Since 2005 Geodata.gov has provided the largest web-based access at a single-point for maps, government data, and geospatial services—the Geospatial One Stop. Data.gov, launched in May 2009, provides access to over 400,000 (primarily geospatial) datasets from 172 agencies across the Federal government. On October 1, 2011, Geodata.gov moved to Geo.Data.gov, within the Data.gov infrastructure.

With this move, our national geospatial assets are brought together to make it easier to access, search, and browse through over 400,000 maps, datasets, and services. Most importantly, for the geospatial professional, the services, mapping and visualization capabilities, and data standards behind these sites are also accessible. This work is being done in coordination with a refresh of the Geospatial Platform, which remains the online home for the Federal Geographic Data Committee’s guidance, policies, and standards.

What drove this change? It’s the result of several factors working together: a new strategic direction, public feedback, cost efficiencies, and improving access to geospatial data and services. Some of that feedback came directly from users of Geodata.gov, the Geospatial Platform, and Data.gov, some came in through public forums.

Much of this was written up in The Modernization Roadmap for the Geospatial Platform. This report was created in response to the FY2011 President’s Budget Direction and notes “The Administration has enhanced Data.gov as a public capability for citizens, business, and governmental agencies to gain access to government data. Geospatial data comprise the majority of the data in Data.gov, and based on public feedback of the importance of place-based data and visualization, Data.gov and Geospatial One-Stop (GOS) are being integrated.” The report points out other essential integration motivations:

• Promote reuse of architectural standards and technology
• Increase access to geospatial data
• Promote government-to-citizen communication, accountability, and transparency
• Coordinate with other Administration IT activities more easily
• Launch a government-wide inventory of geospatial data, services, and applications
• Serve as an operational arm of the Geospatial Platform

Additionally, the combination of these sites makes economic sense as we work to bring more capability to the geospatial community at a lower overall cost. Moving this vast store of geospatial data into the cloud already utilized by Data.gov has also saved significant money.

Some of the numbers behind this transition are shown below.

* Integration of non-Federal data in Geo.Data.gov will occur later this year

We welcome you to Geo.Data.gov. Here you can make and share maps, developers can publish data and map services, and scientists and researchers can cooperate on acquiring new data. We welcome your comments and ideas at Geodata@usgs.gov.