The Water Resources NSDI Node is an online centralized repository of digital metadata that conforms to the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) standards.

Archiving Spatial Data Sets

The USGS WMA NSDI Node is an official USGS publication means of releasing spatial data sets. Publishing your GIS archive on the node and archiving your spatial data set and its associated metadata in the Clearinghouse, is a free service provided by the Water Resources Division.

How does it work?

1. Your spatial data set must be approved for release.
2. To get your spatial data set in the required format you will need:
   • A metadata file in XML format. See "Preparing Metadata" for more information.
   • Data files in a suitable (ARC, SDTS, GRID, DLG, .SHP .E00, .GDB, etc.) format.
3. Use the USGS Enterprise "PRIVATE" FTP Service to create your own directory. Upload your files, then specify on the Data Submission Form the files and their location.
4. Fill out the Data Submission Set Form.
5. The metadata for your data archive will be served by the USGS WMA NSDI Spatial Node and will be searchable by the Data.gov, USGS Science Data Catalog, GeoPlatform.gov and other metadata search engines.
6. The spatial data set also will be served by the USGS WMA NSDI Node at https://water.usgs.gov/lookup/getgislist
7. Each spatial data set will be assigned a unique name for retrieval as a persistent URL. For example, a spatial data set assigned the name newlu90g would be retrieved as
EXAMPLE:
  https://water.usgs.gov/lookup/getspatial?newlu90g
and its metadata can also be accessed directly by the url
  https://water.usgs.gov/GIS/metadata/usgswrd/XML/newlu90g.xml
8. You may reference the spatial data set and its metadata by these URL's in any reports or WWW pages.
9. NatWeb takes care of all backups and archiving. We review the metadata files and make sure they are updated to the latest FGDC format.
10. If you modify the spatial data set or update your data, you can submit the new copy of the data to the USGS WMA NSDI Node. The Node will install the new version and keep the old version in an archive.
11. There is no direct charge for these services.

Questions should be directed to Michael Ierardi, 703-648-5649.

Spatial data set files should be zipped and ready for distribution. (NOTE - we recommend the use of standard .zip files - i.e. WinZip or PKZip output - instead of less-common compression formats such as .7z or others)

The Agreement

Once you submit a spatial data set we require that you not serve it anywhere else. All references to the metadata must use the persistent URL assigned by the Water Webserver Team. Any revised versions must also be submitted.

    The Water Resources NSDI Node is an online centralized repository of digital metadata that conforms to the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) standards.