Geospatial Policies and Standards
These policies and standards allow EPA to more easily share information by making it possible for many different organizations to use the same format and structure for their data and applications. These documents are of interest to the staff of federal, state and local Agencies who create data and applications, or who create the policies that guide the development of data and applications.
EPA Policies and Guidance:
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- Enterprise Information Management Policy (EIMP) Policy
This policy establishes a standard approach for managing information produced by, funded by, or received per regulated reporting and/or federal-wide requirements and subsequently held or cataloged in information management systems by and for the Environmental Protection Agency EPA. (Contact: Ana Greene, Greene.ana@epa.gov) - EPA Metadata Technical Specification
This document establishes guidelines for publishing geospatial and non-geo metadata for data sets, applications and services developed by the EPA. (Contact: Ana Greene, Greene.ana@epa.gov) - EPA Guidance for Geospatially Related Quality Assurance Project Plans
This document contains advice and recommendations for developing a QA Project Plan for projects involving geospatial data, including both newly collected data and data acquired from other sources. (Contact: Reggie Cheatham, Cheatham.Reggie@epa.gov) - EPA National Geospatial Data Policy
The National Geospatial Data Policy (NGDP) establishes principles, responsibilities, and requirements for collecting and managing geospatial data used by Federal environmental programs and projects within the jurisdiction of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). (Contact: Harvey Simon, Simon.Harvey@epa.gov) - Institutional Control Vector Profile Technical Specification
This specification establishes the requirements for documenting geographic lines and boundary coordinates and related method, accuracy, and description data for places of interest to the EPA. (Contact: Larry Zaragoza, Zargoza.Larry@epa.gov) - Latitude/Longitude Data Standard
This data standard establishes the requirements for documenting latitude and longitude coordinates and related method, accuracy, and description data for places of interest to the EPA. (Contact: Kevin Kirby, Kirby.Kevin@epa.gov) - National Geospatial Data Policy Procedure for Geospatial Metadata Management
The purpose of this document is to establish procedures, requirements and responsibilities for maintaining geospatial metadata used by EPA programs. (Contact: Ana Greene, Greene.ana@Epa.gov)
Other Federal Policies:
- Geospatial Data Act
- Foundations for Evidence Based Policymaking Act
- Federal Data Strategy
- Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC):
- The FGDC is a 32 member interagency committee composed of representatives from the Executive Office of the President, and Cabinet level and independent Federal agencies. View FGDC and OMB policies and plans on the FGDC website.
EPA GIS Technical Guidance
- National Geospatial Deliverable Standard
This document is intended to establish a uniform method for submitting geospatial data and related products to the US EPA. It provides guidance for contracts, grantees, potentially responsible parties, Agency staff, and any others who provide geospatial data and products to US EPA programs, projects, or staff. - EPA Metadata Style Guide for Geospatial and Non Geospatial Data
The Style Guide provides suggestions on geospatial and non-geospatial metadata creation that adhere to EPA’s Metadata Technical Specification and requirements from OMB’s Project Open Data (POD) and ISO’s 19115 standards. Detailed guidance on metadata requirements, standard language, and naming conventions are provided with the goal of simplifying the documentation process and standardizing dataset metadata across multiple collaborative environments – EPA’s Environmental Dataset Gateway (EDG), EPA GeoPlatform web services, and EPA GeoPlatform Online (GPO).