Substantial funds have been spent internally by federal agencies in making their datasets, standards and approaches compatible with NSDI concepts. Please describe the types and extent of participants involved in building the NSDI and their roles. The roles of various parties and their relationships in moving towards a common NSDI vision are being developed over time. Within the federal government itself, lead coordination responsibilities based on themes have been assigned to specific Federal agencies by the Office of Management of Budget. Please indicate whether the vision of an NSDI for your nation incorporates the following components or concepts.
Metadata describe the content, quality, condition, and other characteristics of spatial data sets.
Clearinghouse - a distributed network of data producers and users that is used for discovery and access to standardized metadata and geospatial data. It might typically use the Internet, internationally accepted protocols and standard methods that enable spatial data discovery and access in ways not currently available through standard web engines. Data Standards - standards for data content, classification and management that are available for use by the entire community of spatial data producers and users. These standards might be imposed on some producers, such as on national agencies. Core Data - common base sets of data with broad geographic coverage meeting specified standards that are important to a broad variety of users.