More Roots of Photogrammetry

The blog Modern Mechanix offers another glimpse at the history of photogrammetry today with a scan from the May, 1939, edition of Popular Science. This is the same blog that gave us a glimpse of terrestrial photography-based surveying earlier this month.

The article, Flying Cameras Map America for War, takes a look at the whole process, including collecting imagery from the belly of a military plane, survey parties recording reference points, and stereoscopic photogrammetry back at the base.

The statement of purpose that opens the article feels oddly familiar to a 21st-century geospatial data coordinator:

From aerial photographs snapped by giant bombers soaring four miles above the earth, U. S. Army engineers are compiling maps that will serve as eyes for our armed forces if they ever have to wage a defensive war on American soil.

The image above is a reproduction of "a stereoscopic image of the kind produced by the multiplex aeroprojector used by U. S. Army engineers in making contour maps from aerial photographs." The image at right is an illustration of how one might make sense of "this seemingly meaningless blur of colored lines" to create a topographic map.

I don't think the second image is an actual illustration of a U.S. Army engineer.

2008 NSGIC Mid-Year Wrap-Up

The presentation materials and other documents from the 2008 NSGIC Mid-Year Conference have been posted on the NSGIC web site along with a final attendance roster (PDF), the final conference agenda (EXCEL), and the conference program (WORD), as handed out on site.

Materials are available from all of the sessions that we have already posted notes for on this blog:

• Monday Morning Keynote Speaker
• NSGIC Goals and the NSDI
• Imagery for the Nation Update
• Geospatial Preparedness
• Transportation and Addressing
• Tuesday Morning Keynote Speaker
• Airborne Imagery
• National Land Parcel Data
• Emerging Technologies
• GIS in Health Issues
• The National Map Tactical Plan
• The Lightning Round

And there are materials from several workshops and sessions for which we have not already posted notes.

NSGIC Mid-Year Reports: The Lightning Round

NSGIC traditionally closes its State Caucus sessions with a "lightning round" in which all state representatives have a chance to note a concern or an issue, lobby for an initiative, grant kudos, or otherwise vent.

Here is an overview of this year's mid-year lightning round, thanks to the flashing note-taking fingers of Georgia's Danielle Ayan and with additional scribbles from a few others. I've tried to group and aggregate them into some sort of logical structure.

• NSGIC Communications
  Several members noted the importance of communications; both among NSGIC members and with our partners and sponsors. There was a pitch for increased "in-reach" to the membership as well as outreach. There was a suggestion of a "NSGIC Channel." There was a call for more member participation in committees.
  
• Assistance to States
  There were several expressions of thanks to the Board for travel grants that helped bring attendance from almost every state and several territories. Members were pleased with recent WebEx seminars such as that on working with Congress. There was support for Return on Investment studies and other ways to show the importance and value of data coordination. There was interest in strengthening the role of GIOs in states, better linkage with CIOs, and helping those states now in transition from one form of GIS coordination to another. There was a concern about funding within some states.
  
• Conference Issues
  Long-time conference-runner Rick Memmel threw-in a plug for members to complete their conference evaluations (I have, have you?). There was a request for at least one "walking meeting" in future conferences (There is a lot of sitting and listening...). Earlier notice for some breakfast meetings was suggested. Tony Spicci said something about some sort of other conference this spring somewhere in the middle of America?
  
• Technologies
  There is interest in web services and streaming data. Members want more presentations on application delivery and open GIS services. And what about 3-D data? And geocoding too. There is also interest in geodetic control.
• Partnerships
  A member suggested that we develop federations. There was a call for a regional Transportation for the Nation proof of concept project. A member noted the importance of vertical data-sharing, data licensing and GIS surveyor issues. It was suggested that we remember to keep data sharing and other agreements simple and focused. One member called for standardized contractual federal/state agreements that include service charges and verbiage for public access to data.
• NSGIC Priorities
  A periodic update was suggested to help maintain focus on priorities. It was suggested that we keep promoting and using the GIS Inventory. There were several pitches for land parcel data. There was a mention on NAIP funding issues (did someone really suggest a bake-sale?). There was a mention of keeping our focus on state spatial data infrastructures (SSDIs).
  

It was a lively lightning round.

NSGIC Mid-Year Reports: The National Map Tactical Plan

The USGS has been working on a new tactical plan for the National Map. Bill Carswell, of USGS, gave an overview of the purpose of the National Map. He described it as a key part of the NSDI and noted that it is built on partnerships and standards. He listed some of the accomplishments of the first version of the National Map, but added that the job is not yet done.

The focus for the National Map "2.0" includes integration into a consistent, quality assured and seamless map; revitalization of topographic maps, and online services from consistent national data.

The near-term priority areas include the coasts, along international borders and the 133 urban areas, among other areas.

Mr. Carswell set out a tactical plan to gather and publish base-map data for the National Map.

Paul Wiese explained a movement from distributed data to centralized data in National Map 2.0.

Vickie Lucas spoke about the importance of partnerships, which she called the foundation of the National Map. The USGS partnership strategy is based on the complimentary roles of levels of government to develop the NSDI.

She noted that the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) is an example of working in partnership with states and local governments.

She said that the USGS will draw from the NSGIC 50 States Initiative and the strategic plans that states are developing. Staff are starting meet with NSGIC members to gather feedback.

Bill Carswell reported that the USGS director has signed the National Map 2.0 tactical plan.

Update (3/18/08): Presentation materials from this session are now available on-line.

NSGIC Mid-Year Reports: GIS in Health Issues

A panel of contractors and officials in the health arena gave an overview of the use of geospatial data in health policy and health care.

A contractor for the CDC showed a shared data portal that has been updated to try to increase interconnections among agencies and information groups.

Another speaker demonstrated using GIS to analyze the frequency of types of disease to help plan the deployment of resources. He also showed examples of using GIS to explore health policy issues. He noted that the need for strong confidentiality in the health arena may reduce public use of GIS in the industry.

One speaker looked closely at ways to analyze sampled patient hospitalization data to find ways to improve policy.

Update (3/18/08): Presentation materials from this session are now available on-line.

NSGIC Mid-Year Reports: Emerging Technologies

Members of the NSGIC Corporate Leadership Council gave a presentation on emerging technologies in the geospatial industries.

Malcolm Adkins, of Michael Baker, spoke about the on-going effort to update the nation's Flood Maps. He noted that the tools now available make it easier to create widely usable flood maps. He also pointed to new ways to share data with the public using new tools from Google, Microsoft, and others.

Martin Hogeweg, of ESRI, spoke about working towards service-oriented architectures to take full advantage of data and applications. It is the advent of services that are widely available and inter-operative that has brought about the new practice of "mash-ups." He drew a parallel between established enterprise business models and an open, enterprise approach to the use and sharing of geospatial data.

Bill Bates, from TeleAtlas, gave an overview of navigation devices and a sense of how rapidly they are changing and being adopted. He noted that technology advances are helping to drive the market changes. This is true both of the tools used to collect and edit data and of the tools used by the public to make use of that data. He speculated that eventual two-way data communication between data users and data managers will allow continual, real-time data update by communities of data users.

John Auble, of DigitalGlobe, looked at changes in the aerial imagery tools and techniques, especially as satellite data improves. He hopes to work with the state GIS Coordinators to shape the business model that will take advantage of this growing volume of data. He suggested one day having a steady relationship for imagery; a line-item rather than a capital expense. He noted the idea of licensing data, rather than owning it (licensing rather than owning the copyright).

Update (3/18/08): Presentation materials from this session are now available on-line.

NSGIC Mid-Year Reports: National Land Parcel Data

Will Craig, from Minnesota, led a discussion of the recent National Land Parcel Data Report. The vision, he reported, is for one nation's worth of data, from multiple data sources. This is part of the NSGIC Advocacy Agenda.

The reality is that parcel data is created a very local level. It should be coordinated at the state level and made available at a national level. The federal government, as a land-holder and manager is in a similar situation, where individual agencies hold parcel data (similar to county data) and that data should be coordinated up to a national system.

Recommendations from the study include making sure there is national leadership and a lead agency and that parcel data, not just cadastre, be added to the idea of Framework data. There should be support for state coordination and local data creation , some funding, and some "carrots and sticks." And the congress should revisit the laws that require the Census Bureau to not share parts of their master address file.

Will Craig suggests working through the FGDC and other mechanisms to push for some of these recommendations. He recommends focusing on these policy issues in a variety of outreach approaches.

Update (3/18/08): Presentation materials from this session are now available on-line.

NSGIC Mid-Year Reports: Airborne Imagery

Members of the NSGIC Corporate Leadership Council gave a presentation on new developments in airborne imagery and LiDAR. They focused on new technologies and how state GIS Coordinators can take advantage of those technologies. They also listed factors that should be considered in creating RFPs for new imagery.

Craig Molander, from Surdex, spoke about large-format digital cameras. These collect a wide, rectangular image and collect digital data from several sensors at once.

Bob William, from Sanborn, spoke about small-format cameras often used to collect oblique imagery, which has a variety of uses and is growing in popularity.

Dave White, from Fugro EarthData, spoke about the "push-broom" camera, which looks forward, down and back as it moves along. This can help reduce building-lean. It can also make it easier to create elevation data without LiDAR.

Jay Arnold, from 3001, spoke about LiDAR as an adjunct to, or sometimes a temporary replacement for, orthoimagery. He spoke about both topographic and bathymetric LiDAR systems.

Most of the speakers recommended now requesting 4-band imagery, as opposed to just black and white, color, or infrared imagery. This is because most sensors now collect all at once. And there was general agreement that the industry is constantly, and sometimes rapidly, changing.

Update (3/18/08): Presentation materials from this session are now available on-line.

NSGIC Mid-Year Reports: Tuesday Morning Keynote Speaker

Tuesday Morning's Keynote Speaker at the NSGIC Mid-Year was Dr. Edward Papenfuse, the State Archivist in Maryland. He describes himself as having a passion for maps and spoke on a project to preserve historic maps of Maryland.

The Maryland State Archives has, over the years, published collections of maps of Maryland. He outlined the process of finding and writing about those maps.

He also spoke on the lessons that can be learned about the history of a place from the historic maps of that place. He explained how historic maps have been used to help settle a variety of boundary disputes with neighboring states.

Update (3/18/08): Presentation materials from this session are now available on-line.

NSGIC Mid-Year Reports: Transportation and Addressing

The Transportation for the Nation and Addresses for the Nation working groups presented a joint panel that included several states, the US Census Bureau, US DOT, the Forest Service, the Postal Service and the National Emergency Number Association (NENA).

Will Craig, of Minnesota, gave an overview of the different roles of the counties, states and federal agencies and Jill Saligoe-Simmel gave an overview of the need for good address data. The address work group is developing a white paper on needs and approaches that will be reviewed by the NSGIC membership.

Dan Widener, of Virginia, gave an update on work on Transportation for the Nation. There was a Transportation Research Board meeting in 2007. That workshop was meant to bring data users and data producers together to talk about the idea of Transportation for the Nation. Dan ran through some of the work done to flesh-out ideas for national transportation data. The results of the workshop will be published in the summer of 2008 by the Transportation Research Board.

In 2008, the Transportation for the Nation working group will be working on a business plan and is interested in creating a regional "proof of concept." This would have to be a volunteer effort but would result in a report at the NSGIC Annual Meeting.

The US Census Bureau presented it updated TIGER data set as perhaps the start of Transportation for the Nation. Bob LaMacchia described the effort to update TIGER. The data were updated with input from states and counties and the TIGER now includes the National Hydrography data set. He noted that TIGER doesn't include everything that is needed, but it can provide a basis for the Transportation for the Nation. TIGER will now be released in shapefile format, starting with the 2007 update.

The US Department of Transportation expressed support for the idea of Transportation for the Nation, based on the needs of DOT for assistance in tracking the road miles in the nation. US DOT tracks several networks, including the federal highways, freight routes, a system used to track highway funding needs, and TIGER and TeleAtlas data. Steve Lewis suggested that the DOT and NSGIC will need to lead a group effort to create a single data set that meets all needs.

Betsey Kanally of the US Forest Service, presented some facts on the numbers of miles of roads on Forest System lands. The Forest Service provides some map data but hopes to provide more.

Ruth Jones, who works in Address Management for the US Postal Service, spoke about how the Postal Service manages addresses and how they might be shared. About 2 million addresses are added each year, from a variety of sources.

Patrick Halley, of the National Emergency Number Association, spoke about the needs of the emergency response community as they relate to addressing. He noted that the 911 community is still coming up to speed technologically. He also reviewed the changes in how people use telephones, cell phones and the personal computers and how those changes are impacting the emergency response community.

Update (3/18/08): Presentation materials from this session are now available on-line.

NSGIC Mid-Year Reports: Geospatial Preparedness

A panel that included the National Governor's Association, NOAA, FEMA, the HIFLD Working Group, the Dept. of Homeland Security, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) , and USGS came together to look at preparedness from a geospatial perspective.

The state governors have brought together a group of their homeland security advisers to make recommendation on making better use of geospatial data and coordinating data and tools. The governor's association sees a need to increase attention to the relationships among the states, the federal government and the private sector. The governor's association is looking at and aware of several data-sharing and coordination issues, such as working together with federal agencies in fusion centers and data-sharing.

NOAA's Coastal Services Center (CSC) maintains a collection of data and tools to assist coastal communities in preparing for and handling coastal emergencies. This is generally known as "the digital coast," an approach that includes data, tools, training and actions. And the CSC is developing a partnership group of interested organizations (including NSGIC) to work together to develop the digital coast. The groups identified a number of common issues to work on, such as land use planning, water quality, and climate change.

The HIFLD Working Group has been working on bring people and agencies together to create a common operating picture among Dept. of Defense and other homeland security agencies. They faced a challenge familiar to most GIS coordinators: bringing together offices and specialties that were not previously used to working together. The next challenge will be to expand the Working Group to the state level.

The Department of Homeland Security office that helps protect infrastructure is working to create more relevant data about infrastructure and to make better use of that data. They are working with many sectors to provide and share better data. They do have some strong security controls on their data.

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is a combat support and intelligence agency. It works on the Homeland Security Infrastructure Program (HSIP). It is interested is sharing parts of that data, but must be very careful about the data that it works with. HSIP starts with The National Map, and builds on top of that additional data sets needed for homeland security work. They have started working with the state GIS Coordinators to make sure that they have the best possible base map.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) includes a GIS Solutions Branch, which provides GIS services and support to FEMA. This group looks at readiness issues, flood mapping and flood mitigation mapping, cost-estimation, emergency response, and risk assessment.

The USGS is in a long-term partnership with the NGA and works with Homeland Security to develop geospatial data for preparedness and response.

Update (3/18/08): Presentation materials from this session are now available on-line.

NSGIC Mid-Year Reports: Imagery for the Nation Update

There was a panel of NSGIC, USDA, USGS, NGS, and EPA that gave an update of the status of the Imagery for the Nation (IFTN) project.

The National Digital Orthophoto Program, NDOP, met and selected an preferred approach to IFTN. NDOP has established subcommittees to look into Technical Specifications, Acquisition Management, and Program Management. The committees are meant to have draft reports back to NDOP this year.

Meanwhile, the FGDC Steering Committee is looking into the preferred alternative. The FGDC was also asked to establish an executive committee to review funding ideas for IFTN and for other NSDI initiatives.

NSGIC has been advocating for IFTN for the last year. Several members worked to try to get more funding for the National Agricultural Imagery Program (NAIP) into the Farm Bill. That was considered, but the effort failed for a few reasons, many of them not related to IFTN. It was a good effort to get IFTN at least raised in legislative discussions.

NSGIC is working now with MAPPS to try to resolve several issues and to work together on IFTN advocacy.

NSGIC continues to collect support and advocacy from states and other groups. There is new advocacy information available on the NSGIC web site. The IFTN web page has been update in general.

The Farm Services Administration depends on imagery for its services to farmers. NAIP provides a regular, natural color update. There are funding challenges. Trying to get to each county at least once each 5 years.

Funding grew for each year up through 2006. The funding for 2007 was very low. Funding for 2008 will grow slightly.

USGS is working to integrate orthoimagery, elevation and graphics programs. USGS is leveraging funds through partnerships with NGA and with states and local governments. They have a focus on the 133 urban areas as a priority.

USGS provides contracting help, QA/QC, and a seamless data server to provide access to the data.

They take a similar approach -- partnerships -- to collect elevation data. USGS is working towards a 1/3-arc second national elevation dataset (NED) dataset, nationally.

NOAA is collecting some imagery in coastal areas in support of their coastal mapping and benthic programs.

EPA also makes use of imagery in its Earth Observing Systems, which combine different data and imagery streams.

Update (3/18/08): Presentation materials from this session are now available on-line.

NSGIC Mid-Year Reports: NSGIC Goals and the NSDI

NSGIC President Cy Smith (Oregon) gave an overview of the NSGIC effort to create a new strategic framework for the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI).

He reported that lots of progress has been made, but there is plenty that is left to be done.

NSGIC was formed about when NSDI discussions started and the group has taken part in many of the initiatives focused on the NSDI.

Mr. Smith said that a unified vision is required to achieve the NSDI. NSGIC plans to release a discussion draft of a strategic framework for the NSDI shortly after the NSGIC mid-year to outline a variety of approaches and initiatives to build the NSDI.

The 50 States Initiative, for example, includes strategic plan templates, guidance and common marketing tools.

Another approach has been the "Ramona" GIS Inventory to help manage GIS data resources.

Imagery for the Nation is a national aerial imagery program to collect imagery for all levels of Government across the nation. It was envisioned as the first in a series of national data development efforts designed to fill-out the NSDI. There are also transportation, addressing and other "For the Nations."

Mr. Smith encouraged NSGIC to focus on one initiative at a time, planning new ones while delivering older ones. The idea is to build a record of success.

It was suggested that the NSDI should be built from individual State SDI's. SSDIs have to be agreed upon and built at the state and local levels to build up to a national level. This will require a sustainable funding model. Most now use a "pay as you go" approach, which reduces long-term savings. The NSDI will need a strong shared vision to support long-term investment.

Data Stewardship is needed to ensure that we have proper on-going data management. A data stewardship model needs to include lifespan planning, metadata, and adequate funding.

There was a general discussion of what is needed to accelerate the implementation of the NSDI. The discussion included the need for more information and outreach, especially to mainstream IT agencies.

There was lots of discussion about working with and through NASCIO and other groups. There was an overview of COGO, the Coalition of Geospatial Organizations, which is just getting ramped up and has a wide variety of members.

Jill Saligoe-Simmel (Indiana) suggested that there are "Three Ls" that we need to keep in mind:

• Local data is best and needs to be the ultimate source.
• Licensing (copyright and data agreements) can interfere with overall goals.
• Leverage is needed to maintain a balance of equity and fairness among all levels of government.

There was discussion about different industry and interest groups to get involved in and ways to share the message from NSGIC about the NSDI.

There was also a discussion about making our reports and terminology work well for, and be understandable by other professional organizations.

Update (3/18/08): Presentation materials from this session are now available on-line.

NSGIC Mid-Year Reports: Monday Morning Keynote Speaker

This is the first of what I hope will be a series of reports from the NSGIC Mid-Year Conference, in Annapolis. I'll try to report on as much of this conference as I can, but please understand that this gathering is a marathon and I am a tired old man. (Okay, a tired young man)

The Monday morning Keynote speaker was Maryland CIO Elliot Schlanger. He's new to that post but fulfilled a similar role for Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley when Mr. O'Malley was Mayor of Baltimore.

Mr. Schlanger noted that the issue is not technology invention; it is people and process. And, he said, GIS is one of government's greatest business enablers and decision-making tools.

Mr. Schlanger was an early user of ComStat/CityStat. ComStat was developed by a New York City police officer to allocate officers and resources to where the crime was occurring. It was a success and Baltimore adopted and adapted the idea as CityStat. They used it for crime analysis and expanded the model to other city management needs, such as potholes, infrastructure, and housing rehabilitation.

It served as a real-time performance measurement tool.

Now Mr. O'Malley is Governor and has ramped up CityStat to a "StateStat." Maryland is using it to track crime and service needs and in land-use planning and land preservation.

Among the problems they have identified in trying to bring GIS and traditional IT together are many that most GIS coordinators are familiar with. They have seen some silo-ing and separation of GIS data and users from IT agencies. They also noted a lack of cohesiveness bewteen some state agencies and among levels of government. And there is a disconnect with the customers.

But, e noted, the objectives of both IT and GIS leaders are the same: capability, consolidation, interoperability, and standards.

So Maryland wants to combine traditional IT and traditional GIS to create an enterprise-wide system. There are common challenges and issues:

• Managing state and local data and delivery systems
• Finding ways to resource enterprise GIS.
• Statewide licensing of GIS software applications.
• The need for standards and policies and guidelines that work for all.
• How to sufficiently build the IT infrastructure to work with all of this.
• Deciding what sort of governance will work best.
• And how to pay for all this capability in tough fiscal times.

There were several questions from the audience about the current discussion in Maryland to create a new cabinet-level IT agency. That is now under consideration and Mr. Schlanger is likely to retain the CIO post if hat is accomplished.

Update (3/18/08): Presentation materials from this session are now available on-line.

The Roots of Photogrammetry?

I am not a surveyor and know almost nothing really of photogrammetry, but I was intrigued when I spotted a very brief piece on what may have been early photogrammetry in a scan of a page from the March, 1924, issue of Popular Mechanics magazine.

This was on the blog Modern Mechanix, which posted the page because it also contained a story, with pictures, on novel iconography of the new (in 1924) Church of St. Christopher, in Paris; iconography that included detailed paintings of the saint protecting the operators of plains, trains, and automobiles.

The next headline down the page, however, caught my eye:

Camera for Surveying Saves Both Time and Labor
For registering ground dimensions, a photographic system of surveying, recently devised by a London, England, man, is said to produce results of greater accuracy that the ordinary methods.

I find it helps to read that in the voice of the narrator of a 1920's newsreel.