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3 Key Challenges and Lessons Learned
Pages 32-61

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From page 32...
... However, there are lessons to glean from past effortss that could be applied in developing and refining the SDI for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
From page 33...
... Research at the Center of Excellence for Geospatial Information Science is providing much of the technology needed to implement an agency-wide SDI through its work on The National Map. The National Biological Information Infrastructure and National Hydrography Dataset are successful integrations of multiple, dis similar datasets with direct relevance to spatial dataset integration for the USGS SDI.
From page 34...
... . Key Challenges In designing and implementing SDIs in GA and in other state and science organizations in Australia, there have been a number of common and important challenges that range from organizational and cultural concerns to policy and financial issues.
From page 35...
... British Geological Survey The British Geological Survey (BGS) is the national geological survey of the United Kingdom (UK)
From page 36...
... Key Challenges The organizational and cultural challenges that BGS faced in the 1990s in improving the poor condition of its data and information policy and practice are probably similar to those faced by the USGS. A systematic approach was lacking for setting priorities among research projects according to national needs, and the focus was instead on localized independent research projects.
From page 37...
... based and asset-based approach in developing its data infrastructure, and this benefited both its staff and stakeholders (see Box 3.3)
From page 38...
... Key Challenges INSPIRE is being implemented in 27 countries that have different languages and cultures, different levels of geographic-information maturity, varied legal systems, and varied approaches to public-sector data access. There are many challenges in introducing an effective SDI, and INSPIRE has defined a number of technical challenges that it has addressed as a part of its basic principles, including
From page 39...
... · Ability to combine seamless spatial information from different sources throughout Europe and share it with many users and in many applications. · Possibility for information collected at one level or scale to be shared at all levels and scales and to be detailed for thorough investigations and generalized for strategic purposes.
From page 40...
... Key Challenges Technical interoperability is a key concern, in that it is difficult to interconnect diverse systems that were developed by different organizations and countries
From page 41...
... · The desire to make progress on shared international goals for poverty reduction and sustainable development through better access to vital data. · The importance of expanding the use of Earth observation and related geospatial data in a variety of SBAs.
From page 42...
... Key Challenges The NGA has two continuing challenges relevant to the USGS: (1) developing and maintaining data-sharing partnerships with diverse national and international stakeholders, and (2)
From page 43...
... Key Challenges Data typically flow systematically from space-borne missions, but some mission events result in other data acquisitions in addition to or at the expense of the routine observations. That is analogous the program-vs-project tensions described in Chapter 2.
From page 44...
... One such approach that NASA used is the Open Geospatial Consortium visualization and data-delivery services. Texas National Resources Information System The Texas National Resources Information System (TNRIS)
From page 45...
... TNRIS is working to increase the granularity of the statistics to track its performance. Key Challenges One of the primary challenges for TNRIS has been to maintain constant base funding for acquiring new data.
From page 46...
... NAVTEQ licenses data in a wide variety of formats to a wide variety of customers and applications; thus, data-sharing is already the nature of the business. Key Challenges Worldwide, over 1 million changes or additions are made in the NAVTEQ database daily, presenting a global data quality and consistency challenge that
From page 47...
... The technical tools and structures used for the database need to be designed for current and known future expansion of requirements. For the USGS, that would mean that database structures will need to be planned beyond the current set to handle anticipated data types, such as multispectral data and an expansion of data layers.
From page 48...
... Key Challenges The complexity of data integration and synthesis is enormous. Much thought has been given to incorporating cyberinfrastructure and geospatial analysis tools needed to analyze ecological and environmental observations and the network of sites.
From page 49...
... Key Challenges It has become apparent that a functional hydrologic information system in the United States will require data sources to be labeled with standard terms so that searches of multiple information sources will be consistent. At first, CUAHSI attempted to label the time series indexed at HIS Central with a standard set of concepts, but it found it to be a nearly overwhelming task.
From page 50...
... U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY SPATIAL DATA INFRASTRUCTURE INITIATIVES The USGS has successfully provided surveys and maps in support of the nation's science and economy for the last 125 years.
From page 51...
... A key goal is to make these data available to land managers, other scientists, and the public. Key Challenges The system includes the use of the Global Ecosystems Data Viewer to perform customized viewing and data selection and to download ecosystems data layers.
From page 52...
... Key Challenges A major production-related challenge was integrating the vector-based NHD and raster-based National Elevation Dataset to produce the NHDPlus catchment (local drainage area) for each NHD stream segment.
From page 53...
... A timeline of recent USGS developments in topographic mapping and GIS is provided in Box 3.5. Key Challenges The continual and necessary co-evolution of topographic mapping, technology, and emerging applications has presented a series of challenges for the USGS.
From page 54...
... As a source of revised topographic maps, TNM serves as a national spatial data foundation for a broad array of issues such as land and resource management and homeland security, and the USGS recognizes the importance for which TNM can serve as the nation's trusted resource for current, consistent, and integrated topographic information. There are eight layers of topographic information provided in TNM: boundaries, elevation, geographic names, hydrography, land cover, orthographic images, structures, and transportation (Usery et al., 2010)
From page 55...
... The USGS generated a map of the contiguous United States on a 1:24,000 scale, which included more than 55,000 7.5-minute quandran gles for the National Mapping Program. The most recent versions of the 1:24,000-scale topographic maps were converted to digital raster graphics (DRGs)
From page 56...
... Center of Excellence for Geospatial Information Science CEGIS was created in 2006 to "identify, conduct, and collaborate on geospatial information science research issues of national importance; assess, influence, and recommend for implementation technological innovations for geospatial data and applications; and maintain world-class expertise, leadership, and a body of knowledge in support of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure" (USGS, 2011)
From page 57...
... The BGS and Geoscience Australia are the closest analogues to the USGS and the BGS in particular has a well-written business plan Box 3.6 Sample Testimony Provided to the Committee (See Appendix D for additional responses.) "Correctly organized, an SDI will give the USGS the flexibility and agility to increase its capability in the rapidly emerging field of computational geosci ences and enable it to unlock the breadth and depth of its scientific data to a far wider group of clients and stakeholders." -- State-level respondent "Carefully structured an SDI will give the USGS the flexibility and adapt ability to meet not only its current 6 key strategic science directions: it will also enable the USGS to rapidly change directions to meet new Geo-scientific challenges in the decades beyond 2017." -- Federal-level respondent "Properly managed an SDI will enable the USGS to conduct multidisci plinary, collaborative science projects that are focused on delivering influential scientific solutions to the current six key strategic science directions identi fied in the document US Geological Science in the Decade 2007-2017."- International respondent
From page 58...
... Establishing standards for the data community and distributing them are critical for SDI success because technology and data standards enable information resources and services to be interoperable. Implementation was more seamless and effective for SDIs that incorporated the needs of the user community to develop and improve standards and for the ones that also accepted the need for data products to conform to international standards.
From page 59...
... On a technical point, the primary requirement for fusing data is accurate georeferencing of data products; changing the detection or classification of data can result in large errors that arise because of small co-registration or geo-registration errors. The committee found that with evolving technology, the technology and tools of the underlying database structure would need to adapt constantly in anticipation of data types beyond the current set, such as multispectral data and an expansion of data layers.
From page 60...
... In the case of GEOSS, a voluntary intergovernmental framework has the potential to create a working global-scale spatial data infrastructure. REFERENCES Australian National Audit Office.
From page 61...
... Geological Survey: Sioux Falls, SD, 76 pg. NBII (National Biological Information Infrastructure)


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