Summary

The USDA EGMO seeks to establish best in class Geospatial Metadata Training and support of compliance towards meeting Geospatial Data Act (GDA) of 2018 goals to allows USDA to efficiently correct and on-going maintain Geospatial metadata to make key USDA datasets and future all USDA open geospatial metadata Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Re-usable (FAIR e.g. FAIR Data Principles) such as being FAIR on USDA Data Catalog, data.gov, and Geoplatform.gov.

Problem and Solution

The USDA required support to address training and support for the cited 15 NGDAs to allow for GDA compliance. This needed to happen while establishing training to support non-NGDAs as the efforts expand beyond such to support all staff creating or working with geospatial metadata and data.

Xentity provided Catalog Training Needs, Resources, Bring our Best Practices, Build Agile Roadmap. Also, over 3 months, we built out GDA Compliant Training Media with our leads who bring combined 50 years of experience in Fed Geo Metadata Consulting and Training. Furthermore, Using our geoplatform.gov, data.gov and FGDC insights analyzers and experienced staff, we’ll evaluate and recommend updates for all ~20 USDA NGDAs.

Outcome and Benefit

The USDA addressed the most appropriate geospatial metadata standard applicable including migrating from CSDGM, migrating to ISO-19115 and which appropriate version, managing publishing in DCAT to allow for data.gov consumption, and managing creation of full geospatial metadata packaged with DCAT to be consumable, and thus FAIR in geoplatform.gov. They also addressed the various metadata tools and creation practices via ESRI, open source, or other FGDC recommended tools. Furthermore, they aligned their geospatial metadata maturation plans with CDO Council guidance, data.gov guidance and readiness, and geoplatform.gov support plans to take advantage of conversion to latest IS 19115-3 standards, and understanding best timing and milestones for addressing such.

The process Xentity provided ensured agencies are describing their datasets with the relevant metadata required by Departmental Regulations. Also, it ensured metadata must be made available through the data.gov and geoplatform.gov. Furthermore, it verified and documented that all geospatial data uses geospatial data standards, including metadata standards.