Action items.
Action 1: Contact Myra Bambacus (mbambac@pop700.gsfc.nasa.gov) with your thoughts on how the Geospatial One Stop should move forward.
Action 2: Please register through the FGDC website as a participant if you wish to work on a Modeling Advisory Team for any of the seven themes.
Action 3: Please contact Jeff Sands (sandsje@nima.mil) to review the Homeland Security Infrastructure Program Tiger Team Report, and provide comments by October 22.
Action 4: Please send Alison Kiernan (akiernan@fgdc.gov) suggestions for agenda topics for the November 5 and December 3 Coordination Group meetings.
Action 5: Please email Alison Kiernan (akiernan@fgdc.gov) if you would like to be added to the Homeland Security Working Group mailing list.
Host: Rick Pearsall, USGS
Bruce McKenzie, FGDC
Alison Kiernan, FGDC
Jeff Booth, FEMA/Baker
David Morehouse, DOE
Myra Bambacus, NASA
Lauren MacWilliams, EPA
Leslie Wollack, FGDC
Rob Dollison, FGDC
Carol Brandt, USDOT/BTS
Bob Rugg, UCGIS
Jon Sperling, HUD
Ivan DeLoatch, EPA
Michelle Torreano, EPA
Milo Robinson, FGDC
Bill Burgess, MD DNR/ NSGIC
Anne Hale Miglarese, NOAA
Adam Schultz, USGS
Nancy Blyler, USACE
Chris Clarke, USDA/NRCS
Howard Diamond, NOAA
Betsy Banas, USFS
John Moeller, TASC
Cliff Kottman, OGC
Robin Fegeas, USGS
John Crowe, USGS
John Evans, USGS
Robert Matthias, USGS
Jason G. Racette, BLM
Ed Harne, BLM
Bonnie Gallahan, FGDC
Lynda Wayne, FGDC
Sharon Shin, FGDC
Beth Duff, USGS
Keven Roth, USGS
Julie Binder Maitra, FGDC
Susan Hargrove, DOE
Bob West, OHS
Ronald Matzner, FGDC
Upcoming Steering Committee Meeting - Bruce McKenzie, FGDC
Topics that will be addressed at the upcoming FGDC Steering Committee meeting on October 9 will include: E-Gov, Circular No. A-16, Geospatial One Stop, the Remote Sensing extension of the Metadata Standard, and the Homeland Security Working Group. Our special guest, Steven Cooper, Special Assistant to the President, CIO of the Office of Homeland Security, will discuss the Office of Homeland Security's use of geospatial data.
Geospatial One Stop - Myra Bambacus, Acting Geospatial One Stop Exec. Dir.
The Geospatial One Stop initiative is very important to our community. The selection committee for the Geospatial One Stop Executive Director met recently and should choose someone within the next few weeks. It is expected that the new Geospatial One Stop Executive Director will be in place by the end of October.
Myra's goals as Acting Geospatial One Stop Executive Director are:
- Put a project management team in place.
- Put a program plan in place.
- To kick start the Portal.
Myra has met with the Agency Point of Contacts for the Geospatial One stop and would like anyone who has a suggestion on how the Geospatial One Stop should move forward to contact her.
Action 1: Contact Myra Bambacus (mbambac@pop700.gsfc.nasa.gov) with your thoughts on how the Geospatial One Stop should move forward.
Geospatial One Stop Ortho/Elevation/Hydro Servers - Richard Pearsall, USGS
USGS took this opportunity to host the FGDC Coordination Group meeting in order to demonstrate what they have done for the Geospatial One Stop servers for the orthoimagery, elevation and hydrography themes.
It is imperative to define the terminology of the Geospatial One Stop to ensure that the themes are all working towards the same result.
Elevation Servers - John Crowe, USGS
John is the Chair of the National Digital Elevation Program (NDEP) and is also the Theme Lead for the elevation theme in the Geospatial One Stop. During his presentation he talked about how the elevation work done for the National Map fits into the Geospatial One Stop Modules.
For Module One (Standards), the Elevation Theme will build on existing work. They will construct but not reinvent what already exists. NDEP Elevation Guidelines; ISO 19123, Coverage Geometry; the FGDC National Standard for Spatial Data Accuracy; and the FGDC Content Standard for Geospatial Metadata will be used while developing Module One.
For Module Two (Inventory), there will be an NDEP data call as well as an NDEP program call.
They are still developing consensus on what elements should be in the elevation framework.
For Module Four (Web based Clearinghouse standards), the Elevation Theme will have a partnership-based program to build on federal, state, and local services. Open, interoperable interfaces will be pursued, prototyped and implemented.
Module Five will be the deployment of commercial grade portal services.
USGS currently has a Seamless Data Distribution System available at (http://edcnts14.cr.usgs.gov/Website/seamless.htm). USGS is in the process of building the 40% of the country shown at 10-meter resolution into the system. Available now are national seamless datasets for roads, quadrangles, streams, metadata, land cover and urban areas. USGS is working with private companies to create licensing agreements that will more easily allow products to be brought to the public domain.
[ PowerPoint 834 KB ]
Digital Orthoimagery Servers - Robin Fegeas, USGS
Robin welcomed Ed Harne (BLM), Chair of the National Digital Orthoimagery Program (NDOP). Robin then described the various modules of the development of the Geospatial One Stop Digital Orthoimagery Servers.
For Module One (Standards) they will build on existing standards including: FGDC Content Standard for Digital Orthoimagery; ISO 19123; FGDC Content Standard for Geospatial Metadata; and the new FGDC Content Standard extension for Remote Sensing Metadata.
For Modules Two and Three (Inventory) they will use the online sales database; the NDOP planning process; state partnerships to acquire high-resolution imagery; and high-resolution imagery of 133 urban areas.
NDOP currently has 97% of USGS orthoimagery coverages at 1-meter resolution. NSGIC is a NDOP partner and provides high-resolution (1-foot) local data. The states maintain their own imagery but allow NDOP to link to it.
For Module Four (Web-based services) they hope to build a partnership-based program to build federal, state, and local services. Open interoperable interfaces will be prototyped and implemented.
For Module Five (Portal Services) they will use the Terraserver as a model when prototyping portals.
[ PowerPoint 1.26 MB ]
Terraserver - Beth Duff, USGS
The Microsoft CRADA with USGS for the research and development of the Terraserver has been in effect for the past 5 years. Currently you can search for existing holdings of Digital Orthoimagery Quads (DOQs) at the FGDC Clearinghouse site, which then allows you to see the metadata for the individual DOQs.
Terraserver (http://terraserver.microsoft.net/) is an online presentation of DOQs that has both a public interface and a programmable interface. Users can pull orthoimagery from Terraserver and then highlight their area of interest using their own software. They can then do data capture, creating polygons of interest. The Terraserver gets 40,000 unique users a day (and 5 million hits a day).
The CRADA with Microsoft is expiring and Microsoft would like the maintenance responsibilities to go to the federal government.
USGS would like to continue partnerships with agencies on this activity. USGS is laying out a strategy to move from where they are now.
[ PowerPoint 4.85 MB ]
National Hydrography Data (NHD) Set - Keven Roth, USGS
Module One (Standards) was started in the spring of 2001. The Mapping Application Team for this theme is chaired by USGS and includes federal, state, and private participants. Consensus has been reached on most items, so Module One of the hydrographic data layer should be completed by December 2002.
The National Hydrography Data Set was part of an industry-lead consortium that resulted in a published book entitled GIS for Water Resources. Linkages are provided to other themes needed to support hydrologic analysis and modeling. Drainage areas, networks and channels as well as temporal data provide an implementation of the model.
Modules Two and Three (Inventory) will involve data from the NHD website, feature-based metadata, the USFS status website, coordination at the local level, and the EPA Enviromapper for Water. It will be 1:24,000-scale data in most cases. The hydro theme will partner will entities such as the USFS, BLM, Florida water management districts and state partners.
Module Five will involve implementing a common access portal to the NHD website and the National Map Portal, among others. NHD uses the ArcHydro model to query attributes and to look at data seamlessly in queries.
Action 2: Please register through the FGDC website as a participant if you wish to work on a Modeling Advisory Team for any of the seven themes.
[ PowerPoint 7.21 MB ]
Office of Homeland Security Participation with FGDC - Bob West, OHS
Bob West works for Steven Cooper, Special Assistant to the President and CIO of the Office of Homeland Security (OHS). The Office is currently looking at an information integration strategy for the proposed Department of Homeland Security. The OHS believes that geospatial data is important and is trying to build relationships with its partners. The OHS will support the National Map. Steven Cooper is currently laying the groundwork for OHS strategies regarding geospatial data. The Geospatial One Stop will be a link to acquire data valuable to homeland security.
NSGIC Annual Conference - Milo Robinson, FGDC and Bill Burgess, MD DNR
FGDC has a co-op agreement with NSGIC to help promote geospatial participation. Many FGDC Coordination Group members attended the NSGIC Annual Conference. One woman declared this year's NSGIC Conference to be "the best event she had attended." There was a lot of participation - 170 participants from 31 states. Attendance was well distributed between federal, state, and the private sector.
Speakers included: Governor Gerringer (WY), the Lt. Gov. from Utah, Scott Cameron, and Al Liedner (NYC GIS Coordinator), among others. 50-60% of the conference was dedicated to homeland security issues.
A report entitled Homeland Security Infrastructure Program Tiger Team Report is out for review. Please contact Jeff Sands (sandsje@nima.mil) if you would like to review and provide comments.
Action 3: Please contact Jeff Sands (sandsje@nima.mil) to review the Homeland Security Infrastructure Program Tiger Team Report, and provide comments by October 22.
Action 4: Please send Alison Kiernan (akiernan@fgdc.gov) suggestions for agenda topics for the November 5 and December 3 Coordination Group meetings.
Action 5: Please email Alison Kiernan (akiernan@fgdc.gov) if you would like to be added to the Homeland Security Working Group mailing list.
Next Coordination Group meeting:
November 5, 2002
Hosted by USFS
1601 N. Kent Street Arlington, VA
(An agenda and directions to the meeting will be forwarded next week)