THE DELAWARE GEOGRAPHIC DATA COMMITTEE (DGDC)

The Delaware Geographic Data Committee is a cooperative effort among all levels of government, the academic sector, and the private sector, to build a Delaware GIS Community and improve the coordination of the use of GIS tools and spatial data in Delaware. The DGDC is established in Delaware state law at 29 Delaware Code, Chapter 91, Subchapter IV (Geospatial Data Coordination) to ensure the availability of geospatial data, promote the use and sharing of that data and of geographic information system (GIS) software and tools, establish data standards, and support a community of geospatial data providers and geospatial data users in Delaware. The DGDC conducts its business under a set of DGDC Bylaws (PDF) approved by the Executive Council on January 30, 2008.

DGDC News

• Future Meetings
• Past Meetings

• The Delaware GIS Inventory
• The Delaware Data Mapping and Integration Laboratory (The DataMIL)
• The DGDC E-Mail Listserv

DGDC Structure

Delaware's GIS Community is organized into an open users’ group, the Delaware Geographic Data Committee (DGDC), and an Executive Council charged with oversight of GIS Coordination in Delaware. The DGDC membership meets on a regular basis to discuss GIS Coordination issues and to make recommendations to the Executive Council for official action. Both groups are chaired by a state GIS Coordinator, named by the director of the Office of Management and Budget.

The Executive Council membership is defined in state law (29 Del C., §9143). Members may assign proxies, if necessary. The Executive Council consists of 13 voting members and a non-voting Chair.

• The GIS Coordinator, non-voting Chair
• The Director of the Office of Management and Budget
• The Secretary of the Department of Technology and Information
• The Secretary of the Department of Safety and Homeland Security
• The Secretary of the Department of Transportation
• The Secretary of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control
• The County Executive of New Castle County
• The County Administrator of Kent County
• The County Administrator of Sussex County
• The Director of the Delaware Geological Survey
• A Federal Geospatial Liaison to be named by the Federal Geographic Data Committee
• Three representatives chosen annually from among the DGDC membership
  • One representing the academic community
  • One representing Delaware’s municipal governments
  • One representing the membership as a whole

DGDC Subcommittees

The Executive Committee has approved five DGDC subcommittees:

• Conference Planning Subcommittee (Chair: Deborah Sullivan, DNREC), to plan the annual Delaware GIS Conference.
• GIS in Education Subcommittee (Chair: Miriam Pomilio, DGS), to enhance the use of GIS and geospatial tools in Delaware classrooms to both support geography and other education focus areas and to promote the use and sharing of GIS tools.
• Technical Infrastructure Subcommittee (Led by DTI Staff), to advise and facilitate the direction of GIS Technology Infrastructure in the State.
• GIS Day Subcommittee (Chair: Megan Nehrbas, Sussex Co.), to organize Delaware’s participation in GIS Day activities each fall.
• Data Standards Subcommittee (Chair: Pat Susi, New Castle Co.), to propose GIS data standards to the Executive Council.

A History of Geospatial Data Coordination

In 1978, Then-governor Pete DuPont created a State Mapping Advisory Committee (SMAC) though a Memorandum of Agreement with the Delaware Geological Survey. It was set up to function as the central coordinating committee for mapping issues and needs in Delaware. The SMAC was created in response to Federal Circular A-16 and charged with reporting Delaware's mapping issues and needs to the USGS. Beginning in 1994, with the advent of the Federal Geographic Data Committee and the abandonment of Circular A-16, input was no longer requested of the SMAC and the committee became inactive.

In 1998, the state legislature created a Delaware Geographic Data Committee and charged it with "identifying and insuring that all source data and metadata relating directly or indirectly to planning issues . . . be made available to planning agencies at the state, regional and local levels and to the public." This led to an effort to define a Delaware Spatial Data Framework of nine “base map” data layers, now provided through the Delaware DataMIL.

In 2001, Governor Ruth Ann Minner signed Executive Order 18, which established a Delaware Spatial Data Implementation Team (I-Team) to work with the DGDC and with an initiative at the federal level that sought to create “I-Teams” in each state. That initiative has since faded. The Delaware I-Team did point the way towards the Executive Council, demonstrating the need for a high-level council to act on the recommendations of the DGDC and coordinate among state agencies.

That experience led the GIS Community to propose new legislation that passed in 2008 to create the new Delaware Geographic Data Committee structure of an open users’ group advising a high-level Executive Council.