Abstract

A Data Management Approach to Developing Corporate GIS Assets
Track: Spatial Data Infrastructure
Authors: Lorena Creely, Thomas Chatfield, Liz Sabeff

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has 160+ offices from which we administer over 250 million acres of U.S. public land. Programs and projects are often managed out of local, autonomous offices, contributing to diverse, individualized datasets throughout the Bureau. A data management approach was instituted in order to help standardize corporate data assets that more closely align with business requirements. We have successfully developed several national GIS datasets through the combined efforts of GIS experts, policy makers, and subject matter experts. This paper will detail the process of fully developing a corporate data asset. This process includes requirements identification, data modeling, GIS implementation, QA/QC, and metadata development. We've successfully begun to address the challenges that the Bureau has traditionally faced by helping to ensure consistent national GIS datasets, and minimize redundant data collection efforts.