The purpose of the federated data model is to clarify the roles of District government agencies in building and maintaining geospatial data sets. The goal is to share in the creation, use, and maintenance of GIS datasets at the lowest possible cost, while providing District government staff, citizens, the media, and other users with easy access to this resource.  Specific objectives are:

• Providing users with geospatial data of known quality
• Planning geospatial data development activities
• Eliminating the redundant purchase and/or creation/maintenance of geospatial data.
• Increasing awareness of existing GIS datasets
• Ensuring the completeness and accuracy of information describing the datasets (metadata)
• Establishing geospatial data standards and encouraging adherence to them
• Clarifying data distribution policies, ensuring public access to information and establishing technical procedures for restricting distribution of sensitive data
• Facilitating the coordination of geospatial data gathering, maintenance, and enhancement with cooperating federal and regional agencies and authorities
• Providing the framework to develop and maintain the DC GIS enterprise database consistent with data from numerous source agencies

View or download the entire Federated Data Model document*