FGC3 minutes

Federal Geographic Coordinating Committee of California

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August 21, 2001, Sacramento, CA
Federal Geographic Coordinating Committee of California
DRAFT Minutes
August 21, 2001

Attendees:
Steve Alnwick, Census Bureau
Clemens Arrasmith, BLM
Bryant Chesney, NMFS
Gary Darling, California Resources Agency
Steve Holzman, FWS
Chuck Johnson, BOR
Don Kaneko, Forest Service
Donna Knifong, USGS Water Resources
Vicki Lukas, USGS Mapping
Tony McKinney, FWS
Tim McMonagle, Census Bureau
Robyn Myers, NRCS
Lorri Peltz-Lewis, BOR
Bill Perry, USGS Biology
Art Shak, USACE Los Angeles District
Rich Spradling, Forest Service

1. Review of minutes and actions from the last meeting

The meeting minutes were approved. All action items were completed except for finding a NOAA representative to the State's Geographic Information (GI) Council. Vicki will send out a new participant list as several new contacts have been added.

2. Charter and Goals

The group stepped through the FGC3 strawman charter that was based on the California Mapping Coordinating Committee Charter. Discussion included the following:
* GIS is a tool like GPS and remote sensing. We do not want to limit our stated interests solely to GIS. It was suggested that we change the focus to "Geographic Information and associated technology" to include a broader scope.
* FGC3's primary role is to coordinate geographic data and projects, but some members may also be interested in exploring specific technical issues in depth. The Federal Users Group (FEDGUG) that is managed by Lorri gets together once a month in Sacramento for technical discussions. Lorri will send out FEDGUG listserver information to fgc3@usgs.gov so everyone will be aware of that group's activities.
* It was suggested that all members send their list of user groups and listservers to Vicki to be listed on the FGC3 website.
* It was noted that the California Resources Conservation District has a great website of natural resources links. The URL is www.carcb.org (go to the WISP link). Another source of CA information is the State's CERES website. It was suggested that a listing of federal agencies and what they have or do with GI would be useful. For example, does the Bureau of Justice do GIS, and how do we connect?
* The group selected Vicki to serve as the chair and Lorri the vice chair for the first two years.
* It was decided that obtaining signatures from member agencies would not be of much benefit, so there will be no MOU.
* All Federal agencies will be invited to participate, not just the current member agencies.
* The group thought that meeting in conjunction with the quarterly State GI Council meeting would work well, and that we would like to have a joint meeting with CMCC.

Vicki will revise the charter based on the comments, and will also take further suggestions between now and the next meeting. We will finalize the charter at the next meeting.

3. California Geographic Information Council Update

Gary discussed the federal points of contact to the State's GI Council, which has its formation meeting scheduled for next Wed., August 29.

Does the FGC3 want the Council to ask the federal agencies to designate an operational level point of contacts? One benefit of this is that it forces the policy-level management to learn who their GIS coordinators are. These contacts to the Council should be the same people that sit on FGC3. This is something that can be brought to the Council for consideration

The state was concerned that some of the federal points of contact to Council were not at a high enough, policy level. They tried appeals with the agencies that put it too low (FWS, BLM, and NOAA), and are not sure who from Census will come. Other than USACE, it's hard to know how to deal with the military sector. Bryant will get something to Gary on a NMFS contact.

The state asked the local associations (CA League of Cities, CalCOG, CSAC) to make the decisions on a few local representatives, but they submitted large lists, so the state has had to determine how to narrow it down. The term for local agencies to serve on the Council is two years.

It was proposed that the first official meeting of the Council take place in October in conjunction with the URISA conference in Long Beach, but final dates are to be determined. The Council will adopt their charter at first meeting. Signatures from each participating agency will be obtained at that first meeting rather than at the formation meeting. It will probably take about $4,000 from each member agency to fund the Council, somewhat like the Biodiversity Council. The Council meeting will probably be a two-day event, with other meetings taking place the first day and the actual Council meeting on the second. It would be convenient to cover everything at one time, so FGC3 would like to meet on the first day, and also have a joint meeting with CMCC.

4. Imagery Discussion

USGS Mapping - Vicki gave a presentation on the status of the National Aerial Photography Program (NAPP) and Digital Orthophoto program in California (a PowerPoint presentation was sent to the group in advance):
* First generation DOQ coverage is almost complete. Lassen County will be done in fall, and an agreement to finish of the large hole in central California was received this month from the NRCS State office. That area should be completed in about six months.
* Photography vintage for the DOQs varies across the state. Northern CA has mostly 1993 and 1998 vintages, and southern CA is mostly from 1994-1996. There are several areas where second generation DOQs are being made, for example, the Forest Service has worked with the USGS to produce DOQs from the 1998 photography for a large area in northern CA. 1998 photography exists for all of northern CA north of 36 degrees 30 minutes latitude.
* The DOQ coverage is a result of cooperative work with many federal, state and local agencies.
* The NAPP Steering Committee has proposed to fly in 2002 all of southern CA from 36 degrees 30 minutes latitude southward, but we will need to get some funding support to make that happen. The Dept. of Interior High Priority program has approved a request of the CA DOI agencies to fly new CIR photography in spring along the coast of southern CA. There may also be some funding from the DOI U.S./Mexico Border Program. Between these two interests, and if we can find some additional funding, we should be able to ensure that the whole area gets flown.
* The National Digital Orthophoto (NDOP) Steering Committee is interested in participating in higher resolution projects and solicited state proposals in spring. In California, Napa and Santa Clara Counties submitted proposals in the absence of a state plan. NDOP decided that though they support the proposals in concept, they aren't in a position to coordinate with 100's of counties. They would like to see comprehensive state plans by fall.
* There is an interagency group lead by CA Dept. of Forestry that is working to consolidate all the existing DOQs, reformat them to black and white GeoTIFF format, and make them available in both raw and MrSid compressed format mosaicked by quadrangle. These would be available to all of the federal agencies. The final details still need to be settled upon, and funding needs to be found for contracting the work out. There has been some discussion among the federal agencies on also making larger mosaics in house.

NMFS - Bryant explained that they are using DOQs and just starting a GIS project tracking database for consultations, and there is region interest in using DOQs and Landsat for riparian corridor analysis. NMFS may be interested in collaborating with the NAPP program in coastal areas.

USGS Biology - Bill described their use of TM data, DOQs and other imagery for projects on fire and fuel characteristics, sudden oak death, ecosystem impacts on wildlife and vegetation, and landscape patterns. They fly their own photography using contractors, use multiple vintages for change detection, and digitize from photography. They may use radar data in the future. They are interested in obtaining more detailed photography for the Klamath Basin.

Census - Tim described their use of imagery to verify streets. Imagery will play a big role in accomplishing their goal to have TIGER accurate by 2008. They are doing tests with contractors and will look to locals to find high-resolution imagery. There may be some issues with using local data, however. For example, Orange County is reluctant to share their data because they got sued for privacy issues. So at Census they are keeping their ears open, for instance, Los Angeles just finished a project. The big problem Census has with imagery is currency. In many areas 1994-1996 imagery is not useful. They may be interested in supporting the 2002 NAPP.

USACE LA District - Art described his region as Monterey and south. They are collecting hydrographic data, and doing coastal studies using a small strip of LIDAR data along the shoreline. They have collected LIDAR for Ventura County and do obtain aerial photography. Their use of GIS is piecemeal and they mostly use CAD. However, they do regulatory work using GIS. They collaborate with local agencies such as Orange and Los Angeles Counties. USACE is a data provider and offers limited amount of hydrography data over their website, by hardcopy, or ftp on request. They bought 1999 imagery from Eagle Aerial, but can't distribute or share the data. They don't use DOQs but would if they had access. They do limited data collection, for instance they are supporting the imagery project in Napa County. They have both in house capability and contractors.

FWS - Tony explained that they use DOQs to consult with USACE on permits and for critical habitat mapping. Data currency a big issue. They are partnering with local agencies, for instance SANDAG and SCAG on 2000 and 2001 projects. For San Diego they will receive 2ft CIR that is to be delivered in few weeks. From SCAG they will receive 1 m. true color data that will be used to see where subdivisions have sprung up and for consultations. They want to use TM for algal bloom on Salton Sea and for regulatory purposes. Steve said his region of the FWS is using imagery for many of the same things. They are doing critical habitat and vernal pool mapping using SPOT data, the scale of which is OK for general habitat delineation. The hole in the DOQ coverage is an important part of their region. In the meantime, they and BOR have used TM in valley.

BLM - Clemens discussed their 3-5 year program to inventory all of Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) areas on BLM lands in the state. They plan to use DOQs for mapping trails 1 m. or wider. They will compare the results to present transportation layers and have field offices do GPS ground-truthing. They may try to pull the public back from some OHV areas. DOQs will be basis of the information. They maybe interested in southern CA NAPP - but the OHV project is starting in the Ukiah area. The problem is that OHV routes move around some, so vintage can be very important.

USGS Water - Donna described her group as imagery users, for instance the Multi Resolution Land Cover dataset developed for the NAWQA program was based on TM imagery. They have bought NAPP photos for studies on shallow ground water wells and land use.

BOR - Chuck mentioned a multi-year effort with the Dept. of Water Resources and FSA that uses DOQs, but currency is a big issue. They use TM and SPOT for regional views then zero in with DOQs. They are working with Marti on NVD88 processing at SCRIPS and will have all bay-delta points in the datum processed and published by NGS with the national dataset. They have done some high resolution aerial flights around the Matilaja Dam in Ventura to get points on the ground. A problem has been the need to access to private property for targets. They would like the Council to address these types of issues. BOR is assessing a test LIDAR dataset that crosses the American River and includes some urban and agricultural lands. They have been involved in the Calfed efforts to compile an ownership layer of public lands and have particularly focused on the delta.

Forest Service - Rich and Don spoke of their interest in imagery for management of Forest Service lands that cover approx. 20% of state. They have done small production to large procurement. They fly 1:16,000 natural color photography every 5 years over their lands with occasional cooperation. Rich noted that they may have some overlapping interests with USGS Biology. The FS has photography back to the 1930s and 1940s which can be useful for vegetation change management. They use TM imagery, IRS 5m data, SPOT, and 1m DOQs for the whole gamut of resource management activities. They are getting core GIS data layers together. 1 m. DOQs have been used a great deal, and the FS is a contributor to the second generation coverage in state. They want 2002 NAPP for southern CA forests like Sequoia. They also fly project photography, especially post-fire where they fly within 48 hrs of a fire. They would like to try to use satellite data for this purpose. Their lands are near NPS sites, so it's good to see if coordination is possible. They have also coordinated with BLM and BOR (on Modoc), and would be willing to add areas to their projects that are adjacent to FS lands. They propose to use the FGC3 email list to let people know what their plans are and to ask if there are others interested in participating.

NRCS - Robyn stated that their soil section and proprietary record keeping system use DOQs. They also have a collection of historic aerial photos and need to be inventoried to improve their useability. They can be ortho-corrected to existing DOQs for small areas.

State - Gary noted that Landsat data are now available on the NASA server and gis.ca.gov will have pointers to it soon. Statewide SPOT is available to federal users. Gary can bring data CDs to FGC3 for whoever wants them. CalEPA will consider statewide plans for imagery but budget cuts of 5-10% may be limiting.

NPS - Craig Dalby was not in attendance but sent the following information: Regarding NPS imagery needs, we would like to acquire statewide Landsat coverage or better annually. NPS is now part of the MRLC, so we're supposed to get coverage from that next year, but that's on a 5-year cycle. Statewide Carterra data would be fantastic, but it's probably just a pipe dream at this point. On the image acquisition front, since our last meeting Whiskeytown NRA near Redding had Space Imaging fly a fixed wing craft with the same sensor used in the IKONOS satellite. This gave them Carterra-like multi-spectral data, but with a one-meter resolution. Area of coverage was the park itself and about a one-mile buffer around the periphery. Santa Monica Mountains NRA near Los Angeles and Point Reyes NS near San Francisco are also looking into imagery right now. They may both be interested in partnering. We may also get color orthos over a very small (approximately one square mile) area around John Muir NHS near Martinez in the San Francisco area.

5. Round Robin

* Bill mentioned an email he received regarding Landsat Science Team plans for Landsat 7. They would like comments on the proposed changes and data policy. Bill will forward the message to the FGC3 list.
* We should all be using the FGC3 list to circulate these kinds of calls for comments.
* NPS is having a GIS conference in early December outside of Las Vegas. It is an open conference for NPS and their partners.
* The annual ESRI CA/NV/HI/Guam Regional Users Group meets here in January - that's another hands on conference of interest.
* Rich noted a lack of IKONOS mention in the imagery discussion. The FS has been looking for a co-op for IKONOS, but cost has been too high compared to DOQ program. Gary noted that the IKONOS cost for state coverage is $11 million, and this doesn't cover allowing the federal agencies to use it. They have another estimate from a vendor using more traditional techniques at $3 million statewide, including use by federal agencies in CA.
* FWS is looking for imagery in spring to locate vernal pools - they need to time the imagery with the wet season.

6. Next Meeting - We will wait to find out about the Council meeting and plan to meet the day before, and also try to set up a meeting with CMCC.

ACTION ITEMS
* Vicki will send out a new participant list that includes the new contacts.
* Lorri will send out FEDGUG listserver information to the FGC3 email list.
* Everyone send Vicki their list of user groups and listservers to be listed on the FGC3 website.
* Vicki will revise the charter based on the comments
* Everyone to send further charter suggestions to Vicki between now and the next meeting.
* Bryant to provide Gary with an NMFS contact.
* Vicki to send 2002 NAPP info to Tim at Census.
* Bill will forward the Landsat Science Team message to the FGC3 list.

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URL: http://fgc3.wr.usgs.gov/mins_2001_aug.html
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Last modified: Friday, 16-Apr-2004 12:24:18 EDT ((none))
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