U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey ASPRS Panel on USGS Progress on Remote Sensing Calibration and Quality The National Map Quality Assurance Program May 26, 2004

…and the complexity of validating data for The National Map will be presented.

The National Map n Composed of integrated, constantly maintained geospatial information n Produced by a consortium of Federal, State, and local partners who provide geospatial data n Eight Base Data Themes l Orthoimagery, Elevation, Hydrography, Geographic Names, Land Cover, Transportation, Boundary, Structures n Catalog of data that resides on USGS and Partner Web Mapping Services

The National Map Catalog n There are currently about 800 layers of publicly available data in the The National Map catalog. n The data are being served from more than 80 different map services, most of which are not owned or controlled by the USGS n Nominal map scales range from as small as 1:3,500,000 to as large as 1:5,000 n Most data layers contain little or no metadata that supports quality assessment

The National Map n For more information: l l Tomorrow F 9:30-12:00 First Steps Toward Implementing The National Map

QA Program Guidance n The National Map Implementation Plan n Geography Discipline Leaders Speak About The National Map Quality n QA Development Strategy

The National Map Implementation Plan n The USGS will lead by: l Guaranteeing national data completeness, consistency, and accuracy n The USGS will ensure the quality of The National Map data by: l Devising and implementing quality assurance procedures l Promoting process certification criteria for content providers

Geography Discipline Leaders Speak About The National Map Quality n “Users will find trusted content….” n “The National Map – integrated, certified base mapping content” (From “A Clear Vision of the NSDI,” Geospatial Solutions article)

Geography Discipline Leaders Speak About The National Map Quality n “…the USGS wants to assure the surveying community of the map’s quality” n “…we’re still holding true to certifying the quality of data that goes into it. Users know they can trust it because its got the USGS name” (From “The Latest News, Building The National Map,” Point of Beginning article)

QA Development Strategy n Establish a formal QA program n Form a QA program development team l Recommend and document validation procedures l Recommend organizational structure l Develop cost estimates and implementation schedule for QA program l Identify policy issues in implementing the QA program

The National Map Quality Assurance Team n Mike Duncan, Jane Messenger, Robert Rinehart l Mid-Continent Mapping Center n George Lee, Wally Oliver, Tracy Fuller l Western Region Geography n Greg Stensaas l EROS Data Center n Bruce Boman l Rocky Mountain Mapping Center n Jay Storey l Eastern Region Geography

Current QA Process n The National Map Catalog Support Teams at MCMC and ERG currently populate and maintain the The National Map catalog n The teams are working to formalize initial QA procedures n QA currently consists of manual evaluation and inspection

Current Quality Evaluations n Inclusion or exclusion n Theme association n Geographic extent n Scale n Availability n Horizontal registration with other layers n Metadata

Metadata n The inclusion of appropriate metadata with all layers of The National Map is critical to the QA Program n For years the USGS has strongly endorsed the FGDC metadata standard n The USGS is requiring that all partners supply FGDC compliant metadata with their data n XMLInput, a metadata entry tool, is available from the USGS l The USGS will provide XMLInput S/W and training.

QA Implementation Plan Outline n Define criteria for data in each theme n Become familiar with partners’ production processes. n Implement a “certification” process for partners, processes, and data n Identify statistical methods for evaluating data n Include plan for evaluating new technologies n Develop funding requirements for QA implementation plan n Present QA implementation plan to USGS Geography Discipline Senior Staff

Contact Information n James M. (Mike) Duncan l l (573)