Testimony 

Before the Subcommittee on Technology, 

Information Policy, Intergovernmental 

Relations and the Census, Committee on 

Government Reform, House of Representatives

United States General Accounting Office 

GAO

For Release on Delivery 

Expected at 10:00 a.m. EDT 

Tuesday, June 10, 2003 GEOGRAPHIC 

INFORMATION SYSTEMS 

Challenges to Effective Data 

Sharing 

Statement of Linda D. Koontz 

Director, Information Management Issues 

GAO-03-874T 
For decades, the federal government has tried to reduce duplicative 

geospatial data collection by coordinating GIS activities within and outside 

the federal government. For example, in 1990, the Office of Management and 

Budget established the Federal Geographic Data Committee to promote the 

coordinated use, sharing, and dissemination of geospatial data nationwide. 

In 1994, the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) program was 

established by executive order to address the problem of the redundancy 

and incompatibility of geospatial information on a national basis. More 

recently, Geospatial One-Stop, a component of NSDI, was initiated (see 

below). 

Although efforts to build the NSDI are progressing, achieving the vision of a 

nationwide GIS network remains a formidable challenge. Developing 

standards that meet stakeholders’ needs remains a challenging and timeconsuming task, and achieving full participation across governments in their 

development has also been difficult. 

Geospatial One-Stop is aimed at promoting coordinated geospatial data 

collection and maintenance across all levels of government. Among its 

objectives are (1) deploying an Internet portal for one-stop access to 

geospatial data; (2) developing data standards; and (3) encouraging greater 

coordination among federal, state, and local agencies. While these objectives 

are important, Geospatial One-Stop has focused on limited, near-term tasks 

and was not intended to fully address the longer-term challenges of 

implementing the NSDI. A much more substantial effort will be required to 

attain the broader vision of seamless integration of GIS data nationwide. 

Existing draft standards may need further revision, and more extensive 

coordination efforts may be required to ensure broad adoption at all levels of

government. Further, the effort is likely to require a continuing effort over an 

extended period of time, due to the fact that significant investments have 

already been made in existing non-standard systems. 

Geospatial One-Stop Portal Concept 

Geographic information systems 

(GIS) manipulate, analyze, and 

graphically present an array of 

information associated with 

geographic locations, have been 

invaluable to all levels of 

government. Their usefulness in 

disaster response was recently 

demonstrated during the Space 

Shuttle Columbia recovery effort. 

GIS provided precise maps and 

search grids to guide crews to the 

debris that was strewn across 41 

counties in Texas and Louisiana. 

The federal government has long 

been attempting to develop an 

integrated nationwide GIS network. 

The information available through 

such a network could significantly 

enhance decision-making in myriad 

public-service areas, including 

emergency response, national 

security, law enforcement, health 

care, and the environment. 

Among GAO’s objectives were to 

describe the federal government’s 

efforts to coordinate GIS activities, 

the long-standing challenges of 

adopting and implementing federal 

GIS standards, and the role of 

Geospatial One-Stop. 

www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-03-874T.

To view the full product, click on the link 

above. 

For more information, contact Linda D. 

Koontz at (202) 512-6240 or 

Koontzl@gao.gov. 

Highlights of GAO-03-874T, a testimony 

before the Subcommittee on Technology, 

Information Policy, Intergovernmental 

Relations and the Census, Committee on 

Government Reform, House of 

Representatives 

June 10, 2003 

GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS 

Challenges to Effective Data Sharing 
Page 2 GAO-03-874T 

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee: 

I appreciate the opportunity to participate in the Subcommittee’s hearing 

regarding the challenges of developing an integrated nationwide network 

of geographic information systems (GIS). A GIS is a system of computer 

software, hardware, and data used to manipulate, analyze, and graphically 

present a potentially wide array of information associated with geographic 

locations. GIS’s powerful ability to integrate different kinds of information 

about a physical location can lead to better-informed decisions about 

public investments in infrastructure and services—including national 

security, law enforcement, health care, and the environment—as well as a 

more effective and timely response in emergency situations. However, 

long-standing challenges to data sharing and integration need to be 

addressed before the benefits of geographic information systems can be 

fully realized. 

As requested, in my remarks today, I will discuss the many GIS activities 

under way throughout the federal government, the federal government’s 

efforts to coordinate these activities, and the long-standing challenges of 

adopting and implementing federal GIS standards. I will also discuss the 

role of Geospatial One-Stop, one of 25 high-profile e-government1

initiatives sponsored by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). To 

supplement my remarks, I have included an attachment that lists examples 

of the numerous GIS activities led by various federal agencies. 

The primary function of a GIS is to link multiple sets of geospatial data and 

graphically display that information as maps with potentially many 

different layers of information. Assuming that all 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 other layers. For 

example, one theme could represent all the streets in a specified area. 

Another theme could correspond to all the buildings in the same area, and 

others could show vegetation or water resources. As long as standard 

 1

E-Government or Electronic Government refers to the use of technology, particularly Webbased Internet applications, to enhance the access to and delivery of government 

information and services to citizens, business partners, employees, other agencies, and 

other entities. 

Background 
Page 3 GAO-03-874T 

processes and formats have been arranged 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. Figure 1 

portrays the concept of data themes in GIS. 

Figure 1: GIS Layers or “Themes” 

The expansion of Internet connectivity in recent years has substantially 

enhanced the potential value of GIS because now it is possible to locate 

and harness data from many disparate GIS databases to develop very rich 

analytical information on almost any topic that is associated with physical 

locations. Data that were once collected and used only for a single 

purpose could now have much broader applications. Further, the 

community of GIS users has been broadened to include potentially anyone 

with an Internet connection. For example, citizens can now use home 

computers to obtain answers to specific questions about land use in their 
Page 4 GAO-03-874T 

state or local jurisdiction. Commercial entrepreneurs can combine GIS 

data about zoning and tax-incentive areas to determine what parts of a city 

are best suited for establishing a new business. 

Federal, state, and local government agencies are using GIS today 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 GIS to identify intersections that have had 

a significant number of personal injury accidents to determine needs for 

improved traffic signaling or signage. GIS can also be an invaluable tool in 

ensuring homeland security by facilitating preparedness, prevention, 

detection, and recovery and response to terrorist attacks. 

Many federal departments and agencies use GIS technology to help carry 

out their primary missions. For example, the Department of Housing and 

Urban Development (HUD) worked with the Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA) to develop E-MAPS, which combines information on HUD’s 

community development and housing programs with EPA’s environmental 

data. The program provides homeowners and prospective homebuyers 

with ready access to detailed local information about environmental 

hazards that otherwise would likely have been very difficult to obtain. In 

another example, the Department of Health and Human Services uses GIS 

technology to analyze data on population and topography (including 

roads, streams, and land elevation), as well as information gathered from 

residents. These data are used to track the spread of environmental 

contamination through a community, to identify geographic areas of 

particular health concern, and to identify susceptible populations, such as 

children or the elderly. 

The usefulness of GIS in disaster response was demonstrated recently 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. 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. This information not 

only contributed to an efficient recovery effort but also may help experts 

to refine theories about why Columbia perished. 
Page 5 GAO-03-874T 

In developing this testimony, our objectives were to describe the many GIS 

activities under way throughout the federal government and the federal 

government’s efforts to coordinate these activities, the long-standing 

challenges of adopting and implementing federal GIS standards, and the 

role of Geospatial One-Stop. To address these objectives, we obtained 

relevant documentation from the Department of the Interior and 

interviewed Geospatial One-Stop project officials as well as 

representatives from state agencies and private sector organizations 

involved in GIS activities with the federal government. We also analyzed 

the accomplishments and planned activities of the Geospatial One-Stop 

initiative in light of identified challenges to geospatial data sharing. We 

performed our work between May 2003 and June 2003, in accordance with 

generally accepted auditing standards. 

According to the Department of the Interior, about 80 percent of all 

government information has a geospatial data component, such as an 

address or other reference to a physical location.2

 It is not surprising, then, 

that a wide variety of geospatial data collection efforts are ongoing 

throughout the federal government, each established for a different 

purpose but often collecting and maintaining the same or similar 

information. In fact, according to the 2001 initial business case for 

Geospatial One-Stop, about 50 percent of the federal government’s 

geospatial data investment is redundant. 

For every GIS application, federal agencies must manage the geospatial 

data that are at the heart of that application. In many cases, agencies 

maintain the same data that are referenced to the same geographic 

location. For example, both HUD and the Census Bureau maintain 

essentially the same geospatial data regarding congressional districts, city 

boundaries, railroads, interstate highways, and state highways. The two 

agencies maintain separate GIS systems for storing and analyzing this 

information. 

In many cases, agencies independently collect data that, while not 

identical, is similar and potentially duplicative in many respects. For 

example, both the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Nuclear 

Regulatory Commission (NRC) collect and analyze information regarding 

 2

Geospatial One-Stop, Office of Management and Budget Capital Asset Plan and 

Business Case (Exhibit 300) (Jan. 27, 2003), p. 7. 

Many Federal 

Government GIS 

Activities Overlap 
Page 6 GAO-03-874T 

uranium-milling facilities, and they both cover the same geographic areas. 

DOE concentrates on tracking the status of former uranium processing 

sites, whereas NRC gathers and maintains information on current uranium 

milling facilities in the same mid-western locations. In cases such as this, 

significant efficiencies may be gained by coordinating the two collection 

efforts. 

In other cases, data may be collected in different resolutions or with 

different degrees of accuracy but still essentially cover the same theme 

over the same geographic area. Local governments often possess the most 

recent and highest resolution geographic data; however, these data often 

are collected to serve specific missions and may be difficult to use for 

other purposes. For instance, when the Forest Service created a nationallevel GIS for the forest ecosystem, it was faced with reconciling data from 

a variety of incompatible locally developed systems. Local agencies had 

used a variety of standards for each forest and district. In assembling these 

data into a unified, coherent database, the Forest Service had to adopt the 

lowest-resolution format in order to maintain full coverage of all forests. 

As a result, much of the higher-resolution content of the local data could 

not be used. Much of the effort in building this system was spent 

reconciling data sets to make them usable in an integrated database. 

The biggest problem with collecting this duplicative geospatial data is its 

cost. According to a recent study, up to 80 percent of GIS costs are related 

to the collection and management of geospatial data.3

 In 1993, OMB 

performed a data call in which it estimated that $4.1 billion was spent 

annually, at the federal level, on collection and management of 

geographically referenced data. In addition, state and local governments 

are estimated to spend twice that of the federal government on collection 

and management of geographic referenced data.4

 3

Center for Technology in Government, Sharing the Costs, Sharing the Benefits: The New 

York State GIS Cooperative Project (2001). 

4

Office of Management and Budget, Geospatial One-Stop Capital Asset Plan and Business 

Case (Exhibit 300) (Jan. 27, 2003). 
Page 7 GAO-03-874T 

The federal government has tried for years to reduce duplicative 

geospatial data collection by coordinating GIS activities both within and 

outside the federal government. In 1953 the Bureau of the Budget first 

issued its Circular A-16, encouraging expeditious surveying and mapping 

activities across all levels of government and avoidance of duplicative 

efforts. More recently, the E-Government Act of 20025

 directed the Office 

of Management and Budget to coordinate the development of standard 

protocols for sharing geographic information to reduce redundant data 

collection and promote collaboration and the use of standards. Although 

progress has been made over this 50-year span, much work still remains to 

be done. 

Over the past several decades we and others, such as the National 

Research Council6

 and the National Academy of Public Administration,7

have made a set of recommendations aimed at promoting the coordination 

of GIS efforts and data. In 1969, we recommended that mapping by state 

and local agencies under federal programs should be accomplished, where 

appropriate, in a manner enabling such work to contribute to the national 

mapping program.8

 In 1982, we issued another report recommending 

interagency coordination to prevent duplicative computer-mapping 

programs.9

 In response to this and other recommendations, OMB revised 

Circular A-16 in 1990, to, among other things, establish a Federal 

Geographic Data Committee (FGDC), chaired by the Department of the 

Interior, to promote the coordinated use, sharing, and dissemination of 

geospatial data nationwide. Building on that effort, a program was 

established by Executive Order 12906 in 1994 to develop a National Spatial 

Data Infrastructure (NSDI) to address the problem of the redundancy and 

incompatibility of geospatial information collected by many different 

organizations and stored and maintained at many different physical 

locations. Figure 2 provides a federal GIS coordination timeline. 

 5

E-Government Act of 2002, P.L. 107-347 (Dec. 17, 2002). 

6

National Research Council, Mapping Science Committee, Toward a Coordinated Spatial 

Data Infrastructure for the Nation (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1993). 

7

National Academy of Public Administration, Geographic Information for the 21st 

Century: Building a Strategy for the Nation (Washington, D.C.: Jan. 1998). 

8

U.S. General Accounting Office, Opportunity for Savings and Better Service to Map Users 

Through Improved Coordination of Federally Financed Mapping Activities, 759 Un317o 

(Washington, D.C.: Dec. 17, 1969). 

9

U.S. General Accounting Office, Duplicative Federal Computer-Mapping Programs: A 

Growing Problem, GAO/RCED-83-19 (Washington, D.C.: Nov. 22, 1982). 

Many Attempts Have 

Been Made to 

Coordinate GIS 

Activities 
Page 8 GAO-03-874T 

Figure 2: Federal GIS Coordination Timeline 

As a result of these federal geospatial coordination efforts, the federal 

government has begun to establish the NSDI through a number of 

component programs.10 These include the Geospatial Data Clearinghouse 

to promote data sharing on a national level, a collection of voluntary “ITeams” to foster community-level data collection and sharing, a 

Cooperative Agreements Program to provide seed money for initiatives 

aimed at better data integration and use, and—most recently—the 

Geospatial One-Stop initiative, aimed at promoting coordination and 

alignment of geospatial data collection and maintenance across all levels 

of government. Table 1 gives more details about the components of the 

NSDI. I will discuss the Geospatial One-Stop initiative at greater length 

later in my remarks. 

 10The FGDC is responsible for coordinating all of these components.
Page 9 GAO-03-874T 

Table 1: Components of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure 

Name Description 

National Spatial Data Infrastructure 

(NSDI) 

A structure of practices and relationships among data producers and users that facilitates 

geospatial data sharing and use throughout government, the private and nonprofit sectors, 

and academia. As discussed below, key GIS initiatives within the NSDI, which are 

coordinated by the Federal Geographic Data Committee, include the Geospatial Data 

Clearinghouse, I-Teams, Cooperative Agreements Program, and Geospatial One-Stop. 

Geospatial Data Clearinghouse A decentralized system of Internet servers containing field-level descriptions or metadata 

of available digital geospatial data. The clearinghouse allows individual agencies, 

consortia, and geographically defined communities to coordinate and promote the use of 

their available geospatial data. 

I-Teams Voluntary bodies of leaders representing all sectors of the geospatial community that meet 

in open forums to plan, steward, and implement the production, maintenance, and 

exchange of community information resources. The I-Team Initiative helps to address the 

institutional and financial barriers to development of the NSDI. 

Cooperative Agreements Program 

funds 

Funds intended to provide seed money to engage organizations in building the NSDI 

through metadata implementation, training and outreach, and clearinghouse 

implementation of OpenGIS Web services. 

Geospatial One-Stop An initiative to promote coordination and alignment of geospatial data collection and 

maintenance among all levels of government by (1) developing a portal for seamless 

access to geospatial information, (2) providing standards and models for geospatial data, 

(3) creating an interactive index to geospatial data holdings at federal and nonfederal 

levels, and (4) encouraging greater coordination among federal, state, and local agencies 

about existing and planned geospatial data collections. 

Source: GAO. 

Although efforts to build the NSDI are progressing, achieving the vision of 

a nationwide GIS network remains a formidable challenge. 

Notwithstanding federal attempts to promote interagency and 

intergovernmental collaboration, the difficulty in developing and 

implementing effective standards remains a barrier to effective data 

sharing and to achieving the level of integration that would lead to full 

development of the NSDI. 

Developing common geospatial standards to support vital public services 

has proven to be a complex and time-consuming effort. The number of 

types of geospatial data and the complexity of those data make developing 

geospatial standards a daunting task. For example, 34 different broad 

categories of geospatial data, called “data themes,” were identified in OMB 

Circular A-16 as a necessary foundation for the NSDI. These basic themes 

relate to all types of services provided by the federal government—

including climate, flood hazards, federal land ownership, public health, 

soils, and transportation. Each of these themes, in turn, may have any 

number of subthemes. The transportation theme, for example, includes 

such divergent subthemes as road, railroad, air, transit, and waterway, 

each the domain of a different organization or group of organizations. For 

Developing and 

Implementing GIS 

Standards Have Posed 

Long-Standing 

Challenges 
Page 10 GAO-03-874T 

data associated with the NSDI’s themes and subthemes to be effectively 

shared, standards must be developed that allow interoperability and 

integration of the many disparate formats of data that are currently 

collected for each theme and subtheme. Circular A-16 further identifies 

seven of the themes as the core set of most commonly used data, called 

“framework themes.”11 FGDC has been working to coordinate the 

development of these themes as well as other standards since it was 

established 13 years ago. Although FGDC has developed versions of 

several of these standards, it has not attempted to finalize a complete set 

of the seven framework standards. These framework standards would 

define the simplest level of geographic data commonly used in most 

geospatial data sets. 

OMB Circular A-16 calls for a well-coordinated effort among federal, state, 

local, and tribal governments, academic institutions, and the private sector 

to build an effective NSDI.12 Yet in the capital asset plan for the Geospatial 

One-Stop project published in January 2003, the Department of the Interior 

noted that the risk was high that agencies would be unwilling to adopt 

framework data standards. Given that most federal agencies—including 

large agencies such as DOE, Justice, and Health and Human Services—

have not participated in the NSDI framework standards development 

process, the risk is substantial that the proposed standards will not meet 

their needs. In addition, agencies could be faced with a potentially 

expensive effort at “migrating” to the new standard. Substantial 

investments have already been made to independently develop geospatial 

systems using formats and standards that meet the specific needs of the 

agencies that developed them. The potential for agencies to continue to 

deploy agency-specific, noninteroperable geospatial systems was another 

high risk identified by Interior in its January 2003 Geospatial One-Stop 

plan. 

Many states and localities have established Web sites that provide a 

variety of location-related information services, such as updated traffic 

and transportation information, land ownership and tax records, and 

 11The seven framework themes are transportation, hydrography, government units, 

geodetic control, elevation, digital ortho imagery, and cadastral (relating to land 

ownership). 

12OMB Circular A-16, Coordination of Geographic Information and Related Spatial Data 

Activities, Revised August 19, 2002. The Circular applies to any executive agency that 

collects, produces, acquires, maintains, distributes, uses, or preserves paper maps or digital 

spatial data to fulfill its mission. 
Page 11 GAO-03-874T 

information on housing for the elderly. Existing commercial products 

using a variety of formats are already meeting the needs of the states and 

localities in providing this information. Hence these organizations are 

likely to have little incentive to adopt potentially incompatible federal 

standards that could require substantial new investments. According to 

Arizona’s state cartographer, many local governments currently do not 

comply with existing FGDC standards because most of their GIS 

applications were created primarily to meet their internal needs, with little 

concern for data sharing with federal systems. 

Geospatial One-Stop is intended to accelerate the development and 

implementation of the NSDI by promoting coordination and alignment of 

geospatial data collection and maintenance across all levels of 

government. Specifically, its objectives include (1) deploying an Internet 

portal for one-stop access to geospatial data as an extension to the NSDI 

Clearinghouse network (see figure 3); (2) developing data standards for 

the seven NSDI framework data themes; (3) creating an inventory of 

federal data holdings related to the seven framework themes; and (4) 

encouraging greater coordination among federal, state, and local agencies 

about existing and planned geospatial data collection projects. 

Figure 3: Geospatial One-Stop Portal Concept 

Geospatial One-Stop’s 

Objectives Are 

Limited 
Page 12 GAO-03-874T 

• Deploying an Internet portal. This task was to design and implement an 

Internet portal to serve as a one-stop interface for users seeking links to 

geospatial data that were already available and cataloged in the NSDI 

clearinghouse. A demonstration version of the portal has been developed, 

and the first publicly available version is expected to be implemented by 

the end of June 2003. Plans are to begin adding new data to the portal, now 

that it has been developed. Project officials are also considering future 

enhancements to the functionality of the portal; however, no milestones 

have been set for any specific enhancements. 

• Developing data standards. The specific objective was to draft the seven 

NSDI framework standards. Drafts of these seven framework standards, as 

well as five transportation subthemes and a base standard have now been 

completed. Project officials plan to submit these drafts to the American 

National Standards Institute by the end of September 2003. 

• Creating an inventory of federal data holdings. To meet this objective, 

metadata13 for all relevant federal data sets must first be collected and 

made available in the NSDI Clearinghouse. Users need metadata to 

determine whether a data set is useful for their purposes and to be aware 

of any special stipulations about processing and interpreting the data. 

Accordingly, OMB Circular A-11 required that all federal data sets with a 

replacement value exceeding $1 million be documented in FGDC metadata 

and the metadata be accessible and searchable in the NSDI Clearinghouse 

network by February 10, 2003. 

• Encouraging greater coordination among federal, state, and local 

agencies. To support this objective, a process has been established to 

coordinate Geospatial One-Stop’s activities across these various 

government levels. According to the project’s cooperating states 

coordinator, eight federal agencies are participating in developing and 

implementing the initiative. In addition, an intergovernmental board of 

directors was established with two-thirds of the vote held by state, local 

and tribal representatives. The purpose of the board was to help ensure 

collaboration among potential stakeholders from all government sectors. 

According to the National States Geographic Information Council’s 

(NSGIC) representative, state, county, and municipal levels of government 

 13Metadata is information describing the content, quality, condition, and other 

characteristics of data. 
Page 13 GAO-03-874T 

are well represented and play a useful role in providing alternative views 

about the direction of the initiative.14

While Geospatial One-Stop’s objectives are important, they do not 

represent a significantly new or different approach to the GIS integration 

problem that the government has been struggling with for more than a 

decade. First, while developing and implementing an Internet portal may 

offer users additional functionality over the existing Clearinghouse, unless 

the underlying geospatial data offered through the portal are standardized 

across data providers, the additional functionality offered by the portal 

may be of limited value. 

Second, the objective of finalizing the seven framework standards, while 

important, is limited. As I discussed earlier, a total of 34 data themes was 

identified in OMB Circular A-16 as a necessary foundation for the NSDI. 

Geospatial One-Stop’s objectives do not include plans to address any of 

the remaining 27 themes. Before the broader vision of a unified nationwide 

network of geospatial data and systems can be achieved, standards for all 

of NSDI’s foundation data themes will need to be established. Further, 

definition of the standards is only the first step in gaining their benefits; 

Geospatial One-Stop has not yet addressed the challenge of gaining 

consistent implementation of the standards across government, which I 

have already discussed. In order to attain the broader vision of seamless 

integration of GIS data on a nationwide basis, a longer-term effort will be 

required. 

Third, creating a complete and useful inventory of federal data holdings 

will require much more substantial work than is planned through the 

Geospatial One-Stop initiative. For example, according to the FGDC 

Metadata Coordinator, the extent to which agencies have posted metadata 

about their geospatial data sets is unknown. In addition, obtaining 

complete metadata from all federal sources is likely to be very challenging. 

If the metadata were not created when the data were originally captured, 

they could be expensive and time-consuming to generate after the fact, 

and agencies may not have resources available for the effort. Accordingly, 

unless Geospatial One-Stop devotes more resources to working with 

 14The National States Geographic Information Council is an organization of states that 

promotes the adoption and use of geographic information technologies, including the NSDI 

and GOS. Members include state GIS coordinators, senior state GIS managers, and 

representatives from federal agencies, local government, the private sector, academia and 

other professional organizations. 
Page 14 GAO-03-874T 

agencies on generating and posting metadata, its objective of creating an 

inventory of federal data holdings may be delayed. 

Finally, despite the creation of the Board of Directors, questions have been 

raised about the breadth of participation in Geospatial One-Stop. The chair 

of the board acknowledged that the small group of nonfederal 

representatives on the board may not be able to speak for all the states 

and thousands of local governments. It is also not known how well these 

representatives are disseminating information about the initiative and 

encouraging collaboration among the states and localities that are not 

directly represented. As with the initiative’s other objectives, limited 

actions have been taken aimed at achieving near-term results that only 

partially address the broader objective of building the NSDI. To fully 

achieve that broader objective, Geospatial One-Stop will need to better 

ensure that it has coordinated with all relevant governmental entities and 

that they understand the initiative and their role in it. 

In summary, a coordinated nationwide network of geographic information 

systems offers many opportunities to better serve the public, make 

government more efficient and effective, and reduce costs. As a 

sophisticated decision making tool, GIS provides the capability to 

strengthen national security, enhance law enforcement, increase public 

health, and protect the environment. However, to date, the potential of GIS 

has not been fully realized. While steps have been taken to improve the 

coordination of government GIS efforts, much more work still needs to be 

done to round out a comprehensive set of standards and to ensure that 

they are being broadly applied. Geospatial One-Stop, in particular, while 

addressing useful near-term tasks, has not focused on the need for a 

longer-term strategy for facing the challenges of implementing the NSDI. 

While it may be appropriate for many systems, especially at the state and 

local level, to retain non-standard approaches to geospatial data collection 

and analysis, priority should now be given to ensuring that the federal 

government promotes common GIS standards wherever practicable, 

facilitates participation by all stakeholders, and as a result reduces 

redundant systems and data collection efforts. Adoption of a core set of 

framework standards by the GIS community should lay the groundwork 

for achieving the goals of the NSDI. However, additional work may be 

needed. Existing draft standards may need revision to accommodate the 

needs of major federal agency users, and more extensive coordination 

efforts may be required to ensure broad adoption at all levels of 

government. Further, the effort is likely to require a continuing effort over 
Page 15 GAO-03-874T 

an extended period of time, due to the fact that significant investments 

have already been made in existing non-standard systems, and the task of 

replacing those systems and migrating their data to new standards cannot 

be accomplished overnight. Nevertheless, we believe that until these 

challenges are addressed, the goal of a single, coordinated, nationwide 

system of geospatial data will remain out of reach. 

Mr. Chairman, this concludes my statement. I would be pleased to answer 

any questions that you or other members of the subcommittee may have at 

this time. 

If you should have any questions about this testimony, please contact me 

at (202) 512-6240 or via E-mail at koontzl@gao.gov. Other major 

contributors to this testimony included Shannin Addison, John de Ferrari, 

Sophia Harrison, and Elizabeth Roach. 

Contact and 

Acknowledgements 
Page 16 GAO-03-874T 

Agency Description 

Natural Resources Conservation 

Service (Department of Agriculture) 

Geospatial Data Gateway provides easy and consistent access to natural resource data by 

geographic area such as county or state. Users can search for data by theme, such as digital 

ortho imagery, digital elevation models, or soils. 

National Cartography and 

Geospatial Center (Department of 

Agriculture) 

NCGC Internet Mapping offers Web access to view samples of hydrography, digital 

orthophotography, digital topographic data, and other integrated data layers. 

Fort Sill (Department of the Army) Integrated Training Area Management GIS program provides training area maps, contour 

maps, and environmental coordination maps at a desired scale to installation personnel for use 

in management and training activities. 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration (Department of 

Commerce) 

NOAA makes extensive use of a GIS to store the large quantity of data it collects. For 

example, the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory and the Alaska Fisheries Science 

Center collect a wealth of data about the physical and biological characteristics of the Bering 

Sea and the Gulf of Alaska, which are then stored in a GIS. 

U.S. Census Bureau (Department of 

Commerce) 

Provides online maps based on Census data that can be manipulated in many different ways. 

National Aeronautical and Space 

Administration & National Imagery 

and Mapping Agency (Department 

of Defense) 

Shuttle Radar Topography Mission employs a specially modified radar system to capture the 

elevation data, synthetic aperture radar, and single-pass radar interferometry. The objective of 

this project is to produce digital topographic data for 80% of the Earth’s land surface. 

National Imagery and Mapping 

Agency (Department of Defense) 

Provides timely, accurate, global aeronautical, topographical, and maritime, geospatial 

information in support of national security objectives. 

National Renewable Energy 

Laboratory (Department of Energy) 

GIS site provides dynamically generated maps of renewable energy resources that determine 

which energy technologies are viable solutions in the United States. These maps include GIS 

Clean Cities Map, Wind Map, Transportation Technologies Map, Map of Indian Lands, Solar 

Maps, and Federal Energy Management Program Maps. 

Los Alamos National Laboratory 

(Department of Energy) 

GISLab supplies geospatial information for internal and external users of geospatial data. 

Current projects include fire-related spatial data, floodplain mapping and hydrological 

modeling, field mapping for forest management, and mesoscale climate change modeling. 

Centers for Disease Control and 

Prevention (Department of Health 

and Human Services) 

Uses GIS to provide maps and data on public health issues in the United States. 

Federal Emergency Management 

Agency (Department of Homeland 

Security) 

Provides a full range of GIS services to all FEMA program offices which include 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 teleregistered and service center applicants, housing 

inspection numbers, Help-line calls, disaster unemployment claims, Small Business 

Administration applicants, etc. 

Department of Housing and Urban 

Development & the Environmental 

Protection Agency 

E- Maps combines information on HUD’s community development and housing programs with 

EPA’s environmental data to provide location, type, and performance of HUD-funded activities 

in every neighborhood across the country and select EPA information on brownfields, 

hazardous wastes, air pollution and waste water discharges. 

US Geological Survey (USGS) 

(Department of the Interior) 

Provides a site that serves as a node of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure for finding and 

accessing USGS spatial data related to hydrography. 

Bureau of Land Management 

(Department of the Interior) 

Uses GIS to store and analyze public land and administrative jurisdiction information. 

U.S. Forest Service (Department of 

Agriculture) 

Uses GIS to provide information on vegetation, water, fire, and soil for specified forests. 

National Park Service (Department 

of the Interior) 

Strives to have a comprehensive automated information system for each national park that will 

integrate spatial (geographic) and tabular data from a variety of sources to enable modeling of 

real and theoretical situations for managing all park resources. 

Justice Programs Office for Victims 

of Crime (Department of Justice) 

Uses GIS to map crime victim services. 

Attachment I: Examples of Federal 

Geographic Information System (GIS) 

Activities 
Page 17 GAO-03-874T 

Agency Description 

Volpe National Transportation 

Systems Center (Department of 

Transportation) 

Uses GIS to identify data such as county boundaries, roadways, and railroads, measure 

ambient noise levels, search for locations such as historic beacon sites and environmental 

data. 

The Environmental Protection 

Agency 

The EPA provides a wide variety of spatial data such as information regarding air, water, land, 

deposition, emissions, climate, sensitive resources, and demographics to support 

environmental analysis and uses GIS to aid decision-making. 

Tennessee Valley Authority Provides an interactive map of the entire TVA power system, a network of reservoirs and 

power plants. 

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