House panel looks to streamline Interior mapping efforts

[Mara Kaminowitz]

http://www.eenews.net/EEDaily/2009/07/20/16

USGS: House panel looks to streamline Interior mapping efforts (07/20/2009)

Phil Taylor, E&E reporter

Mapping experts Thursday will discuss how the federal government could
more effectively gather and present data that could help researchers
and policymakers better understand complex economic, environmental and
public health threats.

A hearing before the House Subcommittee on Energy and Minerals
Resources will look at whether information sharing between federal,
state and local government agencies could save some of the billions of
dollars the United States spends each year acquiring and managing
geospatial data.

Scheduled witnesses at the hearing include Suzette Kimball, acting
director for Interior's U.S. Geological Survey, the federal agency in
charge of mapping a variety of resources like mineral deposits, water
and timber, as well as statistics in areas such as politics and crime.
A Clinton-era executive order tasked the agency with creating a
National Spatial Data Infrastructure to promote sharing of geospatial
data throughout all levels of government, the private and nonprofit
sectors, and the academic community.

Members of the Natural Resources subcommittee will also discuss a bill
that would create a comprehensive geospatial imagery mapping program
at USGS that would integrate data from federal, state and local
agencies for education, job training and applied research.

H.R. 2489, sponsored by Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-S.D.), seeks
to provide broader access to educational institutions and governments
for geospatial data.

The bill would authorize Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to issue
unlimited grants for USGS's AmericaView program to support the
geospatial imagery mapping research and educational programs of each
U.S. state.

A June report by the Congressional Research Service found that as much
as 90 percent of all government information has a geospatial component
to it. But according to the Interior Department, up to half of the
federal investment in such data is redundant, meaning it has already
been collected by another government or private agency.

A "National GIS" system, such as one proposed by leading Geographic
Information Systems developer ESRI in Redlands, Calif., would "speed
economic recovery by producing jobs and putting shovels in the ground
more quickly," the company said in a policy proposal. The system,
estimated to cost about $1.2 billion, would "leave the country with a
public utility, a modern geospatial information system, that itself
can become a foundation for new generations of industries and
technologies," the company said.

Demand has soared in recent years for GIS used by navigation providers
like Garmin or Tom Tom that are capable of aggregating, storing,
interpreting and displaying geographic points of interest. Geospatial
imagery can also shed light on trends like home foreclosures and help
officials track public health risks like infectious diseases and
floods.

"The federal government's role has changed from being a primary
provider of authoritative geospatial information to coordinating and
managing geospatial data and facilitating partnerships," said the CRS
study. But "challenges to coordinating how geospatial data are
acquired and used -- collecting duplicative data sets, for example --
are not yet resolved."

Schedule: The hearing is Thursday, July 23, at 10 a.m. in 1324 Longworth.

Witnesses: Suzette Kimball, acting director of USGS. Others to be announced.
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