NOAA is an active leader, participant, and contributor to the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) and the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI). The FGDC is an organized structure of Federal geospatial professionals and constituents that provide executive, managerial, and advisory direction and oversight for geospatial decisions and initiatives across the Federal government.

A primary goal of the FGDC is the advancement of the NSDI, which is described by Executive Order 12906 (“Coordinating Geographic Data Acquisition and Access”) as “the technology, policies, standards, and human resources necessary to acquire, process, store, distribute, and improve utilization of geospatial data.”​ The NSDI has become a critical vehicle for facilitating seamless data development, information sharing, and collaborative decision making across multiple sectors of the economy.

The National Geospatial Data Assets (NGDAs) are the first component of the NSDI and the standard core set of digital spatial information for the Nation that serve as a foundation for users of geographic information. NOAA leads four NSDI themes and contributes to many others.