VOLUME 69, NUMBER 10
PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR PHOTOGRAMMETRY AND REMOTE SENSING
Cover Image
The National Map provides access to networked databases of
current information about the Nation’s landscape. The background
scene is a high-resolution orthophotograph of Reston, Virginia, produced
by the U.S. Geological Survey–National Imagery and Mapping Agency
partnership for obtaining detailed coverage of the Nation’s largest
urban centers, including critical transportation, economic, and other
infrastructure features. The shaded-relief image of the Rocky Mountains
was produced from raster elevation data of The National Map.
The USGS Effingham South, Illinois, topographic map (1998) includes
the town of Ewington. Future maps will be produced by drawing on distributed
partner holdings of current base geographic information. Two images
produced using The National Map Web browser-based viewer (www.nationalmap.usgs.gov)
demonstrate the flexibilities and capabilities available to users through
the Internet-based delivery of images, source data, and printable maps.
The Colorado scene, right-center, shows the San Luis Valley with its
irrigated fields of potatoes, wheat, and barley. This scene includes
land cover, elevation, and hydrography data extracted from The
National Map. The Gateway Arch, its shadow, and details of the
urban infrastructure, lower left, are clearlyvisible in the 1-foot
ground resolution orthoimage of central St. Louis, Missouri.
From ensuring access to base geographic information to applying process
models to predict spatial changes, the U.S. Geological Survey is applying
geographic science to implement The National Map, the Nation’s
topographic map for the 21st century.
The U.S. Census Bureau is continuing its long-standing policy of
using partnerships with Federal, tribal, State, and local governments
and others to create the geographic database for censuses and surveys.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S.
Geological Survey are cooperating to develop data and share resources
to enable the development of The National Map and NOAA’s
Digital Coast.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is working with the U.S.
Geological Survey and others to ensure the success of individual programs
and common goals by implementing a national geospatial infrastructure.
Assuring geospatial preparedness will allow emergency managers and
first responders to plan efficiently and make better decisions using
the best geographic information and tools, thereby improving their
ability to save lives, protect property, and preserve the environment.
Delaware’s Data Mapping and Integration Laboratory serves as
proof of concept of a distributed, but networked collection of datasets
that are brought together to form a Spatial Data Framework, as the
State’s implementation of The National Map.
The development of a Texas statewide digital mapping product supporting
the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster response operations is a proof
of concept for The National Map implementation.
The National Map implementation may challenge commercial
street mapping vendors, but will also provide opportunities for mutually
beneficial public-private symbiosis.
GIS will be the primary technology that enables multiple organizations
to work in concert to build and share The National Map databases,
which will be accomplished through a distributed network of GIS users.
The National Map initiative has enormous potential for fostering
innovation in the private sector and, in return, The National Map will
greatly benefit from such innovation.
Base geographic information for Canada will be provided through the
GeoBase initiative, part of a larger program, GeoConnections. The aim
of GeoBase is to make maintained data that will serve as a foundation
for a range of geospatial applications freely available to the public.
As nations move towards knowledge-based economies, so too must National
Mapping Agencies be developing better frameworks for geographic information
and by migrating from data to better connected and more intelligent
forms of geographic information.
The success of PSMA Australia Limited demonstrates that the establishment
and maintenance of inter-jurisdictional relationships is critical to
the success of an effective national mapping infrastructure.