About the NADM Organization

The site is managed by the North American Geologic Map Data Model (NADM) Steering Committee -- a consortium of American and Canadian geoscientists, database designers, and developers of geologic map information. The NADM Steering Committee sponsors and facilitates cooperative development of digital infrastructure for geologic map databases, and it works on behalf of the sponsoring agencies to develop products and ideas that can be adapted as agency standards for geologic map databases.

Who Authorizes Us?

The North American Data Model (NADM) process is sanctioned by an Annex to the Memorandum of Cooperation between the GSC and USGS. The Annex encourages and legitimizes cooperative research and development related to digital geoscience information, in part through the NADM Steering Committee (NADMSC).

For the USGS and the AASG, NADMSC is a vehicle for developing digital geologic-map standards mandated by the National Geologic Mapping Act of 1992 and its 1997 and 1999 Reauthorizations. These activities are coordinated between NADMSC and the USGS National Geologic Map Database Project. For the GSC, NADMSC is linked to database-development activities ongoing in Canada, including those related to the Canadian Geoscience Knowledge Network.

The North American Data Model Steering Committee operates under its founding charter.

What Do We Do?

NADMSC first convened in February, 1999, with the broad goal of developing standardized methodologies for the storage, manipulation, analysis, management, and distribution of digital geologic-map information.

The NADMSC is the successor to the USGS/AASG/GSC Data Model Working Group. That Group was formed at a 1996 meeting convened to develop standards and guidelines to improve the quality and utility of digital maps produced by the nation's geological surveys. Under the aegis of the National Geologic Map Database project, Working Group members from the USGS, GSC, and AASG in 1998 produced a draft logical data model ("version 4.3") for evaluation by the North American geoscience community. In 1999, the NADMSC was formed to coordinate this evaluation and to foster continued standards development for geologic map databases.

NADMSC has the following objectives:

  1. To develop and refine a NADM conceptual model (based on v.4.3 and other data models) for storing digital data, and for manipulating these data in a relational and (or) object-oriented database environment;
  2. To develop standardized science language that allows geologic materials and geologic structures to be described, classified, interpreted, and queried;
  3. To develop software tools for entering data into the model at the front end (data-producer) and for extracting the data at the back end (data-user);
  4. To develop methodologies and techniques for exchanging data sets having different structures and formats.

To achieve these objectives, NADMSC meets twice annually, communicates regularly by email and by telephone, and oversees the activities of several Technical Teams appointed to address specific issues related to digital geologic map databases and the infrastructure by which they are managed and served to the public.

NADM Technical Teams

The NADMSC formed several Technical Teams, each charged with developing a piece of the infrastructure required to support geologic map databases. These Teams have, or will, address: Data Model Requirements, Data Model Design, Science Language, Data Interchange, Documentation, and Tool Development. The active Teams are linked from our site's navigation bar.

NADM Committee Members

NADM Committee Meeting Minutes