Day: July 21, 2009

Oversight Hearing On Federal Geospatial Data Management

/ Matt Artz

Subcommittee On Energy And Mineral Resources Oversight Hearing On “Federal Geospatial Data Management” And Legislative Hearing On H.R. 2489

Thursday, July 23, 2009 at 10:00 a.m.
The House Natural Resources Committee, Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, led by Rep. Jim Costa (D-CA), will hold an oversight hearing on “Federal Geospatial Data Management.”This hearing will be directly followed by a legislative hearing on the following bill:
  • H.R. 2489 (Herseth Sandlin): To authorize a comprehensive national cooperative geospatial imagery mapping program through the United States Geological Survey, to promote use of the program for education, workforce training and development, and applied research, and to support Federal, State, tribal, and local government programs. “AmericaView Geospatial Imagery Mapping Program Act.”

Room 1324 Longworth House Office Building


Oversight Hearing Witnesses

Ms. Karen C. Siderelis
Geospatial Information Officer
U.S. Department of the Interior

Mr. Michael Byrne
Geospatial Information Officer
State of California

Mr. John Palatiello
Executive Director
Management Association for Private Photogrammetric Surveyors

Ms. Susan Marlow
Chief Executive Officer
Smart Data Strategies, Inc.

Legislative Hearing Witnesses

Ms. Suzette M. Kimball
Acting Director
U.S. Geological Survey

Ms. Rebecca L. Dodge, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, the Department of Geosciences
Midwestern State University

Ms. Mary O’Neill
Manager, Office of Remote Sensing
South Dakota View Principal Investigator
South Dakota State University

Dr. Sam Batzli
WisconsinView Director
Geospatial Information Scientist, the Space Science & Engineering Center
University of Wisconsin-Madison

The hearing will be webcast live and archived on the Committee’s Web site at http://resourcescommittee.house.gov/.

Nationwide Audubon Effort Funds Volunteer-powered Conservation Projects at Maine’s Largest Saltwater Marsh

/ Matt Artz

mn_aud…from MaineToday.com…

“Maine Audubon is recruiting volunteers to assist three wildlife conservation projects at Scarborough Marsh, the largest saltwater marsh in Maine, on five Saturdays and one Sunday this summer, fall, and next spring. The work is part of TogetherGreen Volunteer Days, a nationwide effort Audubon launched last fall, with funding from Toyota.

“Volunteers will be trained to use GPS units and surveying techniques to monitor selected areas of Scarborough Marsh for an invasive reed, Phragmites australis. They will find, measure, and map the reeds to collect data for a GIS database. No experience is necessary to volunteer.”

International Workshop on Security and Privacy in GIS and LBS

/ Matt Artz

Second SIGSPATIAL ACM GIS International Workshop on Security and Privacy in GIS and LBS

November 3, 2009 in Seattle, Washington, USA

Our society is witnessing a dramatic increase in geospatial data infrastructures, data products, and services, many of them playing a key role in decision making in organizations. There are currently major national and international efforts in the coordinated development, use, sharing, and dissemination of geospatial data in several application contexts including homeland security, environmental crises, and natural and industrial disasters. Geospatial infrastructures are being leveraged by companies to provide a large variety of location-based services (LBS) able to tailor services to users. However, despite the increase of publicly accessible geospatial information only little attention is being paid on how to secure geospatial information systems (GIS) and LBS. Privacy is also of increasing concern given the sensitivity of personally-identifiable location information. This is despite major advancements that have been made in secure computing infrastructures and the secure and privacy-preserving management of traditional (relational) data in particular. Given these pressing needs for securing GIS and LBS as well as assuring privacy, it is compelling to investigate security and privacy aspects as they relate to the management of geospatial data and the development of both emerging LBS and mission-critical geographic applications.

The aim of the workshop is to lay the foundation and agenda for further research and development in those areas.

Contact SPRINGL

Elisa Bertino
Computer Science Department, Purdue University, West Lafayette IN
bertino@cs.purdue.edu

Maria Luisa Damiani
University of Milan, Italy
damiani@dico.unimi.it

GIS for Archaeology: Free e-Book Now Available

/ Matt Artz

gis4archESRI has released a new GIS Best Practices paper titled “GIS for Archaeology,” which includes the following chapters:

  • Protecting Archaeological Resources During an Oil Spill in Washington State
  • Archaeology, Genealogy, and GIS Meet at Columbia Cemetery
  • Reconstructing Aztec Political Geographies
  • A Cost-Effective Approach to GPS/GIS Integration for Archaeological Surveying
  • U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Administers Archaeological Sites with GIS
  • Bureau of Land Management’s Cultural Resource Database Goes Digital
  • Modeling Archaeological Sensitivity in Vermont with GIS
  • Understanding Past and Future Land Use