Coastal Marine Spatial Planning Discovery Vocabularies Workshop

A three-day NOAA/USGS interagency workshop hosted by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) with technical leadership from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) will be held for the purposes of

• choosing shared standards for metadata content for data catalogs that will support the national process for coastal and marine spatial planning, inculding shared vocabularies;
• cataloging ontologies and crosswalks that can be used to improve interoperability;
• listing tested tools for creating metadata for new and existing catalog services, and providing guidance for using these tools and services;
• establishing communication mechanisms for future consultation among workshop participants.

Background

In response to the National Ocean Policy, all Federal agencies are required to participate in the process of coastal and marine spatial planning (CMSP).  A critical challenge will be populating data catalogs with appropriate metadata so that information assets can be discovered, evaluated for suitability, integrated with data provided by other agencies, and used by planning bodies, resource managers and stakeholders across the country.  By sharing best practices and metadata tools, USGS and NOAA can reduce the burden on scientific programs and offices providing information for CMSP.