National Digital Elevation Program Guidelines

http://www.ndep.gov/NDEP_Elevation_Guidelines_Ver1_10May2004.pdf

The purpose of this document is to provide the member agencies of the National Digital Elevation Program (NDEP), as well as nonmember agencies, with guidelines and recommendations for acquiring digital elevation data in any of its various forms. Individual agencies may choose from flexible options to establish standards for their organizations. The following reasons are commonly cited for promoting and adhering to a common set of elevation guidelines or standards whenever possible and practical.

NOAA Guidelines for Establishing GPS-Derived Ellipsoid Heights

http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/PUBS_LIB/NGS-58.html

The following guidelines were developed by the National Geodetic Survey (NGS) for performing Global Positioning System (GPS) surveys that are intended to achieve ellipsoid height network accuracies of 5 cm at the 95 percent confidence level, as well as ellipsoid height local accuracies of 2 cm and 5 cm, also at the 95 percent confidence level.

NatureServe Invasive Species Protocol

http://www.natureserve.org/library/invasiveSpeciesAssessmentProtocol.pdf

NatureServe, in cooperation with The Nature Conservancy and the U.S. National Park Service, developed this Invasive Species Assessment Protocol as a tool for assessing, categorizing, and listing non-native invasive vascular plants according to their impact on native species and natural biodiversity in a large geographical area such as a nation, state, province, or ecological region.

NatureServe Network's Benchmark Data Content Standards

http://www.natureserve.org/prodServices/heritagemethodology.jsp

The defining characteristic of the NatureServe network is the use of natural heritage methodology. By specifying standard procedures for gathering, organizing, and managing information on biodiversity, natural heritage methodology unites the efforts of hundreds of individuals and dozens of institutions on two continents working to advance the knowledge needed to effectively conserve biodiversity. Over the past quarter-century, natural heritage methodology has evolved to keep pace with the growth in scientific knowledge about the natural world and advances in information technologies. Nevertheless, the underlying continuity of the methodology over time has permitted the network to accumulate knowledge and make available vast amounts of scientifically authoritative data. Natural heritage methodology provides a rigorous set of procedures for identifying, inventorying, and mapping species and ecosystems of conservation concern; for gathering related information on conservation sites and managed areas; and for setting conservation priorities.

NOAA Guidelines for Establishing GPS-Derived Ellipsoid Heights

http://geodesy.noaa.gov/PUBS_LIB/NGS-58.html

The following guidelines were developed by the National Geodetic Survey (NGS) for performing Global Positioning System (GPS) surveys that are intended to achieve ellipsoid height network accuracies of 5 cm at the 95 percent confidence level, as well as ellipsoid height local accuracies of 2 cm and 5 cm, also at the 95 percent confidence level. See Appendix A for information about local and relative accuracies. These guidelines were developed in a partnership with Federal, state, and local government agencies, academia, and private surveyors and are the result of processing various test data sets and having extensive discussions with various GPS users groups.