By Stacy E. Curry and Gregory I. Snyder, U.S. Geological Survey (www.usgs.gov),
Reston, Va.
Connecting remote sensing users to each other, to data sources and to
applications isn’t just good government, it also strengthens the
marketplace and highlights new opportunities. The U.S. Geological Survey
(USGS) is creating a Web-accessible remote sensing requirements
database, coupled with geographic information system (GIS) technology,
so users can explore and visualize a wealth of government remote sensing
data requirements. The database is part of a wider effort by the USGS
Land Remote Sensing Program to help users communicate requirements among
agencies and with the remote sensing industry, and to coordinate land
remote sensing data acquisition for the U.S. government from commercial
and international sources.
Undertaken by USGS on behalf of the remote sensing community, the
requirements effort continues the agency’s long-standing mission in
geospatial data coordination and responds to the U.S. Commercial Remote
Sensing Space Policy (CRSSP), a White House directive to advance and
protect U.S. national interests by maintaining the nation’s leadership
in satellite activities. The policy brought increased attention to
federal use and integration of commercial remote sensing technology.
Under CRSSP, USGS leads the near-term requirements process to:
• Collect the near-term land remote sensing data requirements of U.S.
federal civil agencies and provide query and report capabilities to help
agencies leverage resources in areas of common interest.
• Provide documented evidence
for potential remote sensing funding initiatives.
• Satisfy user requirements with existing data sources where possible.
• Provide the commercial satellite and aerial industry with a snapshot
of civil agency needs, allowing industry to respond with accurate and
specific data and services.
Also under CRSSP, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) leads the process for collecting civil
long-term remote sensing Earth-observation requirements that may
drive the development of future commercial opportunities. The
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) chairs the NGA/civil
senior management oversight committee and leads a shared execution
team to leverage the agency’s considerable investment in commercial
data and infrastructure, as well as federal procurements and
contracts. The USGS embraces CRSSP within its satellite data
acquisition, management, distribution and archiving responsibilities
that began with the Landsat program in 1972, and continues with the
Landsat Data Continuity Mission (see
http://ldcm.usgs.gov).
Database Features
The Web-accessible requirements data entry and edit interface is
known as the CRSSP Imagery Derived Requirements (CIDR) tool. As
detailed at
http://cidr.cr.usgs.gov, CIDR’s development and population is
well under way. Capabilities to mine and analyze the database, as
well as produce custom reports and GIS outputs, are in their initial
stages of development. Models are being developed to spatially
intersect and display requirements data that will be migrated to a
more robust relational database tied to a proposed Web mapping
interface. Web mapping capabilities are targeted for fiscal year
2007. Prototype graphics are being manually produced as a precursor
to automated processes and to demonstrate system utility.
The requirements collection is a living database that provides a
snapshot of civil remote sensing requirements. The term
“requirements” in this context refers to a description of remote
sensing data or derived products needed to support specific
government programs. The table on page 12 shows some of the
significant federal program requirements. The data sources span
aerial and space-borne systems operated by commercial and government
entities. The requirements are defined by GIS shapefiles and
associated attributes to support tabular or geographic searches to
find areas of overlapping needs. Matchmaking tolerances can be
rigidly defined or relaxed to identify requirements with varying
levels of commonality.
The database currently contains 447 requirements records. Once a new
requirement is reviewed and the shapefile has been quality checked,
the requirement is deemed validated and can be visible on the
interactive map tool. The records date from 2004 into future fiscal
years—most fall within the United States. Of the 447 records, 39
specify either full or extensive U.S. coverage. Of the 39, 16
specify resolution greater than 5 meters, 32 specify multispectral,
and 20 specify monitoring-type applications. Aggregated, the 2005
requirements equal $58.6 million of funded requirements and three to
four times that amount in unfunded requirements.
Visualizing and Evaluating Overlapping Requirements
The Web-based requirements interface and database will be linked to an
intersection management tool (IMT) now being developed. IMT will take
advantage of the geographic nature of the requirements for selectively
searching and graphically analyzing the spatial relationship between any
requirements in the database, including multiple federal agencies, in
tabular and GIS formats. USGS technical and customer service staff are
experimenting with techniques to best determine where agency
requirements match (intersect) and how to best identify and display the
information needed to develop partnerships that would combine projects
and funding where possible. In time, users will be able to perform their
own spatial queries and produce graphical map overlays. Relational
queries will produce tabular and map-based cross-cuts of the
requirements database by geographic area, ground resolution, acquisition
date, cloud cover, agency, funding, etc.
The IMT will become more powerful when linked to related infrastructure,
such as the USGS Earth Explorer for searching and ordering archived
imagery where available, or for placing new orders from USGS procurement
contracts. The number of searchable databases for archive imagery will
increase from USGS holdings to include those indexed by Geospatial
One-Stop (www.geo-one-stop.gov),
a Web-based portal for one-stop access to maps, data and other
geospatial services, and potentially other agencies such as NGA, NASA
and NOAA. The IMT also is expected to access other commercial data
provider imagery databases such as GeoEYE (www.geoeye.com)
and DigitalGlobe (www.digitalglobe.com).
These types of services now are available individually through USGS
customer service, but ideally will be integrated and automated as shown
in the accompanying data flow diagram (Figure 1). Funding will dictate
the schedule for automating the processes. The USGS Earth Explorer
interface already has been modified to display available USGS commercial
satellite data holdings, enable license uplifts, and alert staff to
assist users with placing new orders.
Requirements coordination minimizes redundant effort and reduces costs
to participating agencies and the government. There are many potential
relational queries that can be combined to identify interests common to
more than one agency or program within an agency or department. For
example, a search for fiscal year 2005 requirements that specify
specific commercial satellite platforms such as QuickBird, IKONOS or
OrbView (Figure 2). Or pairing agencies with funded and unfunded needs
for high-resolution panchromatic imagery (Figure 3).
Creating Synergy with Geospatial One-Stop
Linking the USGS requirements database and analysis tools and Geospatial
One-Stop is deemed essential for gaining a complete picture of
marketplace geospatial holdings and plans. The USGS database is highly
detailed and can feed Geospatial One-Stop or conversely can be accessed
though the site. Geospatial One-Stop provides:
• One-stop Web access to currently available and future investments in
geospatial information;
• Intergovernmental and interagency partnerships that help leverage
investments and reduce duplication;
• Collaborative approaches to data sharing and stewardship;
• Highlights on the value of geospatial information to support decision
making and the business of government; and
• Data channel stewards that lead effort to coordinate specific
categories of information.
Integrating the USGS requirements process
with Geospatial One-Stop can provide the site with metadata from USGS
imagery requirements. In turn, the USGS database can use Geospatial
One-Stop to reach a larger set of requirements and related non-imagery
geospatial data sets. The difference between imagery requirements in the
two systems is that Geospatial One-Stop usually contains metadata
records of a more general nature and includes other data types such as
cadastral, geologic, demographic and other forms of data. The USGS
requirements system contains specific detailed information about
near-term imagery needs and funding status, focusing only on remotely
sensed data. Ongoing coordination efforts provide an automated
dissemination of metadata between the two data portals.
Maximizing Imagery Use
A Web-enabled tool to graphically visualize a cross-government array of
remote sensing requirements will provide several significant benefits to
society and industry. It will allow agencies to identify common data
needs and strengthen program synergy, enhancing mission impact and
saving money. It may also result in pooling resources to enable or
expand upon mutually beneficial data collection projects. Moreover, it
will improve the geospatial community’s market awareness by highlighting
the concentration and characteristics of federal data needs. The
geospatial services industry could tap into the information to serve
client needs, and the data collection industry could identify targets of
opportunity. Unmet requirements could encourage new sensor development
and data fusion creativity. Achieving a reasonably comprehensive set of
requirements is in the interest of all agencies that use geospatial data
and will depend on their cooperation. The requirements processes of
various agencies and Geospatial One-Stop vary based on audience and
mission. Interoperability between these systems will harness and deploy
a distributed requirements analysis system of systems.
