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Geospatial One-Stop
The Geospatial One-Stop is a Federal government
E-Gov initiative that will create, among other things, an Internet portal for data discovery and exchange. The components of the portal will be based on standards developed for the
National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) Themes and the Open GIS Consortium (OGC)
web services.
At present, geospatial data are created and maintained by all levels of government. They exist in numerous locations and in different proprietary formats. Exchanging data between, and sometimes within, the same organization is recognized as a labor-intensive and problematic endeavor. The
Geospatial One-Stop will overcome many of these issues through a collaborative effort to
establish a comprehensive web portal initially for the NSDI seven
framework themes of geographic data. Through this effort, more accurate and accessible geospatial data will be available from local to national levels, and will allow users to more effectively address security, emergency, economic, social and environmental issues. The following are some of the benefits that will result from the Geospatial
One-Stop:
- Support geospatial data customers including Federal, state, local, and other agencies, as well as private citizens, by providing a common, consistent source of geospatial data
for all e-government uses
- Support security and emergency response services
- Build upon existing capabilities to accelerate the development of the NSDI
- Save money for all parties by providing a market for data acquisition partnership opportunities and by making existing
data more accessible
Implementing the data exchange portion of the Geospatial One-Stop will be accomplished with
two interdependent efforts. First, integrating the NSDI framework themes into the Geospatial
One-Stop will be accomplished through the development of a framework data
content standard for each theme. Federal, state and local governments plus private sector and academia have cooperated to develop essential data framework standards for the exchange of information. Second, the Geospatial One Stop effort is cooperating with the OGC and the software industry to incorporate these standards into existing web services software. Combining both efforts will improve access to geospatial data, with "one-stop" Internet access, for easier data
sharing.
Within the NSDI, the United States Department of Transportation is responsible for the development of the Transportation Framework Standard. The Secretary of the Department of Transportation has assigned the task to coordinate the development of the transportation standard, and the creation of the Geospatial One Stop Portal for Transportation to the Bureau of Transportation
Statistics (BTS).
Transportation is unique since different modes behave differently and use separate transportation networks. This is reflected in the development of framework standard for each mode (highways, railways, air, and transit). BTS used the following process to develop these
standards:
- Identify interested organizations and individuals
to participate in the standards development process
- Gather requirements from each mode-specific group
- Conduct meetings to develop consensus
- Work with the Open GIS
Consortium and State and local governments to create an open, interoperable prototype portal for transportation data. This portal will provide an Internet access point to transportation geospatial data
and web mapping services
Current Status - April 2004
The progress of each Transportation mode in the development of framework standards is available for review. Each Transportation Modeling Model Advisory Team (MAT) has met twice and completed work on their mode specific framework standard.
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Department of Homeland Security requested all GOS standards be completed and submitted to the
American National Standards Institute (ANSI) by September 30, 2003 for initial review. This was accomplished with resulting ANSI review comments being adjudicated by each MAT. A final submission to ANSI of the GOS Standards will occur during the summer of
2004.
Additionally, the BTS developed a pilot implementation of a GOS web portal for transportation. This pilot used the road framework standard and implemented it as a Geospatial One-Stop portal proof of
concept.
A demo presentation has been developed and provides a good overview of the portal.
Status reports are available for the
Road,
Air,
Transit,
Waterway, and
Rail
standards development process plus information regarding development of the
Geospatial One Stop Portal for Transportation Pilot Project.
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