Minutes of FGDC STEERING COMMITTEE MEETING

Members in Attendance:
Chair - Secretary Bruce Babbitt
Department of Agriculture - Glenda Humiston
Department of Commerce - Susan Zevin (DOC/NOAA)
Department of Defense - (DOD/NIMA); Carl Enson (DOD/COE)
Department of Energy - Jay Hakes
Department of Housing and Urban Development - Richard Burk
Department of Interior - Mark Schaefer
Department of Justice - Lisa Monaco
Department of Transportation - Ashish Sen
Environmental Protection Agency - Linda Trevers for Al Pesachowitz
Federal Emergency Management Agency - Michael Buckley
National Aeronautics and Space Administration - Nand Lal
National Archives and Records Administration - Kenneth Thibodeau
National Science Foundation - Alan Gaines for Robert Corell
Office of Management and Budget - Gary Reisner, Michelle Jesperson
Tennessee Valley Authority - Alan Voss

Other Agencies:

Keith Laughlin - Council on Environmental Quality

Elizabeth Groff - Department of Justice

Mark DeMulder, Julie Binder Maitra, Richard Kleckner,

Tim Smith - Department of Interior

Pam Johnson - National Partnership for Reinventing Government

Jodie Cusak - National Partnership for Reinventing Government

FGDC Coordination Group:
Rick Pearsall, Bruce Spear, Tom Usselman, George Rohaley, Dave Catlin, Don Buhler, Win Lyday

FGDC Cooperating Groups --- State Councils:

Gene Trobia - Arizona Geographic Information Council

Scott Fabbro - California Geographic Information Association

Mike Whatley - Colorado Geographic Information Coordinating Committee

David Stage - Florida Geographic Information Board

Tom Mettille - Georgia GIS Coordinating Committee

Sheryl Oliver - Illinois Geographic Information Council

Rick Miller - Kansas GIS Policy Board

Susan Lambert - Kentucky Geographic Information Council

Sharon Balfour - Louisiana Geographic Information Systems Council

Jim Bennett - Improving Michigan's Access to Geographic Networks

(IMAGIN)

Chris Cialek - Minnesota Governor's Council on Geographic Information

Paul Davis - Mississippi Automated Resource Info System Task Force

Michael Sweet - Montana GIS Interagency Technical Work Group

Larry Zink - Nebraska GIS Steering Committee

Hank Garie - New Jersey State Mapping Advisory Committee

Rich Friedman - New Mexico Geographic Information Council

Cheryl Benjamin - New York State GIS Coordinating Body

Karen Siderelis - North Carolina Geographic Information Coordination

Council & National States Geographic Information Council Representative

Stu Davis - Ohio Geographically Referenced Information Program

Bob Springer - Oklahoma State GIS Council

Theresa Valentine - Oregon Geographic Information Council

Tom Sweet - Pennsylvania Mapping and Geographic Information Consortium

Roddy Seekins - Texas Geographic Information Council

Dennis Goreham - Utah GIS Advisory Committee &

Carol Miller - Vermont Center for Geographic Information, Inc.

Larry Sugarbaker - Washington GIS Council

Craig Neidig - West Virginia GIS Steering Committee

Bob Gurda - Wisconsin State Cartographer's Office

Nancy McCann - Wyoming Geographic Information Advisory Council

Other States Attending:

Mike Mahaffie - Delaware Geographic Data Committee

Tim Baker - Maryland State Government Geographic Information

Coordinating Committee

Welcome and Introductions
Secretary Babbitt welcomed everyone and said that he is pleased to see so many States represented. He acknowledged that we are gaining mass.

Update on the Community/Federal Information Partnership Initiative
Keith Laughlin presented background on the Vice President's Livability Initiative which include the FGDC's Community/Federal Information Partnership (C/FIP) initiative. In January the Vice-President announced the Livability Initiative that has four major pieces. 1) The Community/Federal Information Partnership initiative, which Mr. Laughlin acknowledged that everyone was familiar with. 2) Better American Bonds Initiative, which is the centerpiece of the Livability Initiative. It will provide $700 million for interest subsidies for bonds over a 5 year period. Mr. Laughlin said the Treasury department is estimated to leverage $9.5 billion in local bonding authority. This bonding authority may be used for a variety of activities, ranging from acquisition of open space, cleaning up rock fields, renovation of/or purchase of urban parks, etc. 3) Regional Connections, a new $50 million HUD program that encourages collaborative approaches to planning across local jurisdictions of cities and counties for smart growth partnerships. 4) A series of initiatives from the Department of Transportation. These initiatives would aggressively implement those provisions of the new transportation equity act of the 21st century that are consistent with smart growth.

Mark Schaefer reminded everyone that the C/FIP initiative is important because it addresses a wide range of issues of importance to communities and governments at a various levels. Advancing the use of geospatial data and GIS across the country is fundamentally important. The Steering Committee is aware of this importance but there is a vast group of people that don't yet recognize the value of geospatial data. The goals of the C/FIP initiative include: informing decision makers at the community level; advance the thinking about land and resource use; a more informed public; increased public participation in decision making; ready transfer of data between federal government and communities; and contribution of communities to data sets of national and global interest. Dr. Schaefer said, "If we do this right, and we couple it with our other activities - such as advancement of framework data and standards, etc., we will have a compatible robust set of data layers that will advance our community based thinking." C/FIP consists of 2 components - the first is a grant/cooperative agreement program to support communities in developing the NSDI. The second is funding for federal agencies to improve internal NSDI implementation. Dr. Schaefer stated that the Department of Interior will dedicate 2/3 of C/FIP funding received to the grant program, the other 1/3 is to efforts internal within the Department to better provide its information to communities. Dr. Schaefer encouraged other agencies to do the same with the percentages, at least a 60/40 split. Dr. Schaefer said that C/FIP is included in the President's FY2000 budget in which there is a total of nearly $40 million directed to these activities among 6 agencies. Participating agencies and proposed dollar amounts include:

Environmental Protection Agency - $2.5m

Department of Agriculture - $5m

Department of Commerce - $10m

Department of Interior - $14m

Department of Transportation - $6m

Housing and Urban Development - $2m

Update on NSDI Community Demonstration Projects
Dr. Schaefer said that the idea early on in the development of the C/FIP initiative was to develop pilot projects to demonstrate the utility of an activity of this kind. Dr. Schaefer introduced Pam Johnson, the Deputy of the National Performance for Reinventing Government (NPR), and stated she was instrumental in starting the demonstration projects. Ms. Johnson said that in 1993 the NPR made many recommendations about reinventing government. One of the most important of these recommendations was to establish an NSDI. Ms. Johnson stated that it is apparent the importance of the spatial data infrastructure as we move into the information age. Ms. Johnson said that today, 51/2 years later there has been extraordinary accomplishments in making the vision a reality. Today, with the 6 community demonstration projects, and with C/FIP, NSDI is entering into a new phase putting national spatial data into the hands of communities across the country, helping them solve real problems and get meaningful results. Ms. Johnson remarked that the demonstration projects deal with some of today's real problems such as urban sprawl, fighting crime and protecting watersheds. Ms. Johnson reported that NPR had an objective to avail a National warning system for tornadoes and hurricanes. Ms. Johnson said, "Frankly, the budget was kind of stuck for this initiative". Then, partnering with FGDC, NPR got a map of all the tornadoes and hurricanes over the last 20 years in the US and a map of the footprints of the current warning towers. Using this material they were able to convince OMB to support funding in the President's budget to get national coverage. They saw how important that was a few weeks ago. A community in Arkansas was given 26 minutes to evacuate a school because of an early warning system created by the collaborations of several agencies spatial data. NPR has seen results. Ms. Johnson concluded by saying that the Vice-President has announced the six demonstration projects and they are included as a priority.

Mark DeMulder updated where the demonstration projects are to date.

• City of Baltimore, working with the police department on crime mapping activities. Championed by the Department of Justice.

• Upper Susquehanna/Lackawanna American Heritage River, looking at flooding and environmental issues. Championed by the EPA.

• Dane County, WI, working with citizen-based smart growth Championed by the USDA.

• Gallatin County, MT, working on smart growth projects. Championed by the DOI.

• Tillamook County, OR, working on water quality issues. Championed by the DOI.

• Tijuana River watershed on the US / Mexico issues working with environmental issues. Championed by the Department of Commerce.

Mr. DeMulder mentioned the establishment of a demonstration facility in the South Interior building that will host local community's GIS applications for the purpose of demonstrating what the communities are doing and what the federal champion's roles are in these activities. He hopes this is a successful venue and sees much support for these projects. Lance McKee said there might be ways to tie these projects into OGC's web mapping test bed that supports multi-vendor interoperability, which is an important aspect of the NSDI.

Gene Trobia commented that they are encouraged by C/FIP and the demonstration projects. Mr. Trobia said that at the last partnership meeting, NSGIC presented a test bed project concept that encouraged the development of geospatial data to meet the needs of all the users in a given geography. They were interested in having the data meet the agency's needs where the transactions occurred. This would encourage agencies to use the data, get involved, maintain and provide access to the data. Mr. Trobia said that C/FIP is providing mechanisms which can accomplishment that. It has the potential for reducing data redundancy which is a big issue at the local and state government. It also has the potential for incorporating NSDI in the operations of a lot of levels of government. C/FIP can help change the way we produce and use data. Mr. Trobia added that they are encouraged that there is a potential that the data itself not be the measure of success but rather how that data is applied to identify problems be the measure. Mr. Trobia said, "We encourage OMB to continue to support NSDI and provide oversight and policy support to FGDC. How can we, NSGIC, help C/FIP succeed?" Mark Schaefer responded that continued support from states is vital.

Gary Reisner said that as we move into the appropriation process it would be helpful if agencies could identify in their budget the documents that support the C/FIP request and send this information to John Moeller. Mr. Reisner suspects that the agencies that have increases in their budget, it will be very clear where the money is and how they will use it. But for the agencies that are not recommending increases over 1999, NOAA, NOAA and EPA, it might not be as clear in the budget documents where the funding resides.

Action: C/FIP participating agencies identify in their budget the documents that support CFIP and send to John Moeller by March 20, 1999.

Action: John Moeller set up meeting with C/FIP participating agencies and OMB.

Ms. Siderelis said that now, 5 1/2 years after the Executive Order was signed, it is clear that significant accomplishments have been made. And yet, she added, there are still significant accomplishments to be addressed. Ms. Siderelis said that today they would like to focus their comments on the past accomplishments, what is happening right now, and what still needs to be done.

Win Lyday presented an overview of accomplishments of the past. Ms. Lyday reminded everyone that 2 years ago, when FGDC opened its doors to the non-federal community, they came up with three recommendations as to where the FGDC and its new partners should focus its attentions. 1) Activate involvement of federal field offices. 2) Have state, city, county participation in the development of standards. 3) Develop resources to develop NSDI from the bottom up.

Ms. Lyday reviewed the progress that has been made. For the first recommendation, to involve the federal field offices, they have activated several programs such as Adopt-A-Fed and the creation of several state and federal councils. They are also submitting a proposal for the development of a Coordination Handbook that would document the various partnering mechanisms available from various agencies. The second recommendation, to involve locals in the development of standards, has also seen progress. NACo now has county representatives on every standards making committee or working group and the states also have representation. Ms. Lyday said that for the third recommendation, develop resources for NSDI, we've just heard about C/FIP. Ms. Lyday said that this is a major effort that shows the cooperation of a variety of partnering agencies to support the development of resources to begin working from the bottom up. The identification of resources is not complete yet but C/FIP is a major initiative that addresses the concerns they expressed 2 years ago. Ms. Lyday said that together we've accomplished a great deal but we have more to do.

Ms. Siderelis agreed that we have done a lot, but we must think to the future. She asked if anyone remembers the line out of the movie, The Graduate, "I have one word for you and that's plastics"? Well, they have one for the Steering Committee, "framework". Ms. Siderelis said that after yesterday's meeting it is clear that there is agreement on the need to move forward with framework. That's the next big goal to put before the group. Ms. Siderelis said they have 3 presentations dealing with framework - the need for framework, the framework survey, and the development of a framework organizational infrastructure.

Theresa Valentine and Larry Sugarbaker presented the Salmon Initiatives in Oregon and Washington which demonstrates the need and importance of framework data. Ms. Valentine said that while the states are beautiful, they have problems with congestion, increased growth and agriculture lands. GIS helps to understand the complexity of these issues. In order to do the necessary GIS analysis they need data at large scales. This will in turn assist people to do on-the-ground actions. As an example, Mr. Sugarbaker said that across the two states, they need to analyze watersheds and prioritize them for restoration activities. They have experienced problems when they try to do this because they are using variable qualities of data from many different sources. Mr. Sugarbaker added that there are many framework drivers in both states that cause them to understand they need to work on a framework approach. The Northwest Forest Plan and the Interior Columbia Basin Plan are two federal plans that document the need to look at activities across the landscape. In addition, the Oregon Plan for Salmon and Watersheds and the Washington Salmon Recovery Plan also identify this need. Framework data layers that are identified in the northwest to accomplish this work include: hydrography, transportation, cadastral data, elevation, orthoimagery, and land use/land cover. Land use/land cover is not an FGDC framework data layer but in the Northwest, the local governments consider this critical data to do their work.

They have identified key actions that must come about:

1. Framework must be built
2. Must have strong local, state and federal involvement
3. Enact policies that define the roles in managing the framework data
4. Provide leadership
5. Sustain funding support for framework activities

1. Framework will enable integration with other environmental data
2. Improve analysis to prioritize on-the-ground activities
3. Lead to improved salmon stocks
4. Provide mechanism to monitor these results over time.

Ms. Siderelis discussed the Framework Survey. This survey was done nation wide across every state, county and many cities and tribes looking at where framework data is being produced. They have received more than 5,500 responses. Ms. Siderelis said this provides a snapshot of what is being done across the country and at what level of government. Hank Garie commented that we've been talking about partnerships and the survey really mobilized a person in every state to reach out to their counties. Mr. Garie said we have all 50 states reaching out to their counties, establishing a network of people across the nation who are building spatial data. We'd like to tap into that network and continue to exercise it because it's a wonderful way to share who is building data.

Nancy McCann presented the Framework Organizational Infrastructure. Ms. McCann remarked that the Governor of Wyoming has GIS on his computer and she believes that this is the key - the decision-makers must have GIS at their fingertips to aid in decision making. Ms. McCann said that the fact is that the creation of framework is at the grass roots level. But because everyone is responsible for framework data, this means that no one is responsible for framework data. Ms. McCann said that someone has to stand up and take responsibility for the data. They recommend:

1. Recognize states act as a coordinating mechanism
2. Study financing and coordination models
3. Encourage regional activities
4. Enhance official federal agency commitment

Dr. Wells said that in each case, participating federal agencies are requested to:

1. Identify specific mapping interests by area and data theme
2. Eliminate duplication of data development by different agencies working in the same area
3. Agree to become partners with the states in their statewide programs of framework data production

Ms. McCann asked who has heard of a Western Governors Association environmental doctrine called the Enlibra principles. A few hands were raised. Ms. McCann explained that his doctrine deals with environmental issues that allow a balance and stewardship for the environment that brings together all levels of government. The Western Governors Association has established a Western States GIS Council to address these issues. Examples of using the Enlibra principle include: address air quality issues, species protection, land issues, water planning issues, and open spaces initiatives in Wyoming.

Susan Lambert presented "Next Steps... Make the NSDI Concrete: Digital Data Infrastructure". Ms. Lambert emphasized the importance of completing the loop of information. Information has to go both ways, state/county/local to federal and vise versa. Ms Lambert stated that the next steps they propose will make the loop come back a round full circle.

Ms. Lambert said that at yesterday's partnership meeting, they agreed that the next step would be to develop a strategic plan to implement the framework layers of the NSDI - both vertical and horizontal integration. Outcomes of this recommendation would include:

1. Research activities
2. Data Development
3. Policy development

• Some funding directly from higher government levels
• Some funding through banks (data are infrastructure)
• One incentive: quantify and document savings realized

Karen Siderelis invited the group to work with them to develop a Framework Strategic Plan. Dr. Schaefer acknowledged that we have a lot of work cut out for us and we need to look for better ways to work together. Greg Elmes commented that there are two places we can do this now, the GeoData Forum and the UCGIS Summer Assembly in June.

Dr. Schaefer said we need to put together a summary of today's meeting and then determine what our key next steps should be. We will have to spend more time thinking about how we can more actively communicate. Glenda Humiston said that in discussing the strategic plan, we need to draw the line on where information remains confidential. Dr. Schaefer agreed and said we will put this on the next Steering Committee agenda.

Pam Johnson asked for input from this group on crime mapping's task force who are struggling with many of the same issues discussed today. Ms. Siderelis said they would be interested in participating.

Standards Presented for Adoption
John Moeller presented two standards for Steering Committee endorsement, the Content Standard for Digital Orthoimagery, and the Spatial Data Transfer Standard (SDTS), Part 5: Raster Profile and Extension. Mr. Moeller explained that currently 10 standards have been approved and there are approximately 25 that are in various stages of development. Dr. Schaefer requested that at the next meeting there be a briefing on the standards, what we have done and what we are working on.

Decision: The Content Standard for Digital Orthoimagery and the Spatial Data Transfer Standard (SDTS), Part 5: Raster Profile and Extension standards were adopted.

The meeting was adjourned.