NC OneMap is the geospatial data backbone supporting North Carolina data users. It is an organized effort of numerous partners throughout North Carolina, involving local, state, and federal government agencies, the private sector and academia. NC OneMap is an evolving initiative directed by the NC Geographic Information Coordinating Council.

The NC OneMap Initiative
Benefits
Program Implementation
Digital Data Preservation

The NC OneMap Initiative
In 2003 the NC Geographic Information Coordinating Council (GICC) adopted this comprehensive initiative in partnership with county, municipal, state, and federal data providers. The NC OneMap Program promotes a vision for geospatial data standards; data currency, maintenance, and accessibility; data documentation (i.e. metadata); and a statewide GIS inventory. Thirty-seven priority data themes were selected as the initial focus.

Protocols for bringing data content together from local, state, and federal sources with consistent standards are being explored, as are infrastructure policies. A formal NC OneMap implementation plan was adopted by the GICC in 2003. It formed the basis for budgetary requests to the North Carolina General Assembly in 2007, and the subsequent development of the “State Geographic Information/Consolidation Implementation Plan” that was submitted to the General Assembly in December 2008. The “State Geographic Information/Consolidation Implementation Plan” was adopted as part of the FY09-10 budget bill in August 2009.

The NC OneMap Program is actively promoting archival mechanisms so historic data sets are preserved for both temporal analysis and for the long term.

Benefits
State, local and federal government agencies, universities, K-12 schools, utilities, non-profit organizations and the general public all need a reliable statewide resource. NC OneMap provides that critical linkage that helps promote public safety, better government decisions, and economic vitality in our communities.

• Access through one location to the most up-to-date geospatial data
• Instant availability of multi-jurisdictional data
• Data distribution costs lessened for participating governments
• Public investment leveraged for maximum effect
• More than one million dollars in cost-shares for local government orthoimagery
• 2010 statewide orthoimagery funded by the NC 911 Board and available free through the NC OneMap Geospatial Portal
• Focus on common data framework and standards
• Forum for the NC GIS community to raise issues and solve problems together

CGIA and Program Implementation
CGIA is staff to the NC Geographic Information Coordinating Council (GICC). CGIA is responsible for executing GICC directives, including the NC OneMap implementation plan. The NC OneMap viewer is hosted through CGIA, which provides the data server and technical support for partners. The North Carolina General Assembly created a Database Administrator position to manage the NC OneMap content and a second position, NC OneMap Application Developer, that will support the viewer and participant connections.

Staff administers the websites, metadata program, NC OneMap GIS Inventory, federal cost-share program for local government orthoimagery, and federal grants in support of tasks specified in the Implementation Plan.

Archiving for Long-Term Access to Geospatial Data
Geospatial data sets, such as land records, street centerlines, jurisdictional boundaries, and zoning are constantly changing. Current data management practices commonly involve overwriting the older versions of data which are then no longer available. If retained, the earlier data could serve several business purposes, such as historical/cultural interests, support of legal proceedings, enforcement of environmental regulations, and aid in trend analysis.

The NC Center for Geographic Information and Analysis conducted a 2008 geoarchives survey of local county and municipal governments to document their current practices relative to the frequency of capture of geospatial data for archival and long-term access. The 2008 survey revealed similar results to the first survey conducted in 2006, although there were some important shifts relating to metadata, storage technologies, and awareness of business reasons to archive data. Archiving seems to be on the radar in many communities, but there is much to be done.

The GeoMAPP project, funded by the Library of Congress (2008-2011) pairs state government archives staff with geospatial experts to investigate the issues surrounding the preservation of “at risk” geospatial content.  The partners include the states of Kentucky, North Carolina and Utah that are investigating the policies, process, inventory, technical infrastructure, storage capacity, and funding issues involved in ensuring long-term access to data.  Read more about the GeoMapp project.

The North Carolina Geospatial Data Archiving Project (2004-2009) focuses on content standards, digital rights management, ingest workflows, and secondary gathering and harvesting of data.  The NC OneMap program is key to the development of successful preservation strategies because it provides the technical and social interface, i.e., the organized data structure for this project.  The Center for Geographic Information and Analysis is staff to the GICC, and NC State University Libraries have collaborated on this grant, along with the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, Archives and Records Section.