Introduction | Technical
Overview | Partners
Project
Participants
MidAmerica GIS
Consortium, Ltd.
Arkansas Geographic Information
Office (AGIO)
Kansas Data
Access & Support Center (DASC)
Missouri Spatial
Data Information Service (MSDIS)
United States
Geological Survey (USGS)
Distributed
Active Archive Center (DAAC)
The Center for Advanced
Spatial Technology (CAST)
The National Map Mapping Partnership Office
(MPO) in Kansas - Ingrid Landgraf , TNM Liaison
The National Map Mapping Partnership Office (MPO) in
Arkansas - Bill Sneed, TNM Liaison
This project has been completed. The results of the
project can be seen in The
National Map Viewer. Additional information can
be reviewed at http://ogc.cast.uark.edu/tnm/.
Executive Overview
No
Edge at the State Line
When completed, this project will lay
a fundamental building block to the National
Map: multi-state data. The compelling achievement
stitches together different geospatial data residing
on servers in Arkansas, Kansas and Missouri. The data
are from different sources, based upon different schemas,
but will be styled in such a way that information will
appear as though its all one source. The achievement
will eliminate a common barrier found in many approaches
in solving geographic problems where the data ends at
the state borders. Scientists and researchers in Missouri
and Arkansas will be able to use geographic data together
to study water quality in the famed White River watershed.
The same could be said for economic and business developers
in southeastern Kansas and southwestern Missouri exploring
ways to spark rural economies using geographic information
from both sides of the state line.
Previous
National Map projects have approached other technical
challenges in implementing the National Map. This project
however, is the first of its kind to involve statewide
geographic databases from three different states. While
the effort is a major technical challenge, it could
not have been accomplished without the strong bond between
geographic administrators and decision makers in these
states. Each of the three states are active participants
in a multi-state consortium known as the Mid-America
GIS Consortium (MAGIC). Strong similarities among
the (member) states' nature of rural, agricultural and
similar economic conditions, they joined together with
Iowa, Nebraska Oklahoma, and South Dakota to form a
consortium to focus upon geographic issues facing the
middle region of the U.S. Later additions included Tennessee.
In a "one for all and all for one" fashion,
they celebrated and recognized their similarities and
differences and have learned from each other's accomplishments
and mistakes. When the idea of a multi-state National
Map project was hatched, it was almost an after-thought
to why these states hadn't thought of it sooner.
A
National Integrator
In its long history of mapping the United States, the
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) built a nationwide archive
of topographic base maps, but keeping information current
and accurate remained an overwhelming challenge. The
USGS knew technology and nationwide partnerships could
overcome the challenge. In 2001, the USGS moved forward
with an approach that would shift the way in which nationwide
geographic information could be archived, stored and
shared. Acting as a gigantic data integrator, the USGS
plans to include state and local data in a nationwide
presentation known as the National Map. This celebrates
a key philosophy of the National
Spatial Data Infrastructure dubbed "Create
Once Use Many." The concept is that local geographic
information created at the source is likely the most
current and accurate information. Using State geographic
information clearinghouses like Arkansas, Kansas and
Missouri as information conduits allows the whole geography
to be stitched together in a national form. The USGS,
with its National Map viewer, serves as the gateway
point where scientists, researchers and the public can
starting finding the geographic information they need.
Introduction | Technical
Overview | Partners
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