as other agencies' data, to provide homeowners
and prospective home buyers with ready access to detailed local
information about environmental hazards and other pertinent information,
including data about roadways, population, and local landmarks.

However, despite such examples of coordination, agencies have not always
complied with OMB's broader geospatial coordination requirements. For
example, only 10 of the 17 agencies that provided reports to FGDC reported
having published geospatial strategies as required by Circular A-16. In
addition, agencies' spatial data holdings are generally not compliant with
FGDC standards. Specifically, the annual report shows that, of the 17
agencies, only 4 reported that their spatial data holdings were compliant
with FGDC standards. Ten agencies reported being partially compliant, and
3 agencies provided answers that were unclear as to whether they were
compliant. Finally, regarding the requirement for agencies to post their
data to the clearinghouse,18 only 6 of the 17 agencies indicated that
their data or metadata were published through the clearinghouse, 10
indicated that their data were not published, and 1 indicated that some
data were available through the clearinghouse.

According to comments provided by agencies to FGDC in the annual report
submissions, there are several reasons why agencies have not complied with
their responsibilities under Circular A-16, including the lack of
performance measures that link funding to coordination efforts. According
to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, few incentives exist for
cross-agency cooperation because budget allocations are linked to
individual agency performance rather than to cooperative efforts. In
addition, according to the USGS, agencies' activities and funding are
driven primarily by individual agency missions and do not address
interagency geospatial coordination. In addition to the information
provided in the annual report, Department of Agriculture officials said
there are no clear performance measures that link funding to interagency
coordination.

OMB's Oversight of Federal Geospatial Assets and Activities Has Not
Identified Redundant Investments

OMB has recognized that potentially redundant geospatial assets need to be
identified and that federal geospatial systems and information efforts
need to be coordinated. To help identify potential redundancies, OMB's
Administrator of E-Government and Information Technology testified in June
2003 that the agency uses three key sources of information:

o business cases for planned or ongoing IT investments, submitted by
agencies as part of the annual budget process;

o comparisons of agency lines of business with the Federal Enterprise
Architecture (FEA); and

o annual reports compiled by FGDC and submitted to OMB.

In addition, OMB has asked for detailed information from federal agencies
on specific types of geospatial information and systems assets as an
additional means of identifying and minimizing redundant IT investments.

None of OMB's major oversight processes-the annual review process
associated with development of the federal budget, the FEA effort, and the
FGDC-administered Circular A-16 reporting process-have been effective
tools to help OMB identify major redundancies in federal GIS investments.
According to OMB officials responsible for oversight of geospatial
activities, the agency's methods have not yet led to the identification of
redundant investments that could be targeted for consolidation or
elimination. The OMB officials said they believe that, with further
refinement, these tools will be effective in the future in helping them
identify redundancies. However, until more effective oversight measures
are in place, duplicative and potentially costly geospatial data and
projects are likely to continue, resulting in inefficient use of limited
resources.

IT Investment Business Cases Do Not Completely Describe Geospatial Data
Assets

In their IT business cases submitted annually as part of the budget
process, agencies must report the types of data that will be used,
including geospatial data. According to OMB's branch chief for information
policy and technology, OMB reviews these business cases to determine
whether any redundant geospatial investments are being funded.
Specifically, the process for reviewing a business case includes comparing
proposed investments, IT management and strategic plans, and other
business cases, in an attempt to determine whether a proposed investment
duplicates another agency's existing or already-approved investment.

However, business cases submitted to OMB under Circular A-11 do not always
include enough information to effectively identify potential geospatial
data and systems redundancies because OMB does not require such
information in agency business cases. For example, OMB does not require
that agencies clearly link information about their proposed or existing
geospatial investments to the spatial data categories (themes) established
by Circular A-16. Geospatial systems and data are ubiquitous throughout
federal agencies and are frequently integrated into agencies'
mission-related systems and business processes. Business cases that focus
on mission-related aspects of agency systems and data may not provide the
information necessary to compare specific geospatial investments with
other, potentially similar investments unless the data identified in the
business cases are categorized to allow OMB to more readily compare data
sets and identify potential redundancies.

For example, FEMA's fiscal year 2004 business case for its Multi-Hazard
Flood Map Modernization project indicates that topographic and base data
are used to perform engineering analyses for estimating flood discharge,
develop floodplain mapping, and locate areas of interest related to hazard
areas. However, FEMA does not categorize these data according to
standardized spatial data themes specified in Circular A-16, such as
elevation (bathymetric or terrestrial), transportation, and hydrography.
As a result, it is difficult to determine whether the data overlap with
other federal data sets. Similarly, Census's fiscal year 2005 business
case for its MAF/TIGER Enhancement project indicates that state, local,
tribal, and private-sector spatial data are used for the realignment of
the street centerlines and other features. However, like the Flood Map
Modernization business case, the MAF/TIGER Enhancement business case does
not categorize these data according to the Circular A-16 data themes,
which would allow OMB to compare them with other agencies' holdings.
Without categorizing the data using the standard data themes as an
important step toward coordinating that data, information about agencies'
planned or ongoing use of geospatial data in their business cases cannot
be effectively assessed to determine whether it could be integrated with
other existing or planned federal geospatial assets.

The Federal Enterprise Architecture Is Not Yet Effective in Identifying
Potentially Redundant Geospatial Investments

An FEA is being constructed that, once it is further developd, may help
identify potentially redundant geospatial investments. It will comprise a
collection of five interrelated "reference models" designed to facilitate
cross-agency analysis and the identification of duplicative investments,
gaps, and opportunities for collaboration within and across federal
agencies. According to recent GAO testimony on the status of the FEA,
although OMB has made progress on the FEA, it remains a work in process
and is still maturing.19 The five FEA reference models are summarized in
table 2.

Table 2: FEA Reference Models

Reference model          Description                  Status               
                            Describes the business                            
                            operations (lines of                              
                            business) of the federal     
Business Reference Model government independent of    Version 2.0 released
                            the agencies that perform    June 2003
                            them, including defining the 
                            services provided to state   
                            and local governments.       
                            Identifies and classifies IT                      
                            service (i.e., application)                       
Service Component        components that support      Version 1.0 released
Reference Model          federal agencies and promote June 2003
                            the reuse of components      
                            across agencies.             
                            Describes how technology is                       
                            supporting the delivery of                        
Technical Reference      service components,          Version 1.1 released
Model                    including relevant standards August 2003
                            for implementing the         
                            technology.                  
                            Provides a common set of                          
Performance Reference    general performance outputs  Version 1.0 released 
Model                    and measures for agencies to September 2003
                            use to achieve business      
                            goals and objectives.        
                            Describes, at an aggregate                        
                            level, the types of data and 
Data and Information     information that support     
Reference Model          program and business line    Not yet released
                            operations, and the          
                            relationships among these    
                            types.                       

Source: GAO.

OMB has identified multiple purposes for the FEA. One purpose cited is to
inform agencies' individual enterprise architectures and to facilitate
their development by providing a common classification structure and
vocabulary. Another stated purpose is to provide a governmentwide
framework that can increase agencies' awareness of IT capabilities that
other agencies have or plan to acquire, so that they can explore
opportunities for reuse. Still another stated purpose is to help OMB
decision makers identify opportunities for collaboration among agencies
through the implementation of common, reusable, and interoperable
solutions. GAO supports the FEA as a framework for achieving these ends.

According to OMB's branch chief for information policy and technology, OMB
reviews all new investment proposals against the federal government's
lines of business in its Business Reference Model to identify those
investments that appear to have some commonality. Many of the model's
lines of business include areas in which geospatial information is of
critical importance, including disaster management (the cleanup and
restoration activities that take place after a disaster); environmental
management (functions required to monitor the environment and weather,
determine proper environmental standards, and address environmental
hazards and contamination); and transportation (federally supported
activities related to the safe passage, conveyance, or transportation of
goods and people).

The Service Component Reference Model includes specific references to
geospatial data and systems. It is intended to identify and classify IT
service components (i.e., applications) that support federal agencies and
promote the reuse of components across agencies. The model includes 29
types of services-including customer relationship management and
visualization service, which defines capabilities that support the
conversion of data into graphical or picture form. One component of
visualization service is associated with mapping, geospatial, elevation,
and GPS services. Identification of redundant investments under the
visualization service could provide OMB with information that would be
useful in identifying redundant geospatial systems investments.

Finally, the Data and Information Reference Model would likely be the most
critical FEA element in identifying potentially redundant geospatial
investments. According to OMB, it will categorize the government's
information along general content areas and describe data components that
are common to many business processes or activities.

Although the FEA includes elements that could be used to help identify
redundant investments, it is not yet sufficiently developed to be useful
in identifying redundant geospatial investments. While the Business and
Service Component reference models have aspects related to geospatial
investments, the Data and Information Reference Model may be the critical
element for identifying agency use of geospatial data because it is
planned to provide standard categories of data that could support
comparing data sets among federal agencies. However, this model has not
yet been completed and thus is not in use. Until the FEA is completed and
OMB develops effective analytical processes to use it, it will not be able
to contribute to identifying potentially redundant geospatial investments.

FGDC-Administered Agency Reporting Does Not Provide Adequate Information
for Identifying Redundant Geospatial Investments

OMB Circular A-16 requires agencies to report annually to OMB on their
achievements in advancing geographic information and related spatial data
activities appropriate to their missions and in support of the NSDI. To
support this requirement, FGDC has developed a structure for agencies to
use to report such information in a consistent format and for aggregating
individual agencies' information. Using the agency reports, the committee
prepares an annual report to OMB purportedly identifying the scope and
depth of spatial data activities across agencies.

For the fiscal year 2003 report, agencies were asked to respond to a
number of specific questions about their geospatial activities, including
(1) whether a detailed strategy had been developed for integrating
geographic information and spatial data into their business processes, (2)
how they ensure that data are not already available prior to collecting
new geospatial data, and (3) whether geospatial data are a component of
the agency's enterprise architecture. However, additional information that
is critical to identifying redundancies was not required. For example,
agencies were not requested to provide information on their specific GIS
investments or the geospatial data sets they collected and maintained.
According to the FGDC staff director, the annual reports are not meant to
provide an inventory of federal geospatial assets. As a result, they
cannot provide OMB with sufficient information to identify redundancies in
federal geospatial investments.

Further, because not all agencies provide reports to FGDC, the information
that OMB has available to identify redundancies is incomplete. Eight of
the FGDC partner agencies, including the Departments of Energy, Justice,
and Homeland Security, and the National Science Foundation, did not
provide reports for fiscal year 2003. In addition, nonpartner agencies,
including the Departments of Education, Labor, Veterans Affairs and the
Treasury, did not provide reports, although all agencies that collect,
use, or disseminate geospatial information, regardless of whether they are
FGDC partners, are required to do so. According to OMB's program examiner
for the Department of the Interior, OMB does not know in detail how well
agencies are complying with the reporting requirements in Circular A-16.
Until the information reported by agencies is consistent and complete, OMB
may not be able to effectively use what information they do have to
identify potential geospatial redundancies.

OMB's Supplemental Data Requests Have Not Provided Sufficient Information
to Identify Potentially Redundant Investments

In addition to the three tools OMB uses to identify potentially redundant
geospatial investments, it has also issued special requests to agencies to
report on their geospatial investments to help support its oversight
function for geospatial information, as required by OMB Circular A-16. For
example, as part of the 2004 budget cycle, OMB initiated a pilot project
to collect detailed cost information on one geospatial data
theme-elevation data. Despite specifying criteria for identifying
elevation data, the pilot encountered problems.

FGDC developed criteria for this pilot process, but OMB did not follow it.
Budget examiners at OMB modified the criteria to take into account the
agencies' widely varying missions, and broadened the criteria for
individual agencies to make it easier for them to identify elevation data
in the same way they tracked the data internally. As a result, elevation
data were not reported consistently and could not be compared across
agencies.

A data collection effort associated with the fiscal year 2005 budget
process raised the same questions as the 2004 effort about its
effectiveness to support OMB's oversight responsibilities. As part of the
fiscal year 2005 budget cycle, OMB again requested supplemental
information from federal agencies to identify which agencies are
collecting geospatial data, for what purposes, and covering which
geographic areas; federal expenditures related to data collection and the
extent of leveraging of those expenditures; the extent of sharing of and
public access to federal geospatial data; and the use of standards.
Specifically, OMB asked agencies that spend $500,000 or more on any
geospatial data to report information on all types of geospatial data,
with a focus on the seven types of framework data identified by FGDC.
However, because the earlier problems have not been addressed, the 2005
supplemental data request is also unlikely to provide useful information
for OMB to identify redundant federal geospatial investments.

Federal Agencies Continue to Collect and Maintain Duplicative Data and
Systems

Without a complete and up-to-date strategy for coordination or effective
investment oversight by OMB, federal agencies continue to acquire and
maintain duplicative data and systems. According to the initial business
case for the Geospatial One-Stop initiative, about 50 percent of the
federal government's geospatial data investment is duplicative. Such
duplication is widely recognized. Officials from federal and state
agencies and OMB have all stated that unnecessarily redundant geospatial
data and systems exist throughout the federal government. The Staff
Director of FGDC agreed that redundancies continue to exist throughout the
federal government and that more work needs to be done to specifically
identify them. DHS's Geospatial Information Officer also acknowledged
redundancies in geospatial data acquisitions at his agency, and said that
DHS is working to create an enterprisewide approach to managing geospatial
data in order to reduce redundancies. Similarly, state representatives to
the National States Geographic Information Council have identified cases
in which they have observed multiple federal agencies funding the
acquisition of similar data to meet individual agency needs.

We found that USGS, FEMA, and the Department of Defense (DOD) each
maintain separate elevation data sets: USGS's National Elevation Dataset,
FEMA's flood hazard mapping elevation data program, and DOD's elevation
data regarding Defense installations. FEMA officials indicated that they
obtained much of their data from state and local partners or purchased
them from the private sector because data from those sources better fit
their accuracy and resolution requirements than elevation data available
from USGS. Similarly, according to one Army official, available USGS
elevation data sets generally do not include military installations, and
even when such data are available for specific installations, they are
typically not accurate enough for DOD's purposes. As a result, DOD
collects its own elevation data for its installations. In this example, if
USGS elevation data-collection projects were coordinated with FEMA and DOD
to help ensure that the needs of as many federal agencies as possible were
met through the project, potentially costly and redundant data-collection
activities could be avoided. According to the USGS Associate Director for
Geography, USGS is currently working to develop relationships with FEMA
and DOD, along with other federal agencies, to determine where these
agencies' data-collection activities overlap.

In another example, officials at the Department of Agriculture and the
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) both said they have
purchased data sets containing street-centerline data from commercial
sources, even though the Census Bureau maintains such data in its TIGER
database. According to these officials, they purchased the data
commercially because they had concerns about the accuracy of the TIGER
data. The Census Bureau is currently working to enhance its TIGER data in
preparation for the 2010 census, and a major objective of the project is
to improve the accuracy of its street location data. However, despite
Agriculture and NGA's use of street location data, Census did not include
either agency in the TIGER enhancement project plan's list of agencies
that will be affected by the initiative. Without better coordination,
agencies such as Agriculture and NGA are likely to continue to need to
purchase redundant commercial data sets in the future.

Further, in a recent report on coastal mapping and charting, the National
Research Council cited numerous examples of redundant activity in coastal
mapping, including aerial imaging, shoreline mapping, and habitat
mapping.20 The council noted that redundancy in data collection is of most
concern, as it is by far the most expensive of geospatial activities, and
concluded that agencies do not have an efficient means of determining
whether an area of interest has been previously mapped. Without
better-coordinated activities, federal agencies are likely to continue to
duplicate data collection.

Conclusions

The longstanding problem of effectively coordinating federal geospatial
investments to reduce unnecessary redundancies and their concomitant costs
has not yet been resolved. A number of activities have been initiated with
the aim of better coordinating geospatial investments, including the
OMB-required activities of FGDC, as well as the Geospatial One-Stop
initiative and other projects such as The National Map. In addition,
individual agencies have collaborated on specific geospatial projects, and
OMB has adopted several processes for identifying redundant geospatial
investments.

However, these efforts have not been very successful in reducing
redundancies in geospatial investments. A complete and up-to-date
strategic plan to coordinate the government's various geospatial
activities is lacking, and federal agencies have not fully complied with
OMB's Circular A-16 guidance. Similarly, OMB's processes for identifying
duplicative federal geospatial investments have not proven effective.

Until a comprehensive national strategy is in place, the current state of
ineffective coordination is likely to remain, and the vision of the NSDI
will likely not be fully realized. In addition, without effective
oversight by OMB, agencies might not have adequate incentives to fully
coordinate their geospatial activities, and OMB will not be able to
identify potentially duplicative geospatial investments. Until these
shortcomings are addressed, cost savings from eliminating duplicative
geospatial investments will not materialize.

Recommendations for Executive Action

In order to encourage more coordination of geospatial assets, reduce
needless redundancies, and decrease costs, we recommend that the Director
of OMB and the Secretary of the Interior, in coordination with the FGDC,
establish milestones for the development of an updated national geospatial
data strategic plan, ensuring that the plan includes

o outcome-related strategic goals and objectives;

o a plan for how the goals and objectives are to be achieved;

o identification of key risk factors that could significantly affect the
achievement of the general goals and objectives and a mitigation plan for
those risk factors; and

o performance goals and measures that will be used to ensure that the
goals and objectives of the NSDI are being met.

To encourage better agency compliance with Circular A-16, we also
recommend that the Director of OMB develop criteria for assessing the
extent of interagency coordination on proposals for potential geospatial
investments. Based on these criteria, funding for potential geospatial
investments should be delayed or denied when coordination is not
adequately addressed in agencies' proposals.

Finally, we recommend that the Director of OMB strengthen the agency's
oversight actions to more effectively coordinate federal geospatial data
and systems acquisitions and thereby reduce potentially redundant
investments. Specifically, OMB should

o require that information about planned geospatial data acquisitions
provided in agencies' business cases include specific categorizations of
all geospatial data according to the standardized data themes defined by
FGDC and described in OMB Circular A-16; and

o require that all federal agencies submit annual reports to FGDC on their
GIS investments, including geospatial systems and data sets already in
place.

Agency Comments and Our Evaluation

We received oral comments on a draft of this report from representatives
of OMB's Offices of Information and Regulatory Affairs and Resource
Management and from the Assistant Secretary of the Interior-Policy,
Management, and Budget. The officials from both agencies generally agreed
with the content of our draft report and our recommendations and provided
technical comments, which have been incorporated where appropriate. In
addition, the Departments of Defense and Health and Human Services and the
Bureau of the Census also provided oral technical comments, which have
been incorporated where appropriate.

Concerning our recommendation that OMB strengthen its oversight to more
effectively coordinate federal geospatial data and systems acquisitions,
the OMB representatives stated that they are planning to institute a new
process to collect more complete information on agencies' geospatial
investments by requiring agencies to report all such investments through
the Geospatial One-Stop Web portal. OMB representatives told us that
reporting requirements for agencies would be detailed in a new directive
that OMB expects to issue by the end of summer 2004.

The Department of the Interior's Assistant Secretary of the
Interior-Policy, Management, and Budget noted that our report emphasizes
geospatial investments rather than the broader and more comprehensive
geospatial strategies outlined in OMB Circular A-16, and pointed out that
encouraging the growth of a national spatial data infrastructure-versus
tracking geospatial investments and minimizing duplication-required
different approaches. In the department's view, activities by FGDC and the
Geospatial One-Stop initiative to develop an infrastructure for
information sharing have established business practices that can result in
sound investments. We agree with the department that these are valuable
activities that can promote sound investments. Moreover, a detailed
strategic plan, coupled with improved oversight and agency compliance with
coordination guidance, remain critical steps to achieving the objective of
reducing duplication in federal geospatial investments.

We are sending copies of this report to the Chairman and Ranking Minority
Member, House Committee on Government Reform, and the Ranking Minority
Member, Subcommittee on Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental
Relations and the Census. In addition, we are providing copies to the
Director of OMB and the Secretary of the Interior, and the report is
available at no charge on the GAO Web site at http://www.gao.gov.

Should you have any questions about this report, please contact me at
(202) 512-6240 or John de Ferrari, Assistant Director, at (202) 512-6335.
We can also be reached by e-mail at [email protected] and
[email protected], respectively. Other key contributors to this report
were Michael Holland, Steven Law, and Elizabeth Roach.

Linda D. Koontz Director, Information Management Issues

Objective, Scope, and MethodologyAppendix I

Our objective was to determine the extent to which the federal government
is coordinating the sharing of geospatial assets, including through
oversight measures in place at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB),
in order to identify and reduce redundancies in federal geospatial data
and systems.

To address this objective, we reviewed relevant federal guidance and
legislation, including The E-Government Act of 2002; The Clinger-Cohen Act
of 1996; The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995; Executive Order 12906:
Coordinating Geographic Data Acquisition and Access; OMB Circular A-11:
Preparation, Submission, and Execution of the Budget; OMB Circular A-16:
Coordination of Geographic Information and Related Spatial Data
Activities; and OMB Circular A-130: Management of Federal Information
Resources. Appendix III provides additional information about each. We
also reviewed agency IT business cases, known as Exhibit 300s, submitted
as part of the annual budget process. In addition, we evaluated the
Federal Enterprise Architecture reference models and various FGDC
documents and interviewed officials from the following federal agencies in
the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area:

o Department of Agriculture;

o Department of Commerce, including the Census Bureau and the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration;

o Department of Defense, including the National Geospatial-Intelligence
Agency;

o Department of Health and Human Services;

o Department of Homeland Security, including the Federal Emergency
Management Agency;

o Department of the Interior, including the Bureau of Land Management and
the U.S. Geological Survey;

o Environmental Protection Agency; and

o Office of Management and Budget.

We interviewed program officials representing key federal geospatial
projects, including the Federal Geographic Data Committee, Geospatial
One-Stop, The National Map, and the TIGER Modernization project. For these
projects, we reviewed key documents such as capital asset plans, project
plans, and other project documentation.

To better understand federal efforts to coordinate with state and local
governments and the private sector, we interviewed state and local
government and private sector officials at several conferences, including
the ESRI Federal User Conference and the National Association of Counties
Legislative Conference. In addition, we conducted focus groups at three
national conferences in March 2004: (1) The National League of Cities
Congressional City Conference; (2) the Management Association for Private
Photogrammetric Surveyors Federal Programs Conference; and (3) the
National States Geographic Information Council Midyear Conference. At
these focus groups we asked state and local government and private sector
officials for their views on what the federal government was doing to
coordinate its geospatial activities with them and what could be done to
improve the coordination of federal geospatial activities. A total of 34
state and local government and private sector officials attended these
focus groups.

In addition, to determine the extent of state and local participation in
the National Geospatial Data Clearinghouse and the Geospatial One-Stop
portal, we obtained information from FGDC officials about the metadata
records contained in the clearinghouse and conducted analyses of the data
referenced in the Geospatial One-Stop portal.

We conducted our work from October 2003 through May 2004 in accordance
with generally accepted government auditing standards.

Selected Agencies' Geospatial ActivitiesAppendix II

Many federal agencies have established geospatial activities to help them
achieve their specific goals and objectives. Table 3 highlights selected
federal geospatial activities at certain agencies. The table is not
intended to be a comprehensive list of agency geospatial activities.

Table 3: Selected Geospatial Activities at Federal Agencies

Agency                            Activities                               
                                     The Forest Service uses GIS to provide   
                                     information on vegetation, water, fire,  
                                     and soil for specified forests. The      
                                     agency also develops digital orthophoto  
                                     quad images and maintains a              
Department of Agriculture         clearinghouse with geospatial metadata.  
(USDA)/Forest Service             In addition, the Forest Service is       
                                     working with Interior's Bureau of Land   
                                     Management to develop the National       
                                     Integrated Land System, to support the   
                                     management of cadastral records and land 
                                     parcel information.                      
                                     NCGC Internet Mapping offers Web access  
                                     to view samples of hydrography, digital  
                                     orthophotography, digital topographic    
USDA/National Cartography and     data, and other integrated data layers.  
Geospatial Center (NCGC)          In addition, NCGC supports an Aerial     
                                     Photography Field Office with a library  
                                     of over 10 million images dating from    
                                     1955 to the present.                     
                                     The NRCS Geospatial Data Gateway         
                                     provides easy and consistent access to   
USDA/Natural Resources            natural resource data by geographic area 
Conservation Service (NRCS)       such as county or state. Users can       
                                     search for data by theme, such as        
                                     digital orthoimagery, digital elevation  
                                     models, or soils.                        
                                     The FSA is implementing software that    
                                     will be important in the maintenance of  
USDA/Farm Service Agency (FSA)    the Common Land Unit (CLU), which will   
                                     track all farming activity across the    
                                     country. The CLU should be completed     
                                     nationwide in fiscal year 2005.          
                                     The Census Bureau developed the          
                                     Topologically Integrated Geographic      
                                     Encoding and Referencing (TIGER)         
                                     database, which automates the mapping    
                                     and related geographic activities        
                                     required to support the decennial census 
                                     and the bureau's sample survey programs. 
                                     Census is also working on the Master     
                                     Address File/TIGER (MAF/TIGER) Accuracy  
                                     Improvement Project, which seeks to      
                                     improve accuracy in TIGER by acquiring   
Department of Commerce            and using, as a first priority among     
(DOC)/Census Bureau               data sources, digital files prepared and 
                                     provided by state, local, and tribal     
                                     governments. In addition, Census         
                                     maintains the TIGER Enhancement          
                                     Database, which includes metadata about  
                                     state and local geospatial data. Census  
                                     also conducts the Boundary and           
                                     Annexation Survey to update the          
                                     information it has about the legal       
                                     boundaries, names, governmental status,  
                                     and types of municipalities in the       
                                     United States.                           
                                     NOAA makes extensive use of GIS          
                                     technology to store the large quantity   
                                     of data it collects. For example, the    
                                     Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory  
                                     and the Alaska Fisheries Science Center  
                                     collect data about the physical and      
                                     biological characteristics of the Bering 
                                     Sea and the Gulf of Alaska, which are    
                                     then stored in a GIS. In addition,       
DOC/National Oceanic and          NOAA's Coastal Services Center develops  
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) products and services through project    
                                     partnerships that address specific       
                                     technical needs and capacities of the    
                                     coastal management community. These      
                                     projects typically focus on data access  
                                     and distribution, Internet mapping, and  
                                     spatial data analysis and visualization  
                                     as a means of addressing coastal         
                                     hazards, smart growth, marine protected  
                                     areas, or coastal permitting issues.     
Department of Defense             NGA provides timely, accurate, global    
(DOD)/National Geospatial         aeronautical, topographical, and         
Intelligence Agency (NGA)         maritime geospatial information in       
                                     support of national security objectives. 
Agency                            Activities                               
                                     The Army Corps of Engineers collects     
                                     hydrographic data along the Inland       
                                     Waterway to ensure that navigation       
                                     channels are dredged to authorized       
                                     depths; aerial photography and elevation 
                                     data of authorized projects to support a 
DOD/Army Corps of Engineers       variety of planning- and                 
                                     construction-related activities, and     
                                     uses geospatial technologies as part of  
                                     its water control, real estate, planning 
                                     and reconnaissance studies, emergency    
                                     management, regulatory, environmental    
                                     restoration, engineering and             
                                     reconstruction missions.                 
                                     The Navy's Oceanographic Information     
                                     System collects, analyzes, processes,    
                                     manages, produces, and distributes       
                                     classified and unclassified              
DOD/Navy                          oceanographic data and products. In      
                                     addition, the system functions as the    
                                     initial collection and processing entity 
                                     for mapping and charting geodesy data    
                                     and information.                         
                                     The Los Alamos National Laboratory's     
                                     GISLab supplies geospatial information   
                                     for internal and external users of       
Department of Energy (DOE)/Los    geospatial data. Current projects        
Alamos National Laboratory        include fire-related spatial data,       
                                     floodplain mapping and hydrological      
                                     modeling, field mapping for forest       
                                     management, and mesoscale climate change 
                                     modeling.                                
                                     The National Renewable Energy Laboratory 
                                     site provides dynamically generated maps 
                                     of renewable energy resources that       
                                     determine which energy technologies are  
DOE/National Renewable Energy     viable solutions in the United States.   
Laboratory                        These maps include GIS Clean Cities Map, 
                                     Wind Map, Transportation Technologies    
                                     Map, Map of Indian Lands, Solar Maps,    
                                     and Federal Energy Management Program    
                                     Maps.                                    
                                     The Agency for Toxic Substances and      
Department of Health and Human    Disease Registry manages a geospatial    
Services (HHS)/Agency for Toxic   data warehouse that contains base map,   
Substances and Disease Registry   sociodemographic, emergency response,    
                                     environmental, hazard, and health        
                                     resource data.                           
                                     The Centers for Disease Control and      
                                     Prevention engages in a variety of GIS   
                                     activities that serve disease            
                                     surveillance and prevention themes. The  
                                     National Center for Injury Prevention    
                                     and Control publishes Web-based maps on  
                                     injury statistics and mortality atlases; 
                                     the National Center for Chronic Disease  
                                     Prevention and Heath Promotion uses GIS  
                                     to analyze and publish geospatial data,  
HHS/Centers for Disease Control   such as mapping risk factor data and the 
and Prevention                    prevalence of fluoridated water systems, 
                                     cardiovascular mortality atlases, etc.;  
                                     and the National Center for              
                                     Environmental Health (NCEH) has recently 
                                     deployed the Environmental Public Health 
                                     Geography Network, a system designed to  
                                     publish and share geospatial data,       
                                     metadata and maps. NCEH also deployed    
                                     the Spatial Epidemiology and Emergency   
                                     Management System, a Web-based system to 
                                     provide easy and rapid access to and     
                                     mapping of geospatial data.              
                                     The National Cancer Institute maintains  
                                     the Cancer Mortality Maps & Graph Web    
HHS/National Institutes of        Site, which provides information on      
Health/National Cancer Institute  geographic patterns and time trends of   
                                     cancer death rates from 1950 to 1994 for 
                                     more than 40 types of cancer.            
                                     Various DHS components are frequent      
                                     users of geospatial information,         
Department of Homeland Security   including the Federal Emergency          
(DHS)                             Management Agency (FEMA), the Bureau of  
                                     Transportation Security, the Coast       
                                     Guard, and the Secret Service.           
                                     FEMA provides a full range of GIS        
                                     services to all FEMA program offices,    
                                     including storm tracking and damage      
                                     prediction maps, remote sensing maps,    
                                     maps of federally declared counties in   
                                     an affected state, basic census          
                                     demographics about an affected area by   
                                     county and census block, street          
                                     locations, and summaries of              
DHS/Federal Emergency Management  teleregistered and service center        
Agency (FEMA)                     applicants, housing inspection numbers,  
                                     Help-line calls, disaster unemployment   
                                     claims, Small Business Administration    
                                     applicants, etc. In addition, FEMA's     
                                     Flood Map Modernization Program will     
                                     update FEMA's current stock of flood     
                                     maps in order to produce more accurate   
                                     and accessible digital flood maps and    
                                     make those maps accessible via the       
                                     Internet.                                
Agency                            Activities                               
                                     BLM uses GIS to store and analyze public 
                                     land and administrative jurisdiction     
Department of the Interior        information. In addition, BLM is working 
(DOI)/Bureau of Land Management   with the Forest Service to develop the   
(BLM)                             National Integrated Land System (NILS)   
                                     to provide business solutions for the    
                                     management of cadastral records and land 
                                     parcel information in a GIS environment. 
                                     The Fish and Wildlife Service uses GIS   
                                     technology to: maintain wetlands data,   
                                     as referenced in OMB Circular A-16, and  
                                     share that data through a cooperative    
                                     agreement with The National Map; create  
                                     and share a variety of information on    
DOI/Fish and Wildlife Service     endangered species, fisheries and        
(FWS)                             habitat conservation, and national       
                                     wildlife refuges; make metadata          
                                     available on the NSDI through a          
                                     cooperative agreement with USGS; and     
                                     share an interactive mapping application 
                                     with basic information on Fish and       
                                     Wildlife Service offices through         
                                     Geospatial One-Stop.                     
                                     The National Park Service uses           
                                     geospatial data to enhance preservation  
                                     of park resources with scientific        
                                     spatial analysis and modeling, enhance   
DOI/National Park Service         visitor experiences with GPS tools and   
                                     tips; provide an Interactive Map Center  
                                     to deliver base maps and park brochure   
                                     maps for geographic reference and        
                                     navigation to and within parks; and      
                                     provide search and rescue maps.          
                                     USGS's Cooperative Topographic Mapping   
                                     program works with partners in other     
                                     federal agencies; in state, county, and  
                                     local governments, and in the private    
                                     sector to ensure that accurate, current, 
                                     and complete data that locate and        
                                     describe the Earth's features are        
                                     available and that products such as the  
                                     USGS topographic series maps are kept up 
                                     to date. The Geographic Analysis and     
                                     Monitoring program conducts research to  
                                     understand the rates, causes, and        
                                     consequences of landscape change over    
                                     time and uses that research to model     
                                     change processes for predicting future   
                                     conditions. The Land Remote Sensing      
                                     program, working with NASA, NOAA,        
                                     commercial satellite companies, state    
                                     and local governments, and international 
DOI/U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) programs, collects, maintains, and       
                                     distributes millions of images acquired  
                                     from satellite and aircraft sensors. In  
                                     addition, USGS provides a site that      
                                     serves as a node of the NSDI for finding 
                                     and accessing USGS spatial data related  
                                     to hydrography. In addition, USGS is     
                                     developing and implementing The National 
                                     Map as a database to provide core        
                                     geospatial data about the United States  
                                     and its territories similar to the data  
                                     provided on USGS paper topographic maps. 
                                     Through this project, USGS maintains an  
                                     archive for the historic preservation of 
                                     data and science applications; provides  
                                     products and services that include paper 
                                     maps, digital images, data download      
                                     capabilities, and scientific reports;    
                                     and promotes geographic integration and  
                                     analyses.                                
Department of Justice/Justice                                              
Programs Office for Victims of    Uses GIS to map crime victim services.
Crime                             
                                     The Bureau of Transportation Statistics  
                                     maintains the National Transportation    
                                     Atlas Data Shapefile Download Center,    
Department of Transportation      which is a set of transportation-related 
(DOT)/Bureau of Transportation    geospatial data for the United States,   
Statistics (BTS)                  including transportation networks,       
                                     transportation facilities, and other     
                                     spatial data used as geographic          
                                     reference.                               
                                     The Volpe National Transportation        
                                     Systems Center uses GIS to identify data 
DOT/Volpe National Transportation such as county boundaries, roadways, and 
Systems Center                    railroads, measure ambient noise levels, 
                                     and search for locations such as         
                                     historic beacon sites and environmental  
                                     data.                                    
                                     EPA uses a variety of geospatial data in 
                                     order to support its mission to protect  
                                     human health and the environment.        
                                     Specific examples of activities          
                                     supported by geospatial information      
                                     include: conducting analyses to help     
                                     manage urban/suburban growth, responding 
                                     to oil spills and other emergency        
                                     situations, identifying sources of       
                                     pollution for source water protection,   
Environmental Protection Agency   tracking toxic substances, cleaning up   
(EPA)                             and monitoring Superfund sites,          
                                     detecting and evaluating landscape       
                                     patterns and changes, analyzing the      
                                     relationship between health and          
                                     environmental contaminants, and          
                                     monitoring water quality. EPA also       
                                     maintains the Environmental Information  
                                     Management System (EIMS), the EPA node   
                                     on the Federal Geographic Data Committee 
                                     Clearinghouse. Users can obtain metadata 
                                     about EPA Geospatial data through EIMS.  
Agency                            Activities                               
                                     The Enterprise Geographic Information    
                                     System combines information on HUD's     
                                     community development and housing        
                                     programs with EPA's environmental data,  
                                     and other agencies' data, to provide     
Department of Housing and Urban   location, type, and performance of       
Development (HUD) and the         HUD-funded activities in every           
Environmental Protection Agency   neighborhood across the country and      
                                     select EPA information on brownfields,   
                                     hazardous wastes, air pollution, and     
                                     wastewater discharges. It also provides  
                                     information on population,               
                                     transportation and roadways, and local   
                                     landmarks.                               
                                     NASA's Global Change Master Directory    
                                     enables users to locate and obtain       
                                     access to Earth science data sets and    
National Aeronautics and Space    services relevant to the global change   
Administration (NASA)             and Earth science research. The database 
                                     holds more than 15,000 descriptions of   
                                     Earth science data sets and services     
                                     covering all aspects of Earth and        
                                     environmental sciences.                  
                                     The TVA provides an interactive map of   
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)  the entire TVA power system, a network   
                                     of reservoirs and power plants.          

Source: GAO.

Key Federal Laws, Policies, and Guidance Affecting Geospatial Information
and SystemsAppendix III

The E-Government Act of 2002, Section 216: Common Protocols for Geographic
Information Systems. The purposes of this section are to (1) reduce
redundant data collection and information and (2) promote collaboration
and use of standards for government geographic information. It requires
the Director of OMB to oversee (1) an interagency initiative to develop
common geospatial protocols; (2) the coordination with state, local, and
tribal governments, public private partnerships, and other interested
persons of effective and efficient ways to align geographic information
and develop common protocols; and (3) the adoption of common standards.

The Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996. The Clinger-Cohen Act directs the OMB
Director to promote and improve the acquisition, use, and disposal of
information technology by the federal government to improve the
productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness of federal programs, including
through dissemination of public information and the reduction of
information collection burdens on the pubic.

The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. This legislation directs the OMB
Director to oversee the use of information resources to improve the
efficiency and effectiveness of government operations to serve agency
missions, including burden reduction and service delivery to the public.
This includes developing, coordinating, and overseeing the implementation
of federal information resources management policies, principles,
standards, and guidelines.

Executive Order 12906: Coordinating Geographic Data Acquisition and
Access. The National Spatial Data Infrastructure. This order, originally
issued in 1994 and revised in 2003, establishes FGDC as the interagency
coordinating body for the development of the NSDI and directs FGDC to
involve state, local, and tribal governments in the development and
implementation of the NSDI. The executive order also establishes a
National Geospatial Data Clearinghouse, directs FGDC to develop standards
for implementing the NSDI, and requires that federal agencies collecting
or producing geospatial data shall ensure that data will be collected in a
manner that meets all relevant standards adopted through the FGDC process.
In addition, the executive order requires the Interior Secretary to
develop strategies for maximizing cooperative participatory efforts with
state, local, and tribal governments, the private sector, and other
nonfederal organizations to share costs and improve efficiencies of
acquiring geospatial data.

OMB Circular A-11: Preparation, Submission, and Execution of the Budget.
Part 7, Planning Budgeting, Acquisition, and Management of Capital Assets.
This circular establishes policy for planning, budgeting, acquisition, and
management of federal capital assets and instructs agencies on budget
justification and reporting requirements for major IT investments. It
requires agencies to submit business cases to OMB for planned or ongoing
major IT investments1 and to answer questions to help OMB determine if the
investment should be funded.

OMB Circular A-16: Coordination of Geographic Information and Related
Spatial Data Activities. This circular calls for a coordinated approach to
developing the NSDI, establishes FGDC and identifies its roles and
responsibilities, and assigns agency roles and responsibilities for
development of the NSDI. The document states that "implementation of this
Circular is essential to help federal agencies eliminate duplication,
avoid redundant expenditures, reduce resources spent on unfunded mandates,
accelerate the development of electronic government to meet the needs and
expectations of citizens and agency programmatic mandates, and improve the
efficiency and effectiveness of public management."

OMB Circular A-130: Management of Federal Information Resources. This
circular requires agencies to ensure that improvements to existing
information systems and the development of planned information systems do
not unnecessarily duplicate IT capabilities within the same agency, at
other agencies, or in the private sector. The OMB Director is designated
to provide overall leadership and coordination of federal information
resources management within the executive branch

OMB Circular A-16 Data Themes, Descriptions, and Lead Agencies Appendix IV

Table 4: OMB Circular A-16 Data Themes, Descriptions, and Lead Agencies

                                                      Lead          Framework 
Data theme        Description                      department or themeb    
                                                      agencya       
                     Baseline represents the line                             
                     from which maritime zones and                  
Baseline          limits are measured. Examples of DOC/NOAA,     
(maritime)        these limits include the         DOI/MMSc      No
                     territorial sea, the contiguous                
                     zone, and exclusive economic                   
                     zone.                                          
                     This data set includes data                              
                     pertaining to or descriptive of                
                     (nonhuman) biological resources                
                     and their distributions and                    
                     habitats, including data at the                
Biological        suborganismal (genetics,         DOI/USGS      No
resources         physiology, anatomy, etc.),                    
                     organismal (subspecies, species,               
                     systematics), and ecological                   
                     (populations, communities,                     
                     ecosystems, biomes, etc.)                      
                     levels.                                        
                     Includes federal sites or                                
                     entities with a geospatial                     
                     location deliberately                          
                     established for designated                     
Buildings and     activities; a facility database  GSAc          No
facilities        might describe a factory,                      
                     military base, college,                        
                     hospital, power plant, fishery,                
                     national park, office building,                
                     space command center, or prison.               
                     Describes the geographic extent                          
                     of past, current, and future                   
Cadastral         right, title, and interest in    DOI/BLM       Yes
                     real property, and the framework               
                     to support the description of                  
                     that geographic extent.                        
                     Offshore Cadastre is the land                            
Cadastral         management system used on the                  
(offshore)        Outer Continental Shelf. It      DOI/MMS       Yes
                     extends from the baseline to the               
                     extent of U.S. jurisdiction.                   
                     Climate data describe the                                
                     spatial and temporal                           
                     characteristics of the Earth's                 
                     atmosphere/hydrosphere/land                    
                     surface system. These data                     
Climate           represent both model-generated   USDA/NRCS,    No
                     and observed environmental       DOC/NOAA      
                     information, which can be                      
                     summarized to describe surface,                
                     near surface and atmospheric                   
                     conditions over a range of                     
                     scales.                                        
                     These geospatially referenced                            
                     data describe the                              
                     characteristics of people, the                 
                     nature of the structures in                    
                     which they live and work; the                  
                     economic and other activities                  
Cultural and      they pursue; the facilities they               
demographic       use to support their health,     DOC/USCBc     No
statistics        recreational, and other needs;                 
                     the environmental consequences                 
                     of their presence; and the                     
                     boundaries, names, and numeric                 
                     codes of geographic entities                   
                     used to report the information                 
                     collected.                                     
                     The cultural resources theme                             
                     includes historic places such as               
                     districts, sites, buildings, and               
Cultural          structures of significance in                  
resources         history, architecture,           DOI/NPS       No
                     engineering, or culture.                       
                     Cultural resources also                        
                     encompass prehistoric features                 
                     as well as historic landscapes.                
                     Georeferenced images of the                              
Digital           Earth's surface, where image                   
orthoimagery      object displacement has been     DOI/USGS      Yes
                     removed for sensor distortions,                
                     orientation, and terrain relief.               
                     The Earth Cover theme uses a                             
                     hierarchical classification                    
                     system based on observable form                
                     and structure, instead of                      
                     function or use. This system                   
                     transitions from generalized to                
                     more specific and detailed class               
                     divisions, and provides a                      
Earth cover       framework within which multiple  DOI/USGS      No
                     land cover and land use                        
                     classification systems can be                  
                     cross-referenced. This system is               
                     applicable everywhere on the                   
                     surface of the Earth. This theme               
                     differs from the vegetation and                
                     wetlands themes, which provide                 
                     additional detail.                             
                                                      Lead          Framework 
Data theme        Description                      department or themeb    
                                                      agencya       
Elevation         Highly accurate bathymetric      DOC/NOAA,               
bathymetric       (i.e., the measurement of water  DOD/USACEc    Yes
                     depths) sounding information.                  
                     Georeferenced digital                                    
Elevation         representations of terrestrial                 
terrestrial       surfaces, natural or manmade,    DOI/USGS      Yes
                     that describe vertical position                
                     above or below a datum surface.                
                     Federal land ownership status                            
                     includes information describing                
Federal land      all title, estate, or interest   DOI/BLM       No
ownership status  of the federal government in a                 
                     parcel of real and mineral                     
                     property.                                      
                     The National Flood Insurance                             
                     Program has prepared flood                     
                     hazard data for approximately                  
                     18,000 communities. The primary                
Flood hazards     information prepared for these   DHS/FEMA      No
                     communities is for the 1 percent               
                     annual chance (100-year) flood                 
                     and includes documentation of                  
                     the boundaries and elevations of               
                     that flood.                                    
                     Geodetic control provides a                              
Geodedic control  common reference system for      DOC/NOAA      Yes
                     establishing coordinates for all               
                     geographic data.                               
                     This data set contains data or                           
                     information on geographic place                
                     names deemed official for                      
                     federal use by the U.S. Board on               
                     Geographic Names as pursuant to                
                     Public Law 80-242. Geographic                  
                     names information includes both                
                     the official place name                        
Geographic names  (current, historical, and        DOI/USGS      No
                     aliases) and direct (i.e.,                     
                     geographic coordinates) and                    
                     indirect (i.e., state and county               
                     where place is located)                        
                     geospatial identifiers. This                   
                     information is categorized as                  
                     populated places, schools,                     
                     reservoirs, parks, streams,                    
                     valleys, and ridges.                           
                     The geologic spatial data theme                          
                     includes all geologic mapping                  
                     information and related                        
                     geoscience spatial data                        
                     (including associated                          
Geologic          geophysical, geochemical,        DOI/USGS      No
                     geochronologic, and                            
                     paleontologic data) that can                   
                     contribute to the National                     
                     Geologic Map Database as                       
                     pursuant to Public Law 106-148.                
                     These data describe, by a                                
                     consistent set of rules and                    
                     semantic definitions, the                      
                     official boundary of federal,                  
Governmental      state, local, and tribal         DOC/USCB      Yes
units             governments as reported to the                 
                     Census Bureau by responsible                   
                     officials of each government for               
                     purposes of reporting the                      
                     nation's official statistics.                  
                     Geographic data on homeownership                         
                     rates, including many attributes               
                     such as HUD revitalization                     
Housing           zones, location of various forms HUD           No
                     of housing assistance,                         
                     first-time home buyers,                        
                     underserved areas, and race.                   
                     Includes surface water features                          
Hydrography       such as lakes, ponds, streams    DOI/USGS      Yes
                     and rivers, canals, oceans, and                
                     coastlines.                                    
                     Includes both textual                                    
                     information to describe, and GIS               
                     digital cartographic data to                   
International     depict, both land and maritime   Department of 
boundaries        international boundaries, other  State         No
                     lines of separation, limits,                   
                     zones, enclaves/exclaves, and                  
                     special areas between states and               
                     dependencies.                                  
                     Describes the occurrence of                              
                     events (including incidences,                  
                     offenses, and arrests)                         
                     geospatially located, related to               
Law enforcement   ordinance and statutory          Department of 
statistics        violations and the individuals   Justice       No
                     involved in those occurrences.                 
                     Also included are data related                 
                     to deployment of law enforcement               
                     resources and performance                      
                     measures.                                      
                     Marine boundaries depict                                 
Marine boundaries offshore waters and seabeds over DOC/NOAA,     No
                     which the United States has      DOI/MMS       
                     sovereignty and jurisdiction.                  
                                                      Lead          Framework 
Data theme        Description                      department or themeb    
                                                      agencya       
                     Includes minerals occurring in                           
                     submerged lands. Examples of                   
Offshore minerals marine minerals include oil,     DOI/MMS       No
                     gas, sulfur, gold, sand and                    
                     gravel, and manganese.                         
                     Includes lands covered by water                          
                     at any stage of the tide-as                    
                     distinguished from tidelands,                  
Outer Continental which are attached to the                      
Shelf submerged   mainland or an island and cover  DOI/MMS       No
lands             and uncover with the tide.                     
                     Tidelands presuppose a                         
                     high-water line as the upper                   
                     boundary, whereas submerged                    
                     lands do not.                                  
                     Public health themes relate to                           
                     the protection, improvement and                
                     promotion of the health and                    
                     safety of all people. For                      
                     example, public health databases               
                     include spatial data on deaths                 
Public health     and births, infectious and       HHS           No
                     notifiable diseases, incident                  
                     cancer cases, behavioral risk                  
                     factor and tuberculosis                        
                     surveillance, hazardous                        
                     substance releases and health                  
                     effects, hospital statistics,                  
                     and other similar data.                        
Public land       The records that describe all                            
conveyance        past, current, and future        DOI/BLM       No
(patent) records  rights, titles, and interest in                
                     real property.                                 
                     Represents the intersection of                           
                     the land with the water surface.               
Shoreline         The shoreline shown on NOAA      DOC/NOAA      No
                     charts represents the line of                  
                     contact between the land and a                 
                     selected water elevation.                      
                     Consists of georeferenced map                            
                     data, describing the spatial                   
                     distribution of the various                    
                     soils that cover the Earth's                   
                     surface, and attribute data,                   
                     describing the proportionate                   
                     extent of the various soils as                 
                     well as the physical and                       
Soils             chemical characteristics of      USDA/NRCS     No
                     those soils. The physical and                  
                     chemical properties are based on               
                     observed and measured values, as               
                     well as model-generated values.                
                     Also included are                              
                     model-generated assessments of                 
                     the suitability or limitations                 
                     of the soils to various land                   
                     uses.                                          
                     Transportation data are used to                          
                     model the geographic locations,                
                     interconnectedness, and                        
                     characteristics of the                         
                     transportation system within the               
Transportation    United States. The               DOT/BTS       Yes
                     transportation system includes                 
                     both physical and nonphysical                  
                     components representing all                    
                     modes of travel that allow the                 
                     movement of goods and people                   
                     between locations.                             
                     The Navigation Channel Framework                         
                     consists of highly accurate                    
                     dimensions (geographic                         
                     coordinates for channel sides,                 
                     centerlines, wideners, turning                 
Transportation    basins, and river mile markers)                
(marine)          for every federal navigation     DOD/USACE     Yes
                     channel maintained by the Army                 
                     Corps of Engineers. The                        
                     navigation framework will                      
                     provide the basis for the marine               
                     transportation theme of the                    
                     geospatial data framework.                     
                     Describes a collection of plants                         
Vegetation        or plant communities with        USDA/USFSc    No
                     distinguishable characteristics                
                     that occupy an area of interest.               
                     This data theme encodes                                  
                     hydrologic watershed boundaries                
Watershed         into topographically defined     DOI/USGS,     
boundaries        sets of drainage areas,          USDA/NRCS     No
                     organized in a nested hierarchy                
                     by size and based on a standard                
                     hydrologic unit coding system.                 
                     Provides the classification,                             
Wetlands          location, and extent of wetlands DOI/FWS       No
                     and deepwater habitats.                        

Source: OMB Circular A-16.

aCertain federal agencies have lead responsibilities for coordinating the
national coverage and stewardship of specific spatial data themes.
According to OMB Circular A-16, lead federal agencies are responsible for
(1) providing leadership and facilitating the development and
implementation of needed FGDC standards, (2) providing leadership and
facilitating the development and implementation of a plan for nationwide
population of each data theme, and (3) preparing goals that support the
NSDI strategy.

bAccording to OMB Circular A-16, framework themes are data themes that
provide the core, most commonly used set of base geospatial data.

cGeneral Services Administration (GSA); Minerals Management Service (MMS);
U.S. Army Corp of Engineers (USACE); U.S. Census Bureau (USCB); and U.S.
Forest Service (USFS).

Glossary

Attribute

A characteristic of an object or feature on a map.

Base map

A map that shows the horizontal position of features on which additional
information may be placed.

Bathymetry

The measurement and study of water depths.

Cadastral

Pertaining to extent, value, and ownership of land.

Cartography

The science and art of making maps and charts.

Digital elevation model

A digital file containing an array of regularly spaced elevations.

Digital orthoimagery

Georeferenced images of the Earth's surface, where image object
displacement has been removed for sensor distortions, orientation, and
terrain relief.

Ellipsoid

A geometric surface whose plane sections are either ellipses or circles.

Geodesy

The science of the measurement and mathematical depiction of the size and
shape of the Earth and its gravitational field.

Geodetic control

A set of surveyed features with their locations referenced to particular
survey monuments by latitude, longitude, and height above the ellipsoid.

Geospatial data

Information that pertains to the geographic location and character of
natural or constructed features and boundaries on the Earth.

Geographic information system

A system of computer hardware, software, and data that collects, manages,
manipulates, analyzes, and displays a potentially wide array of
information associated with geographic locations.

Global Positioning System

A constellation of orbiting satellites that provides navigation data to
military and civilian users around the world.

Hydrography

The science dealing with the physical features of oceans, lakes, rivers,
and other surface waters often conducted in support of marine navigation
and nautical charting.

Metadata

Data containing descriptive information about other data.

National Spatial Data Infrastructure

A national structure of policies, standards, technologies, and human
resources that supports and facilitates the management and use of
geographic information.

Orthophotograph

An image reproduction prepared from a perspective photograph in which the
displacement of features due to sensor tilt and terrain relief has been
removed.

Photogrammetry

The science of obtaining reliable measurements or information from images.

Raster data

A row of descriptive elements, such as pixels, represented as a regular
two-dimensional arrangement of data values at discrete points, normally
arrayed line by line across a given surface or area.

Remote sensing

Imaging or recording of physical phenomenon, at a distance, by detecting
emitted or reflected energy.

Remote sensing systems

Remote sensing systems collect these data from a distance-such as from a
satellite or an aerial platform-that are either emitted or reflected by
the Earth and the atmospheres.

Rectification

The process of removing displacement in a photograph caused by the tilt of
the recording device or variations in terrain relief.

Spatial data

Geographically referenced features that are described by geographic
positions and attributes in an analog or computer-readable (digital) form.

Topography

The form of the physical features of a land surface or sea bottom; also
called relief.

Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing

A database maintained by the Census Bureau that automates the mapping and
related geographic activities required to support the decennial census and
the bureau's sample survey programs.

(310391)
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