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

Releasing GIS and other Spatial Data Sets On The USGS NSDI WMA NODE

    In order to publish spatial data sets, the USGS requires authors and publishing staff to provide a metadata file and to browse graphic of the actual data. This metadata is a requirement across the US Federal Government. Metadata is a description of the data in XML format, and allows users to locate and retrieve data in standardized ways. The data and metadata are not necessarily kept in the same location, but they are both part of an overall system called the National Spatial Data Infrastructure or NSDI. In the Water Mission Area (WMA), the data and metadata are kept on NatWeb maintained by the Office of Enterprise Information (OEI), known as the "USGS WMA NSDI Node".

    The USGS Water Mission Area NSDI Node is an online centralized repository of digital metadata that conforms to the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) standards. These standards govern eXtensible Markup Language (XML) metadata formatting and elements, methods of data acquisition, and processing protocols that are required in the FDGC Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (CSDGM). The valid metadata schema on the WMA NSDI Geospatial Node provides an organized structure of categories and essential mandatory elements describing the identification of data quality, publishing organization, references, entity and attribute information, and distribution methods for each spatial data set. The author has the option of appending additional metadata elements and citations such as an abstract, purpose, supplemental information, graphics, techniques applied in data base development, findings of the investigations, project summaries, themes, keywords, or other citations the author determines are relevant or appropriate to the data set.

    These pages provide guidance and tools for the preparation and submission of required metadata files for posting on the Node. Further information on the FGDC, NSDI, and future developments in publication of spatial data sets may be found at their respective sites listed below.

Why is Metadata required for Published GIS Data?

In 1994, President Clinton issued a directive, Executive Order 12906, which required all federal agencies to document all new digital spatial data sets using the standards specified by the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC). These standards govern the formatting and accessibility of data content and ensure it is available to the public to the greatest extent possible. Standards endorsed by the FGDC include the Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (CSDGM) and several ISO standards. In order to publish a geospatial data set, metadata that meets these standards must be provided along with the data set, approved by the Bureau Approving Official, and posted in the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) Clearinghouse. The USGS Water Mission Area maintains a Node of the NSDI with metadata for Water's data set publications.

In addition to the Presidential directive, the 2013 Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Open Access and Open Data initiatives resulted in four new Instructional Memoranda (IM) policies, which essentially changed the way we at the USGS (as well as all other Federal agencies) provide scholarly information and related data to the public.

• 502.6 - Fundamental Science Practices: Scientific Data Management
• 502.7 - Fundamental Science Practices: Metadata for USGS Scientific Information Products Including Data
• 502.8 - Fundamental Science Practices: Review and Approval of Scientific Data for Release
• 502.9 - Fundamental Science Practices: Preservation Requirements for Digital Scientific Data

Policies for Preserving USGS Geospatial Records

Key Points:

• A Digital Object Identifier (DOI) is required for all publications as of September 11th 2015.

• The NODE accepts all GIS data sets that have been approved by your WMA publication specialist or representative.

• The USGS Water Mission Area NODE has always allowed the archive and release of GIS data, even if there is no USGS series report publication report associated with your GIS data your data can still be published on the NODE.

• Most GIS data have been released on the NODE as a Data Series (ds-xxxx) report, a Professional Paper (pp-xxxx), an Open File Report (ofr-xxxx), a Scientific Investigation Map (sim-xxxx), or Scientific Investigation Report (sir-xxxx). See the USGS Publication Series Definitions. A published USGS Publication Series located on the Publication Warehouse that has an associated data release, should have that related data release hyper-linked from the published report on the Publication Warehouse to the node and vise versa.
     See Example: Geodatabase Compilation of Hydrogeologic, Remote Sensing, and Water-Budget-Component Data for the High Plains Aquifer, 2011

Approval and Publication Authorization is needed to place your data on the NODE.

1. A Digital Object Identifier (DOI) is required for all USGS publications.
2. The process for publication approval is the IPDS. This USGS Information Product Data System (IPDS) is a Web based application that documents and tracks the review, approval, and dissemination of information products that are subject to Fundamental Science Practices (FSP). The system is available to anyone with an enabled Active Directory account over the USGS Intranet. You can track the progress of your project through the IPDS. The OLD, OUTDATED process for publication approval, which used the form Form 9-1531 or Form 9-1325, is no longer valid. Please use the IPDS for all submissions.
3. Publishing a GIS data set will require preparing metadata. See Preparing Metadata for the NSDI Node.

• Once you have an approved data set and metadata, we can make it available on the USGS Water Resources NSID Node. This also makes your data set available through data.gov, USGS Science Data Catalog (SDC), U.S. Department of the Interior Data Catalog

• Use the Submission Form to let us know your data set is ready.

Additional Sources of Information:

• USGS EGIS Enterprise G(IS) Resources
• EGIS Metadata Page
• Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC)
• National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI)
• USGS Data Management
• If you have any questions concerning your spatial data archiving, please contact Michael Ierardi at mierardi@usgs.gov or (703) 648-5649.

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