Toward improved geographic information services within a digital government: report of the NSF digital government initiative geographic information systems workshop

An organizing committee was formed to develop the agenda and work items for those who were invited to participate in this workshop. The committee also provided the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) and Open GIS Consortium, Inc. (OGC) with advice and guidance regarding the findings, conclusions, and recommendations contained in this report. The world of geographical spatial data was once the exclusive domain of the mapping community. Color-coded maps, which summarized a wide variety of information in the context of geographic location, were updated every few years. Today, however, we live in a world described by data generated at rates of terabytes per dayimage and sensor data from satellites, ground sensors, field studies, surveys, and census activities. Through huge federal programs these data are collected by planning offices in small towns as well as by government research and regulatory agencies, academic research programs, and the private sector. Time has become an important variable as we begin to understand the rapid rate at which our world is changing. The purpose behind the large investment by federal, state, and local governments in geographical and geospatial data is increasingly clear. Through the past 50 years' revolution in information and computing technology, transportation, and engineering, rapid change can be initiated by public or private interests and can have a significant impact on national and global politics, economics, and the environment. Change needs to be understood and managed effectively for the nation and world to accommodate growth and sustain prosperity. The worlds of computer and information sciences, statistics, geography, ecology, and cognitive science all converge in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to provide glimpses into the world we live in. The ultimate application of any particular GIS view of the world can be as diverse as building a dam, planning a city, combating terrorism, or charting the destruction of a rain forest. While specific applications of GIS are diverse, the essential need is to share data across sources. In effect, any data from any source could be required for any GIS application regardless of whether the analysis is sponsored by government agency or private interest. To address the need for cooperation across government, academia, and industry as well as among research disciplines, an invitational workshop was held to begin defining a research agenda for geographic information systems and technologies. This workshop was held in response to the Digital Government Initiative (DGI) of the Federal Information …