FGC3/CMC2 Meeting Notes

September 7, 2007

 

Next meeting:

December 7, 2007

Time: 9 - Noon

C1001 & 1002, Federal Center, 2800 Cottage Way, Sacramento CA

Web site: http://fgc3.wr.usgs.gov/

 

Announcements:

September 12 – 1-4 PM – Norcal URISA Chapter meeting, see: http://www.norcalurisa.org/

NSGIC meeting: Sept. 23-27, Madison

Strategic planning workshops: CA Spatial Data Infrastructure

o        Oct. 10: Redding

o        Oct. 17: Sacramento

o        Oct. 23: San Diego

o        Oct. 24: Los Angeles

o        Oct. 25: Ventura

o        TBD: Fresno, Bay Area

October 17 – GIS Council meeting, see: http://gis.ca.gov/council/

o        Chair/vice-chair election

o        Workgroup updates: imagery, strategic planning, parcels, fusion centers, veg

o        GIS certification

o        NSGIC updates (IFTN, etc.)

April 23-25, 2008 – CalGIS Conference, Modesto, see: http://www.calgis.org/

March 17-19, 2008 – AWRA GIS & Water Resources V, San Mateo, see: http://www.awra.org/meetings/San_Mateo2008/

 

Job changes -

Robert Yoha—is now with CA Dept of Food & Agriculture

Beth Wenstrom—is now with US BLM

Paul Veisze – Oct 9 will be with CA Dept of Parks & Rec.

 

Round Table:

 

Rich Spradling (USFS)—

• Flying digital orthophotos of the Angora fire area.
• Regional Forester position has been filled by Randy Moore. See http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/ for more!
• Bill Silva moved on to Salt Lake City, UT.
• Continuing centralization, it is being fast-tracked for natural resource applications being centralized in Kansas City; transformation’ (as opposed to consolidation) encouraging more collaboration among regions; staff areas will be merged together; 3 areas in the US;
• How is performance in the centralized environment? Modeling not being done, operating in Citrix environment, pretty quick for the number of users currently on the system. Citrix environment will encompass everything—financial, email, etc.

 

Marti Ikehara (NOAA)—

• NOAA doing a similar (to USDA) regionalization approach for better internal (and secondarily, external) collaboration;
• Coordinating with DWR on height-mod (2 cm vertical accuracy) project ;  BOR also a funding partner, 7km spacing. Field work probably in late spring.DWR and US ACE is working with FEMA on new flood plain mapping in Central Valley.  Above-named Ht Mod project will provide control for aerial photography and LIDAR mapping with  1 ft contours. In San Joaquin Valley, , a height mod project along highway corridors was done two and four years ago, but areal coverage would require a densification effort. There will shortly be a new Chief of Engineering, Kevin Knuuti, for US ACE, Sacramento District; he’s committed to utilizing NAVD88.

 

• US DOT responsible for civilian side of GPS, determining usage and whether there should be continued funding for NDGPS, part of national CORS system. Currently, US Coast Guard funds and operates NDGPS but is only responsible for maritime (not interior) aids to navigation.   Funding for DGPS will continue, but funding for NDGPS is open for debate.
• To respond and review see: http://www.rita.dot.gov/publications/federal_register/2007/html/rita_2007_08_01.html Comments due by October 1, 2007.
• Which agency takes it over if Coast Guard does not continue the program?? Program could be partnered with Interior, because a lot of resource/mapping programs use it. Land surveyors do not.
• Contact people in respective agencies to express your opinion/need.
• Current CORS sites available at: http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/CORS/cors-data.html
• NGS does not have a real-time network, CORS is downloaded daily or hourly, will not compete with private enterprise, might provide the real-time signal but not the corrected one..  Ohio operates one, some private ones in CA and elsewhere. There are no rules or specifications for quality, people have indicated to NGS that we should develop some. Marti is on the team and would like opinions, ideas, and concerns on real-time services.
• Caltrans in Fresno has started to transmit real-time data to their crews— operational last Monday with only a few problems with transmission (telemetry) of data from the site to the central server

 

Robert Yoha (CA DOC)—

• Robert has transferred from the Department of Conservation to the Department of Food and Agriculture, where he will be coordinating GIS amongst their 4 divisions and 3 programs, his first task will be inventorying GIS activities and developing an enterprise based strategic plan.
• NAIP Stereo Project
• Tim McCrink and the statewide NAIP stereo project. An unexpected development has come up, being the first time this has ever been done, and we’ve been expecting something to come-up.
• Horizons had produced the test flight strip pair from their Southern California share of the State, and this set had a one meter image resolution. NW Geomatics is producing the statewide stereo pairs collection, which it turns out their production process creates a 50 cm resolution.
• There are advantages with a smaller pixel size, but also obvious issueswith a 4 times larger file size -- which increases subsetting processing time; sizing a stereo pair to be 1 GB then requires a smaller footprint, or if the original quarter-quad footprint is maintained the file size will increase 4x. The data set size is now estimated at 28 Tb, up from 12 TB.
  
  
• Google Licensing Notes
• Be sure to read all the licensing terms if you are using Google, Google Maps, Google API or the Google Earth series – particularly the Professional version. The best way to to this, is look for a "Terms of Use" highlighted in the lower right hand corner of the map view, or look to the left side of the page for "Terms of Use" click on this and you've now entered into a series of linked documents.
• Each of the core products has its specific EULA along with other terms of service inserted as linked documents. There is a EULA which is common for all products which Google calls the “Universal Terms of Service.” The additional terms of service concern use of Google Brands, copyrighted 3rd party data, geocoding, using Google's API’s etc.
• Through-out the various EULAs, Google provides forms for you to contact them for questions or authoization.
• Consider if your use is personal or business.
• If your use is personal and you will be using Google's product’s for free, be sure to read and understand Google’s EULA for the core product you will be using along with all linked terms of service. By using the products you agree to all the terms.
• If you are using the products for free, for personal or business use -- you agree to inur Google. Inur means “to make advantage of.” For letting you use their products for free, you agree to that Google can also own and use whatever you post or upload into their system. They can syndicate, sell, modify, whatever you upload. You cannot pull back your uploaded information once it enters the Google system.
• Business Use - You should consider a professional license of Google Earth or some form of enterprise license with Google, if you will be showing your work to someone else, accessing Google's services in an automated fashion, creating a web page for other than personal use, creating an internal intranet function. By using a business arrangement and proper licensing, you can control ownership of your data. And also avoid misuse of software if you should be licensing its use.
• GeoCoding- If you are doing geocoding for other than personal use, if you are a government agency, Google has included a EULA that points out you have a responsibility to follow the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and enter into a business relationship with Google's 3rd parties that provide geocoding. NavTEQ and TeleAtlas North America are often footed as providing the base maps in the Google Maps and Google Earth. These would 3rd party providers of geoco
  ding services that you should contact for services.
• Automated Access - You should not be accessing any Google products or services in an automated fashion unless you have contacted Google and have been authorized to do so. This may require some form of a business license, or at a minium, authorization by Google.
• Licensed Users in Google Earth Professional - Google Earth Professional (GEP) is licensed for a single IP address. The EULA which one sees upon downloading may indicate "for a single workstation" in practice this is not correct. To start GEP a user logs in and GEP then checks in with Google to confirm license authorization.
• At DoC a license was turned off by the Google Help Desk for"to many users." The GEP license was installed by a Help Desk tech onto a single workstation, then accessed by several users using a common login to start the program.
• Apparently Google can differentiate between users at a very low level, through a firewall. It appears Google tracks users at their network login level and also as they login to a workstation which also utilizes a user profile.
• Doing Something for Someone Else Using Google –
• When you build, create or develop something using a Google product, you cannot transfer this work to someone else for their use unless you have Google's authorization. Conversely, you cannot contract with someone to build something for you using Google products, unless you have authorization to do so from Google.
• Business or Personal Use?
• Two similar but different terms are used which seem to make things confusing, "personal use" and "for your own use. As to business use of a public facing web site, is this a free use or considered business? Keep in mind any free use is conditioned by "inur." A business license allows the user to control the terms of the relationship, such as ownership of your data.
• If you are looking to see how far your vacation hotel is from the beach, while at work or home, this would be a "personal use." If you are using Google Earth or Maps to find where you hotel is or a field site for a business trip, this could be for "your own use."
• If you are using Google products for a business function, this most likely is a business use. Building a web site using the Google Maps API is probably a business use of their API scripts. Any use that the public cannot see, such as an intranet is a business use and requires authorization from Google.
  
  
• Update came in on Blackberry during the meeting – GoogleEarth now free to business, but not State, Federal or local agencies: GoogleEarth license update – hot off the Blackberry:  http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2007/09/google_earth_freeplus_license_chang.html
• Update after meeting – Google has confirmed that all State, Federal and Local agencies are not allows to use the free Google license in their business. And so it goes on….

 

Tom Lupo (CA DFG)—

• Vegetation Mapping - There is major support in legislature for large-scale, attribute-rich vegetation mapping. 
• Legislature directed $3.9M of Prop 84 bond funds to DFG for veg mapping.  Target areas for mapping include the northern Sierra foothills, the San Joaquin Valley and the south coast.  
• Additional funding is also being pursued from other sources to expand the work. 
• Also buried in legislation was a directive to DFG to establish for vegetation mapping standard for the State and report back in by Jan 10, 2008. This will include a standard classification for natural and semi-natural types and recommended methodologies for mapping and accuracy assessment.  Todd Keeler-Wolfe heading this up and will engaged the interagency VegMOU group. http://www.dfg.ca.gov/biogeodata/vegcamp/

 

Chris Curlis & Barbara Simpson (US BOR)—

• Central valley habitat monitoring 2005 is finishing up. Should be available soon.
• Experimenting with land use update in San Joaquin River. Having problems with the NAIP 16-bit red band? Will discuss with contacts provided by Carol O. and report back.

 

Bob Milton and Beth Wenstrom (US BLM)—

• NHD—anybody done any updates, need to address correction within the whole subbasin as opposed to just a part of it, otherwise it will not pass the QA process. Citrix environment need to change the way they are sharing data, how access is provided within the local environment.
• Recommendation to have a special meeting to talk about the data sharing/Citrix issue.
• Action Item: Carol will talk to Steve/Jeff about the NHD issues.

 

Donna Knifong (USGS)—

• Stream stats update—basin characteristics done for selected basins in southern California, delineating basins on the fly correctly, working to validate Sue Cannons work, hope to have a site up by end of year.
• Validated gauging sites, all Southern California fire areas.
• Action Item: Future hazards demonstration? Carol will find out more about.

 

Lorri Peltz-Lewis (US BOR) and Donna Knifong (USGS)—

• Watershed Boundary Delineations (WBD) reviews continue—
• 70% of state will be ready for the NRCS/USGS certification by the end of the calendar year, this is 12-digit HUC or 6^th Level watersheds.
• EPA will possibly (80% sure of) fund the certification for the entire state by end of 2008.
• Next WBD coordination meeting will be in November.

 

Gary Darling (CA DWR)—

• IT will take a crack at GIS for the agency, and thinking about NHD stewardship.
• CEAP is coming out with work products (Gary present next time), move toward single identification tokens, identity service for GIS applications and services. Leg has given CIO some staff—OTRO—Office of Technology Review ???

 

Dave Hansen (US BOR)—

• Delta vision—BOR provides assistance to state agencies including CA Resources, CA DFG, DWR, CA DOT, AG, etc. See: http://www.deltavision.ca.gov/
• October 2007 - the Blue Ribbon task force will produce a vision, this will lead to a strategic plan, see: http://www.deltavision.ca.gov/DeltaVisionBlueRibbon.shtml
• DFG will be the web service provider for map data, Joel Dudas at DWR, http://www.deltavision.ca.gov/DeltaVision_GIS.shtml Check out the interactive map!
• San Joaquin comprehensive plan being coordinated at ISIS and may be part of the project. See: http://www.isis.csufresno.edu/
• CGIA—See: http://www.cgia.org/
• Kris Lynn-Patterson is now CGIA chair, George White is now executive director of CGIA.
• CalGIS Conference is in Modesto, April 23-25, 2008 – See: http://www.calgis.org/
• CalGIS Conference for 2009 will be in the Sacramento area,
• NorCAL Chapter of URISA events:
• Sept 12 1-4, chapter meeting at City of West Sacramento—working with large datasets. See: http://www.norcalurisa.org/
• November 14—GIS day, at City of West Sacramento. Still in the planning stages, contact Dave Hansen if you want to get involved. Could have things for kids, state employees, etc. Looking to see what other groups are doing for GIS Day and coordinate efforts.
• Oct. 17—GIS Council meeting Dave will do a presentation on the GIS-P Certification program.

 

Paul Veisze (CA OES) —

• Office of Emergency Services has formed an earthquake council, cross agencies, URS is the facilitator, includes all CA stat agencies, preamble to shakeout exercise in 2008. http://www.oes.ca.gov/
• Preparedness day: Sept. 22 event 10-2, come see telecommunications. Come join OES! More at: http://www.oes.ca.gov/Operational/OESHome.nsf/ALL/7A43A30DB8F1F1CA88256FE90079CEB6?OpenDocument
• HAZUS is forming an inland users group. More at: http://www.hazus.org/CAValleyHUG/
• HAZUS still in Arc9 model. Census content. More at: http://www.hazus.org/
• Dec 4-6 will be hosting a modeling for flood plain managers at USFS, McClellan training center, contact Ken Leep (OES - Kenneth_Leep@oes.ca.gov) for questions, participation, vacancies.

 

Terryl Kocsis (NRCS) —NAIP Image Service available.

• Status Information: http://www.ncgc.nrcs.usda.gov/products/datasets/doq/index.html
• ArcGIS Add Internet Data Toolbar – Scott is working with the WY NRCS office to develop a toolbar in ArcMap that will allow you to add the WebService layers.
• See associated document: 2007_0907_FGC3-CMC2_NRCS-NAIP-ImageryAccess.doc
• ArcMap Use:
• First – Add a geo-referenced layer into Table of Contents (e.g. County Boundaries or Quad Index) to set projection of the ArcMap data frame to your local CA map projection.
• Next – Add WMS layers:
•    File Menu...Add Data
     Look In....double L-click "GIS Servers"
     Double L-click  "Add “ArcIMS Server"
     URL of Server: http://gdw.apfo.usda.gov
     Choose "All Services" and L-click OK
• Back in “Add Data” dialog box....
• Double L-click on "gdw.apfo.usda.gov"
• For 2005 NAIP Imagery – choose "NAIP_UTM10" or "NAIP_UTM11" web map service depending on work area location in state.   (Ctrl-L-click to choose more than 1 web map service).
• L-click ADD
• Action Item: maybe we can get a demo of this when it is ready?

 

Mike Byrnes (CA OSHPD) —

• Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development is building geocoding service using teleatlas

 

Don Hovik (US FWS)—

• ArcGIS Explorer to provide data to users—is anybody using this now? It rasterizes all data content, seems unwieldy and slow. What do people recommend? Works as advertised, but slow.
• DOI using NARA standards? EGIM recommendation on archiving? Who responded to NARA requests? Recommendation was to contact EGIM representative. All DOI Bureaus responded inidividually.

 

Ray McDowell (CA Resources) —

• USDA has image service, it’s fast, Ray will send another link out to CMCC. Names of datasets will change.
• CERES is not yet providing image service, but still plans to.
• local.live.com can be added to NASA World Wind – see: http://www.worldwindcentral.com/wiki/Add-on:Virtual_Earth
• Preparedness Day Coordination - Ray’s current big effort is preparing a map service for the Sept 22 preparedness day—where are risks by my house? Many datasets are now available statewide—how to handle? Governor wants citizens to be able to figure out what their hazards are. Not allowed to use the fire threat, older flood data will be used, no civil unrest.
• Southern California IFSAR, available with restrictions, getting ground surface, cover, and image. Talk to Ray.

 

Mike Byrnes (CA OSHPD) – CA GIS Council -

• GoogleEarth license update – hot off the Blackberry:  http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2007/09/google_earth_freeplus_license_chang.html
• CA Strategic Plan – see schedule in Carol’s report. Please attend. For more see: http://www.cgia.org/strategic-directions.htm  See also: http://www.cgia.org/Strategic_Planning_Scope_of_Work_Final.pdf
• NSGIC – Madison, WI – a few representatives going to this meeting. CA will be doing a 2 minute presentation – doing a handout on CA. For more see: http://www.nsgic.org/
• CALTrans – very early stages of announcing release of CA roads from TeleAtlas to have a public domain roads database. Date delayed and limited attributes. More at: http://www.teleatlas.com/stellent/groups/public/documents/content/ta_ct015098.pdf
• Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) & California Enterprise Architecture Program (CEAP) web site – see: http://www.cio.ca.gov/pdf/SOA_Governance_Workgroup_Charter.pdf
• SB90 – signed formalizing the CIO and cabinet.  http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/sen/sb_0051-0100/sb_90_bill_20070824_chaptered.html
• CA DHS – data model – continue outreach and collaboration group. Regional Terrorist Threat Assessment Technical Centers (RTATC) – No Link Available
• CalFire – has launched an enterprise design. National Intelligence database structure being used. No Link Available
• DLRI case – Santa Clara – under appeal. No Link Available
• Local Update of Census Address (LUCA) – CA Finance is the lead. Ensuring that the addresses are accurate and can be mailed to. Department of Finance has been holding many meeting to assemble a good database. Workshop coming up in Sacramento. More see: http://www.census.gov/geo/www/luca2010/luca.html
• California Blueprint process – Gov Office of Planning and Research. SACOG blueprint process moving to statewide process. Sept 25 next gathering for Blueprint. No Link Available

 

Carol’s presentation – see document:

 

Drew Decker, Liaison extraordinaire

·         Based in San Diego

·         Will work with southern CA regional groups, fusion centers, councils of governments, etc.

·         ddecker@usgs.gov

·         619-225-6430

 

Competitive sourcing activity cancelled

·         2 mapping centers closed

·         2 mapping centers remain open

·         Now a single National Geospatial Technical Operations Center

·         FY06 imagery

 

Partner	Date of collect	Coverage	Status
Modesto (b/w)	2006	urban	delivered
Stockton	2006	urban	delayed
Fresno	2007	urban	delayed
Sacramento	2006	urban	delivered
San Francisco Co	2007	full county	funded
Santa Clara County	2006	full county	delayed
San Mateo County	2005	full county	delivered
Alameda County	2006	full county	QA/QC
Napa County	2007	full county	awarded
Contra Costa	2007	Full county	awarded
Sonoma County	2007	full county	awarded
Los Angeles	2006 2008	full county full county	Delivered not yet awarded

 

San Diego	2005 2008	Urban tbd	Delivered
Riverside	2007	urban	??
San Bern County	2006 2007	Urban urban	delivered delivered
Bakersfield (b/w)	2004 2007	urban urban	delivered not yet flown
Oxnard/SB	2004 2007	urban full Ventura	delivered in progress
		coastal Santa B
Santa Cruz, Monterey, San Benito Counties	2007	Full counties	Flights in progress
Orange County	2007	urban	??

 

 

 

 

Imagery for the Nation

·         Council working group has an rfp out for imagery/elevation business needs assessment:

·         http://www.cgia.org/

·         New cost benefit study released at:

·         http://www.ndop.gov/pdf/Imagery_for_the_Nation_IFTN_CBA_072007.pdf

NHD stewardship

·         Regional associate stewards: SFEI, SanGIS (both funded)

·         CA state agency associate stewards: DFG; Water Boards

·         US Federal agency associate stewards: FS Region 5

·         FY07 funds to CA DWR to figure it all out and write an implementation/operational plan

·         http://webhosts.cr.usgs.gov/steward/index.html

CAP Grants for FY08

Tentative 2008 NSDI CAP Funding Categories

·         Metadata Trainer and Outreach Assistance

·         Best Practices in Geospatial Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)—for federal applicants

·         Fifty States Initiative: Strategic and Business Plans

·         Joint Canadian and United States Spatial Data Infrastructure Project

·         Building Data Stewardship for The National Map and the NSDI—structures/transportation

·         FGDC-endorsed Standards Implementation Assistance and Outreach

·         USGS Science Strategies: 2007-2017

·         “USGS is a world leader in the natural sciences through our scientific excellence and responsiveness to society’s needs.”

USGS Vision Statement       http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/2007/1309/

USGS Science strategies

·         Understanding Ecosystems and Predicting Ecosystem Change: Ensuring the Nation’s Economic and Environmental Future

·         Climate Variability and Change: Clarifying the Record and Assessing Consequences

·         Energy and Minerals for America’s Future: Providing a Scientific Foundation for Resource Security, Environmental Health, Economic Vitality, and Land Management

·         A National Hazards, Risk, and Resilience Assessment Program: Ensuring the Long-Term Health and Wealth of the Nation

·         The Role of Environment and Wildlife in Human Health: A System that Identifies Environmental Risk to Public Health in America

·         A Water Census of the United States: Quantifying, Forecasting, and Securing Freshwater for America’s Future

 

Statement of Cross-cutting Science Direction— Data Integration Cyberinfrastructure Defined

·         The USGS will use its information resources to create a more integrated and accessible environment for its vast resources of past and future data. It will invest in cyberinfrastructure, nurture and cultivate programs in Earth-system science informatics, and participate in efforts to build a global integrated science and computing platform.

 

 

Lorri’s EGIM presentation –

• See document titled: 2007_0907_FGC3-CMC2_EGIM_Presentation.ppt

 

Attendance:

 

Chris Curlis	USBR	916-978-5030	ccurlis@mp.usbr.gov
Drew Decker	USGS GIO SD	619-225-6430	ddecker@usgs.gov
Chris Fischer	USFS	707-562-8943	cfischer@fs.fed.us
Dave Hansen	US BOR	916-978-5268	dhansen@mp.usbr.gov
Don Hovik	USFWS	916-414-6699	donald_hovik@fws.gov
Marti Ikehara	NGS	916-227-7325	Marti.Ikehara@noaa.gov
Donna Knifong	USGS - Water	916-278-3081	dknifong@usgs.gov
Terryl Kocsis	NRCS	530-792-5630	Terryl.Kocsis@ca.usda.gov
Bob Milton	US BLM	916-978-4562	bmilton@blm.gov
Carol Ostergren	USGS - Mapping	916-278-9510	costergren@usgs.gov
Lorri Peltz-Lewis	USBR	916-978-5271	lpeltzlewis@mp.usbr.gov
Barbara Simpson	USBR	916-978-5031	bsimpson@mp.usbr.gov
Rich Spradling	FS Region 5	707-562-8883	rspradling@fs.fed.us
Scott Splean	NRCS	530-792-5631	scott.splean@ca.usda.gov
Beth Wenstrom	BLM	916-978-	Beth_Wenstrom@blm.gov
Ray McDowell	Resources Agency	916-653-7142	ray.mcdowell@ceres.ca.gov
Mike Byrne	CA OSHPD	916-654-1833	mbyrne@oshpd.ca.gov
Gary Darling	CEAP	916-653-5601	gdarling@water.ca.gov
Tom Lupo	DFG	916-324-6906	tlupo@dfg.ca.gov
Paul Veisze	OES	916-845-8542	paul.veisze@oes.ca.gov
Robert Yoha	DOC	916-322-9307	ryoha@cdfa.ca.gov

 

NEXT MEETING:

Dec 7, 2007, 2800 Cottage Way, Sacramento, CA

C-1001 & C-1002, 9 – Noon.