how to organise and store gisdata

[BertKraan1]

Once upon a time in the past our company started to use gis/arcmap. For years the only gisworker and several temporary workers saved shapefiles, projects and whatnot onto a shared disk in the network, loosely organised by topic, subject, project, whatever seemed fit at that time.

Some files are duplicate or nearly duplicate (which is worse), dispersed shapefiles belong to the same project, features in a fgdb do not always belong to the same project and to make matter worse the collegue will retire in a year or so. At the moment I can still pick his head so I feel an urge to restructure our gisdata.

I seek a method to structure all our gisdata in a way so it's clear what we have, how current or outdated it is and where it is stored.

What strategy do you use to store your data, how do you keep track of modifications, what kind of naming conventions do you use? Is there a whitepaper on how to do these things? Guidelines?

Your views are greatly appreciated, thanks in advance for your time.

Regards,

Bert 

[Egge-Jan_Pollé · Accepted solution]

Hi Bert Kraan,

This sounds like a very broad question, and the answer depends very much on the requirements of your organization.

A few possible steps - considering you will stick with the ArcGIS platform:

1. get rid of the shape files 🙂
2. try to organize your data in one or more geodatabases - delete the duplicates, sort out the near duplicates
3. metadata, metaDATA, METADATA!!! - please make sure to describe and document your data, so in the future the status of a data set  will be clear to you - and to others. You should avoid, as you will surely agree, dependency on one and a single employee for this kind of information... So, the easiest way is to just write it down and attach this description to the data set.
4. Do you need (or do you want) to share your geodata with third parties (contractors and/or the general public)? In that case you might consider a cloud-based mapping and analysis solution like ArcGIS Online.

Hope to have provided you with some clues on where to start.

If you have any further questions or remarks, just drop a line.

Cheers,

Egge-Jan

[sandeeppatil]

Hi,

If you need then i will custumize the application to store the data and upload the shapefile on java spring framework based web application.

there is possibility to create the multiple project and data connection with database and file will be manage on cloud server or your office server.

i can show the example of one basic web application with varies project.

Reporting and data manupulation possible by web application ,data from outside application and available that data to other web or system software also possible . we use the java spring framework and arcgis online map and mysql or postgres db

Please contact me 

skype-sndp_ln

[Egge-Jan_Pollé]

Hi sandeep patil‌,

I am not necessarily looking for a solution, I was only answering the question above.

Please feel free to publish the link to your sample application here, so we can have a look.

Cheers,

Egge-Jan

[DanaNolan]

Been there... I would first focus on organizing better, that is, don't get caught up in whether data is in geodatabase format or shape files, for example. Ultimately, you can change the format once you determine what is the best data. Then you have to get current users to use only the best data. 

To organize better, consider very general categories. Does some data belong to a certain group and is that very important to how it is created and used? Are there other general purpose data sources that don't belong to a group and that most users want to map? For those, I would look at ISO at ISO 19115 Topics, SDSFIE, or other keyword methods of modeling the world. Metadata often uses these terms. For example, biota/flora/ as a starting point for plant data. You can keep raw data way down in the hierarchy on the share drive(s). You can keep the best data in a geodatabase organized by dataset name.

Keep in mind that moving data creates broken links but moving maps and output does not. We store data, maps, and output separately. That is not a very project-oriented approach (and not one people learn in school); it is a long term shared data management strategy, which is what it sounds like you need. 

So it took a long time, but I know where all the current data is now and where new data should go.