Over the past three decades, and at great expense, the NSDI has provided nationwide geospatial data, tools and supporting infrastructure resources to help improve policy and decision-making across government, the private sector, and citizenry. However, this significant resource investment established by the US Federal Government in partnership with Tribal, State, local government and industry is little known, and therefore often under resourced. With the growing diversity of challenges facing the nation, availability of current, accurate location information is vital to National Development and sustainability.
This workshop brings together Federal and other government agency public affairs and outreach leadership to raise awareness of the NSDI and to discuss ways in which the value and ROI of the NSDI and geospatial can be better articulated within their organizations, with the public, and with Congressional Budget staff and Congress.
Geospatial information and technology is all too often considered a special and separate environment from the broader IT infrastructure. While NSDI and geospatial data and technologies are a vital component of the overall information technology environment of government organizations, they are part of a “whole of information and knowledge” crucial to good policy outcomes and decision-making. This workshop is designed to unite agency / department Chief Data Officers and Geospatial Information Officers in a dialog with the goal of improving collaboration and coordination of NSDI / geospatial data requirements and broader information requirements within their home organizations and with cooperating partner organizations.
The National Geodetic Service (NGS) is finalizing plans to replace current North American of 1983 and associated vertical datums with a more accurate Modernized NSRS, consisting of new terrestrial reference frames and datum with which to reference all geodetic coordinates going forward. The Modernized NSRS will revolutionize spatial referencing through its ability to manage change that naturally occurs in positioning due to shifts in the tectonic plates over time. The workshop will provide users with insight into the benefits and process for transitioning to the Modernized NSRS. (Remote connectivity will be available for this session)
The objective of the workshop on RoI Assessment for National Geospatial Infrastructure is to enable stakeholders within the national geospatial ecosystem to effectively assess the Return on Investment (ROI) of geospatial infrastructure projects. This involves imparting knowledge on methodologies, tools, and best practices for quantifying the economic, social, and environmental benefits derived from investments in geospatial technologies.
The workshop is designed for policy makers, government officials, private sector leaders, and academics who are involved in the planning, funding, and implementation of geospatial infrastructure.
Representatives from Federal, State, local and Tribal governments, industry, academia/research and Non-governmental organizations will meet to discuss plans and activities underway for pilot initiatives designed to tackle real-world NSDI challenges, While a goal is to identify solutions that can be scaled to overcome specific challenges, the overarching objective is to test different approaches to “whole of community” NSDI governance and coordination processes. Space is limited for those wishing to attend this session.
Today’s problems (such as climate resilience, food security, and water security) require a collaborative approach for research and innovation that transcends disciplinary and organizational boundaries. In this roundtable, we are bringing together experts from academia, research, government, and private sectors to explore how we can encourage, sustain, and leverage interdisciplinary inter-organization research and innovation in geospatial . We’ll explore examples that are currently working and can inspire the rest of us, concepts (like open data and open science) that can support such collaborations, and the obstacles (from trust and culture to institutional barriers to data diversity and interoperability to intellectual property and sharing) that we should be addressing as a group. The objective is to identify best practices for leveraging our collective expertise to not only drive research & innovation in geospatial but ensure they are usable when needed – providing the impact expected for informed decision-making, sustainability, and positive social impact.