Advancing Strategic Science A Spatial Data Infrastructure Roadmap for the U.S. Geological Survey (2012) / Chapter Skim
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2 Background
2 Background
Pages 11-31
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is a European Commission initiative to build a European SDI beyond national boundaries, and the UN Spatial Data Infrastructure plans to create the same type of SDI for over 30 UN funds, programs, specialized agencies, and member countries (United Nations, 2008)
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It requires a cyberinfrastructure capable of collecting, managing, and using integrated geospatial datasets. Having a robust data infrastructure would facilitate research investigations aimed at improving understanding of interacting environmental system processes.
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To remain relevant, the 2007 NRC report A Research Agenda for Geographic Information Science at the United States Geological Survey states that the TNM "must be a trusted [emphasis added] geospatial information source for all of these constituencies," and that "the mea
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Geological Survey Concept of the National Map, it is impossible to be all things to all users at the outset (NRC, 2003)
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It is a watershed report by the USGS that guides its direction in its Science Strategy. The USGS Science Strategy breaks away from the conventional approach of organizing strategically by discipline and instead
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An effective SDI will be essential to the success in each of the six science directions. Many of the characteristics of an SDI are already outlined in the USGS Science Strategy report, such as providing a framework for interactively connecting data users, open standards, and the ability to integrate data from environmental sensor networks and land imaging with spatial modeling capabilities (USGS, 2007)
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The use of and competition for natural resources on a global scale and the natural threats to these resources have the potential to harm the nation's ability to sustain its economy, national security, quality of life, and natural environment. Under the USGS Science Strategy, the energy and minerals direction is sufficiently broad to deal with resource availability and related land, water, and environmental concerns.
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The strategic actions related to climate variability and change proposed by the USGS depend on the development and use of geospatial data and models, which would benefit from an enhanced SDI. For example, modernizing existing USGS observing networks and developing new capabilities integrated with those operated by other federal agencies will require the implementation of state-ofthe-art geospatial technologies, interoperability standards, and data-management processes and procedures.
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All those efforts would benefit from the ability to build on and connect the USGS SDI to the broader NSDI and the emerging global SDI. Environmental Health The USGS Science Strategy includes the goal of understanding the role of environment and wildlife in human health.
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Water A goal of the USGS Science Strategy is to develop a National Water Census that includes quantifying, forecasting, and securing freshwater for America's future. Equal emphasis is given to water quantity and water quality as related to water availability and to meeting both human and ecological needs in the context
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identification of uncommon water sources, and (5) forecasts of effects of changes in land use and land cover, natural and engineered infrastructure, water use, and climate on water availability, including water quality, and aquatic ecosystem health (USGS, 2007)
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Information generated from the monitoring networks are used directly in the science and disaster management communities, where they are combined with additional data, information, and models to advance knowledge and provide valuable, usually critical information to those who need it. The USGS provides geospatial information in response to domestic disasters and provides assistance whenever possible in response to international disasters (see Box 2.3)
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As one of its major future investments, the USGS Science Strategy describes the modernizing of major geophysical monitoring networks (see Table 2-1)
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Scale The challenges faced by the nation and identified in the USGS Science Strategy call for support of geospatial information on multiple spatial scales in a timely manner to address widely varied issues: national hazards and risks, human health, climate variability, ecosystem dynamics, water quality and quantity, and energy and mineral resources. Advances in geospatial computing and information technology are beginning to provide tools that can integrate information across multiple scales of space and time (such as www.geo.data.gov)
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A scientific foundation is critical for effectively managing the use of energy and mineral resources, the environment, and lands. The geospatial platform will be an essential tool for gauging the effects of land-use changes on ecosystem dynamics, for monitoring the effects of climate change, and for predicting ecosystem change over time.
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Integration of information and analysis across those activities is necessary to ascertain emergent properties of environmental changes related to challenges being met in the USGS Science Strategy. For instance, evaluation of avian influenza needs to account not only for instances of outbreaks but for migration of bird populations, wetland locations, and settlement patterns if it is to accurately predict the emergence and spread of avian influenza.
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For instance, satellites to assess land cover in the United States provide consistent, almost seamless, coverage of land cover across the nation. But a number of specialized land-cover databases have been developed by various groups or projects for special purposes to elucidate processes that feature specific characteristic or spatial patterns that are not captured by the national efforts.
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For program- and project-level datasets, the spatial data infrastructure will need to allow for easy tagging of information in a common data format. Tools to facilitate the tagging of geospatial and temporal information from program and project analyses will enhance the integration and synthesis of studies across programs and agencies.
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The USGS workforce consists primarily of research scientists -- there are nearly 2,000 full-time research-grade scientists. Like their academic counterparts, USGS scientists are evaluated through an annual research graded evaluation (RGE)
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Geological Survey Concept of The National Map. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 140p.
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Geological Survey science in the decade 2007 2017: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1309, 70p.
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