J ULY 1997

FEDERAL GEOGRAPHIC DATA COMMITTEE PHONE: 703-648-5514

U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, 590 NATIONAL CENTER FAX: 703-648-5755

RESTON, VIRGINIA 20192 H TTP ://WWW.FGDC.GOV E-MAIL: GDC@USGS . GOV

The Federal Geographic Data Committee

The Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC)

is an interagency committee that promotes the

coordinated development, use, sharing, and

dissemination of geospatial data on a national basis.

The FGDC was established by the Office of

Management and Budget (OMB) in its 1990

revision of Circular A-16, "Coordination of

Surveying, Mapping, and Related Spatial Data

Activities." The FGDC is composed of

representatives from 14 Cabinet level and

independent Federal agencies (see table). Currently,

Secretary Bruce Babbitt of the Department of the

Interior chairs the FGDC.

To coordinate various themes of geospatial data

that will contribute to the development of a

National Spatial Data Infrastructure, OMB assigned

lead coordination responsibilities to specific Federal

agencies. This thematic organization is reflected in

the FGDC subcommittee structure (see chart).

FGDC working groups play a crosscutting role,

dealing with issues that span many subcommittees.

Working groups have been formed to establish

guidelines for preserving data, to establish a

National Geospatial Data Clearinghouse, to provide

for the creation of framework data, and to develop

and implement data standards. New working groups

are striving to facilitate data sharing through

common schemes to identify and classify Earth

cover, to monitor environmental change, and to

deal with facilities and other large-scale data issues.

The Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC)

Chair — Bruce Babbitt, Secretary of the Interior

Department of Agriculture — Tom Hebert, Deputy Assistant Secretary for

Natural Resources and Environment

Department of Commerce — William O. Mehuron, Acting Deputy Under

Secretary for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Department of Defense — corepresentatives: Steven Stockton, Chief,

Engineering Division, Directorate of Civil Works, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,

and Walter Senus, Chief Scientist, National Imagery & Mapping Agency

Department of Energy — Jay Hakes, Administrator, Energy Information

Administration

Department of Housing and Urban Development — Richard Burk, Director,

Community Connection

Department of the Interior - Mark Schaefer, Deputy Assistant Secretary for

Water and Science

Department of State — William B. Wood, The Geographer

Department of Transportation — T. R. Lakshmanan, Director, Bureau of

Transportation Statistics

Environmental Protection Agency — Al Pesachowitz, Acting Assistant

Administrator for Administration and Resource Management

Federal Emergency Management Agency — Gordon Fullerton, Director,

Engineering Division, Information Technology Services Directorate

Library of Congress —Ralph Ehrenberg, Chief, Geography and Map Division

National Archives and Records Administration — Kenneth Thibodeau,

Director, Center for Electronic Records

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Mike Mann, Deputy

Associate Director for Management

National Science Foundation — Dr. Robert Corell, Assistant Director

Tennessee Valley Authority — Alan Voss, Project Engineer, Geographic

Information and Engineering Department
FGDC COORDINATION

Circular A-16 defined specific coordination

responsibilities for the FGDC to include:

Promoting the development, maintenance, and

management of distributed data bases of geospatial

data that are national in scope.

Encouraging the development and implementation of

standards and exchange formats.

Promoting technology development, transfer and

exchange.

Interacting with other Federal coordinating bodies that

deal with geospatial data.

Publishing technical and management reports.

THE FGDC AND THE NATIONAL SPATIAL DATA

INFRASTRUCTURE

To extend the scope of Circular A-16 in support of the

National Information Infrastructure, President Clinton

issued Executive Order 12906, "Coordinating

Geographic Data Acquisition and Access: The National

Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI)." NSDI

encompasses the technology, policies, standards and

human resources necessary to acquire, process, store,

distribute, and improve the use of geospatial data. In

the Executive Order, the FGDC was given an expanded

role in coordinating the NSDI with a mandate to

involve State, local, and tribal governments, academia,

and the private sector.

Through its committees and working groups the FGDC

supports activities in areas crucial to the NSDI:

development of a National Clearinghouse for spatial

data, development of standards for sharing geospatial

data, creation of a national digital geospatial data

framework of basic data themes, and promotion of

cooperative ventures and cost sharing agreements for

geospatial data among partners outside the Federal

sector.

FGDC ACTIVITIES

The FGDC committees and working groups provide

the basic structure for institutions and individuals to 

come together to discuss and work on various

aspects of the implementation of the NSDI. 

The FGDC also sponsors other activities. In recent

years the FGDC has:

! sponsored national forums on geospatial

data;

! instituted a grant program to support

cooperative agreements for Clearinghouse,

metadata, and framework development with

participants from State and local

governments and academia;

! developed and adopted a content standard

for digital geospatial metadata;

!developed a reference model to define the

standards development process;

! developed user training materials and

conducted workshops throughout the

country to support the metadata standard

and Clearinghouse efforts;

! supported the continuing evolution of the

National Geospatial Data Clearinghouse;

! developed a framework plan and

identified framework pilot projects to test

the proposed concept and to improve the

plan.

For more information on the FGDC or to receive the

committee's newsletter, please contact us at the

above address.