September 4, 2008 FGDC Coordination Meeting Minutes

[Attendees]


Welcome and Introductions – Ivan DeLoatch, FGDC

Ivan welcomed the Coordination Group, took roll call and provided an overview of the agenda.

Announcements:

  • IFTN Champions and Chairs meeting at the Department of the Interior, September 23, 8:30- 3:45 pm
  •  Executive Committee meeting, Department of the Interior, September 23, 4:00- 5:00 pm
  • National Geospatial Advisory Committee meeting, Shepherdstown, October 15 -16
  • FGDC Steering Committee meeting, Ronald Reagan Building, October 17, 1:00-3:00 pm  
  • FGDC Coordination Group meeting, October 4, National Capitol Planning Commission, 9:00 – 12:00 pm
  • FGDC Coordination Group meeting, November 4, National Capitol Planning Commission, 9:00 – 12:00 pm
  • FGDC Coordination Group meeting, December 2, National Capitol Planning Commission, 9:00 – 12:00 pm
  • FGDC Steering Committee meets on December 15, American Institute of Architecture, 10:30 – 12:30 pm
  • The Cooperative Agreements Program (CAP) is being accelerated this year so as to have the grant announcements available at the NSGIC mid year Conference in February 2009. For more information go to http://www.fgdc.gov/grants
  • Mr. Cason has requested that the FY08 FGDC Annual Report be put on an accelerated production schedule.  The FGDC will send out a data request to the agencies soon with a template of requirements. Financial requirements will not be reported in the first iteration of the report; however, an addendum may be added at a later date


Imagery for the Nation – Vicki Lukas, USGS

[presentation]

Vicki provided an IFTN project update. Phase 1 of the project requires to define federal imagery requirements including cycle times, resolution and expenditures and how to better leverage imagery acquisition within the existing resources.  Outcome 2 will document Federal requirements and address implementation for Alaska and Hawaii.

The IFTN Project Management Charter has been approved and the work groups have been establish and are operational. The project assumption states that IFTN data will be available in the public domain, though in some circumstances there may be exceptions. This is a federal program conducted in partnership with State and local government that is intended to leverage resources across all levels of government to address basic business needs. The intent of the program is to address the needs of the Federal enterprise, including all agencies that acquire or consume imagery products. Both aerial and satellite solutions to meet the federal requirements will be considered. New costs to the agencies managing the NAIP and the UAIP programs must be factored into the overall IFTN plan via the input of the work groups. The form and functions of the Federal governing body will be determined and recommended to the FGDC Steering Committee and the Executive Committee for endorsement.

Comment: a federal agency requirements survey will soon be available for agencies to populate. A memo from Mr. Cason will go out to the SAOGI’s asking agencies to respond.

Q. Explain the IFTN governing body and how it differs from the National Geospatial Advisory Committee or Executive Committee.
A. The governing body is still to be decided. The purpose is to combine the two federal government programs into one and to work together with the States and locals and to have linkages with the FGDC.

GeoLoB Update – Michael Theime

[presentation]

Michael gave an overview on recent activities and accomplishments of the GeoLoB.

  • Joint Business Case Work Group- the final FY 2010 JBC (E-300) was distributed to SAOGI’s on 8/22/08
  • Common Services Work Group – finalized the draft Blanket Purchase Agreement SmartBuy Request for Information for release by GSA.  Announced in the FedBiz Ops on 8/4/08. Had a positive meeting with the SmartBuy Executive Steering Committee. Geospatial Software Application Repository (GEAR) is up and running
  • Grants and Contracts Work Group – OMB has received G & C guidance. Continuing to work with DHS to establish pilot programs that will test the grants policy
  • Technical Architecture Work Group – Continuing to refine the Geospatial Profile Version 2.0
  • Lifecycle Management Work Group – distributed OMB Circular A-16 points of contacts and geospatial data sets by theme. Work continues on OMB Circular A-16 supplemental Guidance package which includes: 
    • Data Lifecycle Definitions matrix
    • A-16 Theme Assessment Principles
    • Roles and Responsibilities for Geospatial Reporting
    • The Geospatial Lexicon


National Land Imagery Program – Ray Byrnes, USGS

[presentation]

The mission of the National Land Imaging Program is: To Serve the Nation by acquiring and providing operational land imaging capabilities and applications to support U.S. economic, environmental, foreign policy, and security interests.

Ray announced the Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthore’s announcement at the August ESRI Conference that Landsat will be available over the internet by the end of the year at no cost to the public. Landsat 5 and 7, TM and MSS will be available from the landsat.usgs.gov website.

The Landsat 8 contract has been awarded and expected to launch in July 2011. The cost for the Landsat 8 launch is estimated at 200 million. The launch of Landsat 7 in 1999 was 800 million. There are no resources to sustain an operational land imaging program for the U.S. beyond the Landsat Data continuity Mission (LDCM) of Landsat 8. The Landsat Interagency Working Group recommends that the U.S. establish the National Land Imaging Program, hosted and managed by the Department of the Interior, to meet U.S. civil land imaging needs. For more information, contact Ray at rbrynes@usgs.gov.

Q. Can you address the relationship between IFTN and NLIP?

A.  NLIP is moderate resolution and IFTN is high resolution. NLIP will not go to a higher resolution, it will not go finer than 5 meters and it will not get into the commercial satellite arena.

National Geospatial Advisory Committee Update -John Mahoney, USGS

[presentation]

John presented an update on the past and upcoming NGAC meetings.

The next meeting will be in Shepherdstown, West Virginia on October 15-16. The meeting is open to the public and will be available by WebEx. Let John know if you are planning to attend.

Anne Miglarese held a briefing session at the ESRI Conference and has the lead article in ESRI Summer 2008 edition of ArcNews. Additional outreach conference presentations for NGAC are planned for NSGIC, MAPPS, ASPRS, and  IMTA.

GIS in Border Fence Construction – Anjna O’Connor, USACE

[presentation]

Anjna presented the case study using GIS in the U.S. Mexico border fence construction.

The data may be viewed in a variety of ways, by land ownership, border patrol, congressional district, etc. and is able to integrate with Google Earth.