Posts Tagged ‘NSDI’
GAO Reports on Federal Geospatial Investments and Coordination
Geospatial Information: Better Coordination and Oversight Could Help Reduce Duplicative Investments
GAO-04-824T June 23, 2004
The collection, maintenance, and use of location-based (geospatial) information are essential to federal agencies carrying out their missions. Geographic information systems (GIS) are critical elements used in the areas of homeland security, healthcare, natural resources conservation, and countless other applications. GAO was asked to review the extent to which the federal government is coordinating the efficient sharing of geospatial assets, including through Office of Management and Budget (OMB) oversight. GAO’s report on this matter, Geospatial Information: Better Coordination Needed to Identify and Reduce Duplicative Investments (GAO-04-703), is being released today. GAO’s testimony focuses on the extent to which the federal government is coordinating the sharing of geospatial assets, including through oversight measures in place at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), in order to identify and reduce redundancies in geospatial data and systems.
OMB, cross-government committees, and individual federal agencies have taken actions to coordinate geospatial investments across agencies and with state and local governments. However, these efforts have not been fully successful due to (1) a complete and up-to-date strategic plan is missing. The existing strategic plan for coordinating national geospatial resources and activities is out of date and lacks specific measures for identifying and reducing redundancies, (2) federal agencies are not consistently complying with OMB direction to coordinate their investments, and (3) OMB’s oversight methods have not been effective in identifying or eliminating instances of duplication. This has resulted from OMB not collecting consistent, key investment information from all agencies. Consequently, agencies continue to independently acquire and maintain potentially duplicative systems. This costly practice is likely to continue unless coordination is significantly improved. http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-04-824T
Geographic Information Systems: Challenges to Effective Data Sharing
GAO-03-874T June 10, 2003
Geographic information systems (GIS) manipulate, analyze, and graphically present an array of information associated with geographic locations, have been invaluable to all levels of government. Their usefulness in disaster response was recently demonstrated during the Space Shuttle Columbia recovery effort. GIS provided precise maps and search grids to guide crews to the debris that was strewn across 41 counties in Texas and Louisiana. The federal government has long been attempting to develop an integrated nationwide GIS network. The information available through such a network could significantly enhance decision–making in myriad public–service areas, including emergency response, national security, law enforcement, health care, and the environment. Among GAO’s objectives were to describe the federal government’s efforts to coordinate GIS activities, the long-standing challenges of adopting and implementing federal GIS standards, and the role of Geospatial One-Stop.
Revitalization of the NSDI
Will Craig, President of NSGIC, Governance of the NSDI, ESRI ArcNews Online, Fall 2009
http://www.esri.com/news/arcnews/fall09articles/governance-of-nsdi.html
New ‘National Parcels’ Blog
This blog site is a discussion site for national parcel and cadastral data to support the Cadastral NSDI. The FGDC Cadastral Subcomittee coordinates the activities, standards and development of the Cadastral NSDI.
A U.S. Geospatial Strategy
In October 2008, the National Geospatial Advisory Committee issued a set of recommendations for the 2008-2009 Presidential Transition Team. Highlights include:
FEDERAL COORDINATION: To coordinate Federal geospatial activities and to ensure effective intergovernmental and inter-sector partnerships with State, local, and Tribal governments; the private sector; and the academic community, we recommend that the administration:
Establish a geospatial leadership and coordination function immediately within the Executive Office of the President. The geospatial coordination function should be included in the reauthorization of the E-Government Act. The function of this position should:
- Provide leadership on national geospatial issues
- Develop a partnership-based national geospatial strategy
- Oversee the revision and strengthening of policies (i.e. OMB Circular A-16) in concert with the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC)
- Evaluate and clarify the roles and responsibilities of Federal, State, local, and Tribal governments; academia; and the private sector in the creation and maintenance of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI)
- Coordinate the funding and acquisition of geospatial data
Establish and oversee an Urgent Path Forward for implementation of geospatial programs necessary to support current national priorities and essential government services underpinning the NSDI, such as:Require OMB and FGDC to strengthen their enforcement of OMB Circular A-16 and Executive Order 12906.
Establish/designate Geographic Information Officers within each Department or Agency with responsibilities stipulated within OMB Circular A-16.
- Imagery for the Nation
- National Land Imaging Program
- National Land Parcel Data
Continue to task the National Geospatial Advisory Committee to provide advice and recommendation for the use of geospatial information and the related policies and programs of the Federal Government.
FEDERAL STATUTORY REVIEW: Revise restrictive statutory language as it pertains to non-sensitive address data in Title 13 U.S. Code and to “geospatial data” in Section 1619 of the 2008 Farm Bill.
The FGDC 2008 Annual report is also available.
2008 FGDC Annual Report Released
The U.S. Geological Survey’s Federal Geographic Data Committee’s (FGDC) 2008 Annual Report is now available online.
The report includes remarks by Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne at the ESRI User Conference in San Diego, Calif., on August 4, 2008:
… My vision for the future is that with the click of a mouse, decisionmakers and land managers…will have access to maps that Lewis and Clark could never have imagined-
- Maps that include up-to-date digital imagery of the landscape.
- Maps that overlay population data, land use, wildlife habitat, and other forms of geographic information, to paint a more complete picture of our planet.
Information is power, and this information will be a powerful tool in the hands of policy makers, land managers, and scientists in the United States and around the world.
Finally, the Department of the Interior will continue to partner with other countries, the importance of which I saw first-hand in December when I led the U.S. delegation to the World Summit of the Group on Earth Observations in South Africa. Seventy-three nations were there. The other leaders and I left that summit united in the belief that the world must embrace the idea of science without borders, achieve global data compatibility, and have full access to coordinated Earth observations. We agreed to focus on helping countries to better share data from their weather satellites, ocean monitoring buoys, earthquake sensors, and other geospatial technology. …
Articles on Spatial Data Infrastructures
A. J. Wortley of the Wisconsin State Cartographer’s Office passed along the following through the Weary Mappers listsev (February 19, 2008):
- Abbas Rajabifard, Ian P. Williamson, Peter Holl, Glenn Johnstone – From Local to Global SDI Initiatives: a pyramid of building blocs
- David Maguire – Where Next for SDI?
- Exploring Spatial Data Infrastructures Workshop, Wageningen, The Netherlands, 19-20 January 2006
- Ir. Bastiaan van Loenen – How to Assess the Status of SDI?
- Ian Masser – The Future of SDIs
- Ian Masser – Multilevel Implementation of SDIs
- Ian Masser – Spatial Data Infrastructures: A SWOTS Analysis
- Garfield Giff and David Coleman - Funding Models for SDI Implementation: from Local to Global
Also,
For a very interesting critical analysis of the the SDI movement, visit the following posting by Paul Ramsey on his “Clever Elephant Blog”:
- Paul Ramsey - Why SDIs Fail
