[House Hearing, 110 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
REMOTE SENSING DATA:
APPLICATIONS AND BENEFITS
=======================================================================
FIELD HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON SPACE AND AERONAUTICS
COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
APRIL 7, 2008
__________
Serial No. 110-91
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Science and Technology
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.science.house.gov
______
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41-573 PDF WASHINGTON DC: 2008
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COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
HON. BART GORDON, Tennessee, Chairman
JERRY F. COSTELLO, Illinois RALPH M. HALL, Texas
EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON, Texas F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER JR.,
LYNN C. WOOLSEY, California Wisconsin
MARK UDALL, Colorado LAMAR S. SMITH, Texas
DAVID WU, Oregon DANA ROHRABACHER, California
BRIAN BAIRD, Washington ROSCOE G. BARTLETT, Maryland
BRAD MILLER, North Carolina VERNON J. EHLERS, Michigan
DANIEL LIPINSKI, Illinois FRANK D. LUCAS, Oklahoma
NICK LAMPSON, Texas JUDY BIGGERT, Illinois
GABRIELLE GIFFORDS, Arizona W. TODD AKIN, Missouri
JERRY MCNERNEY, California JO BONNER, Alabama
LAURA RICHARDSON, California TOM FEENEY, Florida
PAUL KANJORSKI, Pennsylvania RANDY NEUGEBAUER, Texas
DARLENE HOOLEY, Oregon BOB INGLIS, South Carolina
STEVEN R. ROTHMAN, New Jersey DAVID G. REICHERT, Washington
JIM MATHESON, Utah MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas
MIKE ROSS, Arkansas MARIO DIAZ-BALART, Florida
BEN CHANDLER, Kentucky PHIL GINGREY, Georgia
RUSS CARNAHAN, Missouri BRIAN P. BILBRAY, California
CHARLIE MELANCON, Louisiana ADRIAN SMITH, Nebraska
BARON P. HILL, Indiana PAUL C. BROUN, Georgia
HARRY E. MITCHELL, Arizona
CHARLES A. WILSON, Ohio
------
Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics
HON. MARK UDALL, Colorado, Chairman
DAVID WU, Oregon TOM FEENEY, Florida
NICK LAMPSON, Texas DANA ROHRABACHER, California
STEVEN R. ROTHMAN, New Jersey FRANK D. LUCAS, Oklahoma
MIKE ROSS, Arizona JO BONNER, Alabama
BEN CHANDLER, Kentucky MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas
CHARLIE MELANCON, Louisiana
BART GORDON, Tennessee RALPH M. HALL, Texas
RICHARD OBERMANN Subcommittee Staff Director
PAM WHITNEY Democratic Professional Staff Member
ALLEN LI Democratic Professional Staff Member
KEN MONROE Republican Professional Staff Member
ED FEDDEMAN Republican Professional Staff Member
DEVIN BRYANT Research Assistant
C O N T E N T S
April 7, 2008
Page
Witness List..................................................... 2
Hearing Charter.................................................. 3
Opening Statements
Statement by Representative Mark Udall, Chairman, Subcommittee on
Space and Aeronautics, Committee on Science and Technology,
U.S. House of Representatives.................................. 6
Written Statement............................................ 8
Statement by Representative Tom Feeney, Ranking Minority Member,
Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, Committee on Science and
Technology, U.S. House of Representatives...................... 9
Written Statement............................................ 10
Panel 1:
Mr. Jack G. Byers, Deputy Director and Deputy State Engineer,
Colorado Division of Water Resources
Oral Statement............................................... 11
Written Statement............................................ 13
Biography.................................................... 16
Dr. A. Simon Montagu, Director, Customer Resource and Support,
Denver Regional Council of Governments
Oral Statement............................................... 17
Written Statement............................................ 18
Biography.................................................... 22
Mr. Manuel Navarro, Fire Chief, City of Colorado Springs Fire
Department
Oral Statement............................................... 22
Written Statement............................................ 23
Biography.................................................... 30
Mr. Frank J. Sapio, Director, Forest Health Technology Enterprise
Team (FHTET), U.S. Department of Agriculture
Oral Statement............................................... 30
Written Statement............................................ 32
Discussion....................................................... 37
Panel 2:
Mr. Kevin Little, Director of Business Development, Intermap
Technologies, Inc.
Oral Statement............................................... 47
Written Statement............................................ 48
Biography.................................................... 51
Mr. Matthew M. O'Connell, President and Chief Executive Officer,
GeoEye, Inc.
Oral Statement............................................... 51
Written Statement............................................ 53
Biography.................................................... 78
Ms. Jill Smith, President and Chief Executive Officer,
DigitalGlobe, Inc.
Oral Statement............................................... 78
Written Statement............................................ 80
Biography.................................................... 81
Discussion....................................................... 82
Appendix: Answers to Post-Hearing Questions
Mr. Jack G. Byers, Deputy Director and Deputy State Engineer,
Colorado Division of Water Resources........................... 92
Dr. A. Simon Montagu, Director, Customer Resource and Support,
Denver Regional Council of Governments......................... 93
Mr. Manuel Navarro, Fire Chief, City of Colorado Springs Fire
Department..................................................... 94
Mr. Frank J. Sapio, Director, Forest Health Technology Enterprise
Team (FHTET), U.S. Department of Agriculture................... 95
Mr. Kevin Little, Director of Business Development, Intermap
Technologies, Inc.............................................. 96
Mr. Matthew M. O'Connell, President and Chief Executive Officer,
GeoEye, Inc.................................................... 97
Ms. Jill Smith, President and Chief Executive Officer,
DigitalGlobe, Inc.............................................. 98
REMOTE SENSING DATA: APPLICATIONS AND BENEFITS
----------
MONDAY, APRIL 7, 2008
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics,
Committee on Science and Technology,
Washington, DC.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10 a.m., at
Centennial Hall, 200 South Cascade Avenue, Colorado Springs,
Colorado, Hon. Mark Udall [Chairman of the Subcommittee]
presiding.
FIELD HEARING CHARTER
SUBCOMMITTEE ON SPACE AND AERONAUTICS
COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Remote Sensing Data:
Applications and Benefits
MONDAY, APRIL 7, 2008
10:00 A.M.-12:00 P.M.
CENTENNIAL HALL
200 S. CASCADE AVENUE
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO
Purpose
On Monday, April 7, 2008 at Centennial Hall, Colorado Springs,
Colorado at 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m., the House Committee on Science and
Technology, Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics will hold a hearing
to examine the opportunities and challenges of using remote sensing
data to benefit public and private sector activities including urban
planning, natural resource management, national defense, and homeland
security among other application areas.
Witnesses:
Witnesses scheduled to testify at the field hearing include the
following:
Panel 1: Remote Sensing Data Users
Jack Byers, Deputy Director and Deputy State Engineer, Colorado
Division of Water Resources
Simon Montagu, Customer Resource and Support Director, Denver Regional
Council of Governments
Manuel Navarro, Fire Chief, City of Colorado Springs
Frank Sapio, Director, Forest Health Technology Enterprise Team, U.S.
Department of Agriculture Forest Service
Panel 2: Commercial Remote Sensing Data Providers
Kevin Little, Director, Business Development, Intermap Technologies,
Inc.
Matthew O'Connell, President and Chief Executive Officer, GeoEye, Inc.
Jill Smith, President and Chief Executive Officer, DigitalGlobe, Inc.
Data and images collected from aircraft and satellites provide
information that can facilitate public and private operations and
decision-making to benefit society. In the aftermath of the terrorist
attacks on September 11, 2001, remote sensing images acquired from
aircraft and from commercial and government remote sensing satellites
aided in the emergency response and recovery operations at Ground Zero.
Commercial remote sensing imagery has also been used by the U.S.
military for the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. In August of 2007, a
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) unmanned aerial
vehicle used an infrared scanner to map wildfires in the western U.S.
Data from Earth-observing satellites are being combined with sources of
information on the ground to manage natural resources and monitor
changes in land and Earth systems. Aerial photography and images
acquired from satellites are used by State and local governments to map
flood plains and natural resources, among other applications.
The field hearing will address the opportunities and challenges of
using remote sensing data to address public and private sector needs.
Witnesses will testify on the ways that remote sensing data can assist
public and private sector users in Colorado, for instance, in
identifying forests vulnerable to fire and insect infestation, managing
water resources, planning urban development and road construction, and
mapping flood plains. Commercial providers of remote sensing data will
testify on the benefits of remote sensing data to State and local
governments and on the role that commercial data can play in addressing
these civil applications as well as those related to homeland security
and national defense.
BACKGROUND
The ability to collect information and images of the Earth's land,
atmosphere, and oceans from aircraft and satellites has been available
for decades. The use of aerial photography grew during the 1930s and
1940s as a means of military reconnaissance. The first U.S.
meteorological satellite was launched in 1960 and the first U.S. civil
satellite to observe and monitor the land surface, Landsat, was
launched in 1972. Over the last forty years, the U.S. Government has
helped advance the state of civil space-based remote sensing. Through
NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),
the U.S. Government has launched an ongoing series of increasingly more
capable Earth-observing satellites to support an operational weather
monitoring service and to conduct research to better understand the
Earth's land, ocean, atmosphere, and biosphere, their relationships,
and how the Earth system changes over time. In addition, the U.S.
Geological Survey has been responsible for archiving and managing civil
land remote sensing data. The Land Remote Sensing Policy Act of 1992
set commercial land remote sensing as a U.S. policy goal and included a
process to license private remote sensing satellite operators. In the
early 1990s the first licenses were issued to private remote sensing
operators and by 1999 the first commercial remote sensing satellite was
launched.
The advantages of remote sensing include the ability to collect
information over large spatial areas; to characterize natural features
or physical objects on the ground; to observe surface areas and objects
on a systematic basis and monitor their changes over time; and the
ability to integrate this data with other information to aid decision-
making. Remote sensing from airplanes or satellites can be collected at
various spatial resolutions [spatial resolution refers to the smallest
feature that can be resolved in an image]. High resolution remote
sensing images can resolve smaller features--often less than a meter in
size--whereas moderate or lower resolution images can detect features
in a size range of tens to hundreds of meters or larger. Remote sensing
instruments may also acquire data in different spectral bands of the
electromagnetic spectrum (e.g., infrared, near-infrared), which
provides information, for example, to help classify and categorize
vegetation. Data collected in the thermal infrared bands are especially
useful for water management. Light detection and ranging (lidar)
instruments provide topographic data that can form the basis of digital
elevation models.
The needs of local government often require high resolution data,
which has long been provided through aerial imagery. The advent of
commercial high resolution remote sensing imagery in the late 1990s
created another source of data that can serve local and regional
governments. In addition, States have taken advantage of moderate
resolution U.S. Government-provided Landsat data to monitor natural
resources, such as forests and wetlands that span large areas, to
analyze the ecological systems of land and watershed areas, and to help
protect wildlife habitats.
State and local governments can also benefit from remote sensing
information to better monitor land use, assist in transportation
planning, and deal with other infrastructure and public safety issues.
In addition, commercial enterprises use the data to help support their
businesses. For example, real estate companies use imagery to enhance
the information provided on real estate property listings, and
transportation companies may use remote sensing data to help route
trucks.
Providers of remote sensing data
Remote sensing data for State and local applications is provided by
both U.S. Government agencies and by commercial providers. Landsat
satellites, which have been developed and launched by NASA since 1972,
are operated by the Department of Interior's U.S. Geological Survey
(USGS) and the data are archived and managed by the USGS Center for
Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Data Center. The USGS
manages and archives publicly available aerial photographs and lidar
data, among other data sets. The USGS has responsibility for providing
future space-based land observation data after NASA's launch of the
Landsat Data Continuity Mission, which is planned for 2011.
NASA operates fourteen Earth-observing research satellites from
space to further our knowledge of the Earth system, including its
atmosphere, oceans, land surface, and biosphere. Some of these
spacecraft support applied uses by public and private organizations.
The Terra and Aqua satellites, for example, collect data that support
fire monitoring and the Quick Scatterometer (QuickSCAT) and Tropical
Rainfall Measuring Mission provide data to help improve tropical
cyclone and hurricane forecasting. In addition, within NASA's Earth
Science Division, the Applied Sciences Program works with federal
agency partners and other organizations to apply NASA's Earth remote
sensing data to decision support tools in the areas of agricultural
efficiency, air quality, aviation, carbon management, coastal
management, disaster management, ecological forecasting, energy
management, homeland security, invasive species, public health and
water management. Many of the agencies and organizations that use these
tools provide services that extend to the State, local, and regional
levels.
The Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) operates the Nation's fleet of civil operational
weather monitoring satellites, which provide data to inform the
National Weather Service's forecasts. Future satellite systems in which
NOAA is involved, including the National Polar-orbiting Operational
Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS), will also collect global data
on the Earth's weather, oceans, land and space environments. NOAA also
operates data centers that archive geophysical, climate, ocean, and
coastal data and provide information products to support scientific
research and other purposes.
Multiple independent firms across the country provide services to
collect aerial photography. Federal agencies also collect aerial
imagery to support their services. United States commercial space
remote sensing companies operate satellites and sell imagery and
applications to customers in the public, private, and non-government
sectors. The market for commercial remote sensing data has largely been
in high resolution imagery. The Department of Defense has been a major
user of commercial remote sensing imagery. Commercial remote sensing
companies support applications including mapping, national security,
environmental monitoring, urban planning, natural resource management,
homeland defense, and emergency preparedness and disaster relief, among
many other areas. Several non-U.S. companies also collect and sell
space remote sensing data.
Digital information and communications technologies
The increasing capabilities of computers and communication
technology have facilitated the development of remote sensing
applications. Digital remote sensing data can be acquired from and
disseminated over the Internet, and manipulated on desktop computers.
Geographic information systems enable multiple sources of geographic
information (such as locations of power plants and hospitals) to be
integrated with remote sensing images. Global positioning data can be
combined with remote sensing data sources to enable applications that
rely on accurate locational information. In addition, software tools
allow multiple sources of remote sensing data to be blended together to
maximize the information content for remote sensing applications.
The availability of civil remote sensing data has led to the
establishment of companies dedicated to processing and transforming
remote sensing data into information products and applications for
users. These companies create mapping products, such as topographical
line maps and digital elevation models, three-dimensional visualization
tools, among other remote sensing applications.
Chairman Udall. This hearing will come to order. Good
morning to all of you. I want to welcome the panel witnesses
that we have, a very esteemed and erudite group that we're
going to hear from in a few minutes. In particular, I'm pleased
that my colleague and Ranking Member on the Space and
Aeronautics Subcommittee, Representative Tom Feeney from the
great State of Florida has been able to join me here in our
great State of Colorado.
I have to tell you as an aside that Congressman Feeney is a
very committed aerobic athlete. He got up this morning and ran
five or six miles here in Colorado, which is really impressive
given that he's a flatlander and came from Florida just
yesterday.
I'd also like to mention that Congressman Lamborn, who
represents Colorado in the United States House of
Representatives, he does send his regrets. He would have liked
to have joined us here today, but he unfortunately had a
previous commitment that made that impossible.
Before we begin, I'd like to also take the opportunity to
recognize some of the local officials who are here and thank El
Paso County officials for their help with today's hearing. I'm
looking forward to today's hearing because it touches on an
area that has great relevance for the lives of citizens here in
Colorado, as well as for the lives of folks all across America.
It's an area that hasn't gotten as much public attention as it
deserves, especially relative to the impact it has had on the
operations of our State and local governments, as well as on
other public and private-sector activities in Colorado and
elsewhere. I am speaking, of course, of the way that remote
sensing data collected from commercial and government
spacecraft and aircraft have been used to provide societal
benefits, help strengthen our national defense, and protect our
homeland.
And we are in an appropriate place to discuss these issues
as Colorado is leading the way in remote sensing technology.
Not only is our State the center of gravity for commercial
remote sensing activity, but our State and local government
officials are also on the cutting edge of using this technology
to help Colorado citizens. But I don't want to give too much
away from our witnesses' testimony today.
I would like to note that we've come a long way since some
of the first aerial photographs were taken of Boston in 1860
from a tethered balloon and even from the first civil remote
sensing satellite, TIROS 1, which was launched a century later
in 1960 to take images to be used in weather forecasts. Today,
remote sensing data is becoming nearly ubiquitous through the
use of advanced satellite, computing and communications
technologies. One need only call up web-based tools to access
images of cities, neighborhoods and unpopulated areas across
the country at no cost.
The U.S. Government and commercial firms operate numerous
aircraft and satellites to collect and deliver the remote
sensing data to users on the ground. Today we will hear more
about how these data are used to benefit our society, and what
needs to be done to expand on the opportunities this
information offers.
We need not look far to see and feel the challenges, some
known and some unknown, facing our municipalities and our
nation. Rising energy costs, our scarce water supply, and urban
sprawl are complex problems. We need to bring to bear the best
available information to ensure that we take effective and
well-informed actions in response. Moreover, our natural
environment and resources demand our vigilant stewardship. We
depend on water, forests, and fertile land, among other
resources, to support our needs.
Here in Colorado, we have a close relationship with the
land around us and are even more aware of how vulnerable these
resources are. Drought, the pine beetle infestation, and fire
have wreaked havoc on our communities and our environment. I
hope our witnesses can give us insight into how remote sensing
data can be used to help us effectively manage our natural
resources. Our government and private institutions also need to
ensure that we are prepared in the event of emergencies and
crises.
The tragedy of September 11, 2001 brought into stark
reality the need to assess our infrastructure and plan against
the risks. Remote sensing was a vital asset in the response and
recovery efforts at Ground Zero. I'm very interested in
learning about how remote sensing data can help our State,
local and federal agencies ensure our security at home and
abroad as well as respond to emergency situations.
Our witnesses today will also discuss the role of
commercial and remote sensing in collecting and delivering the
data to meet the needs of both public and private sector
customers. There is a science and an art involved in turning
the data collected by remote sensing instruments into
sophisticated tools to support decision-making, and I hope our
witnesses will help us learn about the range and types of
products that are available.
In that regard, I want to add that as an avid skier, Tom, I
was pleased to learn the Colorado hosts a company [SnowVisual,
Inc. of Vail] that specializes in the use of satellite imagery
to support the snow sports industry. I consider that a true
public service.
Congress has continued to provide policy direction for
civil and commercial remote sensing to ensure the continued
availability of this important data. The Land Remote Sensing
Policy Act of 1992 called for the continuity of civil land
remote sensing data and established the guidelines to enable
commercial operation of space remote sensing satellites.
In addition, Section 313 of the NASA Authorization Act of
2005 directed NASA to support the pilot projects ``to explore
the integrated use of remote sensing and other geospatial
information to address State, local, regional, and other tribal
agency needs.'' As we work on reauthorizing NASA this year, I
intend to explore whether Congressional legislation has been
effective in addressing those objectives, and whether Congress
needs to consider additional measures to enable the expanded
use of remote sensing data and information.
I hope that this hearing will help us also understand how
we can continue to improve the delivery of these data to users
so that it can be coordinated and shared among local, State,
and federal institutions, especially in the event of a crisis.
Finally, I look forward to hearing from our witnesses regarding
what, if anything, needs to be done to sustain and grow a
robust commercial remote sensing industry in the United States.
Well, we've got a great deal to discuss today, and we have
a very capable set of witnesses before us. Before we begin with
today's witness, I would like to note that while today's
hearing is focussed on uses of remote sensing data, Colorado is
home to several outstanding companies that design, build and
manage critical sensors to collect this information, including
Lockheed Martin, Ball Aerospace, and ITT. Without their
excellent sensor systems, our companies here today would not
have much to work with. So I acknowledge their critical role in
this area and am pleased that several representatives from
these companies are here today and will be submitting testimony
for the record.
In closing, I again want to thank all of our witnesses for
participating in today's hearing, and I look forward to your
testimony.
[The prepared statement of Chairman Udall follows:]
Prepared Statement of Chairman Mark Udall
Good morning. I want to welcome everyone to this morning's hearing.
In particular, I'm pleased that my colleague and Ranking Member on
the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee, Rep. Tom Feeney, has been able
to join me here in the great State of Colorado.
I'd also like to mention that Rep. Doug Lamborn, who represents
Colorado Springs in the U.S. House of Representatives, sends his
regrets.
He would have like to have joined us here today, but unfortunately
he has a previous commitment that made that impossible.
Before we begin, I would like to take the opportunity to recognize
some of the local officials who are here and thank El Paso County
officials for their help with today's hearing.
I am looking forward to today's hearing, because it touches on an
area that has great relevance for the lives of our citizens here in
Colorado--as well as for the lives of folks all across America.
It is also an area that hasn't gotten as much public attention as
it deserves, especially relative to the impact it has had on the
operations of our State and local governments--as well as on other
public and private-sector activities in Colorado and elsewhere.
I'm speaking, of course, of the way that remote sensing data
collected from commercial and government spacecraft and aircraft have
been used to provide societal benefits, help strengthen our national
defense, and protect our homeland.
And we are in an appropriate place to discuss these issues as
Colorado is leading the way in remote sensing technology. Not only is
our State the center of gravity for commercial remote sensing activity,
but our State and local government officials are also on the cutting
edge of using this technology to help Colorado citizens. But I don't
want to give too much away from our witness's testimony today. . ..
I would like to note that we've come a long way since some of the
first aerial photographs were taken of Boston in 1860 from a tethered
balloon . . . and even from the first civil remote sensing satellite,
TIROS 1, which was launched a century later in 1960 to take images to
be used in weather forecasts.
Today, remote sensing data is becoming nearly ubiquitous through
the use of advanced satellite, computing, and communications
technologies. One need only call up web-based tools to access images of
cities, neighborhoods, and unpopulated areas across the country at no
cost.
The U.S. Government and commercial firms operate numerous aircraft
and satellites to collect and deliver the remote sensing data to users
on the ground. Today we will hear more about how these data are being
used to benefit our society, and what needs to be done to expand on the
opportunities this information offers.
We need not look far to see and feel the challenges--some known and
some unknown--facing our municipalities and our nation. Rising energy
costs, our scarce water supply, and urban sprawl are complex problems.
We need to bring to bear the best available information to ensure that
we take effective and well-informed actions in response.
Moreover, our natural environment and resources demand our vigilant
stewardship. We depend on water, forests, and fertile land among other
resources to support our needs.
Here in Colorado, we have a close relationship with the land around
us and are even more aware of how vulnerable these resources are.
Drought, the pine beetle infestation, and fire have wreaked havoc
on our communities and our environment.
I hope our witnesses can give us insight into how remote sensing
data can be used to help us effectively manage our natural resources.
Our government and private institutions also need to ensure that we
are prepared in the event of emergencies and crises.
The tragedy of September 11, 2001 brought into stark reality the
need to assess our infrastructure and plan against risks. Remote
sensing data was a vital asset in the response and recovery efforts at
Ground Zero.
I want to learn about how remote sensing data can help our State,
local, and federal agencies ensure our security at home and abroad as
well as respond to emergency situations.
Our witnesses today will also discuss the role of the commercial
remote sensing industry in collecting and delivering the data to meet
the needs of both public and private sector customers.
There is a science and art involved in turning the data collected
by remote sensing instruments into sophisticated tools to support
decision-making, and I hope our witnesses will help us learn about the
range and types of products that are available.
In that regard, I want to add that as an avid skier, I was pleased
to learn that Colorado hosts a company [SnowVisual, Inc. of Vail] that
specializes in the use of satellite imagery to support the snow sports
industry. I consider that a true public service!
Congress has continued to provide policy direction for civil and
commercial remote sensing to ensure the continued availability of this
important data.
The Land Remote Sensing Policy Act of 1992 called for the
continuity of civil land remote sensing data and established the
guidelines to enable commercial operation of space remote sensing
satellites.
In addition, Section 313 of the NASA Authorization Act of 2005,
which I helped enact, directed NASA to support pilot projects ``to
explore the integrated use of . . . remote sensing and other geospatial
information to address State, local, regional, and other tribal agency
needs.''
As we work on reauthorizing NASA this year, I intend to explore
whether Congressional legislation has been effective in addressing
those objectives, and whether Congress needs to consider additional
measures to enable the expanded use of remote sensing data and
information.
I hope that this hearing will also help us understand how we can
continue to improve the delivery of these data to users so that it can
be coordinated and shared among local, State, and federal
institutions--especially in the event of a crisis.
Finally, I look forward to hearing from our witnesses regarding
what, if anything, needs to be done to sustain and grow a robust
commercial remote sensing industry in the United States.
Well, we have a great deal to discuss today, and we have a very
capable set of witnesses before us today.
Before we begin with today's witnesses, I would like to note that
while today's hearing is focused on uses of remote sensing data,
Colorado is home to several outstanding companies that design, build,
and manage critical sensors to collect this information, including
Lockheed Martin, Ball Aerospace, and ITT.
Without their excellent sensor systems, our companies here today
would not have much to work with!
So I acknowledge their critical role in this area and am pleased
that several representatives from these companies are here today and
will be submitting testimony for the record.
In closing, I again want to thank all of our witnesses for
participating in today's hearing and I look forward to your testimony.
Chairman Udall. The Chair now recognizes Mr. Feeney for an
opening statement.
Mr. Feeney. Well, thank you, and I'm delighted, Mr.
Chairman, to be in your home state. It's a great pleasure to be
here. You did point out that I try to run every morning. The
good news is this morning I ran from the Broadmoor uphill,
because if I had started out downhill, I wouldn't have made it
back and would be out there wandering around breathlessly. But
I made it back, and I was inspired by the view and really
enjoyed it.
I want to also thank our witnesses for taking time out of
their busy schedules to share their wisdom and concerns
regarding the benefits, future roles, and challenges
confronting this increasingly essential capability we're
talking about today.
It wasn't too long ago that remote sensing data was largely
a product of cameras and other sensors carried on aircraft. But
with the advent of the government- and commercial-owned remote
sensing satellites and their growing capabilities, and with the
ability to fuse databases, today's marketplace offers a dynamic
and sophisticated array of products.
Remote sensing data provide essential tools that help local
and regional government planners develop a comprehensive and
dynamic view of their communities and lands. They enable the
capability to monitor and measure the impacts and threats to
agricultural and urban activities, such as measuring soil
moisture, water use, pest infestation, and land development.
Equally important, at the local level remote sensing data has
fast become critical to the delivery of emergency services.
One thing Florida and Colorado share now and then is the
threat from things like wildfires, and I look forward to
hearing how the many states and regions that are impacted by
that threat can be assisted by the technology. Nationally,
remote sensing data provides critical information used to
monitor and predict weather and climate change--again, Florida
has our own share of climate change--land use changes at a
macro scale, and monitor and protect our borders.
This morning our witnesses will provide compelling
testimony highlighting the utility of remote sensing data. In
reading over the witnesses' testimony, I was particularly
fascinated by the capabilities developed by emergency response
personnel to devise plans and methods to deal with threats to
our communities, as well as assuring rapid first-response
services. As cities grow in size, timely delivery of these
services becomes more complex, and being able to quickly target
police, paramedic and fire services all the more critical.
While today's hearing will be Colorado industry focused, I
can tell you that in my Congressional District along Florida's
Space Coast, we've experienced a dramatic rise in population
over the last two decades. As a consequence of this growth,
ensuring timely emergency response services, measuring land-use
impacts, and preserving adequate fresh water sources are
considerations that now control much of our future development
considerations.
With that, Mr. Chairman, I again want to thank you and your
staff for your hospitality. I am excited to hear from our
witnesses and look forward to a good hearing.
Chairman Udall. Thank you, Mr. Feeney.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Feeney follows:]
Prepared Statement of Representative Tom Feeney
Mr. Chairman, it's a genuine pleasure to be here in Colorado to
conduct this hearing on the opportunities and challenges of using
remote sensing data. I want to join with you in thanking our witnesses
for taking time out of their busy schedules to share their wisdom and
concerns regarding the benefits, future roles, and challenges
confronting this increasingly essential capability.
It wasn't too long ago that remote sensing data was largely a
product of cameras and other sensors carried on aircraft. But with the
advent of government- and commercial-owned remote sensing satellites
and their growing capabilities, and with the ability to fuse databases,
today's marketplace offers a dynamic and sophisticated array of
products.
Remote sensing data provide essential tools that help local and
regional government planners develop a comprehensive and dynamic view
of their communities and lands. They enable the capability to monitor
and measure the impacts and threats to agricultural and urban
activities, such as measuring soil moisture, water use, pest
infestation, and land development.
Equally important, at the local level remote sensing data has fast
become critical to the delivery of emergency services.
Nationally, remote sensing data provides critical information used
to monitor and predict weather and climate change, land use changes at
a macro scale, and monitor and protect our borders.
This morning our witnesses will provide compelling testimony
highlighting the utility of remote sensing data. In reading over the
witnesses' testimony, I was particularly fascinated by the capabilities
developed by emergency response personnel to devise plans and methods
to deal threats to our communities, as well as assuring rapid first-
response services. As cities grow in size, timely delivery of these
services becomes more complex, and being able to quickly target police,
paramedic and fire services all the more critical.
While today's hearing will be a bit Colorado-centric, I can tell
you that in my congressional district along Florida's space coast, we
have experienced a dramatic rise in population over the last two
decades. As a consequence of this growth, ensuring timely emergency
response services, measuring land-use impacts, and preserving adequate
fresh water sources are considerations that now control much of our
future development.
With that, Mr. Chairman, I want to thank again our witnesses for
their presence, and I look forward to their statements.
Chairman Udall. And we'll do a little bit of housekeeping
here. If there are Members of our subcommittee that are not
here, Members who wish to submit additional opening statements,
their statements will be added to the record. Without
objection, so ordered.
Panel 1:
Chairman Udall. Let me move to introduction here of the
first panel of the witnesses, and I'd like to recognize each of
you in turn, and we'll come back to Mr. Byers to begin
testimony. We are joined by Mr. Jack Byers, who is the Deputy
Director and the Deputy State Engineer for the Colorado
Division of Water Resources. To his left is Dr. Simon Montagu,
who is the Customer Resource and Support Director for the
Denver Regional Council of Governments, also know as DRCOG,
fondly so. Next to Dr. Montagu is the Fire Chief, Mr. Navarro.
He's the Fire Chief of the City of Colorado Springs Fire
Department. We just saw each other last week in Washington. And
finally, next to Mr. Navarro, we have Mr. Frank Sapio who is
the Director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest
Service, Forest Development Technology Enterprise Team.
Welcome to all of you. We have some great expertise in
front of us. I think you all know, as witnesses, that your
spoken testimony is limited to five minutes, and after which
Members of the Subcommittee will have five minutes each to ask
some questions and further draw out the expertise that's in
front of us.
So we'll start with Mr. Byers. Mr. Byers, the floor is
yours.
STATEMENT OF MR. JACK G. BYERS, DEPUTY DIRECTOR AND DEPUTY
STATE ENGINEER, COLORADO DIVISION OF WATER RESOURCES
Mr. Byers. Thank you Chairman Udall, Congressman Feeney. I
really appreciate the opportunity to be here. And as the first
witness, I guess I'm a native of Colorado. Welcome to Colorado
Mr. Feeney, and welcome back. We appreciate having you here.
My name is Jack Byers, for the record. I'm the Deputy
Director and Deputy State Engineer for the Colorado Division of
Water Resources and I'm submitting this testimony on behalf of
the State of Colorado.
I want to point out that we are providing testimony that's
relatively focused today. It does not mean that we aren't
interested in other areas or that we don't support the other
expertise and information being provided today. We have what we
think is a significant need that we wanted to bring to the
Subcommittee's attention.
The other thing I'd like to mention is, although it was
clear skies here today, to the north we had some snow. We
appreciate that very much, and our snow pack is over 100
percent, which for us is a big deal, and skiing is tremendous.
So if you'd like to stay longer, we'd be happy to have you ski.
Mr. Feeney. I just might have to take you up on that.
Mr. Byers. That would be very good. As I mentioned today,
we are providing testimony on a fairly focused area. The State
of Colorado and many other western states have a critical need
for high-resolution, thermal and infrared remote sensing. This
is a particular remote sensing.
Colorado and other water agencies are actively integrating
thermal, infrared and remote sensing techniques as their
management strategies to estimate actual crop
evapotranspiration. That's with combined plant and surface
evaporation, to classify land covered by vegetation types and
quantify water consumption by irrigation, to support transfer
of agricultural water to growing cities, and I should say that
in a limited area. Here in Colorado, we do a great deal of work
at trying to limit those impacts, and we do following programs
and such, but we do know that there will be a transfer of water
here in Colorado from irrigated agriculture to the growing
cities. And this particular technology helped us a great deal
in working with that.
We use infrared remote sensing for estimating aquifer
depletion, river and canal transport modules, water rights,
compliance with water rights as well as water modeling, and
most important, climate change initiatives and the scheduling
of irrigation diversions.
This satellite-based information is highly beneficial in
terms of efficient water management. And I might add that much
of this is interstate compact water management, Colorado River
Basin water management. The Colorado River Basin, of course, is
not just a Colorado issue that you'd have Wyoming, Utah,
Arizona, and New Mexico, Nevada, and I believe there's a
western state, California, that has a great interest in
Colorado water, Colorado River Basin water.
As you know, NASA launched the first Landsat satellite in
1972. Landsat has the world's longest, continuous program to
collect digital, multispectral data of the Earth from space.
LANDSAT 4, launched in '82, was the first LANDSAT series to
carry thermal imagery, and each successive LANDSAT has had the
thermal infrared remote sensing capability.
Currently, we have some difficulties. It's available only
on Landsat 5 and Landsat 7. I won't bore you with the details,
but I will say that if we aren't able to, with our next
continuation of Landsat, carry this camera and this imaging, it
could be extremely detrimental to westwide water management. I
know that you're aware that the Western States Water Council
has also taken the position that this is critical, and Colorado
joins the other western states in again reminding the
Subcommittee that this is very important to us in Colorado as
well as the west.
I want to point out a couple of key issues that we had here
in Colorado, and that is that I mentioned our snow pack is very
good this year. It hasn't been that good in the past. And when
we have to manage ground and we look at the Colorado River
Basin and the potential of climate change, climate adaptation.
In this infrared technology, the imaging is extremely critical.
So it is a real westwide issue. I might also say that it helps
us with the evaluation of the impact of changing water and land
uses on wetlands, fish and wildlife, and endangered species,
another key area that Colorado would like to continue to work
with.
Being a native of Colorado and knowing that time is short,
I'm not one to talk a whole lot. And in conclusion, I just want
to say that Colorado strongly supports NASA's spending for the
thermal sensor on Landsat. And we don't believe that the
addition of a thermal sensor on Landsat will make a significant
difference in the scheduling. I have over 30 years of federal
service, both State and Federal Government, and with tribes,
and I would be extremely surprised if NASA put this satellite
up on time and on schedule. Therefore, I think that the
addition of this unit would not significantly deter that
mission.
We're thankful for Chairman Udall, your support. We also
have a great deal of support from the other Congressional
delegation within Colorado. We thank them. Congressman Feeney,
we'd like to count you toward that support as well to work
toward the resolution of what we think is a critical problem.
Again, short testimony, and I'd be happy to answer any
questions.
Chairman Udall. Thank you, Mr. Byers.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Byers follows:]
Prepared Statement of Jack G. Byers
Hon. Mark Udall, Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee:
My name is Jack Byers, Deputy Director and Deputy State Engineer
for the Colorado Division of Water Resources. I am submitting this
testimony on behalf of the State of Colorado.
The State of Colorado and many other western states have a critical
need for High Resolution Thermal Infrared Remote (TIR) Sensing.
Colorado and many western water agencies are actively integrating
Thermal Infrared Remote (TIR) remote sensing techniques into their
management strategies to estimate actual crop evapotranspiration (ET),
to classify land cover by vegetation (crop) type, to quantify water
consumption by irrigation to support transfer of agricultural water to
growing cities and other uses, for estimating aquifer depletion and
river/canal transport losses, monitoring water-rights compliance, water
modeling, climate change initiatives and for scheduling irrigation
diversions and reservoir releases. For these applications, replacing
on-the-ground reconnaissance with satellite-based information is highly
beneficial in terms of efficient water management, efficient use of
limited resources and improved decision-making.
As you know NASA launched the first Landsat satellite in 1972,
which makes Landsat the world's longest continuous program to collect
digital multi-spectral data of the Earth from space. Landsat 4,
launched in 1982, was the first of the Landsat series to carry a
thermal imager, and each successive Landsat has had a thermal infrared
remote (TIR) sensing capability.
High resolution TIR (approximately 60 m to 120 m pixel resolution)
is needed for the water resources management activities identified
above. The quantification of water use from Landsat using thermal data
is the only way to independently and consistently measure water use on
a field-by-field basis over large land areas. Typical field sizes in
the U.S. range from 10 to 160 acres, or about 180 meters to 750 meters
on a side. These sizes require relatively high resolution images to
produce information on an individual field. Other satellite platforms
[MODIS, (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer), ASTER,
(Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer),
AVHRR, (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer), GOES, (Geostationary
Operational Environmental Satellites), NPOESS National Polar-orbiting
Operational Environmental Satellite System)] include TIR capability but
at insufficient resolution to be useful at the field scale level, or
with inadequate return times or communication down-link constraints.
Irrigation is the largest user of fresh water in the western U.S.,
and Landsat thermal data is the basis of the best and least expensive
way to quantify and locate where water is used and in what quantity.
The 20+ year record of continuous high resolution TIR data on future
Landsat satellite missions or other platforms is uncertain. Landsat 8
scheduled to launch in 2011 does not contain a thermal imager. The
Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) also doe not currently contain
specification of a high resolution TIR.
Irrigated agriculture accounts for 80-85 percent of the consumptive
water use in the West. Increasingly Western States use TIR data to
observe land-surface temperature and energy balance differences from
evapotranspiration (ET) and calculate water consumption by agriculture
and other vegetation. Without FY 2008 funding, a TIR sensor likely
cannot be built in time to meet the 2011 launch timeline and this
increasingly valuable data will be lost. Use of TIR data for water
management has only recently exploded, following a drop in the cost of
the data after a failed attempt at private commercialization. Landsat 5
and Landsat 7 are the only U.S. sources of this data, but Landsat 5 is
nearly 20 years beyond its design life and Landsat 7 equipment failures
have left data gaps. Landsat 6 was destroyed when its launch failed. No
other U.S. or foreign TIR remote sensing capabilities now, nor for the
foreseeable future, can provide the workable features which now allow a
growing number of data users to measure and monitor water use.
Currently, higher resolution TIR is available only on Landsat 5 and
Landsat 7. Landsat 7 data after 2003 are difficult to use operationally
due to failure of the scan-line corrector. Landsat 5 launched in 1984
is 24 years old and has had power problems. The satellite was
temporarily taken out of service in October 2007 following a cell
failure within one of the satellite's two operating on-board batteries.
The USGS announced on Feb. 29, 2008 that Landsat 5 is once again
collecting and down-linking land-image data.
Demonstrated water resources planning and management applications
include:
quantifying and monitoring consumptive water use by
irrigated agriculture, urban and suburban landscapes, and
natural vegetation,
estimation of transferable water due to land
fallowing,
calibrating ground water models,
monitoring aquifer depletion,
computing water budgets for surface water models,
compliance with limits on water consumption under
interstate compacts,
monitoring the uniformity of irrigation water
application,
crop area, type, pattern and yield estimation,
monitoring the exercise of water rights, in order to
ensure their use according to State and federal laws, decrees,
compacts and negotiated agreements, rules and regulations.
The availability of thermal data from satellites, especially
Landsat, has enabled the development of energy balance models that
compute and map actual crop evapotranspiration (ET). Evapotranspiration
is a term used to describe the sum of evaporation and plant
transpiration from the Earth's land surface to atmosphere. Evaporation
accounts for the movement of water to the air from sources such as the
soil, canopy interception, and water bodies. Transpiration accounts for
the movement of water within a plant and the subsequent loss of water
as vapor through stomata in its leaves. Evapotranspiration is an
important part of the water cycle. This application is the first
important use of Landsat thermal data, and it has the clear potential
grow dramatically.
ET mapping has been accomplished using the SEBAL
(Surface Energy Balance Algorithms for Land) and METRIC
(Mapping ET at high Resolution using Internalized Calibration)
models in Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Washington, New
Mexico, Texas, Nevada and California. ET from individual fields
is estimated for purposes of water rights and irrigation water
management. The use of METRIC, SEBAL and other processes that
rely on Landsat's visible, near infrared, and thermal data, are
substantially more accurate than are simpler ET methods that
use vegetation indexes, which are a combination of the visible
and near infrared spectrum only. The advantage of using thermal
data in mapping water use is that land surface temperature can
identify fields that are short of water and thus have
suppressed ET. This information is important to quantify actual
water use by both irrigated agriculture and urban landscaping.
In Colorado, Colorado State University has developed
and applied its own version of the surface energy balance model
using TIR data, RESET (Remote Sensing of ET), in the lower
South Platte and Arkansas River Basins. Satellite based crop ET
estimates will allow the direct estimation of actual crop ET
when crops are stressed by lack of water, salinity, or other
stress factors. The ability to continue the development and use
of models like RESET will be an important complement to the
detailed crop ET/lysimeter research being initiated in the
Arkansas Valley and supported by DWR.
Data on cropped area/acreage and classification by crop type are
periodically updated for use in hydrologic models used to determine
compliance with interstate compacts, such as the H-I Model in the
Arkansas River Basin. Three remotely sensed Landsat imagery bands are
needed in this crop classification work: the visible, near-infrared and
thermal. All three bands are used to identify unique crop signatures.
The loss of the thermal band would seriously impact this work effort
and require greater expenditure of resources in ground-truthing of the
remotely sensed estimates. Additionally, the high resolution imagery
allows crop and field identification at the scale of most fields in the
Basin, with potential several pixels per field.
Colorado joins the Western States Water council and other western
states in strong support of increased funding for the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Earth Systematic Missions
Program and Landsat 8 thermal infrared (TIR) imaging technology needed
to better manage water use. This data has been provided since 1982,
from NASA Landsat satellites. The Administration has not requested NASA
FY 2008 funding for a TIR sensor on Landsat 8, scheduled to be launched
in 2011. The total estimated cost is $90-$100 million, with $35 million
needed in FY 2008.
At present, TIR data is used for defining field boundaries, crop-
type and water consumption in Colorado, California, Idaho, Kansas,
Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, Washington and
Wyoming, while other states are considering its future use. Related
activities have been undertaken or proposed in the Arkansas, South
Platte, Bear, Boise, Upper and Lower Colorado, Lemhi, Milk, North
Platte, Upper and Middle Rio Grande, Russian, Salmon, San Juan, Snake,
and Yakima River Basins. This important data gathering tool is now used
or can be used in the future for or to:
Calculate water use on a field-by-field and regional
scale and encourage water conservation;
More accurate water supply and demand planning,
including multi-basin water balances and budgets;
Measure consumptive use of surface and ground water
resources and impacts of diversions/pumping;
Administer water rights and evaluated proposed uses,
changes in use and water right transfers;
Ensure compliance with interstate compacts,
international treaties and other water use agreements;
Plan, mitigate and respond to drought, wildfire and
other heat-related events;
Monitor and assess the impact of climate change on
water, wetlands, vegetation, land uses, etc.;
Evaluate the impact of changing water/land uses on
wetlands, fish, wildlife, and endangered species; and
Many other natural resources, emergency management,
military, and other uses of national interest.
The 2000 Census reported that one third of all Americans live in
the West, and that the West accounted for half of the overall U.S.
population growth over that decade. The arid U.S. West is experiencing
explosive population growth. As Colorado and the West grows, water
conservation is key, the increased demand for scarce water supplies has
shifted water management strategy to developing innovative concepts for
sustainable use, developing more effective methods to allocate limited
water supplies. Water resources managers must understand water
consumption patterns over large geographic areas; Landsat provides an
important tool for effective, sustainable water management.
Colorado is involved in the allocation and administration of water
rights, Interstate compact compliance and planning for future water
needs related to population growth. For example, in the Colorado River
Basin, which supplies the myriad water needs of millions of people in
seven western states, ongoing discussions over sharing water shortages
and balancing future needs depend to a large extent on measuring and
monitoring consumptive water use governed by international treaties,
interstate compacts and State and federal laws. Landsat thermal imagery
is a tool with the potential to help smooth the way towards a present
and future water rights balance.
There are many other examples of such uses or potential uses of
Landsat TIR imagery in water management in the West. In California,
Landsat data and ET-related information help farmers determine their
actual irrigation needs. In New Mexico, Landsat data and ET maps are
helping water managers strike a balance between irrigation demands and
riparian vegetation, as well as the habitat needs of endangered
species. In the State of Washington, water users have used ET
estimates, again derived from Landsat thermal data, to encourage
conservation of water resources and increase streamflows for fish while
maintaining crop production and farm income. Colorado, Kansas and
Nebraska are exploring the use of Landsat data and ET to better monitor
and manage ground water uses in order to control over-drafting. Montana
uses Landsat data for water quality monitoring. Wetlands delineation,
habitat identification and soil moisture monitoring are other Landsat
uses.
In conclusion, Colorado strongly supports NASA spending for the
thermal sensor on Landsat 8 and urges the Subcommittee to remedy this
critical omission. We are thankful that Congressman Udall, Senators
Allard and Salazar, as well as others in the Colorado delegation and
west-wide continue to work toward resolution of this critical problem.
I would be happy to answer any questions or provide any further
information the Subcommittee might request.
Thank you for the opportunity to submit this testimony.
Biography for Jack G. Byers
Jack Byers is the Deputy Director and Deputy State Engineer for the
Colorado Division of Water Resources. Responsible for the leadership
and management of the Intrastate Water Supply, Development and Public
Safety which includes the Engineering, Technology and Investigations
Division, Water Supply and Well Permit Division and Budget management
office. Jack oversees the safety of dams program, hydrographic and
Stream measurement program, well construction programs and the
enforcement and compliance with applicable decrees, statutes, rules and
regulations. He serves on the National Dam Safety Review Board, Dept.
of Homeland Security--Government Coordinating Council on Dam Security,
Co-Chair of the Governor's Water Availability Task Force, and serves on
the Governor's flood hazard mitigation task force, Colorado homeland
security task force, and provides technical support to the Colorado
Commission on Indian Affairs. Jack also is the co-author of the
Colorado Water Law Benchbook. Jack is a Colorado native, with a BS in
Civil Engineering and a MS in Water Resources, Geotechnical and
Structural Engineering from Kansas State University. A Licensed
Professional Engineer in Colorado and Montana. Prior to the State of
Colorado he was the Director for Indian Affairs and Wyoming Office
State Manager for MSE Inc. He also worked 18 years with the U.S. Bureau
of Reclamation in a variety of management and leadership positions in
Denver, CO; Bismarck, ND and Billings, MT.
Chairman Udall. Dr. Montagu.
STATEMENT OF DR. A. SIMON MONTAGU, DIRECTOR, CUSTOMER RESOURCE
AND SUPPORT, DENVER REGIONAL COUNCIL OF GOVERNMENTS
Dr. Montagu. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and welcome home.
Congressman Feeney, welcome to the great State of Colorado.
I have no doubt that our Chairman has filled you in on the
beauty of the wonderments of this great state, and I hope you
get to enjoy your stay here. And I will attest that everything
he says is true. This is a fabulous state, and I'm very proud
to be part of the community here, the geospatial community, and
present this testimony.
I am Simon Montagu, the Director of Customer Resource and
Support Division of the Denver Regional Council of Governments,
affectionately known as DRCOG. We are the federally designated
metropolitan planning organization for the nine-county metro
Denver region. We have 55 other governments ranging in size
from communities such as Byers and Deer Trail on the eastern
plains, all the way out to small mountain communities and the
great cross section of communities that we find in a metro area
like Denver.
Our specific focus is on various things like mobility
services for the elderly community, the growing elderly
community in Colorado. Water quality, long-range planning, and
a whole bunch of other things that are best dealt with at a
forum that addresses these intrajurisdictional issues at a
common place.
We are obviously a great consumer of geospatial
information, and much of that information derives from remote
sensing technology. And so, therefore, we greatly appreciate
the opportunity to present before this hearing, and give some
sense of how we deploy these resources in our daily work flow,
not only at DRCOG, but of course our 55-member governments that
are part of the DRCOG membership.
In my written testimony, I've gone into some great detail
about some of the specific examples. And really what I want to
do today is just draw out one key point.
Our ability to do so is largely because of many decades of
federal investment in the remote sensing industry, and both the
indirect and direct follow-on benefits are federal involvement.
So really what I'm asking for is a continuation of that federal
investment in this program.
Some of the specific things that I did want to mention is,
you know, first of all, LANDSAT and NOAA and the various other
federal programs of the acquisition side are vital. LANDSAT
data is being used at this moment in many of our mountain
communities in DRCOG for wildfire management at the strategic
planning site. I noticed photos of the Hayman fire which had a
devastating effect on at least one of our counties, Douglas
County, in terms of the water quality issues that came with
that. So having imagery available is important to us.
NASA and its continuing involvement in areas like LIDAR is
very important to us. LIDAR is growing in importance across the
metro area in terms of its application. I mentioned in my
testimony the fact that we are in the process of collecting
LIDAR at this very moment for the downtown metro area in
preparation for the Democratic National Convention coming up in
August. That imagery, that data will be used by the National
Geospatial Intelligence Agency for their strategic and tactical
planning in regard to the safety of all of those participants
that will be at the convention.
We will also get access to that data going forward from
that, and we should be able to use all of that to help public
planning. We're very excited to be able to partner with the
USGS and NGA to collect that data.
I think the third thing I want to mention is the leadership
that many federal agencies have shown in terms of the
distribution model of moving this data around. We're now
reaching a stage of maturation for this industry. We have
significant volume of data, and being able to get that data in
the hands of the people that need it is critically important.
The USGS, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and other
federal agencies have taken a leadership role in terms of
pushing this stuff out over the Internet and making it more
readily available. Organizations like mine and the members that
we represent need this data, but they can't necessarily store
the vast amounts of data that are being produced. And so being
able to access that and call on it when we need it is vitally
important to us.
And so looking forward, then, what I'd like to ask is that
the Committee generally think about the continuation of support
for these federal programs that are not only doing the
acquisition work, but also the distribution side of it.
Specific programs to mention are the national map that the USGS
is working on, and the National Agriculture Imagery Program,
NAIP, which the USDA is working on. The NAIP Program allowed us
to get full coverage of the State of Colorado, very recently,
which is the first time that we've got that.
So just in closing, I'd like to ask specifically for
support in terms of making data more readily accessible to
everyone. And part of that is a policy solution in the sense of
saying we want this data in the hands of folks that can use it.
Part of it is also supporting those distribution mechanisms
that I've talked about. The other one is to allow us a pathway
to the Federal Government purchasing power to buy some of this
imagery through federal programs and make it available. The
Federal Government obviously has interest in the commercial
side. We can't afford it, and we'd like to tap into the federal
resources there.
Thank you.
Chairman Udall. Thank you, Dr. Montagu.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Montagu follows:]
Prepared Statement of A. Simon Montagu
The Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG) is a member-
driven Council of Governments comprised of 55 county and municipal
governments from across the greater Denver (Colorado) area. In its
sixth decade of service, DRCOG is proud of its collaborative approach
to protecting and enhancing the quality-of-life that make our region
such an attractive place to live, work and play. Specific focus areas
include mobility, service to older adults, environmental quality,
planning for the future, public safety, and the provision of high-
quality information for sound decision-making.
DRCOG has statutory responsibilities under both State and federal
law to plan for the region's future, particularly its transportation
infrastructure and overall growth and development. The signature
product of this process, Metro Vision, embodies the collective vision
of our member governments for the region and provides policies to guide
where, when, and how much growth will occur across the region.
DRCOG's stewardship of this regional planning process has garnered
many national awards and attracted international attention. We are
rightly recognized as a world leader in collaborative, ``bottom-up''
regional planning.
A hallmark of our regional planning process is the timely, accurate
and objective data that informs all of the visionary policies embedded
in Metro Vision. Geospatial data--information about the physical,
social and economic make up of our region--is vital to this process.
DRCOG is a major producer and consumer of geospatial data, large
volumes of which derive from remote sensing (RS) technologies. DRCOG is
therefore appreciative of the Committee's interest in the role of
remote sensing data in regional planning, and grateful for the
opportunity to present our views on both the opportunities and
impediments to making the information derived from RS technologies more
broadly available.
REMOTE SENSING DATA USE IN DENVER METRO REGION
Federal investment in research and development has and continues to
be a significant driver in the growth and expansion of the Nation's
geospatial information industry. DRCOG and its member governments
leverage this investment in significant ways on a daily basis. We
manage our urban environment, monitor the quality of our natural
resources, plan for the future, and make informed choices about where
to invest our scarce resources all with the help of data derived from
remote sensing technologies.
Across the Denver metro area and the State of Colorado as a whole,
local, regional and State agencies have come to rely on data derived
from three general types of remote-sensing technologies:
Aircraft-based aerial photography
Multi-spectral data
LIDAR and related technologies
AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY
DRCOG and our member communities have relied on film-based aerial
photography for many decades. High-quality orthophotography provides
local communities with spatially accurate, distortion free base data
layers critical to all of their planning, public safety and
governmental management functions.
Since 2002, DRCOG has led a successful consortium of public and
private participants to jointly acquire high-quality digital aerial
photography for the DRCOG region, exploiting the collective buying
power of 30 individual organizations. We repeated the effort in 2004
and 2006. and planes are currently in the air collecting 2008 imagery.
This year, the project expanded well beyond the territorial limits of
the DRCOG member region, allowing our neighbors in Weld and Grand
Counties to also benefit from this joint purchasing power.
The benefits to our member governments and all the other public and
private sector participants are very tangible. High-quality, high-
resolution digital orthophotography of the type we're collecting
typically cost $100-$150 per square mile. By contrast, the average cost
for participants in the 2006 project was a mere $11 per square mile.
The average cost for DRCOG members was less than $1 per square mile.
Colorado has a great tradition of this type of grass-roots,
collaborative, goal-focused effort. DRCOG's public-private consortium
model is mirrored in the Colorado Springs area, the emerging nine-
county (15,200-square-mile) Sangre de Cristo Regional GIS Cooperative,
and in the communities on the Western Slope.
Recently, the State of Colorado acquired statewide aerial
photography under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's
National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP). This program allows State
and local entities to leverage regular aerial photography acquisition
efforts by the USDA to obtain statewide photography for a fraction of
the total cost. Colorado was able to take advantage of this effort in
2005 resulting in the first complete coverage of the entire state all
acquired at one time. The State would never have been able to afford
this photography if not for the NAIP program. The data is now used
widely by numerous federal, State and local entities, as well as the
private sector and universities.
MULTI-SPECTRAL IMAGERY
The broad availability of space-based multi-spectral sensors (MSS)
in the 1970s and 1980s extended and enhanced the functionality of
traditional aerial photography, providing local, regional and State-
level planners with a cost-effective way to analyze and map critical
environmental processes across large geographic areas. Multi-spectral
imagery offers a number of data products from across the electro-
magnetic spectrum providing information that is imperceptible to the
naked eye.
Many communities across the DRCOG region now utilize Color-Infrared
(CIR) imagery, for example, to map impervious surfaces and monitor
surface runoff and downstream water quality. CIR data also plays a key
role in both the tactical and strategic aspects of wildfire management
across the region. Douglas County, for example, recently acquired
LANDSAT 5 data for mapping vegetation and modeling fuel loads in the
Pike National Forest and other heavily vegetated parts of the county.
Other cities and counties across the region have similar mapping
programs.
Broader applications of MSS-derived data include mapping the
massive Pine Beetle infestation in our mountain counties.
LIDAR AND RELATED TECHNOLOGIES
Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) and other related ranging
technologies (Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar--IFSAR--for
example) are becoming increasingly important to communities up and down
the Front Range as acquisition costs decrease and data from these
sensors become more widely available.
LIDAR provides an extremely cost-effective method for collecting
detailed and highly accurate terrain information. This data then feeds
into a range of sophisticated modeling processes that allow communities
to more accurately map not only ground features within their
communities, but also key anthropogenic structures such as buildings,
bridges, dams, etc.
This information provides the foundation for the construction of
three-dimensional models of cities that are now widely used in land use
and transportation planning, emergency response tactical plans, and as
aids in community involvement and visioning efforts.
Specific examples of LIDAR use in the Denver region include
security planning around the upcoming Democratic National Convention.
Working with several of DRCOG's member governments, the U.S. Geological
Survey is currently acquiring LIDAR data on behalf of the National
Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). The NGA will use LIDAR to
identify line-of-sight and other tactical vantage points to plan their
surveillance and response strategies to ensure the safety of all those
attending the convention.
Several of DRCOG's larger member governments have acquired LIDAR in
support of their planning and public works programs. The City and
County of Broomfield, for example, is using LIDAR data in planning the
development of a new reservoir. They also rely on the data for initial
assessment of new roads and trail systems and for understanding the
runoff and drainage implications of planned developments. LIDAR is also
playing an important role in the modernization of flood insurance
mapping across the state.
CHALLENGES AND IMPEDIMENTS
Although the use of data from remote-sensing technologies continues
to grow across the DRCOG region, there are a number of structural and
logistical impediments that both undermine our ability to use the
existing data products, and limit our ability to integrate other RS
data into current planning efforts.
Cost remains a significant challenge. The price tag for the 2008
DRCOG aerial photography project is over $1 million, in a climate of
little to no revenue growth among the participating jurisdictions. This
price reflects the combined purchasing power of 30 public and private
sector partners working to acquire this data collaboratively. Market
rates for digital orthophotography continue to increase despite the
emergence of new capture and processing technologies (direct digital
capture; automation, off-shore processing, etc.). Pricing of commercial
satellite-based imagery remains similarly high, relative to the data
budgets of most cities and counties.
High costs mean local, regional and State entities can acquire this
data less frequently than they require. Our imagery program struggles
to keep pace with the rapid growth of the nine-county region, but can
only afford to acquire new data every two years. DRCOG estimates that
our region adds on average about 100,000 new people, 65,000 new jobs
and nearly 30 square miles of new development in any given two-year
cycle. Understanding and managing this growth with out-of-date imagery
is a significant problem for both the staffs and elected officials of
DRCOG's member governments.
``Solving'' this impediment is unrealistic expectation. The
experience from Colorado is that communities working together,
collaboratively, can bring their collective buying power to the
commercial marketplace and reap significant savings over the cost of
going it alone. This ground-up approach remains the most realistic
solution to cost containment at this time, at least in the Colorado
context. The only request that I would put to the Committee is to
continue to fund the various federal programs--most notably the
National Map program led by the USGS and the National Agriculture
Imagery Program led by the USDA--that allow federal agencies to
collaborate with local partners to secure geospatial data all across
the country.
A second impediment is the challenge associated with the sheer
volume of remotely-sensed data that is now available. The estimated
volume of data from DRCOG's 2008 aerial photography acquisition, for
example, is over 10 terabytes. Few of our member governments have the
internal capacity to store and maintain all of this data. The problem
compounds with each new project, as part of the value of remote-sensed
data lies in the ability to review multiple years of data at the same
time (comparing changes over time).
Another dimension of this problem is the effort associated with
distributing data. While Internet bandwidth continues to improve,
online distribution of the large data sets associated with most remote
sensing technologies remains impractical.
Fortunately, new models of data distribution are starting to emerge
that facilitate the distributed storage and distribution of large
geospatial data sets. Data throughput under these models is greatly
reduced, pushing only the needed geographic window down to the end-
user, rather than distributing the entire geographic data file.
Examples of this model exist in both the public and private sector.
Several Colorado firms have established a national presence in this
realm--DigitalGlobe, Inc. in Longmont, CO, Intrasearch Inc. in
Englewood, CO, and Sanborn Map Company here in Colorado Springs. On the
public sector side, federal agencies are playing a lead role. The USDA
maintains its ``Data Gateway,'' the USGS has a long history using the
Internet for data distribution, and the ``e-government'' initiatives
sponsored by the Federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) lead to
the establishment of the ``Geospatial One-stop'' portal.
Federal investment in research and development provided the initial
impetus for the evolution of the Internet and federal agencies continue
to lead by example in their innovative use of this infrastructure to
distribute the tremendous wealth of geospatial information we now
possess. I urge Members of the Committee to recognize the important
leadership role of the Federal Government in this realm and continue to
support those federal programs that are augmenting the data
distribution services of the private sector.
My final comment in the area of impediments is of a technical
nature. Like all technologies, remote sensing data applies better to
some applications than others. Traditional multi-spectral technologies
have tended to provide very broad-acre imagery that works well at a
strategic planning level, but typically falls short when used for more
tactical, response-type planning. This is particularly true in the area
of wildfire management. Whereas the existing satellite imagery in the
public domain provides useful input into fuel load modeling for
understanding the threat of wildfires across our region, the resolution
of the available imagery renders it unusable in emergency response
situations. Commercially available data provides better resolution, but
at a price that is often beyond the means of the typical fire
protection districts that serve DRCOG's mountain communities.
OTHER DESIRED PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
On behalf of my peers across the DRCOG region and the State of
Colorado, I wish to acknowledge the continued leadership of the Federal
Government in the acquisition and dissemination of remote sensing data.
I hope that the Committee now sees how local and regional governments
leverage this federal investment every day in providing better, more
efficient government to all our citizens.
DRCOG and its members have shown that local governments can realize
significant cost-savings when communities band together to jointly
acquire remote sensing data. This type of collaborative endeavor is not
limited to the local or regional scale. With that in mind, I would like
to suggest two other areas where greater federal engagement would
significantly enhance the accessibility of remote sensing data to all
levels of government.
First, recognizing the vast data libraries and the ongoing
acquisition activities of the Federal Government, local and regional
governments across the country have much to gain from greater access to
these federal resources. Part of the solution is a policy decision to
make the data more broadly available. The other part is continued
support for the innovative data distribution strategies that we are
seeing from key federal agencies like the USGS and USDA.
Second, following the collaborative models that we see across the
State of Colorado, I would urge the Federal Government to allow local
and regional governments to leverage the tremendous purchasing power of
the Federal Government in the commercial remote sensing data
marketplace. This industry continues to grow and is a vital part of our
economy, particularly so in the Denver region. However, many of the
vital data products sold in the commercial marketplace are simply out
of reach of the small public-sector entities that would benefit most
from these products. Allowing these entities to work through federal
agencies (and their purchasing programs) to acquire commercial imagery
would realize significant benefits at the local level.
Biography for A. Simon Montagu
Dr. Montagu is the Director of the Customer Resource and Support
Division with the Denver Regional Council of Governments. This division
is one of five core divisions within DRCOG and is responsible for the
production and dissemination of the geospatial, socioeconomic and
travel modeling information produced by DRCOG. The division also
oversees the production of the ``Growth and Development'' part of Metro
Vision, the long-range strategic plan for the Denver metropolitan area.
In his seven years with DRCOG, Dr. Montagu has served as Geographic
Information Systems Coordinator and Regional Information and Research
Manager. Prior to DRCOG, Simon was an Assistant Professor in the
Department of Geography at Miami University in Oxford, OH, where he
taught classes in GIS and Urban and Regional Planning.
Dr. Montagu holds a Ph.D. in Regional Planning from the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and undergraduate degrees in
environmental science and natural resource management from Griffith
University in Australia. He has over 20 years experience in the
geospatial information technologies realm and has worked in a number of
capacities across the United States, Australia, and the South Pacific.
Chairman Udall. Mr. Navarro.
STATEMENT OF MR. MANUEL NAVARRO, FIRE CHIEF, CITY OF COLORADO
SPRINGS FIRE DEPARTMENT
Mr. Navarro. Thank you. My name is Manuel Navarro; I am the
Fire Chief of the Colorado Springs Fire Department in Colorado
Springs, Colorado. I think it's important to note that we have
submitted a brief and we have many details in that and I'll
just sum those for you.
I think it's important to note that I'm a practitioner.
I've been in the field for 41 years. I know you're saying, how
old is this guy? The reality is that I'd like to talk to you a
bit about both mitigation and response from a fire chief's
standpoint and how we can leverage some of the technology in
our organization to help us with those issues.
On the mitigation side of it, I call your attention to some
of the things that have happened in California. And by the way,
I spent 28 years in the fire service in California. It wasn't
open in 1991 when a fire devastated several residential
properties and killed 25 individuals. The map we used that day
was hand drawn, and that was in 1991. As a matter of fact, that
map--I drew some of the maps in that. That's how bad the
technology was on the fire service side of it. We've been able
to use that technology here, at least that geospatial
technology to get some good maps now.
Because one of the concerns we have, obviously, is seven
days a week, 24 hours a day, when a call for service comes in,
we need to find that location, and specifically that address,
and we're leveraging that now with other GIS data to be able to
weigh the situation so that we have situational awareness when
we get on the site.
Oftentimes, we're sent to facilities or occupancies where
we have no idea what's in that unless we've experienced
inspection beforehand. And given the size of our community, we
simply can't do that. So that base layer and all the technology
that follows that is extremely, extremely important on the
response side.
I think you've got a picture of the Hayman fire. I'm not
sure exactly when that was taken. Some of my planning staff was
able to facilitate some of the planning efforts there. But I
will tell you, on the ground, in a wildland fire, most fire
officers really have to lay a map out in front of them and
guess at what's happening. They don't have realtime analysis.
We simply weren't able to leverage that with programs like
Global Hawk and Predator. And I can tell you how exciting it is
from the response side of that to be able to have situational
awareness and realtime information relative to what's going on
with the fire.
This is real personal stuff for us. A few years ago there
was a fatality in a San Diego fire. My nephew, who is a
firefighter in California, was at the end of that cul-de-sac
and was told to back out and stop, back out. And when he came
back out, he saw the fatality there because the fire had turned
on him and moved. When you're in that position, it's so hard to
tell.
On the mitigation side of that, we've done some very
interesting things. We're able to use risk analysis and portray
that on our web site. And our folks here in Colorado Springs
are able to go to that web site, take a look at that, and be
partners with us.
Chairman Udall. Mr. Navarro, can you pull the mic a little
bit closer? Some of the audience--no, you wouldn't know. Some
of the audience--all the witnesses need to have it a little
closer so the audience can hear.
Mr. Navarro. We'll try this. Is that better?
On the mitigation side of it, we've been able to leverage
that technology to be able to get partners in our community.
And most recently, the greatest example of that is FEMA has
awarded us with a million dollar grant here in Colorado
Springs. The match for that has been neighborhood associations
and local government to be able to clean up some of the fuel.
What we hope to prove is that on the front end of these
disastrous fires, we can have more info.
Just in concluding, I must tell you that local government
is really strapped to be able to leverage technology. When I
talk to my staff, they simply say we don't have enough staff.
We don't have enough resources, and the projects that we have
in front of us, just to meet the mission locally, is
overwhelming us. We were able to leverage an AVL system simply
because we got really lucky. Public works got a grant from the
Federal Government to be able to do that, and that helped us
move that AVL system on our fire trucks. Otherwise we wouldn't
have had that at all.
In conclusion, thank you very much. Thank you for your
interest. And the fire service is more than willing and able to
be able to sit down with you and talk about some of the
specifics relative to this type of technology.
Chairman Udall. Thank you, Mr. Navarro.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Navarro follows:]
Prepared Statement of Manuel Navarro
Introduction
Thank you for the opportunity to appear before the Committee on
Science and Technology and discuss with you some of the experiences
that the City of Colorado Springs and the Colorado Springs Fire
Department have encountered in applying remote sensing and geospatial
information systems to improve our emergency response and preparedness.
My name is Manuel Navarro; I am the Fire Chief of the Colorado
Springs Fire Department. As a 41-year veteran of the fire service, I am
honored to present to you today. Across my career and as the Chief of
the Colorado Springs Fire Department, I have had the privilege to lead
firefighters and emergency response personnel in dangerous and life
threatening situations with a constant focus on our responsibility to
protect lives and property from fire, medical, and disaster events.
Finding new ways to plan for, prepare, and respond to emergency
situations is something that I have charged my department with from the
day I arrived in Colorado Springs. I think we have made some impressive
advances in improving citizen preparedness, community resiliency,
emergency response planning and operational situational awareness that
I would like to share with the Committee. At the same time, we have
encountered some hurdles and lessons along the way that I would also
like to share.
In my presentation to the Committee, I will discuss the importance
of gaining and maintaining situational awareness of the environment
necessary for effective and safe firefighting. In the City of Colorado
Springs, we have realized that remote sensing technology and geospatial
information are key tools in improving our ability to shape the
environment that we operate in. We now rely on these tools to help us
prepare and plan for potential hazard and risk events, communicate with
our citizens and adjacent emergency response agencies, and make the
right decisions while deploying in initial attack or during sustained
operations during a large scale wildland fire.
Before I offer testimony regarding the aforementioned issues, I
think it is important that we establish a common understanding of the
complexities involved with managing fire service response to
emergencies, 24 hours each day, seven days each week. As we deliver
emergency services, there can be no excuses regarding our response--
lives and property are at stake; it must be timely, we must get to the
proper address or location and we must be proficient in rendering the
services we provide. With that said, we have grown to understand the
value that planning has for our organization. We must respond, we will
respond, we will make tough decisions--but there is no need for us to
have to make those kinds of decisions without the benefit of a very
strong planning process. One bit of institutional humor for us is that
the fire service represents 150 years unimpeded by progress. Well,
fortunately, we have undergone a sea-change in our thinking where we
have come to understand that planning and mitigation work literally
``shapes the battlefield'' in which we operate tactically. For Colorado
Springs, the operational response mission must be accomplished, in our
case, from a network of twenty fire station locations housing fire
companies that are staffed by three different working shifts. But it
doesn't require that we make our hard decisions without the benefit of
thorough analysis and thoughtful response. Management of the training,
logistics and standard operating procedures of fire companies to
support this mission is challenging for any fire chief.
Emergency Response
When we receive a 911 call for emergency services, the appropriate
emergency unit must be notified and that crew must correctly navigate
heavy apparatus through heavy traffic conditions and difficult weather
conditions at any time, day or night, to the address or location.
Accurate maps, occupancy of buildings and location of response vehicles
is essential in completing our mission and to ensure the safety of the
responding firefighters.
The Colorado Springs Fire Department has employed geospatial
technology for 25 years to create the most accurate map for the city
and adjacent areas. As our city has experienced significant growth and
development over the last several decades, the ability to accurately
map new and changing streets have proven to be critical in dispatching
emergency apparatus rapidly, effectively, and efficiently. Using the
accurate base maps, we employ additional GIS technologies to layer
critical information that can be utilized to provide additional
information associated with that location or address to responding fire
companies.
I cannot adequately express to this committee how important it is
to provide responding fire officers with critical information regarding
a specific building or hazard. The information allows fire officers to
efficiently make critical decisions on the way to and at the scene of
an emergency. Those decisions based on accurate information, coupled
with the education and experience of the fire officer, lead to safely
controlling emergencies while at the same time limiting property
damage, saving lives and providing for the safety of responding
emergency personnel.
Lacking local resources to develop this additional functionality
was a challenge for us here in Colorado Springs. The city's Public
Works Department recently received a federal transportation grant to
develop Automatic Vehicle Location System (AVL) technology. The fire
department had an opportunity to collaborate with our own City Traffic
and Public Works Divisions in the development of the AVL system that
provides the following functionality:
Locates every emergency that is identified by the
Emergency Dispatch Center and transmits it to the traffic
signal system computer.
Provides every dispatched emergency unit with a map
display showing a route to the location.
Preemption that signals the traffic lights along that
route to turn green as the emergency unit approaches the
intersection.
An on-board touch-screen computer developed by the
department's I.T. staff, mounted in each emergency vehicle to
archive and display additional layers of information.
Situational awareness delivered through the on-board
computer which displays available data for the scene.
Wireless, hands-free data updates (each fire station
has been linked so that data can be updated to the on-board
computer).
The base map originally developed with geospatial technology has
been leveraged to work with the AVL system. It now provides routing
capability for emergency vehicles to the location of an emergency and
provides safe emergency response by controlling intersections. The base
map is also used to identify individual addresses which in turn is used
to access the base for layers of GIS information essential to safe and
effective emergency operations. In the near future, fire companies will
be able to develop pre-plans for individual occupancies that will be
added as additional layers of information available in the apparatus to
responding fire officers.
We are in the final process of reconciling our map centerline data
in our computer aided dispatch (CAD) system to provide automatic
vehicle location dispatch and move away form the current CAD tabular
dispatch system. Once we have moved to that technology we will be able
to improve response times without adding additional responding units to
the department by always dispatching the nearest appropriate emergency
unit.
Wildfire Risk
The department has also employed remote sensing in the form of
hyperspectral imagery to study the city's wildland-urban interface
areas and watersheds. This remote sensing technology provides us with
detailed mapping of fuels, construction features, vegetation types,
densities and locations that previously could only be categorized and
mapped by laboriously walking and inspecting each area. Hyperspectral
remote sensing data is one of the most promising data collection
sources for planning and mitigation efforts related to wildland fire,
community risk, and environmental hazards. As a remote sensing data
source, hyperspectal information allows communities to collect high
quality data and extract multiple information elements from a single
flight. We have collected and analyzed hyperspectral data to detect and
map specific features such as the type and status of wildland fire
fuels, the densities and location of high risk vegetation species, and
the conditions and physical traits of at-risk structures and access
roads. All of these traits are of special concern during active fire
fighting operations and typically are unavailable prior to incident
operations. Highly accurate and data rich remote sensing sources like
hyperspectral systems provide decision-makers with true situational
understanding and awareness of the terrain, access, fuel and vegetation
layers and building arrangements and locations. Within the Colorado
Springs Fire Department, this data is used across almost all of the
department's operations ranging from mitigation to response.
CSFD staff is currently developing a wildland urban interface (WUI)
plan for the drainage areas and neighborhoods in the city's wildland
urban interface. We will integrate the layer of fuels data provided by
the hyperspectral imagery with current information on fire behavior to
provide responding command officers with planning and operational
situational awareness. We are also developing a map layer with specific
information to assist command officers in positioning staged apparatus,
evacuation zones and safe refugee areas, as well as displaying other
potential fire control and resident safety issues.
Community Education
The department's Community Services staff has also employed this
technology to inform and motivate community members to ``FireWise'' \1\
their property. We have created an interactive web site that maps each
individual property and their risk rating with regard to wildfire risk.
Individual property owners can then access the information utilized to
develop the risk rating of that property and, more importantly, how
that rating can be improved by employing FireWise risk-reduction
treatments to the property.
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\1\ ``The national Firewise Communities program is a multi-agency
effort designed to reach beyond the fire service by involving
homeowners, community leaders, planners, developers, and others in the
effort to protect people, property, and natural resources from the risk
of wildland fire--before a fire starts. The Firewise Communities
approach emphasizes community responsibility for planning in the design
of a safe community as well as effective emergency response, and
individual responsibility for safe home construction and design,
landscaping, and maintenance.'' (www.firewise.org)
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We have employed technology to leverage the efforts of staff in
educating the thousands of households in the Colorado Springs wildland-
urban interface areas. Here in Colorado Springs we have approximately
40,000 residential properties in these interface areas. Effective use
of technology has greatly enhanced our efforts in community education
with regards to wildfire mitigation. I think this is an important
distinction to make. We have transitioned the use of remotely sensed
information from purely reactive and tactical to a forward thinking,
mitigation and planning effort. I think it is understood by this group
that remote sensing technologies are tried and true in the operations
arena--particularly the larger the incident is. However, we have come
to see much more value that these rich data sets can provide to us long
before the incident begins. Our focus has increasingly transitioned
toward using the information provided by remote sensing as a real asset
in our planning and mitigation work. Our use of hyperspectral data is
just one example of how a local jurisdiction provided the specific
information with which we could employ our risk analysis and thus
educate individual property owners.
The use of these technologies has provided us with an opportunity
to change our approach to creating a safer community. By employing
innovative uses of remote sensing and geospatial technologies, citizens
in our city are educated and motivated to treat their own property and
not rely on local government to provide that service. We have developed
a culture in our city that encourages citizens to partner with local
government to provide public safety. By creating our web site we have
greatly improved our efforts in getting individual property owners and
neighborhood associations to partner with us in mitigating the fuel in
these interface areas. Perhaps this seems subtle, but it is an
important note: these efforts have created an environment in which our
citizens actively participate in their own outcome, effectively sharing
the responsibility--and that, after all, is the very definition of
community.
Grant Proposals
The layers are also used to develop grant proposals utilized to
secure funding which support community wide fuel mitigation projects.
In a recent example, the City of Colorado Springs was awarded a one
million dollar mitigation grant by FEMA. That FEMA grant was the only
one of its kind in the Nation. I firmly believe we would not have been
successful in winning that grant had it not been for the robust data we
were able to employ in the planning and justification for the grant. It
was successful in large measure due to the capability we developed with
our risk analysis of wildland fire issues using hyperspectral data. We
were able to leverage our investment in remote sensing to make a strong
case to FEMA that we knew both the nature of our problem and how to fix
it.
Community Risk
Additionally, we have also embarked on developing a very
sophisticated community risk assessment model. The model uses
geospatial data\2\ which are evaluated by all community stakeholders,
to assess and categorize risk. It is a mixed-methods approach that
couples the input from subject matter experts and the community inputs
(qualitative) with mathematical models (quantitative) that describe not
just where events have happened, but the very causes of those events.
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\2\ Includes geospatial data describing the city's natural, social,
and built environments.
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The results of these assessments are clearly displayed on a map
with shadings indicating the degree of risk severity. The visual
display quickly communicates the location and extent of community risk
so that citizens and policy-makers can openly and with confidence
discuss mitigation strategies. This is an important success for us to
highlight. This illustrates the success we have in communicating with
our public due to our use of GIS and remote sensing technologies. If a
picture is worth a thousand words, how much is a dynamic living picture
of risk and exposure worth to a community that can access it 24 hours a
day, seven days a week. We prepare to respond 24x7, so why wouldn't we
mitigate and communicate the same way.
One of the innovative approaches that we are taking is that the
results of the qualitative criterion can be displayed next to
quantitative criterion and where there is convergence; policy-makers
can have assurance that they are developing a good decision that
represents realistic informed consent in the affected communities.
Where the data does not converge, policy-makers can call out subject
matter experts and citizens to discuss the difference in opinions.
Funding
Locally, we have been challenged in developing the technology
needed to provide operational decision-makers and policy-makers with
accurate, current and comprehensive data. Grant funding for the AVL
system came to us by happenstance through our Traffic Department. They
had a 900 MHz radio system and wanted to develop the vehicle location
technology. We were able to place staff on the project and not only
developed and tested their applications but developed the application
for our emergency apparatus. We were very fortunate to be able to take
advantage of that transportation grant (Congestion, Mitigation and Air
Quality--CMAQ) as such funding is not available locally, through the
state or through National Fire Administration grants.
The funding necessary for the geospatial and remote sensing over
flights was carved out of current operational budgets and partnering
with other interested city departments. We were very limited in the
amount of resources we could employ to gather this data. Again, this
technology and data is vital to our public safety work but we found
very little support in the form of grant dollars to complete this work.
As my staff discusses the issues regarding development and use of
technology in the fire service, they portray the problem in clear and
concise terms; there is no staff dedicated to these projects, there is
little additional time to allocate to these projects, and there is no
funding to have the work completed by others and yet we have this
essential mission to complete.
Education
I would add that employing current technology is also a significant
educational challenge for the fire service. Few, if any, fire service
officers that are adept and capable in emergency operations work have
formal education or experience with modern technology. We have been
fortunate to have an accomplished information technology staff in-house
that supports our public safety mission. The collaboration between
experienced fire officers and a very sophisticated information
technology staff has allowed us to take advantage of finite resources
and create innovative approaches to community safety employing new
technology.
IT Staff
When I took command of this department some 14 years ago, I had a
departmental information technology division. We had fire operations
staff working side by side with a very talented group of IT and GIS
staff. The combination of those two groups of very talented employees
allowed us to investigate, research, and create opportunities to employ
technology in the work we do. The results are that this department is
on the leading edge of utilizing technology to improve the
effectiveness and efficiency of the department.
Training
Operationally, fire officers rely on training, education and
experience as a foundation in making decisions regarding management of
a variety of emergency situations. Then at the scene of an emergency,
officers and firefighters must apply that training and situational
understanding to the facts and observations made at the incident to
develop situational awareness.
Technology can provide a large quantity of data through GIS layers
supported by remotely sensed information and associated with a specific
site and a specific type of incident. That information will not be
easily processed nor understood unless we begin to train fire officers
on how to recognize that information and use it in a situational
awareness process. The fire service currently lacks that training and I
know of no support for that training.
2008 California Fire Siege Example (move to emergency response and
operations section)
The information available with the use of technology must also be
employed in the operational planning process prior to an emergency and
as the emergency involves. We saw a graphic demonstration of this
application in the recent California wildfires. At that fire, overhead
assets in the form of satellite platforms, unmanned aerial vehicles
(UAVs) from NASA and DOD, National Guard, civil and commercial fixed
wing and space-borne assets were able to bring into the planning
process of the command post real-time data including full-motion video.
Technology available to the military that provides situational
awareness was deployed in California and from my opinion has the
potential to greatly improve our ability to manage and control these
large wildland fires--particularly if these assets are directed by
local and State authorities with a mechanism to quickly capture, store,
and disseminate the information. It doesn't really matter if we have
this powerful remote sensing capability and we don't put the
information in the hands of the actual boots on the ground when they
need it. We should thoughtfully consider how we could institutionalize
this capability vice scrambling when large events inevitably overtake
us.
Personal Experience
I can tell you from experience that management of large wildfires
is a most difficult task and having current and comprehensive data,
maps of predicted fire behavior, and fire location and live video feeds
are of tremendous assistance in managing the fire, saving citizens at
risk, and controlling the position of fire apparatus and firefighters.
In 1991, I was a command officer with the City of Oakland when in one
afternoon we lost over 3,300 residential properties and the lives of
twenty five people.
We did not have a map of the fire's perimeter or know the extent of
damage until late that night. The perimeter of the fire was drawn by
hand over an existing city map by a fire officer hanging out of a
helicopter as it flew the area.
There are significant issues with bringing this technology to the
fire service. As stated, there is a lack of resources and funding to
acquire the technology and to gather the data. There is also the issue
of training fire officers to understand and employ that data in their
decision-making. We also have an issue with standards.
Standards--move above Personnel Experience
In association with the International Association of Fire Chiefs,
there has just recently been established a Technology Advisory Council
to standardize data collection, storage, and exchange. The National
Fire Protection Association has also begun to appoint a technical
committee on Fire and Emergency Service Geographic Information Systems
that will explore geospatial data needs and current applications to
develop common fire service standards and protocols for exchanging
geospatial data between GIS user agencies and organizations during
emergencies. Perhaps for the first time, essential data elements
gathered by local responders can be utilized by incoming mutual
partners whether they are local, State, or federal. The development of
standards is an essential step in developing GIS information that can
be utilized by the fire service.
We recently hosted a meeting of many individuals involved with
these projects so that they could share their individual efforts in
order to develop a National Fire Service Data Model for gathering this
data. That effort should receive continued support as we explore the
development of this standard and look towards implementation at the
local level.
Personal Comments
I perceive in the implementation of remote sensing technology that
there are many issues regarding the use in the fire service for
response and mitigation activities. I do not profess to have sufficient
expertise to comment on the technical aspects of development of such
technology. I can tell that you what we have done here in Colorado
Springs has greatly leveraged our ability to provide the best in public
safety with regards to fire control and suppression and community
education.
I will offer that the leadership in the fire service and the
emerging leadership must be trained so that they can fully employ the
available emerging technology. Most fire officers have learned their
trade through training, classroom and didactic, and with application of
that training in practical experience. The introduction of remote
sensing and GIS into the work we do must be accompanied by training and
practice. That training will come at some cost. As with any training
program, we must provide the training staff, develop the curriculum,
and pay for the wages of the attendees. The training then has its
associated cost, all of which must be provided with finite resources
currently available to local government.
I have been asked by the Committee to discuss how we have utilized
remote sensing data and to also comment on barriers. Briefly, I have
discussed with the Committee some of our work regarding how we have
utilized this technology. With regards to barriers I would comment that
there are several:
Funding for such work is lacking at the local level.
Local government has finite resources that are wholly dedicated
to providing services and at the federal level, there are few
available resources for this emerging technology in the fire
service.
As we develop this technology and move to
applications for response and mitigation, a national standard
should be supported so that local, State and federal response
resources can all utilize the data.
There is a need to develop national policies,
standards, and functional models to enable data sharing and
coordinated data exchange starting with local agencies for
decision support and situational status to incident commanders
during escalating events of national significance.
Implementation of this technology must be accompanied
with training of the current and emerging fire service
leadership. Perhaps it is possible to fund the U.S. Fire
Administration to develop a program through the U.S. Fire
Academy that provides support curricula with appropriate GIS
and RS training. Additionally, some sort of train-the-trainer
program for GIS specialists in the fire service would create
capacity nationally.
The federal grant funding systems could recognize the
value of the implementation of these technologies as a key
piece in planning and risk-reduction efforts. It has been
difficult to use grant mechanisms for these purposes despite
the huge successes we have had in our communities when we have
used remote sensing and GIS together.
The geospatial intelligence strategy to support
national security and preparedness must start at the local
level. This cannot happen until locals have access to effective
GIS and remote sensing products that support their daily
operational requirements. Effective widespread implementation
of fire service technology will require appropriate data,
tools, funding, and education delivered to local responder
agencies. These components need to be defined by appropriate
input from the fire service, for the fire service. This can be
accomplished by working through existing national fire service
organizations and leadership structures, most of whom have
identified GIS and remote sensing as an important technology
for supporting their mission.
Conclusion
In closing, the Committee was also interested in comments regarding
what would be most valuable to the fire service in expanding the use of
remote sensing data for the future. We certainly support the use of
geospatial information systems and the remote sensing data that feeds
data to it. Fire officers will find that information extremely helpful
in managing and controlling emergencies. The technology to support
those activities in our estimation should be further researched and
funding needs to be provided to make that technology available at the
local level.
We have been very successful in employing data from remote sensing
platforms to enhance our community education programs, to assist in the
planning efforts with regards to fuel mitigation, and to provide an
easily understood display of community risk to citizens and policy-
makers. We were able to employ remote sensing to gather data that would
take prohibitive personnel and time commitment to gather. We would
support further research in the use of this technology to gather
additional information such as roof types and other data essential to
full development of community risk attributes.
Colorado Springs has shifted from binders on bookshelves to a
community-based, geospatially enabled risk-assessment methodology. We
have strived to understand the nature and characteristics of risk and
then systematically work on risk reduction activities. We are
developing mitigation strategies in addition to our response
applications. We believe that responding to emergencies without really
seeking to know what the underlying causes of the problems are is only
part of creating a safer community. We support technology that provides
us with the data required to understand and analyze the community risk.
We have been very fortunate in Colorado Springs with developing and
utilizing remote sensing technology. We have utilized local staff and
collaborated with some extremely talented private sector contractors.
We would strongly encourage the Federal Government to support these
types of activities at the local level in order to improve the fire
service's response to public safety as well as provide situational
awareness for incoming local, State, and federal assets during major
emergencies.
Again, thanks for having me here today, I would be happy to take
any questions you might have.
Biography for Manuel Navarro
Manuel Navarro was born in Oakland, California. He was a life-long
resident of the San Francisco East Bay area until January of 1994 when
he was appointed Fire Chief for the City of Colorado Springs. Chief
Navarro's 41-year career began in the San Francisco Bay area in 1966
and he has served as firefighter, Lieutenant, Captain, Battalion Chief
and Assistant Chief prior to being appointed Chief of the Colorado
Springs Fire Department.
Chief Navarro holds an Associate of Arts Degree in Fire Science and
a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Public Administration with a minor in
business. In 1995, he attended the Kennedy School of Government,
Harvard University, being awarded one of four National Fire Protection
Association fellowships given that year. He holds a State of California
Master Fire Instructor Certification and is certified to teach a number
of specialized fire science topics.
Chief Navarro is an experienced and knowledgeable fire command
officer and participated as a command officer in three nationally
declared disasters (1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake, 1991 Oakland Hills
Fire and 1992 Hurricane Iniki, Kauai). The Chief is considered an
expert in many technical areas--most notably in the field of Urban
Search and Rescue. He was responsible for the management of the Oakland
sponsored Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) National Urban
Search and Rescue Team and served as a member of the FEMA Urban Search
and Rescue Management and Control Committee.
Chairman Udall. Mr. Sapio, the floor is yours.
STATEMENT OF MR. FRANK J. SAPIO, DIRECTOR, FOREST HEALTH
TECHNOLOGY ENTERPRISE TEAM (FHTET), U.S. DEPARTMENT OF
AGRICULTURE
Mr. Sapio. Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee,
thank you for this opportunity to testify before you today on
remote sensing data, its applications and its benefits.
The Forest Service uses remote sensing technology ``to
foster the development and use of technologies to protect and
improve the health of America's forests.'' Remote sensing
technologies have serviced resource management well in the
past, and will be an increasing part of land management in the
future. When used effectively, they provide a means of data
collection that is accurate, timely, and cost effective.
In our technology development, we try to select the
appropriate remote sensing methodology. The spatial, temporal
and cost capabilities of each sensor must be carefully
evaluated for each project. If an appropriate match can be
made, the Forest Service will try to use that technology to aid
it in the natural resource assessment efforts. This assessment
must be tactical, and they use imagery from a broad scale to a
fine scale. Some systems are government-owned. Some systems are
commercial systems.
Remote sensing is used at three principal scales, a broad
scale to a strategic regional and national assessments, and
mid-scale to assess landscapes, and a fine scale to aid in the
mapping of forest stands and areas of damage.
On a broad scale, our current data-collection methodologies
from national insect and disease assessments rely heavily upon
aerial sketchmapping surveys. These surveys are accomplished by
aerial observers flying in light aircraft who sketch
observations on paper or on pen-based portable computers.
Though somewhat limited in spatial accuracy, this low-tech
approach is appropriate technology and is particularly well-
suited for trend analysis because we can cover almost the
entire country annually. This method was used in developing a
2007 map of infestation in Colorado, and has been our method of
choice for some time.
Imagery collected at a broad scale also includes satellite
images from NASA, and NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging
Spectroradiometer (MODIS) which provides 250-, 500-meter and
one kilometer spatial detail. MODIS is used to detect and
monitor wildland fires, assist incident coordination, and to
portray the fire situation to the public. MODIS is utilized
with other geospatial layers and forestry inventory information
to produce large-area forest cover-type maps and biomass maps.
Mid-scale imagery such as Landsat which is 30-meter
resolution and is used with geospatial data and forest
inventory information to produce individual tree species maps
to be used as insect and disease host layers for the production
of the National Insect and Disease Risk Map, a five-year
strategic assessment produced by Forest Health Protection. My
office is currently preparing for the 2010 National Insect and
Disease Risk Map. We are actively pressing for more modern
methodology to be used in Colorado.
Landsat also provides the predominant mid-scale imagery
driving the LANDFIRE project. LANDFIRE is a five-year, multi-
partner project that produces consistent and comprehensive maps
and data describing wildland fuels and fire regimes across the
United States. It is a shared project of the U.S. Forest
Service and the Department of Interior. LANDFIRE data products
are created at a 30-meter resolution data set. LANDFIRE
information is produced at scales that may be useful for
prioritizing and planning hazardous fuel reduction and
ecosystem restoration projects.
At a fine scale, aerial imagery is utilized to aid in the
mapping of forest stands and damaged areas at a fine scale and
is used routinely for forest inventory and local resource
assessments. The U.S. Forest Service participates in the USDA
National Agricultural Imagery Program, which collects one-meter
digital imagery on a five-year recurring basis. This imagery is
used in mapping various resource conditions.
Project level planning requires finer resolution imagery.
The Forest Service and other cooperating field units often
utilize digital high-resolution satellite imagery to assess
local forest issues, such as damaged and dead trees in the
landscape. To be able to discern trees that are just beginning
to exhibit the effects of stress, field practitioners prefer
the six-inch and one-foot spatial-resolution range. Airborne
imagery, usually photography, as opposed to the satellite
imagery, is currently the imagery of choice for most field
foresters. In fact, my group is currently processing a large
batch of photography for Colorado.
We also use remote sensing technologies for complex issues
tied to land use. For example, the growing metropolitan fringe
is extending farther into rural areas with attractive
recreational and aesthetic amenities, and areas where
structures and other human development meet or intermingle with
undeveloped land. This land-use change has significant
implications for wildfire and pest management.
We use a myriad of geospatial technologies to conduct
analysis of WUI at different spatial and temporal scales.
Mr. Chairman, this concludes my prepared statement. I would
be happy to answer any questions you or other Members of the
Subcommittee have. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Sapio follows:]
Prepared Statement of Frank J. Sapio
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the
opportunity to testify today on remote sensing data applications and
its benefits for the U.S. Forest Service.
Introduction
As Director of the Forest Health Technology Enterprise Team
(FHTET), I am charged with managing the group's mission ``To foster the
development and use of technologies to protect and improve the health
of America's forests.'' Remote sensing is one of the geospatial
technologies we use to fulfill that mission.
FHTET is a Forest Service unit within State and Private Forestry.
The team is comprised of two offices, one in Morgantown, West Virginia,
and the other in Fort Collins, Colorado. In Morgantown, members of the
team work on the biological control of invasive pests, pesticide
application technologies, and the study of non-target impacts of
pesticides. In Fort Collins, team members work on a variety of
information gathering methods, including geographic information systems
(GIS), spatial analysis, remote sensing and image analysis, pest and
pathogen modeling, invasive species modeling, and quantitative analysis
of the impacts of forest pests.
I have worked in forest pest management and forest health for over
26 years. My career began as a research associate in a university
setting where I developed forest pest management methods. I then moved
to State government where I worked on forest inventory, forest health
monitoring, and forest pest management for most of my career. For
almost five years, I have been the technology-development lead within
Forest Health Protection, U.S. Forest Service, as the Director of
FHTET.
I will organize this testimony along the lines of the questions
posed by Subcommittee Chairman Mark Udall's office in a letter to me
dated March 26, 2008.
Questions and Answers
How is the Forest Service using data collected by remote sensing
technologies to identify areas of high risk for forest fires and other
factors, including insect infestations, disease, drought, and the
proximity of forests to development that affect the health of forests
in Colorado and elsewhere?
Remote sensing is used at three principal scales within the agency
by both wildland fire and the forest health protection programs of the
Forest Service.
Broad Scale
Our current data-collection methodologies for national insect and
disease assessments rely heavily upon aerial sketch-mapping surveys.
These surveys are accomplished by aerial observers flying in light
aircraft who sketch observations on paper or on pen-based portable
computers. Though somewhat limited in spatial accuracy, this very low-
cost survey provides a quick and timely assessment for many insect and
disease events. This ``low tech'' approach of information acquisition
is truly an ``appropriate technology'' for strategic regional and
national assessments and is particularly well-suited for trend
analysis. Digital sketch mapping uses a moving map display on which the
observer marks the screen instead of marking on paper maps. This saves
time in processing finished maps and improves location accuracy. We
continually strive to improve the collection of these data and have
implemented digital aerial sketch mapping systems to improve the
quality and timeliness of these data sets.
Imagery collected at the broad scale also includes satellite images
from the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) and
National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) and Polar-
orbiting Operational Environmental Satellites (POES) to support
domestic forestry and fire programs.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) provides
250m-, 500m- and 1km-resolution spatial detail. MODIS is used to detect
and monitor wildland fires, assist incident coordination, and to
portray the fire situation to the public. MODIS is utilized with other
geospatial layers and forest inventory information to produce large-
area forest cover-type and biomass maps. These maps are used in
national assessments and are designed for strategic assessments. For
example, a cover map for all of America's private and public forests
was recently completed by combining multi-resolution imagery from MODIS
and Landsat with ground data from the Forest Service's Forest Inventory
and Analysis (FIA) program. Much of this work is a continuation of
interagency cooperative research and development activities spawned by
the Multi-Resource Land Cover (MRLC) Consortium led by the Department
of the Interior's Geological Survey. We are also applying these broad-
scale synoptic mapping technologies to develop early warning systems
and to produce very large area damage maps. We hope to be able to post
forest disturbance maps on the web in near-real-time to guide our
aerial surveys. The goal here is to augment and optimize aerial sketch
mapping surveys (by providing near real time forest disturbance
information to our aerial surveyors) that provide us with the majority
of our national damage trend information.
Mid Scale
Mid-scale imagery such as Landsat, which is 30 meter resolution and
is used with geospatial data and forest inventory information to
produce individual tree species maps depicting the tree layers that
host insect and diseases. These maps will be used in the production of
national risk maps. Mid-scale imagery is a significant activity in the
FHTET Fort Collins office as we are preparing the development of
national host models to be used in the next development of the National
Insect and Disease Risk Map, a five-year strategic assessment produced
by Forest Health Protection. The 19-state, mid-scale hazard assessment
for the Southern Pine Beetle Prevention Program is a good example of
how this technology is currently being used.
Landsat also provides the predominant mid-scale imagery driving the
LANDFIRE project. LANDFIRE is a five-year, multi-partner project that
produces consistent and comprehensive maps and data describing wildland
fuels and fire regimes across the United States. It is a shared project
of the U.S. Forest Service and the Department of the Interior. The data
products from LANDFIRE include layers for vegetation composition and
structure, surface and canopy fuel characteristics, and historical fire
regimes. LANDFIRE national methodologies are science-based and include
extensive field-referenced data. LANDFIRE data products are designed to
facilitate national and regional level strategic planning and reporting
of wildland fire management activities.
LANDFIRE data products are created at a 30-meter resolution data
set. LANDFIRE information is produced at scales that may be useful for
prioritizing and planning hazardous fuel reduction and ecosystem
restoration projects. LANDFIRE meets agency and partner needs for data
to support large landscape, fire management planning and
prioritization.
Satellite imagery is likewise used for the burned area emergency
response (BAER) program for developing a burn intensity index to guide
on-the-ground rehabilitation efforts. Landsat, ASTER (Advanced Space-
borne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) and an increasing
amount of commercial satellite imagery (such as Advanced Wide-Field
sensor (AWiFS) ) are being used to provide BAER teams with rapid
assessment burn severity map products.
Landsat has also been used repeatedly within the agency in various
change-detection analyses. One such notable effort is the U.S. Forest
Service Land Cover Mapping and Monitoring Program (LCMMP) in
California, which addresses statewide vegetation mapping and long-term
monitoring using remotely sensed data. Remotely sensed data and GIS are
used to generate maps that describe the extent and condition of various
land cover types and the magnitude and cause (e.g., urbanization,
natural succession, wildfire, and timber harvest) of land cover
changes. The LCMMP provides a single, consistent source of current land
cover data from which the U.S. Forest Service and California Department
of Forestry (as well as other interested Federal, State, and local
governments and private citizens) can make informed resource management
decisions. The LCMMP is a collaborative approach to land cover mapping
and monitoring that includes coordinated acquisition of resource
photography, satellite imagery, and geo-processing on a five-year
cycle. Regionally, monitoring can identify critical causes of change or
provide an early warning system for habitats being degraded. Locally,
monitoring can assess county land use policies, identify areas of
insects or disease problems, or assess the extent of timber harvest in
a watershed.
Fine Scale
Aerial imagery is utilized to aid in the mapping of forest stands
and damaged areas at a fine scale and is used routinely for forest
inventory and local resource assessments. The U.S. Forest Service
participates in the USDA National Agricultural Imagery Program (NAIP),
which collects one-meter digital imagery on a five-year recurring
basis. This imagery is used in mapping various resource conditions.
Other than its use as an important mapping aid, NAIP's ability to
determine resource conditions for fuel loading and forest mortality is
very limited. For project-level planning, finer resolution imagery is
required to achieve the desired assessment of forest resource
conditions.
Forest Service and other cooperating field units often utilize
digital high-resolution satellite imagery for local forest resource
assessments. An example is a spruce-beetle mapping effort conducted in
the early 2000s using one-meter and 0.6-meter satellite data. Dead
trees were discernible in both resolutions of imagery; however,
recently dead or dying trees (known as faders) were not discernible in
the coarser one-meter imagery. To guide many insect and disease
mitigation measures, the location and number of faders are needed. In
addition to the identification of faders, identification of tree
species and sub-canopy is often needed, and imagery with a resolution
finer than 0.6 meters is required for these determinations. The imagery
resolution of choice from our field practitioners is in the six-inch to
one-foot spatial-resolution range. As of this moment, airborne imagery,
usually photography (as opposed to satellite imagery) remains the
imagery of choice for most field foresters.
The Research & Development arm of the Forest Service has been
experimenting for several years with using Light Detection and Ranging
(LIDAR) sensors. Similar to radar but using a laser instead of radio
waves, LIDAR provides very high resolution images. Researchers are
combining LIDAR with very accurate Global Positioning System (GPS) data
to map stream channels, including pools, riffles, and down woody
material that are essential to understanding the health of aquatic
habitats, and forest canopies. LIDAR imagery can see beneath the over
story, allowing researchers to map under story plants and help detect
places where trees have been removed, such as through thinning
operations.
Pre-visual detection of stress on individual trees is currently a
major focus for forest health remote sensing specialists. In order to
intervene early in a pest outbreak scenario, early indications of pest
infestation--such as tree health at the edges of known infestations--
are important. This is especially true for exotic invasive species.
Unfortunately, at the present time we do not have a mature repeatable
technology to fulfill this need. Hyper-spectral data for host mapping
or tree health mapping has the potential to fulfill this need, though
at the present time results are inconsistent. Alternatively, field
surveys can be conducted to map positive detections and to identify
pest. The surveys are conducted with global positioning system (GPS)
coordinates and tree health ratings. However, early infestations are
often missed during field survey as damaged trees initially are
characterized by very subtle changes in the tree canopy. Trees stress
signs, while present, often go undetected until they become obvious to
the field specialist on-the-ground. Hyper-spectral imagery has been
utilized by the Forest Service for limited developmental projects for
stress-detection, and its use may be increased as the technology
development progresses.
Proximity of Forests to Development that May Effect Forest Health
Urban and suburban growth has resulted in the development of an
outlying metropolitan fringe that extends into rural areas with
attractive recreational and aesthetic amenities. This is especially
true for urban growth near forests. This land-use change has
significant implications for wildfire and pest management. The WUI
creates an environment with an increased likelihood that wildfires or
pest outbreaks will threaten structures, trees around homes, recreation
sites, and people. The spatial extent and location and, most
importantly, the growth of urban and suburban areas are information
that is sought by nearly all sectors of the natural resource management
community.
A myriad of geospatial technologies--including geospatial modeling
of census data, the ``city lights'' data set from the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration's National Geophysical Data Center
(NOAA/NGDC), and virtually all other remote sensing platforms mentioned
thus far--are used to conduct analysis of the WUI at different spatial
and temporal scales. This is typically done on a project-by-project
basis with the structure density threshold varying accordingly.
Development Efforts and Refinement
The Forest Service has long used various remote-sensing methods to
assess forest health and detect damage, and continuously investigates
new technologies as a strategic and tactical aid to natural resources
management. There are advantages and disadvantages to all such
geospatial technologies. It is imperative that the right platform,
imagery, and analysis be matched to the specific problems that natural
resource professionals face. Remote sensing technologies have extended
the ability of resource specialists to assess forest conditions, and
these technologies are increasingly being used at various spatial and
temporal scales to address natural resource management questions.
The future possibilities of ``fusing'' data from satellites with
airborne LIDAR imagery and precise GPS coordinates offer great future
potential for developing better maps in the future. In particular, the
ability of LIDAR to create three-dimensional images of forest stand
conditions instead of just the flat overhead look from satellites
offers substantial promise for improving natural resource management.
Data acquisition and analysis in any form still requires a
considerable investment of resources and expertise. The Forest Service
continues to improve its suite of hardware and software tools for
processing and analyzing remotely sensed data. Most national forest
field offices now have such hardware and software, and are improving
their expertise in using GIS or image analysis software to process and
analyze geospatial data sets. Land managers are also improving in their
ability to select appropriate remote sensing technologies to address
their data needs, and they are supported by technology transfer efforts
of the Remote Sensing Applications Center (RSAC), the Geospatial
Technologies Service center (GSTC), and FHTET.
What are the benefits of using remote sensing data over data that are
acquired by other techniques?
Remote sensing methods are effective tools to assess fire, forest
pest and forest conditions. One of the benefits of using remote sensing
data over data acquired by other techniques (for example, aerial survey
and ground survey) is the spatial precision which allows for the
analysis of other resource concerns, including the presence and
distribution of threatened and endangered species or the occurrence of
multiple threats through time. Also, ground surveys are often not cost-
effective over very large areas. Another benefit of remote sensing lies
in its consistency and objectivity; the data do not pass through the
subjective filter of a human observer before being recorded. Compared
with a ground survey, once collected, remotely sensed data can be
easier to process and analyze, can cover more ground, and thereby
reduce analysis time and improve overall planning productivity.
What, if any, are the challenges and impediments to the use of remote
sensing data for these and other applications, and what are your
recommendations for overcoming those barriers?
Performing remote sensing data analysis requires a wide-range of
skill sets, from basic repetitive tasks to high-end analytical support.
A typical field user of remotely sensed data needs to perform the full
spectrum of skills from basic through advanced. Often, the skill-level
for the advanced use of remote sensing technologies is very limited at
the field level, though regional offices and national service centers
can and do provide support for individual projects.
Basic tasks for the analysis of remotely sensed data are usually
performed by technician-level employees. This capability has diminished
over the last few decades as the workforce has shifted from technician-
level employees to professional and administrative employees. Often, a
field unit is left with little or no support for basic remote sensing
processing--a field staff officer may be doing the work of a field
technician due to staffing limitations. As these remote sensing skills
evolve through workforce evolution, skill sets must continue to improve
for the utility of remotely sensed data to increase. The national
service centers for remote sensing applications (RSAC), geometronics
(GSTC) and forest health (FHTET) are all working on technology transfer
efforts to develop field ready methodologies, and improve workforce
skills to meet today's needs.
The early signatures of most forest pests are ephemeral and the
timing of data acquisition is another important challenge. Imagery must
be acquired during the period of time during which pest damage
signatures are most visible or when the information best supports
managerial action. This is very often a very brief period, sometimes
less than two to three weeks. Imagery acquisition during this ``bio-
window'' is difficult in some parts of the country due to imagery
acquisition schedules and the lack of suitable weather without clouds.
Also, the effectiveness of on-the-ground treatments for a given forest
health concern involve data timing considerations. Results from image
analysis must be timely in order to facilitate time-sensitive on-the-
ground treatments. Remotely sensed data need to be collected,
processed, and evaluated within a given timeframe so that the forest
health concern is observed and a response can be formulated and
performed in a timely manner. For tactical on-the-ground operations,
the required turn-around time of imagery acquisition, image analysis,
and treatment prescription often exceeds the biological window
available for the treatment to be effective.
Shortening the time to analyze remotely sensed imagery would
significantly aid in the practical implementation of remote sensing in
the U.S. Forest Service. Efforts to develop ways to reduce this time
could be accomplished through close cooperation of remote sensing
commercial interests, researchers, field resource specialists, and the
technology development community within the U.S. Forest Service.
What remote sensing data, products or services, or supporting
infrastructure would be most valuable for expanding the use of remote
sensing data in the future?
The key to providing continued support for the mid-scale mapping
and on-going forest condition monitoring is Landsat. Continued
availability allows for the comparison of current conditions with
reference conditions collected by previous Landsat sensors to identify
changes and trends in forest canopy, including the new challenges
associated with global climate change. Landsat imagery has been a
significant component within our natural resource information programs.
Trends detected through such an approach will yield insightful
information which otherwise would not be detected through other
monitoring techniques.
In order for high-resolution satellite imagery to be more routinely
used, it must achieve finer resolution and be cost-competitive with
aerial photography. Higher resolution remotely sensed data (airborne or
satellite) can be utilized when determined to be cost-effective for the
extent of coverage needed. Often, a project's spatial extent exceeds
the practical capability available given the small image ``footprint''
of various sensors. Also, the cost of high-resolution satellite imagery
must match the project area and not be cost-prohibitive. Lower-cost
imagery (assuming useful interpretation) would ultimately yield better,
more frequent monitoring of our forest resources.
The development of automated routines for preparing and
interpreting imagery would help to shorten the turn-around time between
imagery acquisition and treatments. This can help reduce the need for
basic interpretive skills and improve the timeliness for deriving
analytical information. Professional field specialists could then
better focus on problem-solving, for which they are most skilled: that
is to make natural resource decisions.
Image interpretation relies upon assigning certain characteristics,
such as tree species, to specific parts of the image-a process called
classification. Building accurate automated routines to classify an
image requires sufficient data from ground plots to validate the
classification routines.
Conclusion
The USDA Forest Service utilizes remote sensing and other
geospatial technologies routinely to measure resource conditions. This
is done both to assess current conditions and to predict future
conditions. Assessments range from the strategic to the tactical and
utilize imagery from a broad scale to a fine scale. Remote sensing
technologies range from analog photography (true color or color
infrared) to the latest in hyperspectral imagery. Acquisition platforms
range from government-owned systems to commercial systems. The agency
maintains an active technology development effort and continually tries
to fit the task at hand with the various remote sensing methodologies
available. Sensor capabilities (spectral, spatial, temporal, and cost)
must be carefully tailored to the project; if a match can be made, the
Forest Service will likely use that technology in their resource
assessment efforts.
Mr. Chairman, this concludes my prepared statement. I would be
happy to answer any questions you or other Members of the Subcommittee
may have.
Acronyms and Abbreviations
FHTET--Forest Health Technology Enterprise Team
GIS--geographic information system
MODIS--Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectro-radiometer
BAER--burn area emergency rehabilitation
ASTER--Advanced Space-borne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer
AWiFS--Advanced Wide-Field Sensor
LCMMP--Land Cover Mapping and Monitoring Program
NAIP--National Agricultural Imagery Program
UAS--unmanned aerial systems
WUI--wildland-urban interface
NOAA/NGDC--National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/National
Geophysical Data Center
RSAC--Remote Sensing Applications Center
GSTC--Geospatial Technologies Service Center
Discussion
Chairman Udall. Thank you, panel, and we want to move right
to a round of questions, and I will recognize myself for five
minutes. I want to ask a very basic question, and each one of
you have spoken here, but I wanted to give you a chance to
underline the importance of this data.
What makes the use of remote sensing worthwhile for what
you and your organization do?
I want to start with Mr. Byers, and we'll go on with Dr.
Montagu. Byers is a very well-known Colorado name. Are you
related to former Governor Byers and the town of Byers and all
the other?
Mr. Byers. I would like to say yes, but I'm not sure that I
am. You know, I try not to say that too often, so that folks--
I'm very proud of what the Byers family did in Colorado, even
if they weren't directly related to me. I'm sure there's
something there.
Chairman Udall. I'm sure you are. Middle Park in Grand
County, which I represent is one of the most beautiful
landmarks, Byers Peak, which draws the eye immediately when you
come up over the pass.
Having gone off on a bit of a tangent, Mr. Byers, tell us
how remote sensing data makes what you do worthwhile for you in
your organization.
Mr. Byers. That's all right, Mr. Chairman. I think you have
the license to do that when you choose.
This actually is--it is very serious to us because, as you
know, many of the State agencies are limited in funding here in
Colorado. We have a number of legislative initiatives that have
kept our growth of our budget to a limited area. The real value
that we have is that we get a great deal of data, very specific
and high-resolution data. It allows us to spend less time
ground truthing information, allows us to use less public funds
in the general administration of water rights for us,
primarily, and I'm speaking of the Landsat technology that I
spoke of earlier.
The other aspect of it is, is that we tie into all of this.
I act as the emergency manager within our department and a
number of other things. We tie into all of this other
technology, and all of it saves us time, effort, and gives us
better information faster, and allows us to respond to the
public's needs better. With that, I'll stop.
Chairman Udall. Dr. Montagu.
Dr. Montagu. I want to focus on one specific technology,
and mainly aerial--digital aerial photography. Obviously, the
Denver metro area is growing significantly and has been now for
over a decade. We're adding about 20,000 households a year. I
may get that wrong.
The overall growth of the metro area, you know, trying to
plan for that and manage it so that we can put in the long
range infrastructure requires that we have some sense of where
this growth is happening, and also develop some policies that
hopefully direct some of the growth and match the
infrastructure that we're trying to build.
Aerial photography is critical for that, particularly,
number one, knowing where that growth is happening, but also
for change detection, being able to look back and forth through
time to see where that growth is. So it's vitally important to
us that we keep that going.
We have formulated our own approach to that, which is this
public/private partnership that we have going. We have 30
different agencies working collectively to acquire this imagery
together. I'm pleased to say that both the State of Colorado
and the USGS have partnered with us on that, developing that
together collectively.
Chairman Udall. Thank you. I'll let the record note that I
prefer DRCOG as the acronym.
Mr. Navarro, please.
Mr. Navarro. Thank you.
The value, obviously, is being able to get to the location
with the centerline data that geospatial imagery gives us. But
leveraging that technology to also be able to layer for those
response agencies on specifically what it is they're looking
at, to get a specific address, then we know what's in the
building, or have a full deck on final analysis that geospatial
creation will provide.
Now, the other aspect of that interface is that any fire
professional will tell you that weather is the major factor.
But then you have to layer in slope and terrain in the location
where you'll be able to get good, accurate information relative
to that vegetation layer when you get there, because oftentimes
these teams will come in from across the country, and it's
vitally important to the safety of mitigation.
Chairman Udall. Mr. Sapio.
Mr. Sapio. Remote sensing methods are effective tools to
assess fire, forest pest and forest conditions. One of the
benefits of using remote sensing data over other techniques
(for example, aerial survey and ground survey) is the spatial
precision which allows for the analysis of other resource
concerns. Another benefit of remote sensing lies in its
consistency and objectivity; the data do not pass through a
subjective filter of a human observer before being recorded.
Remote sensing data can be easier to process, analyze, and
covers more ground, reduces analysis time, and improves overall
planning productivity.
Chairman Udall. Thank you.
At this time I want to recognize our Ranking Member, Mr.
Feeney, for his questions.
Mr. Feeney. Well, thank you to all of our witnesses. I
think Mr. Byers suggested that there may be a gap should
Landsat 5 or 7 fail prior to launch of the Landsat Data
Continuity Mission in 2011. If that gap occurs, how much of a
problem will it be for what you do, and some of the other
witnesses, and can that gap be mitigated by surveillance,
airborne surveillance assistance, if we're going to have a gap.
Mr. Byers. Thank you, Mr. Feeney.
Mr. Feeney. Bring that closer.
Mr. Byers. Our view, as we look at this collectively with
the western states as well as within Colorado is that, yes,
there are opportunities for us to cover the gap. But the costs
and the efforts associated with that are detrimental to the
overall well-being of the public. We have the opportunity here
to assure continuity, and an efficient and effective way to do
that, should we have a gap, should we have a problem.
We believe one, we've wasted the opportunity that is
presented in front of us to get this sensing instrument up in
space. The other one is that the next time we're able to do
that is considerably farther down the road, and the expense to
all of the public agencies is going to be extreme. And the
problems we have facing us in the west with climate change, and
just all of the land and water issues. Water here in the west
is so valuable and so critical to life. When I worked with the
tribes, water is life, and that's how they would explain it.
And that's how it is here in the west. And that's why it was so
important to us to see how--see all of this information so that
we can manage our water resources collectively in the best way
possible.
Mr. Feeney. Anybody have anything to add to that? Mr.
Sapio.
Mr. Sapio. The Landsat program has been a real workhorse in
monitoring vegetation and vegetation change. Landsat 5 and
Landsat 7 are operating well, well beyond their design
lifetime.
Landsat continuity is key to providing support for mid-
scale mapping for forest services, to monitor ongoing
conditions, and to address new challenges associated with
drastic forest changes that we're seeing here in Colorado.
Landsat or other Landsat sensors will also be useful in
evaluating vegetation changes in climate. Continued
availability of this kind of imagery, the short wave, red band
in particular, allows a comparison of current conditions with
reference conditions already provided by thousands of previous
Landsat collections. An example of this would be the Aspen
incline in the west of Colorado.
Mr. Feeney. Thank you. I have an interest in, given the
capabilities of this optical scanning equipment, whether
privacy issues have been raised and to what extent, and to
where--I don't know for those over here or in California, but
in Florida we have sunshine laws that virtually aid in
protecting the public. Ongoing criminal investigations, for
example, are totally accessible with few exceptions to the
public, to the press.
And so how do you deal with privacy, and are there
concerns, for example, with tourists, or evildoers would get,
you know, whether it's a nuclear plant or whatever it is, to
get access to some information that would be useful in doing
harm? You know, technology is morally neutral.
It can be used for good or evil, and I want to know to what
extent you folks have dealt with those questions.
Mr. Byers. Thank you, Congressman. We have--we certainly,
from a water management standpoint, believe that the
transparency is important. We think that California ought to
know what Colorado is doing, and we certainly would like to
know what California is doing with our water, tongue in cheek
there a little bit. We think that's a good thing, and here the
Colorado, we do have open records and such.
However, as I've mentioned, I work several hats. I also sit
on a government coordinating council with the Department of
Homeland Security for dam security. And we are very concerned
about how much of this aerial information is available. But the
fact of it is that most of the location information is already
out there. We do a very good job of looking at how to deal with
security issues on individual structures and regional areas.
Like, for example, we will look at how all of the
infrastructure and protection of the infrastructure with the
Democratic National Convention coming here in Denver. We've
already started much of that work. We also do it all across the
U.S. as a national look. We watch carefully from Colorado to
look at who's asking for the information so that we can provide
that information to the appropriate authorities.
But as far as the transparency of the information, we don't
view that as a problem. Transparency is a good thing. Folks
knowing what kind of crop issues, how water is managed, what
climate change issues to look at, topography, all of that stuff
we think is a good thing.
We think it has, actually, very good application to the
southwest with the recent drought and some of the issues
they've had to deal with. We think it has great application
there, and I'm sure it is used.
Dr. Montagu. It's a very critical issue in terms of all of
this data that is available now. And I know it's a subject of
conversation across this consortium that we have--like I said,
we have 30 different local governments, utility companies, and
some members of private sector all getting access to this data,
and we talk a lot about the privacy concerns of it.
I think Mr. Byers is right. It is a transparency question
in the sense of the public value that comes from it, from its
dispersion is more important than the potential for nefarious
use down the road. And the fact of the matter is, there's so
much of this data out in the public domain now, that the
ability to stop it at this point in time would be very
difficult.
That said, though, I know that all of our member
governments treat this data very carefully, and it's--you know,
the security that goes with all of those sorts of things,
that's something we all take seriously to make sure it doesn't
end up places we don't want it to. And we do have tracking
systems that go through a process that tracks where this data
is going.
Mr. Navarro. That's a great question there. We've wrestled
with that internally, officers at our command in that part from
south central region that individually facilitate that within
that office. We have a grant from Federal Government for
planning for terrorist responses. We use a tremendous amount of
GIS information and we share that with our partners. So we've
been very careful, relative to those agreements within in our
group on how the data is used and how it's shared. But the
reality is some of that data is public data.
I think, if we look at it as the data is a tool, which
individuals can get access to, how we plan based on that data
is really more sensitive to us, rather than just the data
itself. It's the great thing about living in America, and the
lousy thing about living here.
Mr. Sapio. In my experience, I hear a lot about this, but I
haven't run into any practical situations where it's been a
problem for us in the Forest Service. The nature of collecting
the data over remote forest areas, we're not collecting
overseas. The data is commercially available, and it's
available in the public domain. We're bound as federal
employees to protect personal identifiable information, and
trying to do so. So if there were a situation for that to
arise, I would imagine we would find a way to work around it.
Mr. Feeney. Mr. Chairman, I'm way over my time. But if I
could just note that, again, technology is morally neutral, and
a lot of it is already out there. But for example, somebody
that wanted to do a lot of harm could look at the dryness
patterns and which way a wildfire was likely to grow. Somebody
would know where to drop most of the poison if they wanted to
do harm. And you can go on the web site and punch in my address
and get a 360 circular picture of my home and anybody that
wants to break in a home. So it is scary. I don't know what the
answer is, but I thought it was an important question.
Chairman Udall. I think that's a very important question. I
think it was an important discussion and we ought to continue
it. And there's obviously more we need to understand.
We're going to do a second round of questions, and I would
like to come back to the four of you and ask you what
opportunities you foresee for the expanded application of
remote sensing to your work and what's needed to realize those
opportunities. I know some of you have spoken about that with
Landsat and other technologies, but please take--if you had a
wand, what else would you like me to do?
Mr. Byers. If I had a wand, I'd like to know what the snow
pack is going to be next year this year. That is what I'd
really like to know. And speaking of snow pack, some of the
opportunity that we see is with our evaluation of the snow
water equivalents and the distribution of snow pack in the
State of Colorado.
We have certainly--currently working on a snow program,
which is a cooperative program with several federal entities as
well as several entities within State government. And one of
the things that we look at is trying to have a better--because
that water supply is so important to us, as well as the rest of
the west, is trying to look at how do we get a better handle on
what's there and what kind of distribution, what kind of timing
we'll have with respect to runoff. Of course, again, all of
what has been discussed today is very important to the State.
We've focused a little bit on water in the Subcommittee
hearing, and we appreciate the opportunity to do that.
Dr. Montagu. My crystal ball would have the tools and the
processes in place to start to integrate a lot of this data
together. We have collected a lot of stuff over many decades
now that we typically tend to use for specific applications.
But in reality, we can start to look at our urban and our rural
environments much more holistically. We can start to blend some
of these data sets together.
Understanding the health of urban vegetation, for example,
is very important for understanding the impacts of climate
change and the likely heat effects that happen in urban
environments. So being able to draw some of that information
together with some of the long-range plans that we're producing
will allow us to leverage this information much more
efficiently going forward.
Chairman Udall. Is that a function of software? Is it a
function of the digital resources to bring those data sets in
closer proximity.
Dr. Montagu. I think it's a function of a whole range of
things. One is starting to draw expertise together to say we
need to look at this more closely. The other one is starting to
rethink a little bit about how we use this data. So we put up
these sensors for a specific purpose when, in fact, we could be
saying we need to be more holistically looking at the number of
different applications we can use it for.
Mr. Navarro. You know, I was very interested in comments
just made, because it's really the page that we're opening up
recently in Washington, talking with some of the
representatives from DHS from the standards and technology
group and the data group.
The fire service itself, I'm on an advisory committee, and
we're trying to formulate a standard by which we produce this
data and use this data. One of the conversations we had,
relative to that, was what's the output? What is that going to
look like? What's the utility of using that particular data?
But on the long view of that, from my standpoint, from
leadership in the fire service, is we have to start educating
the fire service itself and the technology that's there and how
that's going to be used. Bring it to that leadership, whether
it's the city manager, or mayor, or local fire chief, how does
that get used in a holistic fashion?
That's going to be a very interesting migration as we go
forward.
Chairman Udall. Mr. Navarro, I'd like to pursue that more
in commentary. As you know, I'm a homer. I talk a lot about
what you all have done down here. At the risk of getting you in
a little bit of trouble with your fellow fire chiefs, how many
other departments, how many other urban areas, how many other
cities are at the point you all are in using this data to
prevent and then respond, hopefully not necessary, but if the
case does arise.
Mr. Navarro. None that I know of to the extent we're doing
that. We had an IT section in my administration when I arrived
here in '94, but we do have a very large group that's been
formed of users. Chief Rector over in California, and the
California Fire Service is very interested in accumulating this
information, and how it's going to be leveraged on the other
end of it. So we're starting to open up that page.
We actually hosted a meeting there two weeks ago, of the
practitioners, to try that standard process, and the advisory
committee is looking at that right now. But we've got a ways to
go. We've got to catch up with what DOD has been doing for
years in terms of situations where--much the same, our warriors
are in the field doing something a little bit different.
Chairman Udall. I was on the Elk Meadow fire that same
summer we had the Hayman fire. Supervisor Cables was there, Mr.
Cables, and he said, Mark, the best analog here is to fight
another war. This is a war-like environment, realtime
situation. So your analogy, as well, makes real sense, Chief
Navarro. So I'd like to get a breakdown of what you're doing.
Mr. Navarro. I encourage you to do that as much as you can.
Chairman Udall. Okay, thank you.
Mr. Sapio.
Mr. Sapio. With the temporal regulation groups, various
commercial entities, we're likely to use the technology more
and more, resolutions, temporal and spatial. If there were more
preprocessed imagery routines available where features have
already been extracted in the commercial sector, we're more
likely to see casual users use LIDAR remote sensing imagery so
they don't have to go through the training and the large amount
of image prep necessary to extract information from the
imagery.
One thing that's particularly important to my group in the
Forest Service is that if there were vegetation information
available of the city, that would be extremely useful for us to
model the risks of insects and diseases that could be
introduced at those industries. So those are the things I can
think of off the top of my head that would make remote sensing
more useful to the Forest Service.
Chairman Udall. Well, it's exciting to hear all those
potential applications, obviously. We have a bit of homework
and additional work to do, and other resources, and continue to
work together, which is why I'm, to provides a lot of
opportunity.
The Chair recognizes the Ranking Member for another round
of his questions.
Mr. Feeney. Well, thanks. You know, Mr. Navarro, talking
about the lead you have in using this technology, the--one of
the aerial vehicles in California, Oregon and Washington, we
have a series of serious fires, and it would help if I got a
pinpoint accuracy in terms of what the direction of the fire
was going. Obviously, this is valuable capabilities, even
though you talk about firefighters having to make instant
decisions and how accurate the information is.
What organizations, nationally, can you use to share these
capabilities, and not just in fire, but maybe Dr. Montagu or
Mr. Byers, what organization in city and local governments are
addressing this in your conferences or charters?
Mr. Navarro. We actually are going to be on the docket for
FRI here in Denver with--and I don't brag for myself. I'm
probably the lead individual in GIS within our organization.
And what we're able to do is we had some very expert technical
advice, married with some operational folks. And as they sat
down, they started a vision with what this technology can do.
And that's how we've been able to launch some of that.
That discussion is going to be taking place at FRI. We're
looking at what that agenda might look like to be able to
convince. Because when you're talking leadership, they're very
pragmatic about things. They know what works and what doesn't
work. They don't want to try anything that's not going to work
for them. The obvious kind of thing is, as part of the papers,
you know, we're impeded by 100 years of tradition. But the
reality is, if it works, they're going to start using it. We
have to show the utility of that information.
If you provide a great deal of data that's not in a
processed form, for someone trying to make discreet decisions
very quickly, they're going to disregard it.
It's got to come in a form that makes some sense to them.
The reality is that that hasn't happened too often.
California, I think, is a great example of what just
occurred, because they were given a realtime situation like
this. And I can't tell you how valuable it would be to have
that base layer really knowing what was out there before, and
then video from my global on what's happening on the ground, to
be able to move resources around, be able to do the evacuations
and do the other kinds of things.
Those large fires cannot be managed. They are going to burn
until the weather stops. That's one of the problems for
firefighters that's interesting. We are subject to some
horrific fire behavior in this State if we don't do something
about that. On the response side of that, we can provide some
safety for those individuals that are going to be doing that,
in terms of either evacuation or real response. So I hope that
answers your question.
Dr. Montagu. The key point to make about DRCOG is, you
know, we are a long-range planning agency, so we don't
typically deal with tactical short-term stuff. The need for
realtime information is not as critical, at least in the land
use. I'll address the transportation side in a little bit.
But one of the concrete examples I can come to is the LIDAR
that we are collecting at the moment for the Democratic
National Convention is being used by the NGA in a tactical
response. So they want to know all of the planning that goes
with the security around the convention. But that information,
when it flows back to us, we can start to create these three-
dimensional models of the city.
One of the things that a lot of people struggle with is
trying to imagine what something will look like 30 years from
now. So being able to take that data and combine with the
software that we have and create a vision of what the future
might look like is very important to them.
Mr. Feeney. Well, it's interesting you say that, because
while we don't have a model of geospatial imaging, we do have a
national model for simulation. We make everything from Tiger
Woods golf to football. My nine-year-old tested it the other
day, and I was sworn to secrecy about what was in it. We have
all five branches of the military. We create the software
there, and one of the things we have to put together here is
the geospatial stuff. It's a great history of what's happening
now.
What simulation can do is tell us what's going to happen
next, and can train people, you know. You could run a wildfire
in the offices in front of computers and test every commander
in Colorado based on his or her behavior and get a very good
picture of that wildfire many times before you actually had to
fight it. And every one of them would be an A plus student by
the time you actually have a real fire. It's an interesting
possibility.
I have no further questions. Thank you.
Chairman Udall. I'm going to hold a third round with a
focus on--Mr. Feeney has questions, do it in 10 minutes, and we
have paneled the next people. But if I might have each one of
you talk to what you think the most important role for the
Federal Government is in facilitating the use of remote sensing
data to support both public- and private-sector activities in
the war-fighting campaign.
Mr. Byers. First of all, give me a chance to really think
my thoughts through.
Chairman Udall. The next panel I'll alternate. I learn as I
go.
Mr. Byers. With respect to the Federal Government, I think
that when these issues are beyond an individual State's
borders, when they are, in fact, for the public good, that
that's where the Federal Government comes in and has a role in
coordinating the acquisition of the data, trying to work with
how to utilize the data, and I think even through the education
and exposure of various tools, of how to use and how to
integrate some of that data. So I think that when it's the
overall public good, that's where the Federal Government comes
in.
When I think of it from a more local perspective,
obviously, to use that same role would be that the State has a
responsibility, particularly in its region or, for example,
with us for the Western States Water Council, or a particular
technical area, whether it is in the dam safety arena, whether
it's in the forestry arena or whatever, to be able to be a
facilitator and focus for getting some of that coordination
between the Federal Government and the local and the hands-on
practitioner.
But I think there's a variety of roles as a collaborative
effort, a cooperative effort, and we have to continue to
stretch each other's comfort so that we are pushing the
envelope. And maybe that's the best scenario when I talk about
this being, you know, kind of space. We do need to continue to
stretch that envelope and go to new frontiers.
Dr. Montagu. I come back to the comments that I made in my
testimony. It really is about leadership. The Federal
Government has led this industry for a long period of time. And
thinking of it from the point of view of a local government and
a regional government, the cost not only of the direct
acquisition, but also all of the R&D that goes in behind that
is something that only the Federal Government is really
resourced to do.
And, you know, Mr. Byers' comment about the expanse, the
fact that this is broad acre stuff that we're talking about
here, so it transcends local, regional, even State boundaries.
So to have the federal involvement and leadership on that front
is vitally important.
I think that the leadership on the distribution side, the
models that the Federal Government is coming up with now to
push the stuff out to people is very important. Again, we're
talking about terabytes and terabytes of information that none
of us locally can afford to store. And so to have those
resources distributed across the country and being able to tap
into those is vitally important for us.
Chairman Udall. Chief.
Mr. Navarro. The lead agencies, in my estimation, on the
federal side for some of the work that we do is DHS, FEMA and
National Fire Administration. And for years we really didn't
have that support, that a disaster or a local emergency
basically was a local emergency, and at some point it morphed
into this other thing.
I think back to the '60s when I started, and we had actual
civil defense folks working in fire service because we had a
national emergency because we thought we were going to get
nuked at some point. That went away. Now we have a national
threat again.
I think that we can partner with DHS, with FEMA, and with
the National Fire Administration to alleviate some of the
issues we had in terms of response mitigation at a local level,
but also migrate that to the larger level. Because it starts
here and it goes to there.
We don't have the resources at a local level to be able to
do this, whether it's the staff, the technology, whether it's
the process piece of it and integrating it into what we do. And
I think we need to see the leads coming from the feds to help
us with that. But we have a common purpose relative to those
types of responses. DHS and FEMA do come in. The reality that
they're going to be interfacing with the locals, they need to
have situational analysis that we should be able to provide,
and vice versa.
Chairman Udall. Mr. Sapio.
Mr. Sapio. There are four things that come to mind that all
would be done under the umbrella of both partnership with other
agencies and commercial entities in remote sensing. One that's
very important is a provision of imagery and its distribution,
which you've heard already. The provision of extracted
information from imagery, like fuel loadings and pest risk.
Thirdly, the provision of new analytical techniques. This would
be particularly useful for local assessments, if we learn how
to produce some extraction for a particular risk factor that's
useful locally. And fourth, the provision of models that
project future resource conditions, and this would be
particularly useful for planning.
Chairman Udall. Thank you. I note that all of you, in a
sense, have talked to the opportunity here for two-fers or
three-fers. And Chief, you talked about the civil defense needs
in the '60s. And now, in a sense, history is repeating itself
with a different kind of enemy. And then the role FEMA plays in
their own like self-interest, and having the data they need
when they're called to be on the ground. I know, Florida,
Colorado, Mr. Feeney mentioned, have some similar challenges
that Mother Nature presents, and the severity and the intensity
which they can arrive.
But I think both, at the time, are partnered by setting
aside what happened in New Orleans, that FEMA has begun to do a
more preventative analysis, and preventative investments, and
it seems like a very smart way to use federal dollars, as well
as to draw in the local responders.
Mr. Feeney.
Mr. Feeney. I've enjoyed all of the witnesses. I appreciate
your testimony, and your advice. Thanks for having me today.
Chairman Udall. Thank you for being here.
We'll take a couple of minutes, and the next panel will
join us, and we look forward to their testimony. I know you all
would be willing to answer questions for the record if we give
them to you. Thank you.
[recess.]
Panel 2:
Chairman Udall. The hearing will return to order. We have a
wonderful, fascinating, erudite second round of witnesses, and
I'd like to take a moment to introduce this second panel.
Kevin Little, he's the Director for Business Development
for Intermap Technologies. To his left, Matt O'Connell who's
the President and Chief Executive Officer of GeoEye. And we
also have with us Jill Smith, who's the President and CEO of
DigitalGlobe, Inc.
Again, I want to welcome each of you, and we'll dive right
in and start with Mr. Little and his testimony.
STATEMENT OF MR. KEVIN LITTLE, DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS
DEVELOPMENT, INTERMAP TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
Mr. Little. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. We
appreciate the opportunity to participate with you and your
committee. I thought I would do a few visuals. I'd like to talk
a little bit about what the applications really are from a
real-world standpoint. What we have over here on the poster
board, everyone has been referencing the Hayman fire. With this
particular, the red is the color of infrared. False color can
spot image.
And I'm sorry, we've got this thing going in the
background. I wish we had more screens. Actually, the poster is
what I'm referencing. It's actually an image of the Hayman
fire. It's a 170,000 acre area. The technology that's the base
layer does the slope aspect of the actual digital elevation
while the wildfire is actually burning. That particular
technology can actually see through the smoke cover.
We had to do the spot collection after the fact a few weeks
after the rain had put the fire out. And we discriminate on the
red there. The area that's red is the healthy vegetation. The
other part, of course, is the burned area on the right side.
And at the bottom, we were able to do a sloping aspect. And
with that we were able to figure the mud slide, those sorts of
things, vegetation burned, et cetera.
As mentioned, I am Kevin Little with Intermap based here in
Denver. Do you want to fire up that other one, please?
Yeah, let's do this one. This is actually Yosemite, high-
resolution elevation. I think this is actually DigitalGlobe
imagery draped over the top. And what this is, we actually have
a positional accuracy of X, Y and Z with this image, that
actually you can use this in a handheld device. It's all
commercial. It's all very user-friendly. We wanted to use this
one because we know how you have probably climbed that in the
past several times.
Chairman Udall. I have. Don't hold it against me. I did
kill a lot of brain cells on the mountains.
Mr. Little. Perfect. Scott, if you want to kill that one.
Another one I want to know is on this poster over here, the
NEXTMap Britain poster, if you could. From an application
standpoint, collecting commercially throughout the whole
country.
This is all in Scotland. It's cloud free. That's an
initiative right now collecting all over the U.S., which we're
at about 65 percent of that whole collection right now with
this same level of accuracy.
What we're showing is, we're utilizing very substantial
benefit. It's not just one specific technology. And if there's
one thing I could leave you folks with today is the idea that
applications that are fit for purpose. It's not technology
specific. It's more application specific. There are actually
areas where you need to have high-definition satellite imagery.
For instance, in doing city centers, doing ports, doing choke
points on borders, those sorts of things. Having that revisit
with a high-resolution commercial satellite system is a
wonderful thing.
Some of you heard people talk about the LIDAR application
today. LIDAR is a very wonderful technology more designed for
smaller areas. So we're looking for, perhaps, coastal areas,
sometimes city centers and other flood areas. The radar
technology that's been used in the past, which is what Intermap
utilizes, is good for broad area collection of high-resolution
digital elevation models, if you will.
If we could look at Merrill Pass, Alaska. This is actually
a program that was done in conjunction with Space Imaging back
in the important part of GeoEye. So the high-resolution imagery
is the Space Imaging stuff. The terrain is the Intermap. This
is in conjunction with FAA and with NASA. This Merrill Pass,
Alaska area, people take off out of this airport, fly into this
area. They get stuck in the fog and they run into the
mountains.
So what we're able to do here with my handheld GPS, in a
position where we are in relationship to the terrain. So once
again, this is a combined product, if you will, with some real-
world applications. We know within a meter, plus or minus on
the X and Y, about one meter on the Z of the altitude where
we're at in conjunction with this line. And the line that was
drawn, this particular day, was going to be the wind's best
approach through this valley.
Chairman Udall. Where is that valley, just out of
curiosity?
Mr. Little. Merrill Pass is just due west of Anchorage. You
take off from Anchorage International. They actually fly
through this pass to get on the other side of the range. And
some of these mountain tops are 14 to 20,000 feet tall. You
have a little trouble getting through this area. It's not so
bad in Florida. We could do a flight with this in Florida with
no problem.
Next one I want to show here, Kevin if you don't mind
showing, this is actually the coast area, the border area on
the left, shuttle radar coastal imagery. California is on the
north. The red line is the Mexican border. And Mexico, of
course, is on the south. And what we have is on the right side
is a one contiguous data set of the--it's 1.25 meter pixel of
one meter on the Z, showing the applications for--this is to
indicate the northbound. It's the Mexican border. We can do the
Canadian border also.
I'm sorry, my red light came on.
Chairman Udall. Why don't we leave it there, and we'll come
back in plenty of time for other questions and you'll all have
a chance to make more comments.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Little follows:]
Prepared Statement of Kevin Little
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee on Space and
Aeronautics, Intermap appreciates the opportunity to testify before you
today on: Remote Sensing Data: Application and Benefits.
Our CEO, Brian Bullock, extends his regrets in that he cannot
attend this session, but wishes to convey his appreciation for the
invitation to testify.
I am Kevin Little, Director of Strategic Business Development and
Government Relations for Intermap Federal Services Inc., a Colorado
company, and Director of Business Development for Intermap
Technologies, Inc., both of which are headquartered in Englewood,
Colorado.
Intermap is a remote sensing firm that creates and sells digital
elevation models (DEMs) and value-added mapping products derived from
our proprietary airborne Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar
(IFSAR). Intermap operates its IFSAR systems throughout the world for
various domestic and international customers, including the U.S.
Government's defense and intelligence interests.
Intermap Technologies Inc. is a commercial, publicly traded remote
sensing company with its global headquarters in Englewood, Colorado,
with international offices in Europe, Asia, and Canada.
Intermap currently employs approximately 145 people in our Denver
office and continues to increase the number of this high-tech
workforce. Our total number of global employees exceeds 650 and also
continues to grow.
Intermap Technologies was one of the first remote sensing companies
to realize the value of collecting and archiving geospatial data for
large geographies, and the first and only to collect country-wide
elevation data on a global scale.
1) Please describe the ways that remote sensing data can assist public
and private sector users in Colorado and provide benefits to State and
local governments.
In the broadest sense, remote sensing is the acquisition of
information of an object or phenomenon, by the use of either recording
or real-time sensing devices that are not in physical or intimate
contact with the object (such as aircraft, spacecraft, satellite, ship,
buoy, or in-situ).
Intermap's technology is airborne specific and we work in a very
complementary and synergistic manner with the commercial satellite
companies. Satellite systems are easily deployed in areas where access
is denied to commercial aircraft; however, technical capabilities allow
IFSAR to be used in areas of extreme cloud cover and are able to
accomplish their collection mission even at night.
Though the technology behind the manner in which satellites and
airborne remote sensing companies gather their data are very dissimilar
the ``fused'' product generated by orthorectifying satellite imagery
with IFSAR DEMs produces a product unparalleled in its usefulness to
the end-user, both civilian and defense related.
Remote sensing and the technology that is fit for purpose allows
for the most rapid and accurate terrain mapping for country-sized
areas. (See poster: NEXTMap Britain) Utilization of these combined
technologies provide substantial benefit for a wide range of real-world
applications that may utilize the data for not only x and y position
coordinates, but for the z--or elevation--coordinates as well.
Specific to the question of ways that remote sensing data can
assist public and private sector users in Colorado and provide benefits
to State and local governments, we offer the following real-world
application:
The Hayman Fire Area: (See Poster)
The Hayman Fire in June, 2002, was the largest in Colorado's
recorded history, destroying over 600 structures and burning 137,000
acres. Soon after containment of the fire, Intermap Technologies, in
collaboration with Space Imaging (now GeoEye) and USGS, acquired IFSAR
elevation data and radar intensity imagery of 22 7.5' quadrangles
encompassing the Hayman Fire burn and surrounding areas while the fire
was still active.
Intermap collected and provided reflective surface and bald-earth
IFSAR DEM and Digital Orthophoto Quadrangle (DOQ) radar magnitude image
data using single-pass X-band IFSAR for the Morrison and Cheesman Lake
Quadrangles.
The USGS Rocky Mountain Mapping Center made the Intermap IFSAR data
available to federal, State, and local agencies for use in post-fire
recovery, remediation planning, and training.
Subsequent to the delivery of elevation and imagery data by
Intermap, the USGS Rocky Mountain Mapping Center held workshops for
stakeholders and users to illustrate the applications of the data sets.
Individuals representing 14 federal, State, and local agencies with
interests in the Front Range and the Hayman Fire area attended these
workshops.
The Hayman Fire Area: Flood Plain Mapping
USGS Rocky Mountain Geographic Science Center, used the IFSAR data
set to update the South Platte 100-Year Flood Plain Maps. ``The Hayman
Post Hazard Mitigation Maps'' were produced for FEMA for flood risk
assessment purposes. The revised 100-Year Flood Plain of the South
Platte takes into account the Hayman Wildfire incident, and assumes
worst-case scenarios (lakes at full capacity level). These maps were
also distributed to the Colorado Water Board and local county managers.
Alaska Aviation Safety Project (see Merrill Pass, AK fly-through video)
Another effort that combined commercial and government expertise to
satisfy a real-world issue was the Alaska Aviation Safety Project
(AASP), which moved from developmental stage to public participation.
The Alaska Department of Military & Veterans Affairs (DMVA), NASA, the
FAA, Anchorage-based E-Terra LLC, and Colorado-based Space Imaging and
Intermap Technologies joined forces to provide Alaska aviators with the
latest technology in flight simulation using Alaska's unique and
challenging terrain. The program was designed to help lower the number
of aircraft accidents in Alaska.
Address Specific Flood Risk Assessment: (see PowerPoint slides)
With the use of various remote sensing products including elevation
data and aerial imagery, as well as utilization of existing building
models, vector data and a proprietary storm-surge algorithm, individual
buildings in the Commercial Business District of Miami, Florida were
modeled on an address-specific basis.
The storm surge algorithm mimicked a Katrina-like event, with a
three-meter storm surge with the duration of approximately three hours.
2) What role can remote sensing data play in homeland security and
national defense?
Homeland Security & National Defense--
With the increasing awareness of Homeland Security issues, agencies
that control and manage border areas, critical infrastructure,
coastlines, and transportation ``choke-points'' are in need of an
accurate, consistent topographic base map and corresponding high-
resolution images.
The current maps and imagery available to agencies concerned about
Homeland Security issues do not provide an appropriate level of
situational awareness for policy development, planning, operational
organization, and action.
Security decisions need to be made with the most accurate and
current information available.
Among other considerations, IFSAR allows for better terrain mapping
that leads to a greater knowledge and capabilities for all areas of
mid-continent, coastal, and border areas of the United States, and has
a unique value to Department of Homeland Security, State, county, and
local authorities. Intermap is currently partnered on the Secure Border
Initiative (SBI), a comprehensive multi-year plan to secure America's
borders. (See poster: Comparison of Digital Surface Models)
High-resolution terrain data allows for better understanding of
homeland security defense and planning measures (especially in rugged
terrain areas that exist in states like Colorado and along the border
areas), and provides a better visualization of all airport and military
installation terrain issues. Following a calamitous event, whether a
natural disaster or otherwise, commercial remote sensing assets can be
tasked to evaluate an area and provide information concerning details
of the event, magnitude of the event, evacuation planning, and plume
drift and provide change detection. The responsiveness of these
commercial assets was well proven following the Aceh Tsunami and
Hurricane Katrina.
These remote sensing data sets are extremely synergistic and
complementary.
3) What are the main impediments to the effective use of commercial
remote sensing data for public sector application and what would you
recommend be done?
The U.S. DOD has done an excellent job of tapping the commercial
market to take advantage of technology advances, free market pricing
and other similar opportunities. Commercial purchases afford the
government better products at more competitive pricing. This is a win-
win for the government and for the private sector, both contractors and
end-users of the data.
FEMA has entered the final year of Congressionally appropriated
funding of the Flood Map Modernization Program. Upon completion, map
modernization will provide reliable digital flood hazard data and maps
for 92 percent of the Nation's population, and easy access and sharing
of that information.
In order to leverage the successes of map modernization and further
enhance the usability and value of flood hazard mapping, FEMA has
developed the Risk MAP strategy, which combines flood hazard mapping,
risk assessment tools, and mitigation planning into one seamless
program. The intent of this integrated program is to encourage
beneficial partnerships and innovative uses of flood hazard and risk
assessment data in order to maximize flood loss reduction.
FEMA, which has undertaken the extremely daunting task of remapping
the United States for these applications, is extremely short on
resources and funding.
Wherever possible, government agencies should couple their programs
with other existing programs that are currently being undertaken and
have shared goals, allowing them to satisfy their requirements and
accomplish their mission.
It is important that the commercial sector be allowed to drive the
technology in a manner in which all government entities may take
advantage of these advances.
The entire map modernization program needs to embrace many remote
sensing technologies that have a reasonable currency, meet a minimum
specification or standard and are fit for purpose for applications.
These technologies include satellite and aerial photography as
appropriate for cities, ports, urban change detection, and border
choke-points, LIDAR for at-risk coastal areas and city centers, and
IFSAR for large area collection.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
I am happy to address any questions the Subcommittee or guests may
have.
Biography for Kevin Little
Kevin Little is Director of Business Development for Intermap
Technologies, Inc. Intermap delivers high-accuracy digital 3D terrain
data and related mapping products derived from interferometric
synthetic aperture radar (IFSAR) (X- and P-bands) mapping systems to a
variety of international customers.
At Intermap, Little is responsible for building relationships with
new business partners on an international basis and the development of
value-added businesses with Intermap's present customers. Little also
supports sales of products and services to markets that include the
Department of Defense and other government agencies, as well as
aerospace, air navigation, aviation/simulation, insurance, intelligent
transportation systems and other vertical markets.
Since 1991, Little's experience in the aerospace and remote sensing
industry has included delivering solutions using multi-spectral,
hyperspectral, radar and LIDAR data from spaceborne and airborne remote
sensing systems. Little's broad experience extends to derived
geophysical data products, data distribution and handling systems and
decision support tools.
While serving in various executive-level positions in more
traditional industries, as well as geospatial information technology
companies, Little has been responsible for program management, business
development, marketing and sales, government relations and corporate
management on an international level.
Prior to joining Intermap, Little was employed at DigitalGlobe--
purveyor of the highest resolution satellite imagery in the world--
during the preparation and launch of its QuickBird 1 and QuickBird 2
satellites.
Prior to joining DigitalGlobe, Little worked for the Boeing Company
on their start-up, RESOURCE21 program and was involved with development
of its four-satellite optical array being developed for global Earth
observation.
Chairman Udall. Mr. O'Connell, the floor is yours.
STATEMENT OF MR. MATTHEW M. O'CONNELL, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF
EXECUTIVE OFFICER, GEOEYE, INC.
Mr. O'Connell. It's a great honor to talk to you all about
what GeoEye does to support the State and local governments,
the defense and Intel community, the warfighters, and still
provide value to our international and commercial customers.
GeoEye is the leading provider of geospatial information,
imagery and solutions. We help our strategic partners and
commercial partners. We help them to better map, measure and
monitor the world.
We have a constellation of Earth imaging satellites, and
two mapping aircraft. Our constellation includes the .8-meter
resolution IKONOS satellite, and our new satellite, GeoEye-1,
which we will launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base later this
summer. It will be the world's highest resolution and most
accurate commercial imagery satellite, imaging the world at .41
meters in color. And we will also have an international network
of ground stations, a robust imagery archive, and an advanced
geospatial imaging processing capability that's really the
center of innovation.
GeoEye's imagery products serve the growing national and
international demand of highly-detailed imagery in applications
such as mapping, national security, homeland defense, emergency
preparedness, urban planning, environmental monitoring,
resource management and commercial fishery. In addition to
operating imaging satellites, GeoEye's a worldwide leader in
advanced image processing and photogrammetry. We produce a
broad spectrum of imagery products from a wide variety of
satellite and airborne sensors, both our own and other
people's. We also create fused images, digital elevation models
and land-use classification maps, and other image-derived
products that help our clients to incorporate valuable
information into any geospatial applications. We are a
financially healthy and viable company, publicly traded on the
NASDAQ, and our revenues are growing.
The remote sensing industry is not only strong and growing,
we also play a critical role in supporting both national
security and commercial applications. Many people on Capitol
Hill realize that imagery from the commercial sector is the
most cost-effective solution for the Nation's mapping needs,
and that the taxpayer benefits when the U.S. Government buys
imagery from the commercial sector.
Here's how it works. We make about 50 percent of our
revenues from international and commercial customers. Those
revenues provide a significant offset every time the U.S.
Government buys imagery from the commercial sector.
As a result, it's a better deal for the taxpayer.
If the government builds its own imaging system, the
taxpayer pays 100 cents on the dollar (possibly more when you
consider the cost overruns of some recent programs). You could
even say that we are subsidizing the U.S. Government because we
provide needed imagery and services at lower costs than if the
government attempted to perform the function in-house.
So by supporting the commercial industry, the U.S.
Government receives several benefits. Our technology helps
protect American lives. In addition, the technology to build
our satellites can't be exported. It's located in states like
Florida and Colorado. So when the U.S. Government buys imagery
and products from the commercial sector, it is protecting the
American industrial base.
You could say, in short, that by buying imagery from the
commercial industry, the U.S. Government protects American jobs
and protects American security at 50 cents on the dollar.
Through this partnership, the U.S. obtains technical
leadership, which results in allies seeking our assistance
instead of developing their own capabilities. Current U.S.
policy encourages a robust commercial imagery segment, global
leadership, and reliance on commercial imagery services, while
discouraging the government competition with the private
sector.
The commercial remote sensing industry fulfills the
Department of Defense and the Intel community with mapping,
charting and geodesy requirements at a fraction of the cost of
national systems. That's why we believe that the industry
provides the best value for the government's broad area
collection requirements while still meeting the needs of our
commercial and international customers.
Mr. Chairman, thank you for your leadership and for your
commitment to the remote sensing industry. Our American
workforce, coupled with leading-edge American technologies is
going to continue to play a significant role in national
security while creating new jobs and providing value to our
international and commercial customers.
Chairman Udall. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. O'Connell follows:]
Prepared Statement of Matthew M. O'Connell
Good morning Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Feeney, and Members of
the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics. Thank you for inviting me to
participate in today's hearing. It's a great honor for me to share with
you how GeoEye supports the State and local governments, the
intelligence community and the warfighters, while providing value to
our commercial customers.
GeoEye is a leading provider of geospatial information, imagery and
solutions for the national security community, strategic partners, and
commercial customers. We help them to better map, measure and monitor
the world. GeoEye owns and operates a constellation of Earth imaging
satellites and two mapping aircraft. Our constellation includes the
one-meter resolution IKONOS satellite, and our new satellite, GeoEye-1,
which we will launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base this summer. It
will be the world's highest resolution and most accurate commercial
imagery satellite, imaging the Earth with a ground resolution of 0.41
meters or about 16 inches, and will be able to produce those images in
color. In addition, we have an international network of ground
stations, a robust imagery archive, and advanced geospatial imagery
processing capabilities.
GeoEye imagery products serve the growing national and
international demand for highly-detailed imagery in applications such
as mapping, national security, homeland defense, emergency
preparedness, environmental monitoring, urban planning, resource
management and commercial fishery. In addition to operating imaging
satellites, GeoEye is a world-wide leader in advanced image processing
and photogrammetry. We produce a broad spectrum of imagery products
from a wide variety of satellite and airborne sensors both owned by
GeoEye and those of our customers. We also create fused images, digital
elevation models and land-use classification maps, and other image-
derived products that enable our clients to incorporate imagery into
virtually any geospatial application. We are a financially healthy and
viable company, publicly traded on the NASDAQ and our revenues continue
to grow.
The American remote sensing industry is not only strong and
growing, we also play a critical role in supporting both national
security requirements and commercial applications. Many on Capitol Hill
realize that imagery from the commercial sector is the most cost-
effective mapping solution for the U.S. Government and the taxpayer
benefits. Here's how it works: we make about 50 percent of our revenues
from international and commercial customers--so those revenues provide
a significant offset in the overall price the U.S. Government pays for
imagery and services. Consequently, it is a better deal for the
taxpayer. If the government builds its own imaging systems, the
taxpayer pays 100 cents on the dollar (possibly more when you consider
the cost overruns of some recent programs.) You could even say that we
are subsidizing the U.S. Government, because we provide needed imagery
and services at lower costs than if the government attempted to perform
the function in-house.
By supporting the commercial industry, the U.S. Government receives
several benefits. Our technology helps protect American security. In
addition, the technology to build our satellites cannot be exported.
Therefore, when the U.S. Government buys imagery products and services
from us, it is also protecting the American industrial base. In short,
by doing business with us, the government protects American jobs and
American security at fifty cents on the dollar. It is through this
partnership that the U.S. retains technical leadership which results in
allies seeking our assistance instead of developing their own competing
capabilities.
Current U.S. policy encourages a robust commercial imagery segment,
global leadership, and reliance on commercial imagery services, while
discouraging government competition with the private sector. The
commercial remote sensing industry fulfills the Department of Defense
(DOD) and the Intelligence Community's (IC) mapping, charting, and
geodesy requirements at a fraction of the cost of national systems. We
believe that the industry provides best value for the government's
broad area collect mission, while meeting the needs of the user
community.
Mr. Chairman, thank you for your leadership and commitment to
keeping the American commercial remote sensing industry strong and
vibrant. Our American workforce coupled with leading-edge American-
developed technologies will continue to play a significant role in
national security while providing value to our international and
commercial customers. I look forward to your questions.
Testimony Submitted for the Record
There are multiple uses for commercial remote sensing data-to
include providing assistance to public and private entities. You may be
interested to know that we have almost a dozen partners in Colorado.
The combined revenues of these companies exceed $20 million, and they
support hundreds of employees in the commercial remote sensing
industry.
While we do sell to the U.S. Government, we also established the
GeoEye Foundation which gives imagery grants to geospatial students and
researchers. The GeoEye Foundation's mission is to foster the growth of
the next generation of geospatial technology professionals. The
Foundation gives satellite imagery to students and faculty at select
educational institutions to advance research in geographic information
systems. To date, the Foundation has provided imagery at no cost to
support land use studies over Mexico, polar ice studies in the
Antarctic, and city planning studies over Jerusalem. The Foundation has
also made grants to almost two dozen educational institutions and other
non-profit organizations which include the University of Denver, Denver
Metropolitan State University, the Plains Conservation Center in
Aurora, Colorado, and the Mountain Studies Institute.
The Plains Conservation Center had a project aimed at prairie
conservation; in particular, it focused on rattlesnakes. The Center
surgically implanted radio transmitters into several female and male
rattlesnakes over two years, and outfitted with a radio receiver,
directional antenna, and GPS receiver, and tracked these snakes from
spring to fall each year with the help of trained volunteers.
Information about the micro-habitat environment of each snake's tracked
location, as well as natural history data was collected. While the
Center learned much about rattlesnake movements, it did still needed to
see the snakes' movements visually using aerial views of the study
site. This is where we came in.
The GeoEye Foundation offered a sharp, up-to-date satellite image
of the study site to the Center without charge. From the satellite
imagery, the Center could clearly see routes the snakes traveled in
relation to specific vegetation types, geologic formations, and man-
made structures. The image enabled the Center to compare snake
movements relative to prairie dog colonies, and by overlaying the image
with snake home range polygons, see the degree of overlap between
snakes of both sexes. In addition, the Center was able to provide
information to concerned groups as to where snakes traveled and suggest
ways that people might dissuade snakes from entering their property.
Naturalists at the Plains Conservation Center have used the image when
speaking to school groups and visitors about prairie conservation and
the role of rattlesnakes in the natural environment. We hope to see
this research published in a journal soon.
You will be pleased to know that the Foundation has supported other
Colorado-based requests including: the Mountain Studies Institute which
requested of the San Juan Mountains in Southwest Colorado to research
the impact of airborne mercury contamination in high elevation
ecosystems; the University of Denver request for the Luang Prabang
World Heritage Site preservation in Lao, and the Denver Metropolitan
State University which requested imagery to study the impact of pine
beetle infestation in and around a few Colorado ski areas.
Additionally, GeoEye does business with Colorado entities through
reseller or partnership agreements with other companies. For example,
last year, the City of Fort Collins purchased GeoEye imagery though one
of our partners, Walsh Environmental Scientists & Engineers, to analyze
prairie dog habitats and the impact on the local community.
Finally, GeoEye was glad to support to the Boulder County Sheriff's
Office when it called requesting assistance in a missing person's case
last fall. We acted quickly and turned over several images of the areas
in question from our archives. The incident was resolved, the person
found alive, and we were happy to assist.
How commercial remote sensing data supports homeland security and
national security?
GeoEye supports our warfighters, intelligence community, and first
responders 24 hours a day seven days a week. Our constellation of
satellites helps to create a more robust National constellation,
providing for revisit, assured access, redundancy and surge. Our
satellites provide unclassified imagery and derived products that are
easily used and shared by warfighters and allied/coalition partners.
The GeoEye systems architecture supports direct down-link and tasking--
with access to imagery in minutes. GeoEye provides the National
Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) imagery through the ``NEXTVIEW''
contract. It is also through this contract that NGA provided 50 percent
funding for our satellite, GeoEye-1, which we will be launching later
this summer.
The commercial remote sensing industry provides real value to the
U.S. taxpayers because the government only pays for the capacity it
needs. At the same time, the government benefits from access, revisit,
and redundancy of the entire constellation. Our private financing
enables more satellites and capabilities for the same tax dollars
because the commercial segment absorbs percentage of the costs. GeoEye
provides the government with a low financial risk because we bear the
risk and the government only pays for data that is delivered. In order
to serve our intelligence community, GeoEye has a secure facility in
St. Louis, Missouri that provides provide high-quality image processing
services based on the world's most advanced digital processing
techniques. With more than two decades of image-processing experience,
our remote sensing professionals develop, provide and deliver both
radiometric and geometric image processing services. We process images
from a variety of data sources including our own IKONOS and OrbView-2,
as well as and high-altitude and low-altitude aerial imaging systems,
Quickbird, Landsat, SPOT and IRS satellite imagery. Our processing
services include radiometric balancing, geopositioning, digital
elevation data production, orthorectification and mosaicking, and land-
use and land-cover classification.
During Hurricane Katrina, we ceased taking imagery for our
commercial customers to focus solely on the devastation in New Orleans
and the Gulf area. We were moving so much imagery that our usual
connection to NGA was stretched to capacity. The Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) asked us to set up a separate down-link just for them,
which we did immediately. Through this communications pipe, we sent DHS
our entire collection of imagery of these areas. This imagery was
shared with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the military
and National Guard, State and local officials. Because our imagery is
unclassified, it was shared immediately as soon as it downloaded from
the satellite.
What are the main impediments to more effective use of commercial
remote sensing data for public sector applications? Our
recommendations?
Commercial remote sensing data is making serious gains beyond the
traditional national security requirements and other users. With the
global Internet-use explosion, interest in Yahoo Maps, Google Earth,
and Microsoft Virtual Earth has also skyrocketed. No longer must one be
an imagery analyst to appreciate the multiple uses of commercial
imager. One could say that the Internet has turned million of consumers
into novice imagery analysts. I would also like to remind the
Subcommittee that the imagery we sell to the on-line search engines are
from our archives, and not new imagery.
Ours is a unique industry. Only we can claim that our satellites
have a short time to market (typically only three years), when coupled
with low risk acquisition approach that locks down design requirements
and does not permit engineering change proposals (such as non-
reoccurring engineering costs)--these factors contribute to holding
costs down while providing value to the government and the taxpayers.
We believe that it is imperative that the U.S. Government allows
the American commercial remote sensing industry to continue to be the
best in the world. Foreign competition is nipping at our heels. It is
critical that the government removes the handcuffs so we can continue
to lead, not follow, the commercial remote sensing industry. A review
of the current resolution policy of .51 meters would be an excellent
starting point.
As you may know, GeoEye-1 will collect at .41 meters, but because
of U.S. policy, we must decrease the resolution and sell it to our
international and commercial partners at .50 meters. Meanwhile, other
countries are moving quickly ahead to build next-generation capability
that will eventually best this figure. In order for our industry to
continue what we do best--provide fast, unclassified down-links, we
need to continue to be on the cutting edge of technology, and not on
the sidelines.
Our industry is unique in that we sell almost 50 percent of our
data in the commercial marketplace, and it is this sector that is
growing and steadily demanding concessions that the national security
community may not like. However, the main objective behind the
President's policy has always been to strike a balance between
commercial considerations and national security requirements.
The U.S. Government does not need to ``help'' us per se, but it
should not hold us back when foreign governments are actively helping
its' own home-grown companies to launch smaller, better resolution
satellites. Essentially, the competitive landscape has changed enough
that the U.S. Government is not protecting anything new by holding us
back because foreign competitors are actively engaged in besting our
technologies. Mr. Chairman, America's greatness should not be
constrained by our own government.
CONCLUSION:
Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member Feeney, thank you for your
leadership and commitment on this very important issue. As you know,
the future is already here. The demand for commercial imagery will only
increase with growing government requirements and by commercial
demands--to include environmental organizations, oil and gas, utility
companies, and non-profit institutions. Given the growing consumer
appetite for commercial imagery, we believe we are in a unique position
to support both national requirements and to satisfy international and
commercial needs. In essence, if we are given the opportunity to
participate--our industry will not only fulfill many of the U.S.
Government's requirements, but also sustain the industrial base by
providing American jobs. This includes the industrial base of satellite
manufacturers and ground infrastructure, the second tier subcontractors
to the primes, and the geospatial intelligence community. Our imagery
enables multiple applications and they, in turn, spawn new businesses.
These are high-tech, highly-skilled, and good paying jobs. The
Department of Labor recently highlighted geospatial technologies as one
of the top three fastest growing and most important high growth
industries in the 21st Century (the others were nanotechnology and
biotechnology.) This is clearly a win-win situation for America and for
the American taxpayers.
ATTACHMENT A
U.S. Space Policy Excerpts
U.S. Commercial Remote Sensing Policy (2003)
Rely to the maximum practical extent on U.S.
commercial remote sensing space capabilities for filling
imagery and geospatial needs for military, intelligence,
foreign policy, homeland security, and civil users;
Develop a long-term, sustainable relationship between
the United States Government and the U.S. commercial remote
sensing space industry;
Competitively out-source functions to enable the
United States Government to rely to the maximum practical
extent on commercial remote sensing space capabilities for
filling imagery and geospatial needs;
U.S. National Space Policy (2006)
The United States is committed to encouraging and
facilitating a growing a entrepreneurial U.S. commercial space
sector. Toward that end, the United States Government will use
commercial space capabilities to the maximum practical extent,
consistent with national security.
Enable a dynamic, globally competitive domestic
commercial space sector in order to promote innovation,
strengthen U.S. leadership, and protect national, homeland, and
economic security.
Refrain from conducting activities that preclude,
deter, or compete with U.S. commercial space activities, unless
required by national security or public safety.
Biography for Matthew M. O'Connell
Mr. O'Connell is GeoEye's President and CEO. GeoEye, headquartered
in Dulles, Virginia, is a leading provider of satellite and aerial
imagery and geospatial information. The company, with 400 employees,
operates two Earth-imaging satellites, IKONOS and OrbView-2, two
mapping aircraft, possesses an international network of regional
satellite receiving ground stations and has advanced geospatial imagery
processing capabilities. Key customers include the Department of
Defense and intelligence community, strategic business partners, U.S.
and international resellers and commercial customers. GeoEye is traded
on the Nasdaq exchange (GEOY) and is listed on the Russell 3000 index.
GeoEye is launching its next generation satellite, GeoEye-1, later this
year. GeoEye-1 will be the world's highest resolution and most accurate
commercial Earth-imaging satellite, with a ground resolution of 0.41
meters or about 16 inches.
Mr. O'Connell has over twenty years of experience in communications
management and finance. He came to the commercial remote sensing
industry in 2001 as CEO of GeoEye's predecessor, ORBIMAGE. In January
2006, Orbimage merged with Space Imaging to form GeoEye, Inc. In
January 2008, O'Connell was appointed by the Department of the Interior
to serve on its National Geospatial Advisory Committee. In February
2008, O'Connell was elected to the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence
Foundation's (USGIF) Board of Directors and in October 2007 was
presented with their Industry Leader award. Also in October 2007,
Deloitte named GeoEye as one of the Fast 50 companies in the Washington
D.C. area, ranking the company number twelve. In June 2007, Mr.
O'Connell was named ``Entrepreneur of the Year'' by Ernst and Young for
Communications in the Washington D.C. region. The Washington Post
ranked GeoEye number one of all companies in the D.C. area for 2006
revenue growth. Additionally, Space News named O'Connell one of the
``10 Who Made a Difference in Space in 2006'' and Via Satellite
Magazine named O'Connell as ``One to Watch in 2008.''
Prior to joining GeoEye, Mr. O'Connell was a Managing Director at
Crest Advisors, a New York-based private merchant bank that invested in
and advised communications companies, and Senior Vice President of
Legal and Business Affairs for Sony Worldwide Networks, a division of
Sony Corporation specializing in radio and Internet programming. Before
working at Sony, he served as Senior Vice President and general counsel
of Osborn Communications Corporation, a publicly traded radio and
television station operator. Prior to his tenure at Osborn, Mr.
O'Connell was the assistant general counsel at Cablevision Systems
Corporation, where he was responsible for acquisitions and finance,
including the company's initial public offering. Mr. O'Connell began
his career on Wall Street as a lawyer specializing in mergers and
acquisitions and corporate finance. Mr. O'Connell holds a Bachelor of
Arts degree in Classics from Trinity College, where he was elected to
Phi Beta Kappa, and a Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia Law
School.
Chairman Udall. Ms. Smith.
STATEMENT OF MS. JILL SMITH, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE
OFFICER, DIGITALGLOBE, INC.
Ms. Smith. Thank you. Mr. Chairman and Members of the
Subcommittee, thank you for giving me opportunity to appear
before you today on behalf of DigitalGlobe to discuss the
applications and benefits of remote sensing data.
DigitalGlobe was founded on the principal that remote
sensing data, specifically that acquired through satellite and
aerial imaging capabilities, can change the way organizations
conduct business and how governments protect their
constituencies. Today more than ever, we at DigitalGlobe are
seeing some of the unique ways businesses are improving their
efficiency and streamlining business processes. We are also
seeing increasing use by governments on emergency response
planning, urban development, and environmental monitoring.
DigitalGlobe's customers range from defense and
intelligence entities to civil agencies supporting land
development and emergency response to companies providing
consumer applications, including personal navigation services,
and Internet portal tools.
There are several advantages as a company being
headquartered here in Colorado, from the synergies that are
created by having the second largest aerospace industry in the
Nation, to enjoying the benefit of having a robust GIS and
remote sensing industry located here, and also the ability to
partner with several of the country's leading, excuse me,
academic institutions to develop relevant technical talent and
also a fabulous lifestyle that allows us to attract the best
people.
State and local government agencies, including those in
Colorado, use remote sensing data to meet the requirements of
many essential public service projects. Towns, cities and
counties rely on remote sensing data to understand the makeup
of their areas for tax assessments, public works and public
safety applications. In Colorado, in particular, as we've heard
today, it's particularly valuable for agricultural monitoring,
wildfire risk assessment, and watershed mapping.
At the same time, users at the national level utilize
remotely sensed data for a variety of purposes. Specifically,
certain U.S. Government defense and intelligence agencies
supply their users with unclassified, commercial data for
homeland security, national defense and intelligence programs.
Availability of commercial satellite imagery has provided the
government with flexibility in how it gathers intelligence,
conducts surveillance, and manages ground, air and naval
forces. Because commercial imagery is unclassified, it can be
shared across organizations and agencies, across domestic users
and with allies, coalition forces and humanitarian aid workers
to facilitate coordination.
Remote sensing data can help to speed decision-making for
military planning and in-theater activities and for emergency
response activities. The remote sensing data provided by
satellite imagery provides the capability to conduct detailed
reconnaissance and subsequent extraction of critical
information on targets.
In addition to military uses, remote sensing data can be
very valuable to civilian homeland defense efforts, including
mapping potential fire, flood, hurricane or earthquake paths;
monitoring the expansive U.S. borders both land and sea; and
identifying possible breaches of secure and protected high-risk
facilities such as nuclear plants and seaports.
One of the key enablers of the broader use of commercial
remote sensing data has been the continued support of the U.S.
Government. In 1992 Land Remote Sensing Policy Act set a
baseline for the licensing and operation of commercial remote
sensing space systems and is still in effect today. And more
recently, in the Commercial Remote Sensing Policy of 2003 and
the 2006 U.S. National Space Policy have the stated objective
of creating a ``dynamic, globally competitive domestic
commercial space sector in order to promote innovation,
strengthen U.S. leadership, and protect national, homeland and
economic security.''
We believe the policies encourage the U.S. Government to:
(A) rely to the ``maximum practical extent'' on U.S. commercial
capabilities, (b) ``refrain from conducting activities that
preclude, deter, or compete with U.S. commercial space
activities,'' (c) ``develop a long-term, sustainable
relationship'' between the U.S. Government and U.S. industry,
and (d) provide a ``timely and responsive regulatory
environment'' for licensing the operation and export of remote
sensing systems.
Congress has been a consistent and vocal supporter of U.S.
defense and intelligence use of commercial remote sensing data
through the ClearView and NextView programs. These programs
have helped the U.S. Government provide an increasing amount of
commercial imagery to the warfighter, intelligence analysts and
relief workers every day. The industry looks forward to
continuing to work with Congress to ensure continuity of
programs such as these well into the future.
While we believe there is widespread Congressional and
Executive branch support for the growth of the commercial
remote sensing industry, many obstacles nevertheless exist.
U.S. Government advocates must remain vigilant that the
enabling tenants laid out in the 1992 Act, and the 2003 and
2006 policies continue to have support. We believe the benefits
of commercially available remote sensing data are significant
and that the industry is only just beginning to develop
applications.
So on behalf of DigitalGlobe, I would like to thank the
Congress, especially this subcommittee and Congressman Udall,
Senior Ranking Member Feeney, for your support from the
earliest days of the industry into the future. That concludes
my testimony. I would be happy to answer questions. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Smith follows:]
Prepared Statement of Jill Smith
Mr. Chairman, and Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for giving
me the opportunity to appear before you today on behalf of DigitalGlobe
to discuss the applications and benefits of remote sensing data.
DigitalGlobe was founded on the principal that remote sensing data,
specifically that acquired through satellite and aerial imaging
capabilities, can change the way organizations conduct business and how
governments protect their constituencies. Today more than ever, we at
DigitalGlobe are seeing some of the unique ways businesses are
improving their efficiency and streamlining business processes. We are
also seeing increasing use by governments on emergency response
planning, urban development and environmental monitoring.
DigitalGlobe's customers range from defense and intelligence
entities to civil agencies supporting land development and emergency
response to companies providing consumer applications, including
personal navigation services, and Internet portal tools.
There are several advantages of being headquartered here in
Colorado, from the synergies that are created by having the second
largest aerospace industry in the Nation, to enjoying the benefit of
having a robust GIS and remote sensing industry located here. Another
important advantage is the ability to partner with several of the
country's best academic institutions for developing relevant
technological talent and the lifestyle that allows us to attract the
best people.
State and local government agencies, including those in Colorado,
use remote sensing data to meet the requirements of many essential
public service projects. Towns, cities and counties rely on remote
sensing data to understand the makeup of their areas for tax
assessment, public works and public safety applications. In Colorado,
it is particularly valuable for agricultural monitoring, wildfire risk
assessment, and watershed mapping.
At the same time, users at the national level utilize remotely
sensed data for a variety of purposes. Specifically, certain U.S.
Government defense and intelligence agencies supply their users with
unclassified, commercial data for homeland security, national defense
and intelligence programs. Availability of commercial satellite imagery
has provided the government with flexibility in how it gathers
intelligence, conducts surveillance, and manages ground, air and naval
forces. Because commercial imagery is unclassified, it can be shared
across organizations and agencies, across domestic users and with
allies, coalition forces and humanitarian aid workers to facilitate
coordination. Remote sensing data can help to speed decision-making for
military planning and in-theater activities and for emergency response
activities. The remote sensing data provided by satellite imagery
provides the capability to conduct detailed reconnaissance and
subsequent extraction of critical information on targets.
In addition to the military uses, remote sensing data can be very
valuable to civilian homeland defense efforts, including mapping
potential fire, flood, hurricane or earthquake paths; monitoring the
expansive U.S. borders both land and sea; and identifying possible
breaches of secure and protected high-risk facilities such as nuclear
plants and seaports.
One of the key enablers of the broader use of commercial remote
sensing data has been the continued support of the U.S. Government. The
1992 Land Remote Sensing Policy Act set a baseline for the licensing
and operation of commercial remote sensing space systems and is still
in effect today. And more recently, the Commercial Remote Sensing
Policy of 2003 and the 2006 U.S. National Space Policy have the stated
objective of creating a ``dynamic, globally competitive domestic
commercial space sector in order to promote innovation, strengthen U.S.
leadership, and protect national, homeland and economic security.'' \1\
We believe the policies encourage the U.S. Government to: (a) rely to
the ``maximum practical extent'' \2\ on U.S. commercial capabilities,
(b) ``refrain from conducting activities that preclude, deter, or
compete with U.S. commercial space activities,'' \3\ (c) ``develop a
long-term, sustainable relationship'' \4\ between the U.S. Government
and U.S. industry, and (d) provide a ``timely and responsive regulatory
environment'' \5\ for licensing the operation and export of remote
sensing systems.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ U.S. National Space Policy (2006)
\2\ U.S. Commercial Remote Sensing Policy (2003); U.S. National
Space Policy (2006)
\3\ U.S. National Space Policy (2006)
\4\ U.S. Commercial Remote Sensing Policy (2003)
\5\ U.S. Commercial Remote Sensing Policy (2003); U.S. National
Space Policy (2006)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Congress has been a consistent and vocal supporter of U.S. defense
and intelligence use of commercial remote sensing data through the
ClearView and NextView programs. These programs have helped the U.S.
Government provide an increasing amount of commercial imagery to the
warfighter, intelligence analyst and relief worker every day. The
industry looks forward to continuing to work with Congress to ensure
continuity of programs such as these well into the future.
While we believe there is widespread Congressional and Executive
branch support for the growth of the commercial remote sensing
industry, many obstacles nevertheless exist. U.S. Government advocates
must remain vigilant that the enabling tenets laid out in the 1992 Act,
and the 2003 and 2006 policies continue to have support. In particular,
it is important that the U.S. Government continue to maximize its use
of commercial imagery, ensure a regulatory environment that promotes
the commercial imagery business, and enable U.S. industry to continue
to be competitive in the global imagery market.
We believe the benefits of commercially available remote sensing
data are significant and that the industry is only beginning to develop
potential applications.
On behalf of DigitalGlobe, I would like to thank the Congress,
especially this subcommittee and Congressman Udall, for your support
from the earliest days of the industry into the future. That concludes
my testimony. I will be happy to answer any questions you may have.
Biography for Jill Smith
Jill is a veteran corporate leader with a long history of strategic
management and successful brand building. She was President and Chief
Executive Officer of eDial, a collaboration software company that she
successfully turned around and sold to Alcatel. Prior to leading eDial,
she was Chief Operating Officer of Micron Electronics, Inc., a $1.5
billion direct PC manufacturer and marketer. While at Micron, Jill
drove the PC business to profitability, and grew HostPro, Micron's
award-winning web hosting division, into the third-largest web and
application hosting company, and a candidate for an IPO. Prior to
Micron, Jill co-founded and led Treacy & Company, LLC, a successful
boutique consulting and investment business that was merged with an
Internet consulting firm, and was Chief Executive Officer of SRDS,
L.P., a private publishing and printing company that she successfully
repositioned and established as an electronic publishing leader. Her
earlier experience includes executive positions at Sara Lee Corporation
and Bain & Company, where she was a Vice President. Jill holds a
Master's Degree in Business Administration from the MIT Sloan School of
Management.
Discussion
Chairman Udall. Thank you, Ms. Smith, and thank you to a
very important group of witnesses. I'm going to move right to
questions, and recognize myself for five minutes, and I would
like to ask each of you in turn. I'll start with Mr. Little,
and I'll remember later on I'll start with Ms. Smith on the
next question, in the spirit of Mr. Byers who was on the
previous panel.
The benefits of commercial over federal data, this is an
important discussion. What opportunities do commercial remote
sensing data enable over remote sensing data available from
federal and other public sources? And as a follow-on, could you
please describe the applications that the commercial remote
sensing data can support?
Mr. Little. Absolutely. Thank you for the question. It's
quite valid. As one of my colleagues indicated earlier, the
advantage of having commercial remote sensing data to the
community, with coalition partners, et cetera, it's
unclassified, typically accessible via the Internet, lots of
commercial applications to support that. We ask that commercial
be looked at a little more strongly.
The NGA and DOD has done an excellent job of looking at the
outside community, if you will, at the commercial side, to do
the--take care of some of these technologies.
Chairman Udall. Mr. O'Connell.
Mr. O'Connell. As Kevin--it is a great question, sir, as
Kevin said. The fact that we're unclassified is a terrific
advantage, as we learned with Hurricane Katrina. The government
can't disseminate it's classified images quickly. In Katrina, I
know that both Jill and I devoted a lot of our taskings to New
Orleans. And as soon as the imagery was available, it became
publically disseminated. In fact we had a lot of discussion
with the NGA at the time. They did a very good job of saying,
how do we get this public? Dump it on all of the different
providers, not just Google, not just Microsoft, so a relief
worker could immediately find out what was going on.
Similarly, we refer to them in articles such as Space News,
that overseas our warfighters find unclassified imagery
terrific because they can turn to an English person, and you
see a tank. They can't do that as easily with classified
imagery. So the fact that we're unclassified really helps.
Another thing that helps terrifically is our private
financing helps relieve the government of financing expensive
satellites. Jill and I both benefited to the tune of about $500
million. I would say the government benefited even more. We go
out and borrow privately, and provide much of, if not most of
the operating and investment capital. So I think that we
provide great services, great price. The fact that it's
unclassified means that it gets out faster to the people who
need it.
Ms. Smith. Thank you. Reinforcing what's already been said
in terms of unclassified. Second of all, as Mr. O'Connell
highlighted, the proven economics of the commercial remote
sensing providers, in terms of their ability to manage large
contracts and deliver on time and on budget.
Thirdly is, of course, supporting the U.S. industry in
terms of space technologies, and reinforcing and perpetuating a
leadership in the world that the U.S. is established, aided and
abetted by the policies that have been adopted.
And so those things in combination should ensure that the
benefits to the user are evident in terms of the applications
we've heard about. The economics of the taxpayer are evident in
terms of the delivery that the commercial remote sensing
providers have been able to secure, and should ensure that
there is continued leadership on the part of the U.S. globally
in terms of technologies for the source.
Chairman Udall. I would like to come back to that
leadership role you play in the next round. Congressman Feeney
has five minutes, and then we'll come back to the second round
of questions.
Mr. Feeney. Well, thank you to all of our witnesses. Mr.
O'Connell, you talked a little bit about foreign competition.
Can you describe the capabilities some of the foreign
competition has, which countries, which private sector activity
or government activity, and what forms of relief do you think
we need to help our American companies with as we face the
potential for more foreign competition.
Mr. O'Connell. Congressman Feeney, thank you for asking the
question.
Mr. Feeney. You're welcome.
Mr. O'Connell. The French--in short, I'll just say France,
Israel, Korea, Taiwan, India, Russia all have domestic
programs. None of them are truly commercial, so we're competing
with our hands tied behind our back with people. France has .7
meters coming on stream. They're currently using the spider
model Kevin showed you earlier. It's five meters that they
artificially turn into 2.5 meters.
India has one meter. It's wildly inaccurate. Our satellites
are both highly accurate. I know that ours is true within three
meters. The Indian satellite, although it has one meter
imagery, can be inaccurate by 225 meters. So it's not terribly
good for that. The Israelis have imagery which is pretty and .7
meters resolution. It's not accurate.
The Koreans have imagery that's one meter, and although the
accuracy is not good, they're working on improving it. The
Taiwanese have roughly one meter accuracy. Their satellite is
unusual because it always follows the same ground tracks.
However, all of these nations are trying to compete with us.
I would say, sir, that we don't need relief. I think that
the partnership we have is a true partnership. We believe that
we deliver good imagery to our warfighters, to FEMA. We're not
looking for a subsidy. If the government continues to buy from
us at what we believe are highly advantageous rates, then the
government will not only get the imagery and solutions it
needs, it will keep the foreign competitors at bay. It will
continue to have America be the leaders. And as I think all
three of us have said, it's much better for the foreign
countries to come here and buy imagery from us than for us to
have to go buy our imagery from foreign countries.
Mr. Feeney. Well, you mentioned, for example, Taiwan in
that list. Surely Taiwan has the capabilities the Chinese do.
They're just not using it for commercial purposes. Their entire
space program is under the Defense Department, and it's very
opaque or secretive.
Mr. O'Connell. Yes, the Chinese have the formidable
capability. They're not as highly advanced. America is still
the best in the world, Jill and I both do a lot of good
imagery. The foreigners are definitely trying to catch up.
I would say that the French are highly competitive. The
mainland Chinese have the most aggressive program in terms of
volume in satellites. Of course, we're unsure about exact
details, but they have a very different attitude. If they tried
and failed, they'll try 10 more times.
Mr. Feeney. Ms. Smith, anything to add about the foreign
competition.
Ms. Smith. No. I think Mr. O'Connell highlighted the
essence of that competition, except to say that as we think
about the future of this industry, in some ways the emphasis is
getting away from, as it were, simply vernacular. We use the
raw pixels, and to provide better solutions as we heard this
morning about new ways to disseminate data. It's no longer just
having the data; it's what you can then do with the pixels to
then provide value to applications.
And so the emphasis of the U.S. industry to increasingly
focus on superior applications, and around utility, including
dissemination, is an essential part of our defensive response
and offensive response to foreign competition.
Mr. Feeney. You heard earlier--this is for all of the
witnesses. Just briefly, you heard the earlier panel talk about
problems that could be created for them if Landsat 5 or 7 went
down and we had a gap. Would it create specific problems for
what you do in terms of your capabilities.
Mr. O'Connell. It would create problems for some of the
people that we consider clients. But we have a satellite called
OrbView-2 that delivers ocean information that's used by
researchers around the world. I know that would be a
significant issue for them.
We're actually developing a deeper relationship with those
people because we created a foundation to the scientific
community to develop new applications. Similar to the extent
they suffer, we suffer. You'll be happy to hear that the
University of Florida and lots of schools in Colorado are using
that imagery. We wanted to develop innovative products, as Ms.
Smith said. It's very important for America to continue to have
the cutting edge. So in the terms of the scientific community,
it doesn't hurt us directly, but hurts us indirectly.
Mr. Feeney. I may have a question or two on the second
round. Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Udall. Let's move to the second round, I'll
recognize myself again for five minutes. I want to peer at this
discussion, drill down a bit further on what Congressman Feeney
brought up. What's the most important factor enabling your
company to compete and agree in the global remote sensing
industry? And as a follow-on, what role does the government
play in promoting a healthy commercial remote sensing industry.
We covered a little bit of this ground. I want to get this
on the record, and opportunities that will--that are present
for us. So we'll start with Jill.
Ms. Smith. I think there are two core areas where the--how
Congress plays out and how the U.S. Government manages the
industry and materially helps ensure that we, as an industry,
are able to retain leadership. The first is around policies and
regulations. And I'll come back to that in one second. And
second is around advocacy.
And with regard to policy and regulation, the first from
our perspective is to ensure vigilance around implementation of
the policies that have already been articulated, have already
been put in place, are to ensure that we are using commercial
imagery and commercial companies to the maximum extent possible
for investing and building out U.S. Government assistance.
The second wall is ensuring that the licensing regulations
that are governing our industry don't further impede the
industry. And where appropriate, and as the markets change,
enable us to be as competitive as we can be in the industry
while still, of course, protecting national security.
With regard to advocacy, we have, today, in place an office
of space commercialization which is currently under NOAA. There
is a legislation that has been proposed by the Department of
Commerce to reinforce and strengthen the role of the office of
space commercialization, and we would agree that this is a very
important potential step forward to ensure long-term advocacy.
Mr. O'Connell. I'd like to echo what Ms. Smith said. I
think that there are existing policies in place right now that
are terrific policies. I think that the government has to be
vigilant to be sure that they're adhered to. The policy
currently states that the U.S. Government should, to the extent
possible, use as well as it can for its commercial remote
sensing needs.
There are a lot of areas that we can fulfill, as I said
before. The collection of broad area mapping is something that
we can do, we think, faster, better and cheaper than the U.S.
Government, so we would like the government to continue to use
us for that, and in fact to look at our other areas where we
could do that.
Again, we believe that the taxpayer benefits every time
they buy a pixel from us. We also believe that the current
regulations have--that have recently been relaxed allow us to
distribute imagery at a resolution of .5 meter. That's
important. It came a little late because the French actually
started distributing--or, I'm sorry, the Israelis were
distributing imagery at a lower resolution than Americans were
permitted to for a while.
So I think the government has to continue to monitor that.
There's no reason why we should be playing. Right now, on our
next satellite, we'll image at .41.
We'll be required to raise that imagery up to .5. That
doesn't bother us at the moment because nobody's competitive,
although it doesn't really make that much sense. I think that
it's important that the--it's important that the U.S. stay the
leader and not be the follower.
Chairman Udall. Mr. Little.
Mr. Little. Yes, very quickly I concur with everything
they've said. Another thing that just came to mind is the fact
that, for instance, this is a daunting task in satisfying the
requirements, et cetera. They spend a lot of money doing a lot
of things. And my opinion is that they probably shouldn't be
spending that money to, like, remap the U.S. The risk map that
FEMA is putting together, and flood plane mapping, et cetera.
They're asking the Congress for five years, and that can more
readily be done by the commercial entities that are available,
and they could spend their efforts and their monies probably a
little more wisely. Thank you.
Chairman Udall. I was saying to Congressman Feeney that he
and I are going to look further into the situation you just
described because we have limited resources. We have a lot of
needs. We don't want to sort of duplicate activities. I know
we're going to have a third round. I'm going to end the second
round and recognize Mr. Feeney.
Mr. Feeney. What, Mr. O'Connell, prohibited some of the
finer capabilities that you have? Is that for security means? I
mean, what--you know, I honestly don't think anything in this
environment is secure, but what would be the type of reasoning
that government agencies would prohibit you from making
available what your capabilities allow you to?
Mr. O'Connell. That's a great question, sir. Your own
question about privacy, yes, it is related to overall security.
There is a lingering sentiment in some parts of the government
that there should be no private-sector involvement, and there
should be no commercial involvement in overhead surveillance.
As I think Mr. Byers said, the cat is kind of out of the
bag on that one. Our question on privacy was a very good one,
and I'd like to kind of talk about that, because I think that
that's different than what we're talking about here. Mr. Byers
said that he believed in transparency. I think we all think
it's good being able to see what's going on in Iran. You have
to balance that transparency out of our natural desire for
privacy. We think the government has done a good job so far.
It's tough. We're all subject to follow all those laws and
regulations.
Having said that, when terrorists use dual imagery to
strike a British camp in Iraq, that was obviously troublesome.
When disseminating things to places like Google, that we just
adopt a simple rule. Let's not image active military bases in
the field. That hasn't been acted on because it's the beginning
of a tough question. Then you say, well, how about military
headquarters like the Pentagon? How about hospitals? How about
schools? People won't stick with simple solutions. So that's
never gotten anywhere.
Also, as Mr. Navarro said, it's tough because you have
American companies. The government can regulate us. But if the
French and Indians and Israelis, and whoever else--the French
will sell their imagery. I said it with the French sitting next
to me, and they're proud of it. So I don't know how we can
constrain an information flow when America doesn't constrain
the information.
Chairman Udall. Ms. Smith.
Ms. Smith. I have nothing else for that. I think Mr.
O'Connell covered it very, very well.
Mr. Feeney. I guess my last question would be with respect
to the data that you rely on from NOAA and NASA, how much do
you rely on the data, if at all, from NOAA and NASA, and how
free are they in terms of responding to the data requests when
you have it? For all the witnesses.
Ms. Smith. I think it was Mr. O'Connell who referred
earlier to fundamentally our job is to provide superior
solutions for our customers. And there are, indeed, certain
types of applications or simply availability and capacity
necessitates that the customer take lower, or I should say, a
lower resolution imagery from NASA or NOAA or otherwise.
So we as a company do sometimes put together solutions on
integration of multiple sources. And so in that sense, to the
extent to which there were any difficulties getting access to
that imagery, as Mr. O'Connell said earlier, it would be the
customers that suffer. We have had no issues with regard to
access to that imagery at all, and likely that it is available
to as many users as it is.
Mr. O'Connell. We actually do use NASA imagery, and some of
our blended products. As Ms. Smith said, it's getting more and
more important not just to have pixels, but what do we do with
pixels. So we've had to work with the development of complex
products. Our efficient product uses our satellite imagery as a
base map, and then takes a different resource. That's the
terrific part. We sell them imagery. So I can see it has all
been great.
I would say on NOAA, on the regulatory side, NOAA has been
a very good overseer. They sometimes get, I think--the pace
with which the commercial sector operates is daunting, and NOAA
has risen to the challenge. I might say, I know it's off the
subject, but as long as you're asking, about what Congress may
be doing, and that has restricted both of us.
We're not trying to do--we're not trying to put a ground
station in China, but we had to send a replacement part to
Israel for a ground station that was approved 10 years ago. It
took us nine months to get approval. I'm not sure why that
works that way.
Mr. Little. Quickly, NOAA, NASA, et cetera, NOAA on the
coastal flood areas, NASA on a number of items, we've worked on
them globally, as I mentioned earlier on the Merrill Pass in
Alaska program. That was an FAA initiative that was funded by
NASA, and a very interesting relationship. So they're good
folks to work with from our standpoint, very innovative.
NASA's mission is a little different nowadays. As I recall,
there was a study done a few years ago that suggested that NASA
should probably get out of the Earth observation business and
get into the space exploration business where they actually
belong, and leave the export of Earth observations to
commercial. Thank you.
Mr. Feeney. Thanks. I don't have any further questions.
I'll just say that I sort of instinctively, out of habit,
support the commercial side. What I call a phone book test, if
more than two people in the private sector provide a good or
service, it's probably very unlikely that I would be supportive
for the government getting involved. So you've got a sort of
instinctive ally.
I want to pass to the Chairman again.
Chairman Udall. Before I ask this final question, I did
want to take just a moment to acknowledge an advantage of a
product that each one of your companies provide. Because in
part the whole hearing was to further educate the public and
trumpet what you all are doing. And I know Intermap has a
product, like what we saw on the screen that we use in places
like Iraq and Afghanistan as a phenomenal tool.
Mr. O'Connell, I commend to everybody's attention, the
second half of your testimony. Some of the best things you're
doing in monitoring wildlife and helping us do what we need to
do to maintain the populations that not only are important
because of our interest in wildlife and the thrill and the
inspiration they provide for us, but they help keep our planet
healthy.
And then Ms. Smith, DigitalGlobe, some of you may remember,
in Boulder County two years ago we were looking for a missing
Marine. On immediate request on the weekend, your staff
responded, and to the family and to many of us trying to find
that Marine. So there's a talent of stories of what you all are
doing. It's exciting, cutting edge. The jobs you all provide
pay healthy salaries. It's just--it's inspirational. I, like
Congressman Feeney, suggest that we default to want to support
what you all are doing.
Let me have one final question. Following Dr. Montagu who
was on the earlier panel, he urged the Federal Government and
the local and regional government to leverage the tremendous
purchasing power of the Federal Government in the commercial
remote sensing data marketplace.
What's your response to this idea, and are there other
things that Federal Government can do? And maybe we'll start
with you, Mr. Little, and move back across.
Mr. Little. Very much so. We had a situation with the
wildfires in California where NGA and, actually, more Northcom
purchased IFSAR data along the coastal areas in California, and
inclusive of that. That's part of the whole program. We have,
as I mentioned, about 65 percent of the U.S. collected already,
very high-resolution terrain.
One of the things that happened out there was a plan to do
some C130 drops, water drops. They were trying to do some
planning in case there were--they had to evacuate hospitals and
nursing homes, those sorts of things. They had to put Marines
on the ground, shoes on the ground, boots on the ground, if you
will.
In part of the discussion, they also said, what would
happen, if we provide this data, gave a license to NGA at this
time, under their customers, could we provide to the end-users
in California. And we said certainly, as what happened with the
tsunami incident in Aceh a few years ago when the satellite
guys made their stuff available. We want to encourage that as
much as we can. The usage of that is important. So our
licensing techniques or methods, we license to the Federal
Government. And through that licensing mechanism, it can be
licensed ultimately to the end-user.
I think one of the things that came up on the previous
panel was it's an education thing as much as anything, because
the folks at the end-user level don't understand that it's
available or how it's available or how it's licensed. So I hope
that answers your question.
Mr. O'Connell. As Mr. Little said, we do deliver a lot of
imagery at the State and local governments, currently. Our
model with NGA is a little different. NGA paid half the cost of
the next generation satellite we're building and half the cost
of the satellite that was just launched. When you pay that much
up front, you get a good discount. That's why the Federal
Government would get a favorable price from us. We would be
happy to talk to them about it.
But a part of the next competition was that we had to
contemplate we were commercially viable. If you just change it
now, it changes some of the revenue streams we were looking at.
We're not objecting to it, because we have this really good
partnership with NGA. But it's a night and day point where the
Department of Labor has said that three of the highest growing
areas of jobs are nanotechnology and biotechnology and
geospatial sciences.
It's one of the reasons why some--there's been such
terrific growth in our offices in Thornton.
We can only hire all those people, in competition with
people like Lockheed Martin and ITT who is sitting right here
if we are making money. So the revenue mix is complicated. We'd
be happy to look at expanding the model and letting the states
leverage. I think it's very important that they do use the
imagery, but I think that it's a complex issue.
Ms. Smith. Thank you. Several opportunities have been
identified. I'd also like to add the opportunity for better
coordination around homeland security. And certainly as an
industry, I think we feel as if we are underservicing homeland
security because of the challenge of operating both at a local
and at a federal level. And therefore we believe there are many
opportunities to support that.
Similarly, in terms of ensuring that homeland security acts
in a way that is consistent with the commercial remote sensing
policy in terms of looking for commercial resources, commercial
remote sensing resources, ahead of proprietary U.S. Government
resources, therein lies an opportunity to ensure that that's
pushed down, not only the federal level, but also into a local
level to the benefit of all. Thank you.
Chairman Udall. Thank you. I did, as I bring the hearing to
a close, want to acknowledge the presence of Lockheed Martin,
Ball Aerospace, and ITT who have been here as well. And Mr.
O'Connell and everybody at the table here knows that they're
key links in this whole chain.
I want to thank the two panels of witnesses, citizens of
Colorado Springs that have joined us, other interested parties.
And to keep faith with Congressman Feeney, as colleagues of
mine, if there's no objection, the record will remain open for
additional statements of Members and for answers to follow-up
questions the Subcommittee may want to ask other witnesses. And
without objection, it's so ordered.
The hearing is now adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 12:11 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]
Appendix:
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Answers to Post-Hearing Questions
Submitted to Jack G. Byers, Deputy Director and Deputy State Engineer,
Colorado Division of Water Resources
These questions were submitted to the witness, but were not
responded to by the time of publication.
Questions submitted by Chairman Mark Udall
Q1. How significant is the issue of training your workforce to use
remote sensing information and incorporate it into your organization's
services and operations? What role, if any, should the Federal
Government play in ensuring that opportunities exist to train workers
in the use of remote sensing data and information?
Q2. You testified on the valuable uses of remote sensing data and the
benefits your organization has gained in return. What are your
suggestions on ways to disseminate or share these applications with
other State and local agencies that may be considering the use of
remote sensing data or that are unaware of the value it may offer?
Answers to Post-Hearing Questions
Responses by A. Simon Montagu, Director, Customer Resource and Support,
Denver Regional Council of Governments
Questions submitted by Chairman Mark Udall
Q1. The development of data standards can help facilitate the
widespread use of remote sensing data and information. Based on your
experience, how well are mechanisms to coordinate the development of
data formats and standards among Federal Government agencies and other
remote sensing data users such as yourselves working? What, if any,
actions should the Federal Government take to strengthen efforts to
develop data standards?
A1. My experience with the mechanisms to coordinate the development of
data formats and standards is limited to observing the activities of
the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC). I have observed the
development of various FGDC standards in three different capacities as
an educator (teaching GIS at Miami University in Ohio), a data
standards ``consumer,'' and as a member of the professional association
with direct interest in some of outputs of the FGDC's work.
Generally speaking, the FGDC coordinates these efforts well,
allowing for appropriate input and deliberation before publishing the
final standards. My only critique would be that some of the resultant
standards are overly complex. However, in fairness to the FGDC, this is
probably a reflection of the complexity of the subject matter, and the
broad scope of the various standards themselves, rather than any
inherent flaw in the FGDC process.
Q2. How significant is the issue of training your workforce to use
remote sensing information and incorporate it into your organization's
services and operations? What role, if any, should the Federal
Government play in ensuring that opportunities exist to train workers
in the use of remote sensing data and information?
A2. The geospatial technologies industry as a whole remains an
important and growing sector of the Colorado economy. This trend is
mirrored across the Nation. Sustaining this growth will require a
commitment from all levels of government to support the basic skills
and knowledge training needed to ensure the industry has the talent it
requires.
Fundamental to this is an improved commitment to basic math and
analytical literacy. All of the geospatial sciences, but especially
remote sensing, require a solid background in the fundamentals of
mathematics. My experience teaching in the Geography department at
Miami University revealed a wide discrepancy in the level of math
preparedness of students coming into college.
For this country to remain a leader in the geospatial technologies
industry, our future workforce must receive a basic grounding in math
as high school students, rather than play ``catchup'' in college. The
Federal Government's direct role in this is perhaps limited. However,
the past history of the aeronautical and engineering sciences suggests
that Federal Government leadership and goal setting does do a lot to
promote State and local engagement in broader, national endeavors.
Q3. You testified on the valuable uses of remote sensing data and the
benefits your organization has gained in return. What are your
suggestions on ways to disseminate or share these applications with
other State and local agencies that may be considering the use of
remote sensing data or that are unaware of the value it may offer?
A3. Fortunately for DRCOG, the community of Regional Planning
Commissions/Metropolitan Planning Organizations is relatively small and
thus ``knowledge transfer'' is relatively easy. Indeed, DRCOG learned a
great deal from its peers as we put together the Denver Regional Aerial
Photography Project.
Additionally, we have as one of our mandates the provision
information and tools to our local government membership of matters
that are typically outside the purview of their normal governmental
operations. This typically includes matters that transcend their
jurisdictional boundaries, but also includes matters of new technology
of which they may not be aware. We provide this service through a
number of avenues, ranging from one-on-one training, informational
products distributed both in hard copy and electronic format, and
through custom workshops and training courses. We have used all of
these formats in recent years to provide DRCOG's member governments
with information about current and emerging geospatial technologies
with relevancy to the business of local and regional governance.
Answers to Post-Hearing Questions
Submitted to Manuel Navarro, Fire Chief, City of Colorado Springs Fire
Department
These questions were submitted to the witness, but were not
responded to by the time of publication.
Questions submitted by Chairman Mark Udall
Q1. The development of data standards can help facilitate the
widespread use of remote sensing data and information. Based on your
experience, how well are mechanisms to coordinate the development of
data formats and standards among Federal Government agencies and other
remote sensing data users such as yourselves working? What, if any,
actions should the Federal Government take to strengthen efforts to
develop data standards?
Q2. How significant is the issue of training your workforce to use
remote sensing information and incorporate it into your organization's
services and operations? What role, if any, should the Federal
Government play in ensuring that opportunities exist to train workers
in the use of remote sensing data and information?
Q3. You testified on the valuable uses of remote sensing data and the
benefits your organization has gained in return. What are your
suggestions on ways to disseminate or share these applications with
other State and local agencies that may be considering the use of
remote sensing data or that are unaware of the value it may offer?
Answers to Post-Hearing Questions
Responses by Frank J. Sapio, Director, Forest Health Technology
Enterprise Team (FHTET), U.S. Department of Agriculture
Questions submitted by Chairman Mark Udall
Q1. How significant is the issue of training your workforce to use
remote sensing information and incorporate it into your organization's
services and operations? What role, if any, should the Federal
Government play in ensuring that opportunities exist to train workers
in the use of data and information?
A1. The availability of training opportunities has not been an
impediment. Between vendors and internal cadres of technical experts,
the agency offers an array of geospatial technology training
opportunities for natural resource land managers. The Federal
Government should continue to work in partnership with vendors to
develop and provide training in the use of data and information
collected through the application of remote sensing technologies.
Q2. You testified on the valuable uses of remote sensing data and the
benefits your organization has gained in return. What are your
suggestions on ways to disseminate or share these applications with
other State and local agencies that may be considering the use of
remote sensing data or are unaware of the value it may offer?
A2. For the State and Private Forestry Forest Health Protection (FHP)
staff, this issue is very relevant. FHP field staff is trained and able
to provide technical assistance to State and local partners for use of
new technology or technical adaptations. This system works well, though
on technology issues, adoption is sometimes slow even with willing
State partners. Early stakeholder involvement synergizes the technology
adoption process. Involving State partners in the design phase of a
project increases the opportunity for the project's successful
adaptation and application. A recent example of this type of
development is the Southern Pine Beetle Hazard Maps Project, where
State partners in 13 southern states had an integral role in project
development.
Our Technology Service Centers such as the Remote Sensing
Applications Center and the Forest Health Technology Enterprise Team
both have robust web sites. Reaching our partners through regular,
disciplined, updates of our web site is crucial in keeping our partners
aware of the latest developments. Sharing raw and processed data
through the multiple agency spatial data clearing houses is also a
crucial part of the strategy.
Answers to Post-Hearing Questions
Responses by Kevin Little, Director of Business Development, Intermap
Technologies, Inc.
Questions submitted by Chairman Mark Udall
Q1. The development of data standards can help facilitate the
widespread use of remote sensing data and information. Are you
satisfied with the opportunities available to commercial remote sensing
companies to help coordinate data formats and standards among Federal
Government agencies, academic institutions, and other remote sensing
data producers and users? What actions, if any, do you believe would
strengthen mechanisms to coordinate the development of data standards?
A1. Overall, the Defense and Intelligence communities within the US
government have done an excellent job over the years in evolving and
focusing their requirements in out-sourcing their technology needs to
the commercial community.
Outsourcing allows these agencies to focus on the complex and
dynamic mission requirements that drive their organizations and allow
them to remain flexible in partnering with the commercial industry to
assist them in satisfying these requirements.
By out-sourcing these requirements, these agencies leverage the
funding they receive to maximum benefit. Working with the private
sector, the agencies can develop a series of minimum requirements for
data production but do not have to commit resources for in-house
production of such data. The private sector will make the investment in
ensuring that these minimum data requirements are met. Further, all
technological improvements and upgrades in the production of such data
are borne by the private sector--again preserving agencies funds to
meet core mission requirements.
Many federal agencies do not have a similar level of experience the
Defense and Intelligence communities possess in leveraging that which
the private sector can offer. There oftentimes is a tendency to utilize
scarce budget amounts to build entire systems. System development
requires updates and modifications--all of which can be sustained by
the private sector. The Defense and Intelligence communities have
realized they can contract for only the data that their programs
require without investing in the overall system themselves. This
approach satisfies the need for accurate, updated and timely data with
a clear understanding that the data production in the future will
continue to improve. Typically, when the private sector continues to
invest in technological upgrades, it can offer the data it produces at
lower costs because it understands the government will be a market rich
environment for the data.
The complexity of vision and mission statement for many civilian
agencies, combined with an understaffed and underfunded work force,
makes it more critical than ever to engage the commercial sector. The
private sector can help these agencies focus on their goals and develop
the appropriate technologies, solutions and standards to assist them in
accomplishing their mission.
Answers to Post-Hearing Questions
Responses by Matthew M. O'Connell, President and Chief Executive
Officer, GeoEye, Inc.
Questions submitted by Chairman Mark Udall
Q1. The development of data standards can help facilitate the
widespread use of remote sensing data and information. Are you
satisfied with the opportunities available to commercial remote sensing
companies to help coordinate data formats and standards among Federal
Government agencies, academic institutions, and other remote sensing
data producers and users? What actions, if any, do you believe would
strengthen mechanisms to coordinate the development of data standards?
A1. In response to your question for the record regarding data
standards, there are currently several government specific standards we
use. While these standards are sufficient for the process and
dissemination of commercial imagery, we believe that new standards such
as XML-based metadata could exponentially increase the delivery of
data. However, the government is very slow to adopt new standards
simply because so many of its other systems are legacy-based. We
believe our imagery would be more usable to the Department of Defense
community if it could be delivered in GeoTIFF/MrSID formats with an XML
metadata file. This would expedite the speed in which users could
access and receive the data. Nonetheless, we do not believe industry
would benefit from any new standards as the government is still
attempting to evolve its legacy systems to today's technologies.
Answers to Post-Hearing Questions
Responses by Jill Smith, President and Chief Executive Officer,
DigitalGlobe, Inc.
Questions submitted by Chairman Mark Udall
Q1. The development of data standards can help facilitate the
widespread use of remote sensing data and information. Are you
satisfied with the opportunities available to commercial remote sensing
companies to help coordinate data formats and standards among Federal
Government agencies, academic institutions, and other remote sensing
data producers and users? What actions, if any, do you believe would
strengthen mechanisms to coordinate the development of data standards?
A1. In response, let me offer that, from DigitalGlobe's perspective,
there is currently ample opportunity for industry to participate in the
development of remote sensing data formats and standards.