NSGIC 2020 Advocacy PrioritiesGeospatial Data Act Implementation Preparing for Next Generation 9-1-1 National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) Authoritative Data for Wayfinding Companies
National Address DatabaseNSGIC strongly supports the federal effort to develop a National Address Database to collect address points from all states and territories. Addresses are created by local address authorities that are usually in city, county, or tribal agencies. The data are intended to support delivery of services like utilities and emergency response. Ideally, addresses are composed of both a label (street number and name) and an x-y coordinate pair (latitude/longitude or equivalent) and the addresses are provided to the local 9-1-1 authority as soon as a building permit is issued to facilitate emergency responses to accidents on construction sites. Rolling up local address point records to the state to aggregate and then to the national level has value for a variety of stakeholders across local, state, tribal, federal, and private sector users. Working together, we can save lives, reduce costs, avoid duplication, increase revenues, improve service, and foster efficient and effective government. Read more about the National Address Database. Geospatial Data Act ImplementationThe Geospatial Data Act (GDA) of 2018 reflects growing recognition of the essential role of geospatial data and technology and highlights the need to support their continuing development as critical infrastructure for the nation. The GDA formalizes federal government structures related to geospatial data, provides policy and guidance to empower the use of geospatial data and technology, and facilitates broad cooperation between the public and private sector. According to the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC), the implementation approach consists of:
Digital Coast Act: S.1069 and H.R.2189Coastal issues have enormous consequences for NSGIC member states and state GIOs work with coastal managers to help improve resiliency efforts. As a charter member of the Digital Coast Partnership, NSGIC has actively worked with other Digital Coast partners and MAPPS (the trade association for private sector geospatial firms) to promote legislation that will authorize the Digital Coast Program managed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office for Coastal Management. Supporting the Digital Coast Act is a critical step toward building more resilient coastal communities. Funding NOAA's Digital Coast Program will prevent costly duplication of effort by multiple state and local governments. Benefits of Digital Coast have been documented by NOAA as 3.5 times greater than the costs, translating into a return on investment of nearly 250 percent. The Digital Coast Partnership includes seven other national organizations, including the American Planning Association, Association of State Flood Plain Managers, Coastal States Organization, National Association of Counties, National Estuarine Research Reserve Association, The Nature Conservancy and Urban Land Institute. Together, we work with NOAA to provide improved data, tools and training to federal, state and local coastal managers to improve management practices and coastal resiliency. NSGIC held its first Coastal Caucus in 2007 to ensure adequate information exchange at our conferences on coastal geospatial issues. Coastal ecosystems are highly productive areas boasting rich biodiversity, and the coastal communities that depend on these resources provide nearly 60 percent of our nation's gross domestic product. More than half of the nation's population lives in only 17 percent of the U.S. land area defined as coastal, and population densities within coastal counties are six times that of inland counties. The effects of climate change, sea-level rise and increasing populations are becoming more pronounced and take a serious toll on the national economy. These threats translate into significant social and economic costs to communities: Hurricane Katrina cost $134 billion in total damage; flood damage costs are approximately $6 billion annually; and poor water quality translates to reduced ecological diversity, habitat function, and associated ecosystem services and is also a public health burden that has high costs. The costs are also measured in human lives. Katrina killed more than 1800 people after striking Louisiana and Mississippi as a major hurricane in 2005. Superstorm Sandy, which hit the U.S. East Coast in October 2012, caused unprecedented damage, flooded subways, closed down all major airports and more than 15,000 flights, claimed more than 100 lives. |