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NGAC NSDI Strategy Paper – July 2013

Toward A New Strategic Vision for the National Spatial Data Infrastructure:

A Report to the Federal Geographic Data Committee

National Geospatial Advisory Committee

July 2013

1. SUMMARY

The National Geospatial Advisory Committee (NGAC) has been asked by the Federal Geographic Data 

Committee (FGDC) for advice on a possible revision of the Vision and Strategic Plan for the future 

development of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI). This document represents the NGAC’s 

response, and contains a review of the changing role of the NSDI, a suggested future vision statement

and a discussion of the implications of a revised vision for federal, tribal, state and local government, 

and for private sector, academic and other members of the geospatial community.

2. BACKGROUND

The Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) was established to promote the coordinated use, 

sharing and dissemination of geospatial data in the United States. The Secretary of the Interior is the 

Chair of the FGDC and the Deputy Director for Management of OMB is the committee’s Vice-Chair. 

Since 1953, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has released several iterations of Circular A-16 

that covers federal information technology systems and their effective use. The revisions to encourage 

avoidance of duplicative mapping and surveying efforts were reinforced in 1994 by Executive Order 

12906, by the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996 and the E-Government Act of 2002. FGDC coordinates 

activities of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) “the technologies, policies and people 

necessary to promote sharing of geospatial data throughout all levels of government, the private and 

non-profit sectors and the academic community.”

In 2007, National Geospatial Advisory Committee (NGAC) was created to provide the Interior 

department and the FGDC with advice and recommendations related to the management of Federal and 

national geospatial programs, development of the NSDI and implementation of related Federal

guidance. The committee includes representatives from Federal, tribal, state, regional, county and local 

governments, the private sector and academia. The FGDC provides annual guidance to the NGAC 

identifying areas of significant concern that would benefit from review by the NGAC. In November 2012, 

the Government Accountability Office published “Geospatial Information - OMB and Agencies Need to 

Make Coordination a Priority to Reduce Duplication” (GAO-13-94). GAO recommended that the Director 

of OMB and the Secretary of the Interior direct the development of a national geospatial strategic plan,

and that the Director of OMB develop criteria for assessing interagency coordination on proposals for 

potential geospatial investments and strengthen oversight of geospatial projects.

The FGDC has begun to update the strategic plan for the NSDI. Agencies are working with partners and 

stakeholders in the geospatial community to include a set of goals and objectives for the Federal 

government’s role in continued sustainable development of the NSDI. An updated NSDI strategic plan is 

important and timely for two reasons. First, while the FGDC has engaged in the strategic initiatives of 

the Geospatial Line of Business and the Geospatial Platform, the current NSDI strategic plan is has not 

been revised since 2005. Secondly, geospatial technologies, industries and applications have seen 
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tremendous growth and change over the past 8 years, so strategies need to be modernized to align with 

and leverage these changes. 

The NGAC, and the many organizations represented by its members, have been tasked by the FGDC with 

providing input and feedback on the strategic plan as it is developed. In its 2013 Guidance to NGAC, the 

FGDC designated participation in the development of the NSDI strategic plan as the primary activity for 

the NGAC. The mandate to NGAC includes the following: 

 Provide input to help define key external factors and trends in the geospatial community, which 

will have an impact on the continued development of the NSDI.

 Provide input to help define the current and future role of the Federal government in advancing 

the development of the NSDI, and provide input to help collaboratively define the roles and 

relationships among Federal agencies and non-Federal partners and stakeholders.

 Provide input to review, validate and provide perspectives to help develop a shared vision of the 

NSDI.

NGAC’s response was to create an NSDI Strategic Plan Subcommittee, consisting of three work groups,

to provide input on these three tasks. The input was assembled and submitted to the NGAC as a whole 

for further analysis and comment during April and May of 2013. This document summarizes the 

consensus NGAC response.

3. WHAT EXTERNAL FACTORS WILL INFLUENCE THE FUTURE OF THE NSDI?

The External Factors/ Emerging Trends Working Group undertook the task of identifying the important 

external factors, including technology, economic, political and organizational trends, that should be 

considered for national-level geospatial strategy.

3.1. Evolving Information Management

Innovation in data collection, management, processing, dissemination and application are becoming 

available largely through private sector advancement of sensors, crowd-sourcing, big data 

storage/analytics and information distribution technologies, and through academic and government 

funded research. The origins of many geospatial innovations and operational successes have their roots

in past government investment in research and implementation of computing and communication 

technology, geospatial software systems, framework data development, remote sensors, and GPS.

Nevertheless, the role of government is transitioning from building framework spatial infrastructure to 

ensuring that specific programmatic goals and the greater public good are served by trusted information 

resources that meet criteria for fitness for use. Such information has new requirements for 

transparency, currency, accuracy and accessibility. Instead of being found in Federal web portals that 

serve out data or maps, next generation resources will be information sourced and served from a 

combination of the private sector, the public sector, individuals, non-government groups and publicprivate partnerships.

Geospatial analysis, recently a domain consisting of standalone desktop software, specialty professionals 

and ad hoc information sharing, is now viewed as one component of the overall information 

management fabric. Geospatial infrastructure must provide value via connected services to a diverse 

set of devices operated by end users comprising a full range of roles and skills. It must balance the same 

demands as other information management (accessibility, security, persistence, reliability, 

confidentiality and cost-efficiency), while providing the spatial capabilities that are its core strength: 
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visualization, analytics, and the ability to bring together disparate information resources using location 

as the organizational index.

3.2. Economic and Political Assumptions

Forecasts for planning are built upon assumptions about the political and economic climate. First is an 

assumption of the continued evolution and expansion of the geospatial industry and its value to 

stakeholders. This implies an increasing demand for consumer, business and government use of 

geospatial and location-based services to improve performance throughout human activities. Disruptive 

conditions are a recurring theme in technology and are difficult to anticipate. Future innovation is 

generally expected to amplify these current trends, some of which are evident today, while it may also 

spark new patterns of demand. A second assumption is that future federal and other government 

budgeting will expect technological transformations within the lifetimes of existing organizations and 

projects. Thirdly, political pressure to further leverage advantages -- found in the activities of the 

private sector and state, regional, tribal and local government -- are assumed to apply to geospatial 

needs and to apply at least at current rates.

3.3. Important Trends

Other trends impacting the strategy for a national geospatial infrastructure can be characterized by four 

themes: technology; workforce; communications; and legal/policy.

3.3.1. Technology

The next NSDI will need to engage with the following trends in technology:

 The ‘internet of things’ will connect billions of stationary and mobile sensors with human users.

 The value of integrated geospatial information (3D, 4D, indoor, unstructured, linked, archived) 

will be magnified by high-powered processing and analytics capabilities, and by the ability to 

provide succinct intelligence to decision-makers.

 Static ad hoc data will yield to ‘big data’ transactional models based on Internet-based service 

models for infrastructure, software, and information content.

 The needs and practice of general IT and geospatial will converge.

 Increasingly, geospatial information resources and application source code will be built

collaboratively, using open, rapid deployment strategies and open standards.

Impacts: Geospatial technologies will be called upon to organize a much larger information domain, to 

provide trusted analysis of complex ‘big data’ holdings, and to effectively visualize and communicate 

knowledge so that it can be turned into operational efficiencies. Open data and open government 

initiatives built on the desire for efficiency and transparency will be the norm, so must be balanced 

against traditional IT requirements for appropriate levels of information security and risk management. 

Strategy should be formed using life-cycle approaches that factor in time-to-market and future agility as 

change becomes embedded into systems.

3.3.2. Communications

The next NSDI will need to engage with the following emerging factors.

 Systems for information delivery will be ubiquitous and highly mobile, will utilize web-based 

services and will be components of more advanced information workflows.

 Few, if any, traditional media will survive the changes initiated by dynamic social media 

channels.
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 Agencies and individuals will have far higher expectations of quality, timeliness, currency and 

accessibility of geospatial data and services, yet will have ubiquitous access to information with 

vastly different lineages and degrees of uncertainty.

 Geospatial metadata standards efforts have not kept up pace, so standardization for discovery 

and search will be increasingly difficult.

Impacts: There is a heightened need to collect, store, and process data from sensors and the wisdom of 

the crowd and connect it to decision-making processes as actionable information. Harnessing content 

provided by sensors and social media, in particular as feedback to enhance authoritative processes and 

products, needs research and strategy. Information regarding data, processes and products must be an 

order of magnitude more usable and reliable to ensure meaningful applications of data to create 

knowledge and inform decisions. Additional attention is needed with regard to the measurement and 

expression of the uncertainty inherent in information and related analytical products. 

3.3.3. Workforce

The next NSDI will need to engage with the people who are already in the employment and training 

chain, yet the demands are increasing.

 Increasing demand for skill sets positioned at the intersection between the traditional IT and 

geospatial realms such as: application and services development, geoinformation fusion, crowdsourcing, social networks and human- geography, visual analytics and forecasting/modeling.

 There will be increasing acceptance of professional competency from non-traditional sources: 

massive open online courses (MOOC) and other online training and information resources.

 Responsibilities for geospatial data and capability operations will increasingly be assigned to

information technology and chief information officers.

Impacts: The current capabilities and organization of the geospatial workforce will be called upon to 

transform at a rapid pace (NAS, 2013). This is no small task, as it will require a combination of finding, 

retraining, reorganizing and replacing existing staff. Successful geospatial organizations will build and 

maintain agile workforces closely-aligned or within IT divisions.

3.3.4. Legal/Policy

The next NSDI will face an evolving legal and political environment.

 Views on geospatial privacy will evolve. Overall public interest in legislating it is growing, and at 

the same time, a generational gap in public opinion is widening. Legislation will take at least a 

generation to catch up with technology and behavior.

 Capabilities of local, tribal, regional and state geospatial resources continue to improve and, in 

many areas, will provide the best sources for ongoing current and accurate information. 

 Government policy and private practice will increasingly demand information transparency. 

Data will be considered an integral and accountable part of decision-making, including its use in 

models and forecasts.

Impacts: Proactive approaches are needed to develop consensus terminology, develop policy and 

educate citizens and decision-makers with regard to geospatial data gathering, dissemination, licensing,

and usage practices. Privacy, confidentiality and security issues must be addressed for sensitive 

geospatial information, especially when directly linked to personally identifiable information, to protect 

the interests of both individuals and commerce. A priority of privacy policy efforts should be on 

developing consensus-based acceptable practices with immediate use, such as “Pretty Good Privacy”
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(PGP). Issues at the margins of privacy acceptability should not delay important work to aggregate and 

utilize geospatial data and services from local to national levels in a timely manner. 

3.4. Summary: What External Factors will Influence the Future of the NSDI?

There are many external factors that are driving trends in technology, communications, workforce and 

legal/policy of importance to a future NSDI. They signal a strong need to comprehensively rethink 

national-level geospatial strategy to align with both mainstream and emerging information technology 

practices and with related trends. The NSDI leverages investments in people, technology, data, and 

procedures to efficiently create and provide the geospatial knowledge required to protect and promote 

our national interests. Geospatial technologies provide attractive integrative approaches for meeting 

current requirements to “do more with less.” New approaches are demanded, supported and must be 

implemented quickly for technology, collaboration, workflow, funding and other resources; and to

facilitate policy. Geospatial technology is IT and national geospatial strategy should reflect its place in 

the broader ever-evolving technology ecosystem. 

4. WHAT ARE THE ELEMENTS OF A SHARED VISION FOR THE NSDI?

The Shared Vision Working Group considered three key issues: A comparison of the NSDI past and a 

view of the future NSDI; the sorts of products or services it will offer; and a vision for the NSDI defined in 

terms of the value it should will bring to its stakeholders and customers.

4.1. NSDI Past and Future

The following highlights the emphasis of the NSDI at its inception (Past) and a view for the Future.

PAST FUTURE

Enable the access, sharing and use geographic 

data across agencies.

Focus on applied information for improved place 

based decision-making.

Establish spatial data and metadata standards. Leverage shared and standards-based services.

Reduce duplication of effort among agencies 

collecting spatial data.

Promote place-based business intelligence and 

smart, shared applications.

Improve the quality, quantity, and reduction of 

costs related to geographic information (Pooling 

resources not only saved money, but allowed for 

large datasets that would otherwise be 

unobtainable to get collected).

Core set of data layers that interface with other 

non-spatial data being generated.

Collect and make geographic data more 

accessible to agencies.

Use real-time data feeds and sensor webs for 

improved monitoring, control, situational 

awareness, and decision-making.

Establish key partnerships with states, counties, 

cities, tribal nations, academia and the private 

sector to increase data availability

Establish policies and service level agreements to 

access and share real time geographic data 

operations management and decision support.

Increase the benefits of using existing agency 

data.

Use of multi-temporal information linked to place.

Reduce the monolithic systems storing and 

managing duplicate spatial data and applications.

Integrate and use advanced technologies (e.g., 

Web-based, sensors, GPS, and mobile 

technologies) and their associated standards and 

best practices.
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PAST FUTURE

Collaborative efforts are centered around spatial 

data.

NSDI is infrastructure in that it extends far beyond 

data – it includes and integrates people, hardware, 

software, and procedures.

Establish a framework for the management of 

Federal geospatial data resources which involved

public/private/non-profit shared governance.

Makes data discoverable for innovation by all.

Provide a process for creating and managing 

geospatial data and services standards.

Movement toward community driven open 

standards.

Create institutional knowledge about Federal 

geospatial data needs and subsequent 

collaborative acquisition and use.

Nurture and incorporate a social fabric/network 

with its own intelligence and institution knowledge 

extending beyond a government entity (Virtual 

Organization)/ to create both 

consensus and community.

Create a framework of personnel dedicated to 

understanding and supporting the geospatial 

needs of the Federal government.

Provide government, businesses and citizens with 

a way to visualize and explore data to derive 

information and knowledge, including the creation 

of a network of resources and services for 

seamless integration of location referenced 

information into broader information assets to 

serve the needs of government, business and 

citizens.

Provide the fabric for our National Map. (This was 

not meant as “The National Map,” but rather the 

efforts at maintaining a nation-wide map as the 

means of visualizing NSDI data and deriving 

information and knowledge through said 

cartographic constructs. To continue to develop 

NSDI as strictly a data resource without a 

capability for users to derive meaning from the 

data will severely limit return on investment.)

Position the NSDI as an enabling resource for 

discovery, access, integration and application of 

location information for a growing body of uses.

4.2. Products and Services of the Emerging NSDI 

The following includes some characteristics that should be part of the vision for the new NSDI.

 OMB Circular A-16 mandated collaborative purchasing and sharing of geospatial data as guided 

by the Federal Geographic Data Committee and as implemented primarily through a 

clearinghouse or portal construct. However, to achieve these objectives, OMB Circular A-16 

required not just collaborative efforts centered about spatial data, but supporting personnel, 

operational policies and procedures, governance, budget, space, and computing resources, 

thereby transforming from simply data into tangible infrastructure.

 In essence, OMB Circular A-16 set the stage for a National Spatial Data Infrastructure, one that is 

always available, trusted local to national location information resource to improve government 

services, stimulates the economic growth, promotes environmental quality, and to supports 

citizen empowerment for improved place-based decision-making. The NSDI is our new National 

Map: all of the current and future geospatial data and the combinations thereof which may be 

assembled to derive nearly infinite meaning about the geographic nature and well-being of our 

nation.
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 The NSDI has grown beyond the capacity of a coordinating body comprised of dedicated support 

staff managed by proxies sent by agency executives. NSDI is the basis for domestic intelligence 

about the health and welfare of our nation and the solutions to our most daunting challenges lie 

in the capture, assemblage and interpretation of spatial data. Greater priority on the 

importance of NSDI and that it should focus less on data assembly and management and far 

more on the translation of data to information and its subsequent use as part of governance 

must occur if true return on investment is to be realized. In other words, what we’re losing 

financially with respect to potential duplication of effort in collection (not that this is acceptable) 

is likely trivial when compared to the overall under-utilization of geospatial data as a source of 

information that may be used to solve problems.

 The NSDI should encompass the broad policy, organizational, technical and financial 

arrangements needed to support ready access to placed-based information, and include the 

necessary policies, organizational responsibilities, data, technologies, standards, delivery 

mechanisms, and financial and human resources necessary to ensure that those working at the 

national, state, regional, and local scale are not impeded in meeting their objectives.

 The potential implications of geolocation privacy must be considered as part of the future NSDI. 

As yet, no agency has taken a leadership role in talking this critical aspect of the future of 

geospatial information, and the costs of inaction compound annually.

 The NDSI should enable the development of the next generation technology, standards, and 

enhanced content necessary to support improved place-based decision-making.

 The NSDI should leverage the significant work being accomplished through organizations 

supporting international standards, technology, and best practices.

 The NSDI needs to move rapidly on to new and enhanced efforts aimed at continuing to 

populate the Framework database in a sustainable production mode; developing and 

disseminating the procedures and technologies needed for effectively and efficiently building, 

maintaining, integrating, distributing, and using the data; and continuing the process of 

establishing clearinghouses and promulgating the necessary standards to support the NSDI.

4.3. Potential Vision Statements

The following are vision statement examples provided by the Subcommittee.

1) NSDI will leverage investment in people, technology, data, and procedures to efficiently create 

and provide the geospatial knowledge required to protect and promote our national interests.

2) NSDI will leverage investment in people, technology, data, and procedures to efficiently create 

and provide the geospatial knowledge required to understand, protect, and promote our 

national and global interests.

3) NSDI will be an always-available, trusted and local-to-national location information resource to 

improve government services, stimulate economic growth, promote environmental quality and 

support citizen empowerment for improved place-based decision-making. 

4) NSDI will be a common and shared national repository of placed-based information services and 

data for use by public and private organizations to improve government services, stimulate the 

economic growth, and to promote environmental quality.

5) NSDI will be a sustainable infrastructure comprised of people, data, hardware, software and 

procedures through which geospatial data are assembled and converted to knowledge and/or 

information for the purpose of protecting and promoting our national welfare.
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5. ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

The Federal Roles and Responsibilities Working Group considered two key issues:

1) What is the role of the Federal geospatial community in the further development of the NSDI?

2) What are the roles of tribal, state, regional, county and local governments, the private sector 

and the academic community in the NSDI and what are the relationships of these entities with 

the Federal geospatial community?

5.1. Current and Anticipated Roles of the Federal Community

The Work Group felt strongly that the Federal geospatial community should focus on those things it 

does really well and that no one else can do and eliminate those things that it does not do well, that are 

too costly or do not have sufficient return on investment. 

5.2. Six Federal Roles

The Working Group identified six key roles for the Federal geospatial community, as well as the forces 

affecting the roles.

5.2.1. Content Provider Role

 NSDI must move from providing data alone to providing geospatial services. This includes the 

National Map and framework data, the A-16 categories, metadata and catalogs, inter-agency 

communications.

 NSDI should focus on the Geospatial Platform for pragmatic implementation rather than 

developing committee studies and papers.

5.2.2. Facilitator Role

 The NSDI should facilitate collaboration between and across multiple government levels, tribes, 

academia, and the private sector for research and to create data and information services.

 For example Census/USDOT/states are collaborating to create standards and processes to 

integrate street files among DOT, Census plus state and local governments with road networks 

and addresses.

 Bring key experts, decision-makers and stakeholders together to address issues and solve 

problems.

 Work with other national governments to share data, approaches, services, and develop best 

practices to meet global needs.

 Identify and promote compelling business cases for partners to participate in national level 

initiatives; ensure that partners’ needs will be met.

 Engage partners with compelling examples and clear, non-bureaucratic language.

5.2.3. Curator Role 

 The NSDI should focus effort on providing services and normalizing data in a standardized timestamped format.

 The NSDI should build and maintain an online catalog for transparent web discovery and access 

to Federal and other data through the Geospatial Platform.

5.2.4. Leadership Role

 In a future NSDI the Federal community needs to embrace a leadership role.

o The NSDI should recognize a transition in audience from the Fed Government alone to

include states/local/tribal government and citizens, educators and scientists, and 
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businesses. This audience increasingly demands transparent, open and standards based 

information services.

 A future NSDI should re-engineer individual services initially developed for Federal, State or local 

government to provide government- to-citizen services.

 In a future NSDI, the Federal government needs to provide institutional leadership for the

development and coordination of national and international policies and the legal support 

framework. In addition, the NSDI needs acquisition leadership, to establish acquisition 

authority – establish mechanisms for joint acquisitions of geospatial data and services (e.g., 

Smartbuy) with buy-up options for partners.

 There are great talent and resources within the Federal government that can be used to support 

growing the broader geospatial community by providing “Convening Leadership.”

5.2.5. Enabler Role

 The Federal government can play an enabler role in a revised NSDI by making data and services 

more accessible to an expanded audience and by publishing more timely, accurate and superior 

resolution local data to national databases. In this way the federal government can make local 

information play an enhanced role in national government and business.

5.2.6. Standards and Research Role

 For a future NSDI, the Federal government can help direct and develop a multi-scale ontology of 

spatial information that has scale-specific content and corresponds to map display standards.

 Ontologies can be application specific, or promote data fusion across diverse domains e.g. 

agriculture and climate.

 All standards activities are relevant, but the FGDC’s role has reduced and been replaced by that 

of the OGC for NSDI-relevant standards. Data standards have been replaced by more clientserver based standards, and have a much broader audience given location based services, 

mobile computing, etc.

5.3. Additional Recommendations Concerning the Federal Role

The following functional areas, initiatives and issues should be considered, and may influence the future 

role of the Federal Community in the NSDI: 

 The Geospatial Platform as a Focal Point for Federal Activities

o Make the Geospatial Platform the home for the discovery and sharing of geospatial data 

and applications with the ability to re-skin/brand within by agency.

o Make the Geospatial Platform functional for the business of the Federal government.

o The Geospatial Platform should be open to many vendors of data and software that 

could constitute a new marketplace, for partnerships and data.

 Within this effort the Federal government, through GSA, should negotiate 

contract schedules with private sector data suppliers for access by governments 

at all levels.

 The Federal Government should create a standing policy on framework data sets

o Clarity in future data acquisitions will allow better government-business partnerships.

o Federal government could invite bids around new acquisitions of major data layers 

(parcels, imagery, elevation, street address).
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o Setting requirements should be a collaborative effort of Federal, local, State & and tribal 

governments.

o Procurement should be done by GSA backed by the appropriate Federal agencies.

 Implement A-16 Guidance And Stewardship

o An NSDI scorecard should be released every two years to measure programmatic 

success.

o Federal role can focus on stewardship of resources.

 International Collaboration

o The Federal government should be ready to play a global leadership role, but to focus 

on those activities which are legal mandates.

o Pursue international collaboration when it is the best interests of the NSDI to do so.

 Capitalize On The Missions Of Other Organizations

o There are many organizations that have missions that intersect with the FGDC and 

Federal geospatial enterprise, clarifying the intersections and minimizing overlap would 

be advantageous.

o Examples of these intersections include: OGC and standards, and UCGIS and STEM 

education.

 Use cost benefit analysis to determine whether the best role for the Federal government for a 

specific data or services should be as data developers or data consumers

o The Federal government could encourage the development of Web Map Services – live,

linked views of a database – and share information in a services environment. Such an 

approach could make the need for normalization obsolete, by using mashups of data in 

a common view, providing a new agile environment for data integration and views back 

to the database.

 The NSDI should provide map integration services

o USGS currently does map integration both as a manual and semi-automated process, 

but is not the only Fed agency that integrates and normalizes data from multiple 

sources.

o Map integration services should provide cross-cutting solutions to allow the use of data 

for different purposes at different scales of use – especially incorporating highly 

transactional local and state data/services.

5.4. Interaction of the Federal Geospatial Community and Other Entities

The Working Group identified the following potential future roles for the Federal geospatial community 

in facilitating interaction among other sectors and partners with respect to the NSDI.

1) Explore Potential Relationships of Federal Geospatial Community with the Private Sector

 Integrate the acquisition of private data for use by across governments.

 Exemplar: NGA and Homeland Security Set up purchase agreements so other levels of 

government can opt in individually.
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2) Enhance the relationship between the Federal Geospatial Community and Academia

 Academia has a role in research and training for government and private workforce

o NSDI could include linking and integrating major university libraries’ geospatial data and 

services holdings.

o Allow public domain publication of data into shared libraries.

o Develop a public data commons with a supporting virtual community.

o Contribute models/apps which can be added to the Geospatial Platform and evolve 

NSDI.

3) Enhance the Role of Federal Geospatial Community in State, Local and Tribal Government Activities

 Showcase and illuminate examples of multi-governmental cooperation as best practices (e.g. 

National Map, National Hydrographic Database, USDOT-21, Broadband mapping).

 Promote the value of geospatial information to government.

 Federal role can be as facilitators and arbiters.

6. CONCLUSION

The NGAC was charged with examining the issues surrounding a new strategic plan for the NSDI, a key 

element of which is a new vision and its statement. Three sub-committees were formed and their 

reports merged to respond to this charge. This report has presented the following: a statement of the 

conditions leading to and describing the current state of the NSDI; a roadmap showing the changing 

demands and technological factors that will influence a future NSDI; a prototype vision statement; 

Federal roles and responsibilities in a revised NSDI and their changes; and descriptions of changes in the 

broader relations with governments, business, and academia that a new NSDI will encounter. Where 

specific recommendations are stated, they represent the consensus of the NGAC after considerable 

discussion. The committee looks forward to providing continued input as the NSDI evolves into the 21st

century.

In addition to the technical issues addressed in this document, the NGAC expresses a concern that stable 

funding mechanisms for cooperative development efforts must be identified. These mechanisms take 

into account issues related to the “budget sequester” that began in 2013. They also must take into 

account the long-term funding requirements related to issues such as Landsat and similar remote 

sensing platforms. These funding mechanisms should logically be tied to independent Return on 

Investment analyses for the funded programs. 
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7. REFERENCES

Castle, Anne (2013), Correspondence to Senator Susan M. Collins dated January 15, “Federal geographic 

Data Committee (FGDC) Response to GAO Report, Geospatial Information - OMB and Agencies Need 

to Make Coordination a Priority to Reduce Duplication (GAO-13-94).”

Federal Geographic Data Committee (1994), The 1994 Plan for the National Spatial Data Infrastructure, 

March.

Federal Geographic Data Committee (1997), A Strategy for the NSDI (April).

Federal Geographic Data Committee (2004), NSDI Future Directions Initiative - Towards a National 

Geospatial Strategy and Implementation Plan, June 15.

Government Accountability Office (2004), Geospatial Information - Better Coordination Needed to 

Identify and Reduce Duplicative Investments (GAO-04-703), June.

Government Accountability Office (2012), Geospatial Information - OMB and Agencies Need to Make 

Coordination a Priority to Reduce Duplication (GAO-13-94), November.

National Academy of Science (2013), Future U.S. Workforce for Geospatial Intelligence, National 

Academies Press, 200 pp., ISBN 978-0-309-26864-6.

Office of Management and Budget, Executive Office of the President (1973), Report on the Federal 

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