SDI Directory

1. Introduction

NSDI – A Place-Based National Framework for Insights, Intelligence and Knowledge

Our world is increasingly complex and interconnected. Humanity is challenged with understanding and adjusting to ever-changing economic, environmental, and social factors. Sustainable and innovative solutions depend on reliable information, understanding, and informed decision-making.

Geographic information is a universal language that helps us intuitively understand and interpret conditions, events, relationships, and patterns. It provides key information and context that helps define, influence, and guide our decisions and actions.

A National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) provides a Place-Based Framework to connect society, data and services to provide insights, intelligence and knowledge. Whether it is understanding unfamiliar environments, determining the best route to a destination, or performing long-term planning to enhance community resilience, the components of the NSDI are behind the scenes with the infrastructure to deliver data, tools, and information to people.

1.1. What is the NSDI?

The NSDI provides a place-based framework for connecting public and private data for understanding and decision-making.

The NSDI is a means to assemble geographic data nationwide to serve a variety of users. GIS applications of many different disciplines have a recurring need for a few themes of data. The framework is a collaborative community-based effort in which these commonly needed data themes are developed, maintained, and integrated by public and private organizations within a geographic area. The framework is one of the key building blocks and forms the data backbone of the NSDI. The framework concept is developed by representatives of county, regional, State, Federal, and other organizations under the auspices of the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC). Local, regional, state and federal government organizations and private companies saw the framework as a way to share resources, improve communications, and increase efficiency.

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An NSDI provides a national framework for sharing place-based information.

1.2. The NSDI’s Connected Vision

Place-Based Services for an Evolving World

Using spatial data, tools, and models to understand our ever-evolving world provides a worldwide recognized value. Place-based information is stimulating a local to global trillion-dollar industry, bringing new jobs, transforming organizations, and spurring market competition. Our Nation is a global leader in the creation and dissemination of place-based assets and information.

How will the NSDI shape our future?

Our Nation’s economic, social, and environmental future depends on the sound use of resources. The NSDI’s connective framework, provided by the NDSI Strategic Plan, implements a collaborative, community-based model for sharing knowledge, data, technologies, and

standards that benefit our Nation. This aligns investments, coordinates acquisitions, shares tools, and drives innovation to support decision making. In turn, this increases opportunities to fuel economic growth and advantages for the United States.

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NSDI

The NSDI advances a future driven by place-based information services.

1.3. Connecting People and Communities

Place-Based Information Links Communities

Society is interconnected and interdependent. Local to global activities, events, and decisions affect us all, and bring new opportunities and challenges. The components of the NSDI enable people to work together as communities, sharing place-based information and tools to understand, prepare for and respond to challenges, and seize opportunities. This is how the U.S. National Spatial Data Infrastructure advances the geospatial capabilities for the Nation.

How do people and communities use the NSDI to leverage place-based information and tools?

The NSDI provides a rich set of spatial data, tools, and a supporting framework to facilitate and enable people to work together and collaborate as a community. The NSDI is based on the concept of interoperability. This helps users easily leverage resources being made available by others, and enables them to provide their own information and tools for others to use. It is a national cooperative framework.

An effective NSDI requires developing and utilizing partnerships that promote collaboration, cost-effectiveness, and interoperable solutions. These components are the key underpinnings of the NSDI.

The Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) works collaboratively with non-Federal partners, communities, constituents, and professional bodies providing the enabling foundation of standards, data catalogs, partnerships, and tools that make up the NSDI.

The NSDI ensures that place-based data from multiple sources (Federal, state, local, and tribal governments, academia, and the private sector) are available and easily integrated to enhance the understanding of our physical and cultural world.

1.4. SDI Connecting the U.S. to the World

The economic, social and environmental well-being of our Nation and the world depends on the sound use of all our resources. The NSDI plays a vital role in helping us organize and deliver place-based information services.

To advance place-based understanding, we need to connect people, data, technology, and services. This transforms the way all organizations and nations address complex issues facing us now and in the future.

The NSDI continues to advance and accelerate the use of emerging place-based solutions that connect people, data, and technology.

Together we will:

Build local to global partnerships Expand access to place-based data Provide a platform to deliver products and services Encourage collaboration and innovation

The U.S. NSDI and its connections span and influence the world including:

GSDI – Global Spatial Data Infrastructure ASDI – Arctic Spatial Data Infrastructure GEO – Group on Earth Observations OGC – The Open Geospatial Consortium SDI Standards – Spatial Data Infrastructure Standards