GICC Standards & Best Practices

Adopted Standards

As part of the N.C. Geographic Information Coordinating Council's work, standards are routinely crafted, discussed and evaluated by the N.C. GIS community of federal, state and local government members. Each standard is promoted to the wider community.

• Datum: North American Vertical Datum of 1988
  Adopted by the GICC, August 13, 2008
• Elevation: National Digital Elevation Program Guidelines
  Adopted by the GICC, November 19, 2003
• Geodetic Control: Geospatial OneStop Geodetic Control
  Adopted by the GICC, August 20, 2003
• GPS: Statewide Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Data Collection and Documentation Standards
  Version 4 adopted by the GICC, May 15, 2014
• Land Use/Land Cover: A Standard Classification System for the Mapping of Land Use and Land Cover
  Published by the GICC, 1994
• LiDAR: North Carolina Technical Specification for LiDAR Base Mapping
  Final draft endorsed by the GICC, February 8, 2012; adopted by the N.C. Department of the Secretary of State, January 30, 2013
• Metadata: State and Local Government Metadata Profile
  Adopted by the NGICC, November 20, 2014
• NOAA GPS Ellipsoid Heights: NOAA Guidelines for Establishing GPS-Derived Ellipsoid Heights
  Adopted by the GICC, August 20, 2003
• Orthoimagery: North Carolina Technical Specifications for Digital Orthophoto Base Mapping
  Adopted by the GICC, October 10, 2014, and the Secretary of State, December 11, 2014
• Parcels: Content Elements for Statewide Publication of Core Geospatial Parcel Data
  Adopted by the GICC, May 11, 2005; revised August 10, 2016
• Roads: Geographic Data Content Standard for Transportation Roads Data, Version 2 (Summary)
  Adopted by the NC Geographic Information Coordinating Council, August 8, 2018
• U.S. National Grid: US National Grid, A Format for Presenting Data [FGDC-STD-011-2001]
  Adopted by the GICC,  November 7, 2007
• Water/Sewer: Geographic Data Content Standard for Water Distribution and Sanitary Sewer Systems, Version 3.1
  Adopted by the GICC, December 4, 1997; revised November 9, 2011
• Municipal Boundaries/Annexations: Municipal Boundary Specifications 
  Adopted by the GICC, August 11, 2021
• Addresses: AddressNC Specifications 
  Adopted by the GICC, August 11, 2021

Best Practices

The Statewide Mapping Advisory Committee and GIS Technical Advisory Committee are developing a series of documents that offer a set of recommended practices for developing and maintaining geospatial data. In some cases, the best practices document will serve as a companion to a standard that has been adopted or endorsed by the GICC. The documents do not endorse particular software solutions or commercial services. The examples used to illustrate the concepts may be based on commonly used software among state and local GIS operations in North Carolina.

The purpose of these documents is to promote consistency in geospatial representation and data content to support regional analysis and planning and statewide data sharing. The guides provide detailed resources for data development and management in support of a variety of business needs. In practice, data managers may not use all of the recommended fields or may be inclined to add fields for jurisdiction-specific content.

• Preliminary Findings- Infrastructure Working Group, GIS TAC, adopted by the GICC, November 2022.  Includes best practices and issues surrounding utility infrastructure GIS data sharing
• Open Source GIS Software: A Guide for Understanding Current GIS Software Solutions, GIS TAC, December 2017
• GIS Mobile Best Practices, GIS TAC, August 2016
• Assessing Cloud-Based Solutions for Geospatial Data and Mapping, GIS TAC, July 2015
• Oblique Imagery Guidance, May 2015
• Understanding Compression of Geospatial Raster Imagery, GIS TAC, January 2015
• How-To Guides and Templates for Geospatial Metadata based on the State and Local Government Metadata Profile, adopted by the GICC, November 20, 2014
• Practices for Mapping Water and Sewer Areas and Facilities, adopted by the GICC, December 4, 1997
• Recommended File Naming Standard for NC Orthoimagery, March 2010. Prepared by the Government Records Branch, N.C. State Archives, N.C. Department of Cultural Resources; Land Records Management Section, N.C. Department of the Secretary of State; and the N.C. Center for Geographic Information and Analysis.
• Understanding Smart Cities from the Geospatial Perspective, GIS TAC, August 2019

Preservation and Long-Term Access to Geospatial Data

• Read about the efforts of the GICC to promote awareness of the importance of preserving data access for the long term and to develop tools to assist in this effort.
• Read Key Findings and Best Practices released by the Geospatial Multistate Archive and Preservation Partnership project in 2011.