The NMD Liaison's in all states work to establish and maintain long-term partnerships and inform and involve partners of changes in programs and products that may affect them and their area of responsibility. As the largest producer of geospatial data products in the Nation, the USGS is committed to establish standards, coordinate mapping, and produce data. In an effort to leverage funds appropriated for map and data production, the USGS encourages cooperation with a variety of partners. The cooperators share the cost and production work of preparing multipurpose standard geospatial products. The USGS benefits from its ability to produce more data covering more areas throughout the Nation.
Cooperators benefit from their cost savings, data standardization, and data availability.
Texas has many organized groups that are partnering with the USGS to provide data for the state. The TOP program leverages matching state, local, and Federal funds to contract out the production of DOQs. The USGS supports the TOP program through the Innovative Partnership program. The TOP program plans to complete the state of Texas by September 2000. The DOQs produced under the TOP program meet National Map Accuracy standards.