Tuesday, November 14. 2006

NGA in support of Civilian Agencies of the Federal Government

We have had some discussion on the pages of Directions Magazine regarding how some civilian federal agencies of the U.S. Government are tapping the geospatial resources of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), whose mission is to support intelligence ad military operations. Normally, these agencies might look to the USGS. I asked both the former direnctor, General James Clapper (ret.), and the current director, Vice Admiral Robert Murrett if they believed that the NGA was properly positioned to support the civilian agencies with respect to the stress already placed on the NGA for military/intel missions. Murrett believes they are properly balanced and that the agency is very proud of their work with FEMA and other embedded teams of NGA analysts in other agencies. Clapper believes that certain circumstances regarding funding of USGS operations is creating some impact on the NGA mission. He suggests that it may be wise to transfer some mapping capabilities that had been with the USGS to other agencies, perhaps the NGA. So, the question becomes: Is there a real concern that the USGS is still the lead agency, with the proper skill set, to support civilian mapping needs? Are we correctly focusing the necessary funding to keep the USGS "alive" given the problems besetting the agency's organizational problems?

Posted by Joe Francica in GEOINT 06 at 15:47 | Comments (4) | Trackbacks (0) |

Comments

Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

I'm extremely uncomfortable with this. The writing has been on the wall for some time that USGS is "losing out" to NGA. I don't want to have NGA become the sole mapping organization for all US mapping. It's bad policy. There's a completely different mindset between a military mapping agency and a civilian one. Their "instincts" are neccessarily quite different and I'm not sure I feel safer with an organization whose primary task is defense/secrecy dealing with the data needed by all the government agencies whose primary task is keeping the state and local services running.

#1 Allan Doyle (Link) on 2006-11-14 18:33 (Reply)

Just look around the world at the nations that have their domestic mapping in the hands of their military.

Care to live in any of those places? No, I didn't think so.

I rest my case.

#2 MCMC Refugee, USGS on 2006-11-15 12:42 (Reply)

A strong civilian mapping program is directly tied to an open and free democracy. Many professionals and citizens agree with this position and have (so far) quietly cringed at the coup that NGA and its friends are staging. This may become one of the more heated battles in US policy over the next few years. Mapping to support the missions of the military-industrial-congressional complex is one thing, mapping our backyards and mainstreets is quite another.

#3 A Patriot on 2006-11-15 19:46 (Reply)

Is NGA staging a coup...or is the systemic decline of USGS leaving a void that NGA "must" fill? NGA would much, much rather see the GS step up and do the good work they are chartered to do.

...but who and what is "there" at the GS to pick up the mantle and get the job done? Where are their dollars? Where are the people?

When year-over-year budgets decline by single digits and their workforce is ageing into retirement faster than people can be hired to replace them...the GS is in a flat spin.

Carve it up. Give the science to USDA, EPA, NASA and NOAA...and give the mapping money to the States so they can energize and support the real-world of mapping today...GIS at the local/county/state level.

Instead of watching the GS wither into obscurity and fritter billions away over the next ten years on dead-end programs, use the funds now to make stronger, better, and more relevant services.

Well...maybe in another adminsitration...or five.

#4 Archie Belaney on 2006-11-15 21:47 (Reply)

Add Comment

Name
Email
Homepage
In reply to	[ Top level ]#1: Allan Doyle on 2006-11-14 18:33 #2: MCMC Refugee, USGS on 2006-11-15 12:42 #3: A Patriot on 2006-11-15 19:46 #4: Archie Belaney on 2006-11-15 21:47
Comment	Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (*word*), underscore are made via _word_. Standard emoticons like :-) and ;-) are converted to images. E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly. Enter the string from the spam-prevention image above:
	Remember Information?   Subscribe to this entry