NECESSITY OF DATA INTERCHANGE STANDARDS 
The need to transfer spatial data between noncommunicating systems is becoming increas 
ingly important. The concerns for common data formats and geocoding conventions cut 
across all topics of spatial data handling. Currently, it is difficult and inefficient for 
diverse users to use a given set of data. At least five major forces are causing concern 
about incompatibility: (1) increasing amounts of spatial data are being generated and must 
be stored, cataloged, and retrieved, (2) there is rapid progress and expansion in the area of 
spatial data processing, (3) increasing amounts of related and useful data are being obtained 
in digital form, (4) increasing sophistication in the ability to register digital images with 
maps and to analyze multiple sets of data is resulting in a call for more digital data, and 
(5) much of the map automation effort may be duplicative and redundant (Digital 
Cartographic Data Standards [DCDS] Task Force, 1988). 
A spatial transfer standard offers several advantages to users of spatial information: (1) it 
provides a systematic and comprehensive set of primitive and simple cartographic objects 
from which digital cartographic feature representations can be built, (2) it allows the 
transfer of digital spatial information between noncompatible systems while preserving the 
meaning of the information, (3) it supplies data quality information to users in order to 
evaluate the fitness of data for a particular use, (4) it offers the opportunity to share 
project costs by sharing data, (5) it results in lower overall cost for obtaining data and 
maintaining redundant data, and (6) it supports efforts to update data using multiple 
sources. 
Both the Federal Government and the academic community have been working for the last 
few years to develop a spatial data transfer standard that includes definitions of terminol 
ogy, a spatial data transfer specification, recommendations on reporting digital cartographic 
data quality, and topographic and hydrographic entity terms and definitions. Having such a 
standard in place will be a great benefit to the users of digital spatial data. 
SPATIAL DATA TRANSFER STANDARD 
History 
In 1980, the U.S. National Bureau of Standards (now the U.S. National Institute of 
Standards and Technology) signed a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. 
Geological Survey that resulted in the Survey assuming the leadership in developing, 
defining, and maintaining earth science data elements and their representation standards for 
use in U.S. Federal Government agencies. 
In 1982, a national committee composed of members from private industry, government, 
and academia began work on a digital cartographic data standard. This committee was 
formed under the auspices of the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping and was 
supported by a grant from the Geological Survey. Professor Harold Moellering of The 
Ohio State University headed the committee, which produced nine reports. Report 8, "A 
Draft Proposed Standard for Digital Cartographic Data," summarized the committee’s 
activities and work. In 1983, the Office of Management and Budget issued a memorandum 
establishing the Federal Interagency Coordinating Committee on Digital Cartography 
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