Thursday, February 9. 2006

More on the US Geospatial Budget

GCN reports on which agencies will get more funding in 2007 and which will get less. In the details are how specific geospatial efforts will be funded.

One of the programs slated for an increase is the Geological Survey’s Landsat Data Continuity Mission, which would receive an additional $16 million to build a system to process data from the Landsat 8 satellite set to be launched in 2010. The remote-sensing satellite gathers data important for business, land management and scientific purposes, Interior said.

Also for USGS, the budget proposes creation of a multihazards pilot to merge information on various risk areas into consolidated form to support department planning.

[...]

But the administration seeks to slow down spending on the National Information Exchange program, a gateway for electronic links to EPA’s data, from $19.4 million in 2006 to $17.5 million next year.

So, Landsat 8 is funded. Good!

Now, what's this about a multihazards pilot? Didn't we do something like this already? I wrote a lot about the OGC's multiharzard mapping initiative in my first years with the organization and have heard little since. The website is down as I write.

I do recall hearing about the NIE from EPA, which was another thing that sounded like a good place to use standards. Too bad funding is down for that effort.