STANDARDS DEVELOPMENT AND MAPPING SUPPORT, FROM THE U.S. NATIONAL GEOLOGIC MAP DATABASE

The USGS and the Association of American State Geologists (AASG) are mandated by Congress to provide a National Geologic Map Database (NGMDB) of standardized geoscience information that can be used to address societal issues and improve our base of scientific knowledge. By working together on this Database and the standards that support it, the USGS and the states also improve their own ability to deliver geologic map and related products to their users.

The NGMDB project provides many resources to aid the geologic mapper and the GIS and cartographic specialists who help prepare maps and databases. For example: 1) the U.S. Geologic Names Lexicon ("GEOLEX"), a standard reference for the Nation's stratigraphic nomenclature; 2) the Geoscience Map Catalog and Image Library, which help people find and view geologic maps; 3) a Cartographic Resources website of map templates, publication guidelines, and other resources; and 4) the Proceedings from the annual Digital Mapping Techniques workshops, which report on map preparation techniques and standards that are used or are being developed by the Nation's geological surveys. Further, the NGMDB project is designing an archive of unpublished information (e.g., paleontologic data, field notes), to support mapping studies.

In cooperation with other U.S. and Canadian agencies, the NGMDB project is defining map and database standards in order to better manage and serve geoscience information. These standards include a science terminology, a conceptual data model and an "implementation" of the data model in ArcGIS, a terminology for describing locational accuracy of geologic features in the field, and map symbols and patterns. These standards form the basis for the design of our online map database -- because it will be distributed among more than 50 agencies, with different hardware and software platforms, the standards must accommodate the differences and yet enable the NGMDB database to function as if it were a single entity. The standards are now being tested in the NGMDB prototype database; our new data-entry tool will allow our project partners to evaluate the database structure and science terminology and make recommendations for improvement. Information and links to NGMDB databases and standards are available at http://ngmdb.usgs.gov/Info/.