The National Geospatial Data Framework : From Concept to Reality

Presented at the AGI, GIS'97

Liz Hobman, NGDF Task Force

Background

The concept of a National Geospatial Data Framework (NGDF) was introduced two years ago at AGI '95 [1]. Following the encouraging reception of the concept, work began to further refine NGDF and suggest a practical and acceptable method of implementation. A well attended seminar was held in June 1996 at which key players discussed and agreed a way forward. A progress report was presented at AGI '96 [2] which outlined the recommended way forward and raised some key issues to be addressed by NGDF.

The first NGDF meetings were held in Autumn 1996. The purpose of this paper is to describe how NGDF is moving from concept to reality and to outline progress made to date. The paper will attempt to answer the following questions:

What is NGDF?

What are the benefits?

Why is NGDF needed?

How will the NGDF vision be achieved?

How will we know when we've fulfilled the vision?

What progress has been made?

Progress will be reported in three main areas:

• Implementation of a management structure through which NGDF can happen;
• What the NGDF Board has been doing;
• Implementation of the NGDF Work Programme by the Task Force and Working Groups to ensure that the vision is fulfilled.

This paper will focus mainly on the work of the NGDF Board, Task Force and Working Groups. Progress made by the Advisory Council is reported in a separate paper [3].

What is NGDF?

Mission

To develop a UK framework to facilitate and encourage efficient linking, combining and widespread use of geospatial data which is defined by users as 'fit for purpose'.

Goal

The end goal of NGDF will be to ensure that certified NGDF-compliant metadata, data and services are delivered to users which satisfy their business needs.

Objectives

The objectives of NGDF have been built around 'three pillars' of NGDF - collaboration, standards and best practice and access to data. The objectives are to encourage:

• Collaboration in the collection, provision and use of geospatial data;
• Use of standards and best practice for geospatial data;
• Improved access to geospatial data.

Vision

• 'One-stop shopping' - commercially driven, NGDF-compliant services focusing on providing business solutions designed according to user needs;
• Fully linked, easily accessible metadata (descriptions of data) services;
• NGDF-compliant geospatial data sets which can be easily linked and integrated;

Supported by:

• A coherent framework for core geospatial data initiatives;
• NGDF education programme and web site;
• NGDF-adopted standards and best practice guidelines;
• An NGDF accreditation service.

What are the Benefits?

To the user community

• Easier access to geospatial data - growth of one-stop data shops;
• Lower data costs as competition increases and data collection and processing costs fall;
• Improved data quality and consistency - combining different data reveals inconsistencies, data providers will be pressured by the market to resolve data problems;
• Added value derived data sets created by combining data from two or more sources.

To the data and service provider

• An expanding and liberalised market for geospatial data, based on widely accepted standards, improved access to data and growth of focused data linkage services - 'one stop shopping';
• Focused effort, minimising duplication.

Why Do We Need NGDF?

Current Difficulties Facing the User Community

The user community with business-driven needs to obtain geospatial data from multiple sources for a specific purpose has a number of questions:

• What datasets exist and are available?
• From whom can the data be obtained?
• Will the data integrate easily with other datasets?
• How can the data be accessed?

Problems arise in attempting to answer these questions because:

• Information about geospatial data (metadata) is difficult to obtain. There are currently few easily accessible metadata services to which a user can go to find out about the existence of data sets;
• Metadata varies in quality among different organisations. Even if information is discovered which will help make informed choices about which data to use, the information is likely to differ in terms of quality, quantity and accessibility across organisations, this makes it very difficult to compare like with like when selecting a data set;
• There are many data sets, collected to different specifications and varying in quality. It is not easy to integrate data from multiple sources. This problem has been highlighted and discussed widely as a result of the work of the National Land Information Service pilot in Bristol where land and property data sets from the four contributing organisations have been integrated with the aim of creating a land and property gazetteer to a common data specification, BS7666 part 2;
• Valuable data sets are held, but are not currently available for many reasons. One reason is many organisations who collect geospatial data do so for very specific reasons, to serve their own business needs, not for the purpose of making the data available to others. Organisations holding data may not realise that others may also find the data useful. They may have no incentive to make the data available beyond their own organisations or department within an organisation. Other restrictions on availability may be due to confidentiality requirements;
  • Few services are based on data combination, valuable time is currently spent shopping around for individual data sets;
• Physical access to data is not as easy as it could be;
• Access to data may be inhibited by cost and exclusive and restrictive agreements.

Difficulties Facing Data Providers

• There are a multitude of standards, which one is best? For example, there are metadata standards produced at many different levels, international, European, US;
• The standards creation process is complex, costly and lengthy, it is not easy to find out what stage of development a standard has got to and how to get hold of it;
• Many existing standards are too complex or ambiguous. There are many examples of standards which are perceived by prospective implementors to be over complicated. Often expert advice is required just to understand the standard.

Lessons From Abroad

The concept of a National Geospatial Data Framework is not unique to the UK. Similar initiatives are being developed (at varying paces and with varying objectives) in other countries around the world. In 1994 in the United States the concept of a National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) was launched. Various milestones in its development have been achieved including in April 1997 a revision of the 'Strategy for the National Spatial Data Infrastructure'. Further information can be obtained from the NSDI web site www.fgdc.gov .

Also in the early 1990's the benefits of developing a Spatial Data Infrastructure for Australia were being realised. A first pass at developing national topographic and cadastral databases in support of the 1996 Census of Population and Housing was completed in 1995[4].

There are other NGDF-like developments taking place in The Netherlands and Asia and the Pacific.

Important lessons can be learned from other countries when implementing NGDF, however, each country is individual and has different priorities therefore not one solution fits all. The NGDF must be developed to suit the UK.

Government 'Encouragement'

• The Chorley Report back in 1987
• Citizens Charter 1992
• Geographic Information Charter 1996
• Government.direct Green Paper 1996

How Will The NGDF Vision Be Achieved?

The steps required to implement NGDF are described below:

1. Definition of a programme of work which will enable the vision to be fulfilled;
2. Implementation of the work programme;
   • Managing the work programme - setting targets, defining required deliverables, monitoring and control;
   • Building on the three pillars of NGDF - collaboration, standards and best practice, access to data;
   • Generating enthusiasm and widespread support;
   • Identifying issues and problems, debating them and taking action to resolve them;
   • Putting people in touch with the right experts to solve problems together;
   • Developing solutions which are acceptable to the whole community ranging from information users to systems and solutions suppliers to data providers.
3. Regular review and revision of the NGDF work programme.

How Will We Know When We've Fulfilled the Vision?

It will be difficult to measure from the users point of view until there is a clear understanding of the user requirement against which success can be measured. Tangible indications of success may be:

Metadata

• Widespread use of metadata services built on NGDF-adopted guidelines for metadata content.

Data

• Widespread use of NGDF-adopted standards and guidelines for data quality and data specifications to create NGDF-compliant geospatial data;
• Widespread use of NGDF - compliant data;
• New geospatial data sets created and/or combined through collaborative ventures driven by user needs.

Services

• Effective links between metadata services;
• More data linkage services using NGDF-compliant data;
• An agreed UK Standard Geographic Base [5].

There may also be intangible indications of success e.g. raising awareness of geospatial data beyond the current user communities, greater collaboration resulting in commercial success.

What Progress Has Been Made?

Implementation of the NGDF Management Structure

The proposed management structure for NGDF was described in 'Update on the National Geospatial Database - Collaboration between Organisations' [2] and is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: NGDF Management Structure

Following widespread acceptance of this proposal, the structure has now been implemented. There are a number of groups in place with different but complementary roles and responsibilities who are committed to ensuring that NGDF is a success. The membership and the roles and responsibilities of the NGDF groups is described briefly below.

NGDF BOARD

The NGDF Board comprises key data providers from central and local government and includes private sector data and service providers. Many of the Board members represent not just their own organisations but others as well, and bring different skills, viewpoints and experiences to NGDF.

For example, Dr Stuart Hill (of HM Land Registry) represents HM Land Registry as a key provider of geospatial data and the National Land Information Service(NLIS) project and provides the link from NGDF to NLIS.

Alan Oliver represents the Inter-departmental Group on Geographic Information (IGGI), which has 40 members from central government organisations and also Department of Transport and the Regions (DETR), a key holder of geospatial information.

Mike Traynor of Registers of Scotland also represents the interests of other departments within the Scottish Office and the Scottish Land Information Service (ScotLIS) project.

A full list of board members follows:

NGDF Board Members

• HM Land Registry
• Office for National Statistics
• IGGI
• Information Management Advisory Group (IMAG) of Local Government
• Landmark Information Group Ltd
• Ordnance Survey
• Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland
• Property Intelligence Plc
• National Joint Utilities Group
• Natural and Environmental Research Group
• NGDF Advisory Council
• Registers of Scotland
• The Post Office
  

The role of the NGDF Board is to set policy, commit resources, formally approve NGDF activities and deal with political and commercial issues as they arise with regard to NGDF.

ADVISORY COUNCIL

The Advisory Council has a membership drawn from government, academia, consultants, systems suppliers, data providers and non-profit making organisations. Initial calls for membership went out to existing AGI members although the intention is to widen the representation of the Advisory Council by attracting interest from sectors which are currently not AGI members e.g. finance and legal sectors.

The role of the Advisory Council is to represent end user concerns within NGDF. The Advisory Council members represent particular industry segments, not just their own organisation. See [4] for further information about the role and achievements of the Advisory Council.

TASK FORCE

The Task Force comprises the convenors of the NGDF Working Groups. The role of the task force is to:

• Define the NGDF Work Programme in consultation with the NGDF Board;
• Set up appropriate working groups to carry out the work identified in the programme;
• Debate and solve problems and issues common to all working groups;
• Ensure that appropriate links between the working groups are in place and are effective e.g. that the metadata working group is collaborating with the standards and accreditation working group. The aim is to avoid duplication and recognise dependencies between the deliverables expected from the work programme;
• Highlight possible links and develop effective relationships between NGDF working groups and existing groups;
• Report progress to the NGDF Board.

WORKING GROUPS

Each working group has a convenor who is responsible for deciding on the groups' membership to ensure that the right mix of skills and experience is available for carrying out the tasks. The convenor is responsible for planning, organising and allocating the work of their Working Group, ensuring that targets for delivery are met and reporting progress and issues to the Task Force.

The Working Groups are not committees, they each run projects with a finite life until specific targets are achieved or reviewed in the light of progress.

What The NGDF Board Has Been Doing

The NGDF Board has now met four times. Their time has been spent developing a common understanding of the challenges facing NGDF taking into account the different viewpoints from data providers, data users, systems and solutions suppliers.

Achievements

Initial funding arrangements for NGDF have been established. Various funding models were considered by the NGDF Board e.g. the 'pay per seat' model adopted by the Open GIS Consortium (OGC), 'up-front' investment or 'pay as you spend'. It was agreed that a modest 'up front investment' would be made by each Board member. Other sources of funding would be sought by the Board as an on-going activity and funding requests would be considered as-needed.

The need for a business case for NGDF has been considered. The Board have agreed that in the early stages of NGDF that a business case is not required. It is recognised that the role of NGDF is to gather support by selling the benefits of getting involved to others and allowing each organisation to make its own decision as to whether to join in.

Links have been developed between NGDF and other similar initiatives abroad e.g. NSDI in the USA.

A coherent framework for geospatial initiatives within the UK has been developed, related projects have been brought into the framework e.g. UK Standard Geographic Base.

Links to the Government.direct initiative have been developed - a representative of the Central Information Technology Unit (CITU) of the Cabinet Office attends NGDF Board meetings.

Deliverables to Date

• A document available on the web site which describes the many collaborative projects at a local, national and international level which are in some way related to the activities of NGDF;
• Information papers on NGDF-like activities abroad e.g. NSDI;
• A case study information paper by the Multi European Ground Related Information (MEGRIN) project which is aiming to integrate digital map data from a number of European countries to create pan-European datasets;
• Papers on sources of funding for NGDF e.g. European funding, research council funding.

Future Plans

NGDF has made a modest start but there are still some major issues to be addressed. Challenges for future consideration will be:

• Development of a business model. There is no intention that NGDF should or will make a profit and it is impossible and impractical to estimate how much NGDF will cost. However, there may be merit in beginning to develop a business model which identifies dependencies between aspects of the NGDF work programme and highlights where revenue could come from to fund some of the activities downstream;
• The need for a marketing strategy has been identified to steer the development of NGDF;
• The issue of NGDF branding requires consideration, who gets the NGDF badge and how and what does it mean?

Implementation of the NGDF Programme

TASK FORCE

Achievements

The Task Force has defined the NGDF Work Programme through an iterative process involving consultation with the NGDF Board.

Table 2 NGDF Working Groups

• NGDF Programme Definition
• Metadata
• Research
• Best Practice Guidelines: Implementation of Environmental Protection Act Part IIA.
• Education and Promotions
• Standards and Accreditation
• New Data and Availability
• UK Standard Geographic Base

The working groups (table 2)are not intended to be exhaustive, each is addressing a subject area which currently has a high priority for the implementation of NGDF. Other work areas requiring action are being identified and will be added to the NGDF Work Programme (see below for Task Force future plans).

Effective links have been developed between the metadata and standards and accreditation working groups and existing standards groups within the UK i.e. AGI sponsored IST/36. The roles of each have been clarified, IST/36 being recognised as a standards creating body and the NGDF groups defining needs for standards and encouraging the implementation of standards through the development of best practice guidelines.

Links have been developed between NGDF and an important IGGI-sponsored project, UK Standard Geographic Base (UKSGB). The UKSGB project aims to develop a standard, a metadata service and a data access service to information about core spatial units within the UK. The project will require links to the NGDF metadata and standards and accreditation working groups. UKSGB has been brought into the NGDF as a new NGDF working group.

Links have also been developed with IGGI as the owners of SINES, the current centrally-managed spatial metadatabase for the UK. As the work of the metadata working group progresses it is envisaged that SINES will be replaced by a distributed metadata service where the owners of metadata remain responsible for the quality and currency of that data.

Deliverables to Date

• Definition of the NGDF Work Programme
• Progress Reports to the NGDF Board

Future Plans

The task force is considerating the need for closer links with the work of the OGC. OGC is a consortium of mainly systems and software suppliers which aims to improve the 'interoperability' between geographical information systems through the development of new tools created to commonly agreed specifications. There may be some mutual benefit in developing further links between NGDF and OGC.

Links will be developed between NGDF and other similar initiatives abroad. A bi-lateral meeting is planned for March 1998 between NGDF people and US NSDI people to debate common issues and share experiences.

Ideas for new working groups are being identified, for example, best practice for sharing information in archaeological communities, transport and telematics, data quality requirements.

The task force must also address the issue of what is meant by NGDF-compliance?

WORKING GROUPS

The working groups are organised as projects, the work of each is briefly described below. For further information access the NGDF web site at www.ngdf.org.uk .

Working Group 1 - Programme Definition

Aims and Objectives

To define and revise the NGDF work programme.

Achievements

Working in consultation with all other NGDF groups and external contacts to gather requirements for the NGDF programme.

Deliverables to Date

An initial work programme with defined deliverables and target dates.

Future Plans

To modify and add to the NGDF programme to begin to address user-defined problems.

Working Group 2 - Metadata

Aims and Objectives

• To define a vision for an NGDF Metadata Service;
• Adopt and produce guidelines for discovery and detailed metadata content;
• Promote the adoption of thematic and geospatial look-up tables;
• Develop an implementation plan for creating an NGDF metadata service.

Achievements

The metadata working group has a wide-ranging membership from GIS vendors, metadata providers, data providers and users. The group is taking into account metadata standards and metadata creation activities across the world in order to create metadata content guidelines which can be effectively applied in the UK. The group has established

• Links to the MEGRIN project
• Links to Inernational Standards Organisation (ISO)
• Initial collaboration with OGC

Deliverables to Date

Definition of a vision for an NGDF metadata infrastructure. The vision focuses on a distributed metadata infrastructure with an emphasis on data providers retaining responsibility for their metadata rather than a centralised service.

Draft metadata content guidelines drawing on existing metadata standards e.g. ISO and CEN.

Future Plans

A metadata workshop aimed at those wishing to implement metadata services within an NGDF framework.

Working Group 3 - Research

Aims and Objectives

• To identify those areas of research required for the initiation and effective operation of the NGDF;
• For each research item to identify the current state of knowledge and identify what further research is required;
• To advise NGDF on the commissioning of research studies and projects;
• To provide opportunities for the NGDF user community to interact with researchers and define the research agenda.

Achievements

The research working group includes representatives from academia and the professions. A brainstorming workshop was held in May 1997 which was attended by about 30 delegates drawn from academia, system vendors, government, consultants and industry.

Deliverables to Date

A draft research agenda has been produced which includes initial recommendations for research topics to be addressed by NGDF. Three key areas of research have been identified i.e. technical, institutional and market.

Future Plans

To produce a list of specific research topics and projects.

Working Group 4 - Best Practice Guidelines

Aims and Objectives

To provide practical guidance to Local Authorities in responding to their obligations under Part IIA of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. Under the proposed legislation Local Authorities must:

'prepare, adopt, publish and implement a formal written strategy for the inspection of its area setting out a rational, ordered and efficient approach to the identification of land which merits detailed individual inspection'.

Achievements

The working group has gathered support from a wide range of members i.e. environmental consultants, local authorities, central government, industry. Likely problems facing local authorities have been identified e.g. which data can be of value in depicting 'problem' land parcels, is there a need for a common format for presenting information, what attribute information is required?

Deliverables to Date

A pilot project has been set up in the Cambridge area involving Local Authorities and Landmark Information Group Ltd. The aim of the pilot is to identify issues facing local authorities in the implementation of the legislation and to raise the issues as topics to be addressed by the working group.

Future Plans

The working group aims to develop best practice guidelines for key players in dealing with the legislation. However, due to the change of government it has now been indicated that the legislation as it stands may be altered. The working group are therefore holding back on developing best practice guidelines until a clearer picture emerges.

Working Group 5 - Education and Promotions

Aims and Objectives

To promote activities of the NGDF work programme to users of spatial data world-wide.

Achievements

A team of multi-skilled professionals.

Deliverables to Date

Development of NGDF web site at www.ngdf.org.uk, publicity material and strap-line 'unlocking information'.

Future Plans

To support the NGDF programme by publicising achievements.

Working Group 6 - Standards and Accreditation

Aims and Objectives

To establish strong, active relationships with existing standards bodies and development projects in the UK and abroad.

To define NGDF accreditation for data and services taking into account criteria which are important to the user e.g. data quality, completeness, coverage and scale.

To develop proposals for NGDF accreditation drawing on experience of existing projects e.g. BS7666.

Achievements

Agreement that NGDF will set a framework for defining business-driven standards, best practice and specifications drawing on national, international and European work.

Deliverables to Date

Identification of areas where standardisation is needed.

Future Plans

To define and develop an accreditation process for NGDF.

Working Group 7 - New Data and Availability

Aims and Objectives

To establish processes for identifying user-defined data needs, sources and availability

Achievements

Links developed with existing groups who are investigating options for creation of new data e.g. Land and Property Information Working Group.

Deliverables to Date

Draft project plans

Future Plans

To produce a catalogue of user defined new data requirements and to look at options for implementation.

Working Group 8 - UK Standard Geographic Base

Aims and Objectives

• To develop a standard model which enables any spatial unit to be described uniquely
• To identify and agree a core set of spatial units which will provide the standard geographic base for the UK.
• To develop a Directory of Spatial Units (metadata).
• To develop a UK Gazetteer of Spatial Unit Instances
• To co-ordinate suppliers of spatial unit gazetteer data and set up user groups to ensure the UKSGB is meeting business requirements.
• To develop a service which allows users to access the datasets.

Achievements

Identification and agreement of core spatial units.

Deliverables to Date

Detailed implementation plans.

Future Plans

Implementation of a UKSGB Service.

References

Reference: [1] Nanson B., Smith N. and Davey A., What is the British National Geospatial Database?, AGI '95 Conference Proceedings, 1995, pp. 1.4.1 - 1.4.5

Reference: [2] Alison Davey and Keith Murray, Ordnance Survey, 'Update on the National Geospatial Database - Collaboration between Organisations', Presented to AGI '96 Conference, 1996

Reference: [3] NGDF Advisory Council 'NGDF - Boring Acronym or users' opportunity', 1997

Reference: [4] Desmond J Mooney and Donald M Grant 'The Australian National Spatial Data Infrastructure' 1997 in 'Framework for the World' Edited by David Rhind, 1997

Reference [5] MVA Systematica, Geobase, Ordnance Survey and University of East London 'Development of a UK Standard Geographic Base - Final Report', 1996.

© Copyright 1998. NGDF