Joint Leadership for Spatial Data Standards

The Defense Mapping Agency, the National Ocean Service, and the U.S. Geological Survey each has earned a reputation among respective user communities as a leader in producing quality data and map products that meet the highest standards. With the increased use of GIS, user communities are rapidly expanding and have now begun to overlap. With adoption of SDTS as a Federal Information Processing Standard, all federal agencies are required to use the SDTS domestically. There is additionally an emerging need to unify efforts in the development of international standards. Existing standards need to be harmonized and future standards activities need to be linked more closely. This paper reviews the roles of each agency in developing spatial data and standards for exchange and outlines leadership activities in standards development that are currently underway.