Subcommittee on Bathymetric and Nautical Charting Data 1997 Annual Accomplishments Report

  1. Home


The Federal Geographic Data Committee's Subcommittee on Bathymetric and Nautical Charting Data primary mission is to develop and promote that aspect of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) that supports the Marine navigation and coastal zone Geographic Information System community through the development of standards, data exchange agreements, and data quality issues. The subcommittee supports the overall goals and missions of the FGDC by participating on several working groups and subcommittees that have an interest in marine geographic data issues. The Subcommittee is an active member of the Standards Working Group and the Framework Working Group.

The subcommittee meets formally approximately twice a year in the Washington, D.C. area. Additionally, the subcommittee sponsors a number of community meetings and outreach workshops throughout the country during the year. To enhance communications, the subcommittee has a home page on the World Wide Web at the following URL http://chartmaker.ncd.noaa.gov/ocs/text/bathy.htm.

Significant 1997 Accomplishments:
(in the format of the NSDI Strategic Plan)

Goal One: Increase the awareness and understanding of the vision, concept, and benefits of the NSDI through outreach and education.

1. Hosted or participated in 6 outreach meetings and workshops with the effected community:

  1. American Congress on Surveying and Mapping, Seattle April 6-11
  2. Federal Interagency Waterways Conference, Tysons Corner VA. -- May 20-22
  3. Coastal Zone '97 conference (Technical session and NSDI workshop) Boston, MA July 20-24
  4. Tri-Service CADD/GIS/FM Symposium '97 and the US Army Corps of Engineers Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing Conference , St. Louis, MO August 18-22
  5. Hosted a national meeting/workshop to determine the approach to developing a NSDI shoreline data standard., Charleston SC November 1997
  6. Annual meeting of the Bathymetric Subcommittee December 1997

Goal Two: Develop common solutions for discovery, access, and use of geographic data in response to the needs of diverse communities

  1. Supported data conversion, digitizing, formatting, and data quality efforts for coastal zone GIS data -- especially shoreline and hydrographic/bathymetric data.
  2. Developed a "profile" to the FGDC metadata standard to support information necessary for hydrographic and bathymetric data
  3. Support for the NSDI clearinghouse effort through the extension of the Bathymetric homepage to include search procedures to help locate coastal data held by NOAA and other federal agencies.
  4. Provided technical assistance to affected agencies and offices to implement the FGDC metadata standard.
  5. Continue efforts on the San Francisco Bay and South Florida NSDI pilot projects. Working with Alaska, Oregon, and Connecticut.
  6. Assisted state and local FGDC C-CAP, Clearinghouse, and Framework grant recipients with data issues relative to the coastal zone.

Goal Three: Use community-based approaches to develop and maintain common collections of geospatial data for sound decision making

  1. Drafted Part 5 of the NSDI positional accuracy standard for hydrographic surveying and related nautical charting data
  2. Assisted the Tri Services CADD/GIS center to complete the integrated feature registry for the data objects and attributes related to marine area using the S-57 standard.
  3. Develop a plan for the NSDI shoreline data layer as part of the FGDC NSDI framework data
  4. Submitted a proposal for the FGDC Shoreline Data Standard to the FGDC Standards Working Group.
  5. Developed a business plan for the bathymetric and shoreline portions of the NSDI framework.

Goal Four: Build Relationships among organizations to support the containing development of the NSDI:

  1. Worked with members of the private sector, GIS vendors on issues relating to shoreline and bathymetric data.
  2. Assisted the NIMA IPT, and HYSAS as necessary working with the Open Geospatial Data Foundation and other efforts.
  3. Worked with state, county, and local organizations who are developing NSDI coastal framework data and implementing standards. Established an EMAIL directory of approximately 200 GIS experts working in the coastal zone.
  4. Attended meetings of the National Academy of Public Administration and the National Research Council Mapping Science Committee examining Federal spatial data and GIS activities.
  5. Submitted a Paper to the 1997 annual strategic plan meeting of the International Hydrographic Organization on the US NSDI and possible applications for the Global spatial data community
  6. Organized a special session at the 1998 annual meeting of the American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing and RTI dealing with the National Shoreline Data Standard