Address and Metadata Standards in Action

At the U.S. Census Bureau

The 37th ISO/TC 211 Plenary and Working Groups Meeting

November 13, 2013

Lynda Liptrap

Chief, National/State Geographic Partnerships Branch

U.S. Census Bureau, Geography Division

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Topics

U.S. Census Bureau mission

Role of standards

Address standards

Metadata standards

Guidelines related to standards

Metadata publication

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U.S. Census Bureau Background

• The Census Bureau’s mission – To serve as the leading source of quality data

about the nation's people and economy

• The Geography Division (GEO) – Geography is central to the work of the Census

Bureau, providing the framework for survey design, sample selection, data collection, tabulation, and dissemination

– The GEO produces geospatial data to support the Census and for public consumption

– The GEO maintains the Master Address File (MAF) for the Census (for internal use only)

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The Role of Standards

• We are required to implement standards per

various policies and directives

– Department of Commerce (DOC)

– Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC)

• Standards help the Census Bureau fulfill our

mission

– Document our data products

– Facilitate consumption of partner data

– Help us advertise our products via data portals

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Address Standards

• Federal Geographic Data Committee’s

United States Thoroughfare, Landmark,

and Postal Address Data Standard

– FGDC Address Standard

• ISO 19160-1 Addressing –

Part 1: Conceptual Model

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ISO Address Standard Activities

• ISO 19160-1, Addressing – Part 1: Conceptual model

• The Census Bureau is participating in the development of this standard

• A Census Bureau staff member is the U.S. representative to the TC211 Editing Committee

6

FGDC Address Standard Activities

• The Census Bureau is the maintenance

authority

– First maintenance review is underway

• GEO Address Data Content Guidelines

are based on the FGDC Address Standard

• Conducted a pilot project to explore ways

to promote the use of the FGDC Address

Standard

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Address Standard Pilot Project

Recommendations

• Develop comprehensive training materials and a guide/workbook for the Address Standard

• Establish an implementation working group for the addressing community: the Address Standard Implementation Working Group

– to formulate strategies with input from tribal, federal, state, county, and local entities

• Establish a website to support the Working Group and the addressing community

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Additional Recommendations

• Establish a Census Bureau working group to

evaluate and prepare for

– Updates to the Census Bureau's Data Content

Guidelines

– Data submissions in the FGDC Address Standard

Exchange format

– Utilization of quality measures for data

submissions

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The Geographic Support System

Initiative An integrated program that utilizes a partnership

program for:

– Improved address coverage

– Annual, transaction-based address and spatial

feature updates

– Enhanced quality assessment and measurement

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Address Updates

123 Testdata Road

Anytown, CA 94939

Lat 37 degrees, 9.6 minutes N

Lon 119 degrees, 45.1 minutes W

Street/Feature Updates Quality Measurement

Minimum Guidelines for Address Data

Complete Address Number

Complete Street Name

and AT LEAST ONE OF THE FOLLOWING:

– Address Coordinate (latitude, longitude) – ZIP Code – Postal City and State – 2010 Census Tabulation State, County, Tract, and Block Code

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Optimum Address Data Guidelines

http://www.census.gov/geo/www/gss/

Address Standards in Action

Summary

• The Census Bureau is involved with ISO

and U.S. Address Standards

• The U.S. Standard is the basis for content

guidelines for data provided by partners

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Metadata Standards

• ISO 19115, 19110, 19119, 19139

• U.S. Standard - The Content Standard for

Digital Geospatial Metadata (CSDGM)

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Census Product Examples

• TIGERweb WMS

• TIGER/Line shapefiles

• Digital Cartographic Maps

• American Fact Finder

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U.S. Metadata Standard

• The CSDGM – Currently the most widely used by federal, state and

local agencies

– Endorsed by the FGDC many years ago

• Provided for our public products

• Basis for GSS-I “Optimum Metadata Guidelines”

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Metadata Content Guidelines

http://www.census.gov/geo/www/gss/

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18

enco

ded

by

enco

ded

by

enco

ded

by

updated by extended by

19115-2 Imagery & Gridded

Geo Metadata 2009

19139 XML Schema

2007

19115-3 XML Schema

2015

19139-2 XML Schema

2012

19157 Data Quality

2013

19110 Feature Catalog

2005

19119 Geo Services

2005

directs to

19115 Geographic Metadata

2003

directs to

19115-1 Fundamental

Geo Metadata 2013

incorporates

pending

Suite of ISO

Metadata

Standards

ISO Metadata Standard

• Recently implemented at the Census Bureau’s Geography Division

• Provided for our public products

• Leveraging metadata management efficiencies inherent to the standard

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Leveraging Efficiencies of ISO

Standards • By incorporating re-usable components via

registered unique identifiers – Contact information

– Entity and attribute information

– Projection registration details

• Reduced the 19115 file size by a third with re-usable components for contact info only

• A tenfold reduction in file size (from over one thousand lines to less than a hundred lines) with re-usable components for contact info and entity attributes in the 19110 file

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Metadata Published via data.gov

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Metadata Standards in Action

Summary

• Metadata is created for public products

– published to portals

– bundled with downloadable products

• Census Bureau metadata guidelines are

based on the US Standard

• Utilizing efficiencies of ISO standards to

have robust but compact and easily read

metadata files

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For more information, please visit:

http://www.census.gov/geo/maps-data/

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