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Understanding Compliance With The Standard

Module 6 of the On-line Course:

Learning the Cadastral Data Content Standard

Module 6 describes what it means to be in compliance with the Standard

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Topics in Module 6:

Compliance

The Cadastral Data Content Standard contains definitions of entities and attributes (with domains of values) and relationships among attributes in the form of a logical data model. This model is a means of expressing the definition and relationship standards for cadastral data. The intent of the Standard is to provide a consistent and uniform means of communicating cadastral information in support of NSDI. In order to support the implementation of the NSDI, the cadastral information must be represented in a physical form. The physical form for communicating and exchanging cadastral information is the Cadastral Data Transfer Profile. Compliance is based upon the ability to communicate and exchange cadastral information through the Cadastral Data Transfer Profile.

The degree of compliance with the Standard can be based on the following three criteria:

Naming Conventions - Does the implementation of the Standard use the entity and attribute names listed in the Standard? To facilitate implementation, the Cadastral Subcommittee has developed standard abbreviations that can be used in all databases and applications. The abbreviations are six letters in length and are unique.

Relationships - Does the implementation of the Standard adhere to the relationships defined in the standard? For example, the Standard specifies that Public Land Survey System (PLSS) Sections must be contained with one and only one PLSS Township.

Domain of Values - Does the implementation of the Standard use the values for the attributes as listed in the Standard? There is a domain of values listed for each attribute in the Standard. Each domain also has a free text value. If the implementation needs to add values to the domain of values listed, this should trigger a maintenance request.

The level of compliance is defined by how well implementation of the data conforms in Naming Conventions, Relationships, and Domain of Values. These possible combinations and associated levels of compliance are shown in the table below. 

LEVEL OF COMPLIANCE NAMING CONVENTIONS RELATIONSHIPS DOMAIN OF VALUES
Full Compliance Yes Yes Yes
Structurally Compliant Yes Yes No
Semantically Compliant Yes No Yes
Domain Compliant No No Yes
Transferability and Crosswalks - A data set or application that is transferable has completed a crosswalk to the Standard and has the information available to a requester such that the existing data could be transferred into one of the above shown levels of compliance. The crosswalk would compare the existing information with the Standard and identify where the existing information matches the Standard information. The crosswalk would also indicate the level of compliance that could be achieved.

The Cadastral Data Transfer Profile

While the Cadastral Data Content Standard provides definitions for logical cadastral entities, attributes, domains and relationships, the Standard does not provide guidelines for implementing a cadastral database, or for transferring and storing cadastral data. At present there is no established method for sharing data between varied and incompatible cadastral databases. The Cadastral Data Transfer Profile, which is currently in development, is intended to be the mechanism which allows for the physical sharing of cadastral data among many implementations.

The Profile will define detailed metadata attribute contents, a Spatial Data Transfer Standard (SDTS) data dictionary, SDTS transfer profiles to use, and a physical model of the Cadastral Data Content Standard logical model.

Once the Transfer Profile is in place, organizations and individuals will be able to share cadastral data which meets the Cadastral Data Content Standard. To do this, users of cadastral data will need to develop software to convert their cadastral data to the Transfer Profile, and software which will convert data from the Profile to the format used by others. Thus the Cadastral Data Transfer Profile will be an essential "hub" format which diverse cadastral data users may use for sharing and receiving data, as represented in the illustration below.

data transfer profile scheme

Example of Bringing a Data Set into Compliance With The Standard

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To be in compliance with the standard means having the ability to translate a given cadastral database to the Cadastral Data Transfer Profile. Once the Profile is in use, and people have begun developing their own means of transfering their data to the Profile, this section will be used to illustrate some examples.

This example will demonstrate how to convert data to be in compliance with the Standard.

This ends Course Module 6. Use the links below to return to the top of this page, or to go on to Module 7, or any of the other Modules.

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Links to the Course Modules: [Quick Reference] [Introduction] [Module 1: Purpose and Benefits of the Cadastral Data Content Standard] [Module 2: How the Standard Was Developed] [Module 3: Other Standards and Related Activities] [Module 4: Data Modeling Techniques, Rules and Diagram Conventions] [Module 5: Crosswalks, Translations, and Examples] [Module 6: Understanding Compliance with the Standard] [Module 7: Maintenance of the Standard] [Module 8: User and Technical Support] [County Recorder Module] [GIS Specialist Module] [Surveyor Module] [Glossary]

Learning the Cadastral Data Content Standard

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Presented by the United States Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management, and

the Federal Geographic Data Committee Cadastral Subcommittee