The FGDC promotes the development, maintenance, and management of distributed database systems that are national in scope for geographic data. The NSDI is the technology, policies, standards, and human resources necessary to acquire, process, store, distribute, and improve the use of geospatial data. Geospatial data are information on the geographic location and characteristics of natural or constructed features and boundaries on the earth. The NSDI is being designed to provide a pool of current and reliable data, partnerships among data producers and users, and metadata standards. Executive Order 12906 specifies that each Federal agency must use the FGDC metadata standard to document new geospatial data.
Metadata describe the content, quality, condition, and other characteristics of the data.
Metadata standards help prospective users to determine what data exist, the fitness of the data for their applications, and the conditions for accessing the data. Metadata standards also aid the transfer of data to other users' systems. The purpose of the standard is to provide common terminology and definitions for documenting geospatial data. The Executive Order also requires each agency to make the geospatial data electronically accessible through the National Geospatial Data Clearinghouse. The National Geospatial Data Clearinghouse is a distributed, electronically connected network of geospatial data producers, managers, and users.