Introduction
The MetroGIS Policy Board has endorsed the following GIS-related data
standards and guidelines and encourages the MetroGIS community to incorporate
them into their daily GIS procedures as "best practices" so that commonly
produced data, by multiple interests, can be more easily shared. A description
of each best practice is provided below, including information about when it
was adopted or endorsed, where to obtain related information, and a contact
person. These best practices are in addition to standards and guidelines that
may be included in each specific data theme adopted by MetroGIS (listed in a
companion summary document).
Best Practices
Data Content Standards
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| Description: |
DataFinder uses the Minnesota Geospatial Data
Categories, which are based on the Topical Category Definitions that are part
of the ISO 19115 metadata standard. A few of the ISO categories have been
expanded by the federal and state governments to provide meaningful categories
at the local level. The DataFinder ISO Compliant Theme Categories document
describes these theme categories in detail. |
| Endorsed: |
Test implementation on DataFinder was
accomplished in summer 2002 following endorsement by the MetroGIS Technical
Advisory Team on August 22, 2002. Coordinating Committee review of the test
implementation occurred in April 2003. Final approval by the MetroGIS Policy
Board was received on July 30, 2003. |
| Information Sites: |
http://www.datafinder.org/documents/
DataFinder_ISO_Compliant_Theme_Categories.pdf
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| Contacts: |
Mark Kotz, mark.kotz@metc.state.mn.us, Metropolitan Council, 651-602-1644
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| Description: |
With funds received through their GIS Data and
Cost Sharing Agreement with the Metropolitan Council, Washington County
undertook a project in 1999 to define guidelines for the capture and
maintenance of MCD (minor civil division) boundary data as a pilot for
MetroGIS. The guidelines developed through this pilot project pertain to
improving and standardizing data capture, cleanup of existing records, and
updating of jurisdictional boundary data. A
final report
documents the entire process and describes the procedures that are now being
followed in Washington County.
In May 1998, the Policy Board endorsed a
policy that each of the seven counties will serve as the primary producers of
municipal jurisdictional boundary data and the Metropolitan Council will serve
as the custodian for MetroGIS' regional municipal and county jurisdictional
boundary dataset. Roles and responsibilities for the regional custodian were
adopted. Action on guidelines for the counties, serving in their roles a
primary producer of jurisdictional boundary data, was deferred until Washington
County had completed the pilot project referenced above. A notice was mailed to
each of the six other metro-area counties to notify them of the guidelines
piloted by Washington County. |
| Endorsed: |
Endorsed by the MetroGIS Policy Board at its
October 27, 1999 meeting. |
| Information Sites: |
http://www.metrogis.org/data/datasets/county_mcd/finalmun.pdf |
| Contacts: |
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| Description: |
MetroGIS has endorsed the Minnesota Geographic
Metadata Guidelines for use by its stakeholders. These guidelines provide a
common approach for documenting all types of geographic data. They have been
designed to be straightforward, intuitive and complete and are based on a
standard developed by the Federal Geographic Data Committee in 1993: Content
Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (http://www.fgdc.gov/metadata/contstan.html). In developing
the Minnesota Geographic Metadata Guidelines, the Minnesota Governor’s
Council GIS Standards Committee sought to create a streamlined implementation
of the federal standard that retains the essence of its original content. |
| Endorsed: |
Approved by the MetroGIS Policy Board on January
28, 1998. |
| Information Sites: |
Minnesota Geographic Metadata Guidelines:
http://www.gis.state.mn.us/stds/metadata.htm |
| Contacts: |
Mark Kotz, mark.kotz@metc.state.mn.us, Metropolitan Council, 651-602-1644
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Chris Cialek, MN Land Management Information
Center, 651-201-2481, |
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| Description: |
MetroGIS has endorsed the Metro-Wide
Coordinate System as the best practice guideline for the transfer of metro-wide
GIS layers for use by its stakeholders. This was one of the first standards
adopted by MetroGIS. |
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Coordinate system: |
Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) |
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Projection: |
Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) |
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Zone: |
15 |
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Units: |
Meters |
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Datum: |
NAD83 |
| Endorsed: |
Approved by the MetroGIS Coordinating Committee
on December 18, 1996. |
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| Contact: |
Mark Kotz, mark.kotz@metc.state.mn.us, Metropolitan Council, 651-602-1644
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| Description: |
The National Standard for Spatial Data Accuracy
(NSSDA) was originally adopted by the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC)
in 1998 for use by federal agencies. The State of Minnesota adopted it in June
2000 for use by its agencies. The Minnesota Department of Transportation
(Mn/DOT) is leading an effort to develop and standardize "higher accuracy data"
that could be used throughout the state as the baseline for computation of the
NSSDA statistic for datasets that contain the same features, generally roads
and possibly parcels.
The NSSDA provides a well-defined statistic and
testing methodology for positional accuracy of maps and geographic data. The
testing methodology compares dataset coordinate values with coordinate values
from a higher accuracy source for points that represent features readily
visible or recoverable from the ground. The underlying methodology was
developed by the Federal Geographic Data Committee. The Minnesota Governor's
Council on Geographic Information has developed and published a handbook to
help data creators understand and implement the standard.
The consensus
of those in the MetroGIS community who have reviewed and studied this standard
believe it would be a valuable tool for the MetroGIS community, in particular
for those users who mix and match data produced at the local, state, and
federal levels. This standard will be very useful when contracting for data
development. It will provide a means to more accurately describe the
deliverable sought after and, in turn, evaluate the quality of the product
delivered. |
| Endorsed: |
The Technical Advisory Team approved the standard
at its November 2, 2000 meeting. The Coordinating Committee approved the
standards on December 14, 2000. The MetroGIS Policy Board endorsed the NSSDA
and promotion of it as a "Best Management Practice" by the MetroGIS community
at its January 10, 2001 meeting. |
| Compliance: |
Minnesota IRM Standard 19, Version 1: A
Methodology for Measuring and Reporting Positional Accuracy in Spatial
Data as a “Best Management Practice”. |
| Resources: |
National Standard for Spatial Data Accuracy,
FGDC-STD-007.3-1998,
http://www.fgdc.gov/standards/status/sub1_3.html |
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Minnesota Governor's Council on Geographic
Information: The Standards Committee of the Minnesota Governor's Council on
Geographic Information strives to help users of geographic information and GIS
technology discover data and processing standards that will make a difference
in their work.
http://www.gis.state.mn.us/committe/stand/index.htm |
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In October 1999, the Standards Committee
published the Positional Accuracy Handbook: Using the National Standard for
Spatial Data Accuracy to Measure and Report Geographic Data Quality.
Available in PDF format at:
http://www.mnplan.state.mn.us/press/accurate.html. This
information includes preformatted worksheets to streamline the calculations.
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Minnesota Department of Administration. On June
12, 2000 the Department of Administration approved the NSSDA as a state
standard: IRM Standard 19, Version 1: A Methodology for Measuring and
Reporting Positional Accuracy in Spatial Data. |
| Contact: |
Chris Cialek, MN Land Management Information
Center, 651-201-2481, |
Data Content Standards
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| Description: |
These guidelines are intended to provide
information for those who wish to work with address data and are in no way
meant to be a set of mandatory rules. They should help those who wish to create
new databases that contain or access address data. The guidelines include an
explanation of important issues involved in incorporating address data into a
GIS. This information should also assist those who work with existing databases
and intend on transferring or sharing data. Endorsed: Approved by the MetroGIS
Policy Board on November 19, 1997. |
| Endorsed: |
Approved by the MetroGIS Policy Board on November
19, 1997. |
| Information Site: |
http://www.metrogis.org/data/standards/address_guidelines.shtml |
| Contact: |
Mark Kotz, mark.kotz@metc.state.mn.us, Metropolitan Council, 651-602-1644
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| Descriptions: |
County Coding Standard:
The
three-digit FIPS and state standard county code as adopted as a standard for
state agencies has been adopted as a MetroGIS standard for data exchange. For
more information, see the
Minnesota Office of Technology.
Cities,
Townships and Unorganized Territories Coding Standard:
The
five-digit FIPS place code for cities, townships and unorganized territories
(often referred to as minor civil divisions, or MCDs) in the metro area, has
been adopted as a MetroGIS standard for data exchange. While FIPS 55-3 contains
additional codes for places other than these entities, for purposes of this
MetroGIS standard, we are only concerned with the FIPS 55-3 codes that cover
cities, townships and unorganized territories. For more information about the
FIPS place code see
http://geonames.usgs.gov/fips55.html. For information about
the proposed state CTU coding standard see
http://www.gis.state.mn.us/committe/stand/ctu_stand.htm.
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| Compliance: |
Each organization should use whatever codes it
maintains for its internal work. Custodians of endorsed regional datasets will
use this code. Organizations are also encouraged to use these guidelines where
GIS data or associated attribute data, which contain county and municipal
identifiers, are shared. In all such cases, the datasets should contain, at a
minimum, the endorsed FIPS county and place codes. The datasets may also
contain other codes. |
| Endorsed: |
Approved by the MetroGIS Policy Board on July 28,
1999. |
| Resources: |
To help users implement this standard, a cross
reference table is available from the MetroGIS DataFinder website at
http://www.datafinder.org/metadata/county_ctu_lut.htm. |
| Contact: |
Mark Kotz, mark.kotz@metc.state.mn.us, Metropolitan Council, 651-602-1644
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| Description: |
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
(DNR), Metro Region, along with other federal, state, regional and local units
of government, have developed the Minnesota Land Cover Classification System
(MLCCS), a natural resource inventory classification system to accurately map
all land cover types. The system is unique in that it categorizes urban and
built-up areas strictly in land cover terms. For natural resources the system
fully incorporates the Minnesota Natural Heritage native plant community types
and the newly developed National Vegetation Classification Standard (NVCS). The
MLCCS is also unique in that it emphasizes vegetation land cover instead of
land use, thus creating a land cover inventory especially useful for resource
managers and planners.
The MLCCS is a hybrid of several accepted systems
that are in use throughout the metro area and the state. Its development
focused on the US National Vegetation Classification Standard (NVCS) and the
Minnesota Natural Heritage Key to Natural Communities. This hybrid system for
the classification of natural and semi-natural systems meets the federal
requirement of using the NVCS, and preserves the Natural Heritage terminology
that has been in use for many years in Minnesota. In addition, departing from
the traditional land use/cover classification systems, the MLCCS does not label
land cover with any land use terminology. This results in a completely new
system for classification of lands traditionally labeled as residential, urban,
industrial, park, etc. MLCCS recognizes the amount of artificial surfaces in
areas where naturally occurring vegetation no longer exists, while at the same
time recognizing the amount and type of green cover. |
| Endorsed: |
The Technical Advisory Team approved the standard
at its December 7, 1999 meeting. The Coordinating Committee approved the
classification system on December 16, 1999. It was adopted by the MetroGIS
Policy Board on January 26, 2000 as a best management practice. |
| Information Site: |
The MLCCS Manual is available on the DNR website
at http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/mlccs/index.html. |
| Contact: |
Bart Richardson, DNR Metro Region, Phone:
651-772-6150, |
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| Description: |
The regional coding scheme is believed to be
unprecedented, providing a means for users to quickly compare and contrast, on
a like-to-like basis, planned land uses among the 191 communities that comprise
the Minneapolis - St. Paul Metropolitan Area. The regional coding scheme and
resulting regional dataset are intended only to provide a means to compare, in
a like manner, land use designations officially adopted by each community. They
are in no way intended to replace or in any way affect locally-adopted
designations. In August 2002, it received an Outstanding Planning Tool
Award from the Minnesota
chapter of the American Planning Association (APA). |
| Endorsed: |
Approved by the MetroGIS Policy Board on April
10, 2002. |
| Information Site: |
MetroGIS website:
http://www.metrogis.org/data/info_needs/
planned_land_use/index.shtml
and http://www.datafinder.org/metadata/landuse_planned.htm
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| Contact: |
Paul Hanson, paul.hanson@metc.state.mn.us, Metropolitan Council, 651-602-1642
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| Description: |
A unique parcel identification number guideline
is needed for county parcel data so regional users of the data are able to
fully integrate parcel data for all seven counties in the region. MetroGIS will
promote the use of the unique parcel identifier scheme adopted by the MN
Governor's Council on Geographic Information among its stakeholders. Use of
this guideline does not require any changes in county business practices. |
| Endorsed: |
Approved by the MetroGIS Policy Board on January
27, 1999. |
| Information Site: |
MN Land Management Information Center:
http://server.admin.state.mn.us/pdf/gisparcl.pdf |
| Contact: |
Nancy Rader, Land Management Information Center,
651-201-2489, |
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