# Presentation: 259478

## Assessment of Remote Sensing Data Use by Civilian Federal Agenciesa report by the Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on International Security Proliferation, and Federal Services Senator Daniel K. Akaka, Chairman

- Presented by  Dr. Sherri Stephan
- January 14, 2003

## If agency currently uses remote sensing, asked:

How are these technologies and data used?
Where are the data obtained (commercial or government suppliers)?
Do they have concerns with using remote sensing data and technology?
Are the data shared within and outside the department or agency and are there licensing concerns?
What budget do they have for obtaining and using remote sensing data and technology?

- How are these technologies and data used?
- Where are the data obtained (commercial or government suppliers)?
- Do they have concerns with using remote sensing data and technology?
- Are the data shared within and outside the department or agency and are there licensing concerns?
- What budget do they have for obtaining and using remote sensing data and technology?

-   How familiar is the agency with remote        	sensing technology and data?
-   What are the reasons for not using remote 	sensing?
-   Is the agency examining these issues?

## Agencies reporting extensive use of remote sensing (11 of 19):

- USAID	USDA		Commerce (NOAA)
- DOE		EPA		Interior
- FEMA		Justice	NASA
- NSF		State

## Agencies reporting moderate use of remote sensing (4 of 19):

- HHS			HUD
- Transportation	Treasury
- No use (4 of 19):
- Education		Labor
- Amtrak		Peace Corps

## Wildfire Management – August 2000 (NOAA)

## Resource Management, Land Cover (NASA)

## Basic Research, UV Radiation Exposure (NASA)

## Tropical Storm Daniel heading for Hawaii(GOES 10, NOAA)

## Data/Technology Use by Agencies:

- 1.	Natural Resource Management, Conservation, and Environment
- 	USDA, FEMA, Commerce,Interior,State,USAID, EPA
- 	HHS, HUD, Transportation
- Impacts from natural and man-made events
- 	EPA, FEMA, Interior, USAID, State, USDA
- 	Transportation, HHS
- Basic & Applied Research
- 	NSF, USDA, EPA, Commerce, NASA, DOE

## Data/Technology Use by Agencies (cont):

- Mapping functions
- 	USDA, FEMA, Interior, USAID, State
- 	HUD
- Early warning/mitigation of disasters
- 	USDA, FEMA, State, Interior, USAID
- 	HHS
- Monitoring compliance/verification of laws, treaties, regulations
- 	USDA, Justice, Commerce, State, EPA
- 	Treasury

## Data/Technology Use by Agencies (cont):

- Agricultural use
- 	USDA, Interior, USAID, Justice
- 	HHS
- Transportation and shipping
- 	Justice, Commerce
- 	Transportation
- Conflict resolution
- 	State

##  Data Sources:

- U.S. Government:  	NOAA, NASA, USGS
- 				USAF/DOD, NIMA
- 				aerial (NAPP), NRO
- Non-U.S. Government:	ESA, CSA, Japan
- U.S. Commercial:		Space Imaging, OrbImage
- 				commercial aerial
- Non-U.S. Commercial:	SPOT, RADARSAT, IRS
- 				OKEAN-O

## Agency Concerns – Availability:

- Relatively few satellites collecting data needed
- 	USDA, EPA, NSF
- 	Transportation
- Time needed to get data in useful form OR availability of data from specific time period
- FEMA, NSF, Interior
- Transportation
- Availability of aerial data (time/location)
- 	NSF, NASA, Interior, EPA
- Continuity of specific data source
- 	USAID, USDA, Interior

## Agency Concerns – Availability (cont):

- 5.	Weather and cloud cover
- 	Commerce, FEMA, NASA
- 6.	Availability in proper format (digital vs. photography)
- USAID, State
- 7.	Reliance on complex and expensive technology or training not available globally
- 	USAID, State

## Agency Concerns – Access:

- Cost of commercially available data
- 	Interior, USDA, EPA, NSF, FEMA, USAID, DOE
- 	Transportation, HHS
- Licensing concerns in sharing commercial data
- Commerce, Interior, State, USAID, NSF, USDA
- Transportation
- 3.	Classified, secure or sensitive data
- 	NSF, State
- 	Transportation
- Cost of processing/value-added data
- 	Interior, DOE

## Agency Concerns – Effective Use:

- 1.	Lack of in-house expertise and difficulty in Attracting and retaining specialists
- 	EPA, USDA, Interior, USAID
- 	HHS
- Calibration/ground truth problems
- 	(research agencies using commercial data)
-   Commerce, NASA, NSF
-   HHS
- Lack of knowledge within agency of how data
- 	can be used
- 	EPA, Interior
- 	Transportation

## Agency Concerns – Effective Use (cont):

- Agency Concerns – Effective Use (cont):

- 4.	Lack of equipment/software for analysis
- 	EPA, Interior, State
- 5.	Volume of data (storage, archiving, etc.)
- 	NSF
- 6.	Resistance within agency to change
- 	EPA

## Agencies reporting no use:

- 3 reported remote sensing is not relevant to their mission
- Education and Amtrak are not using and are not examining future use
- Labor partnering with NASA on education programs
- Peace Corp is familiar with technology and would like to use it except for difficulties/lack of availability of technology and infrastructure in local areas.  Hope to use it in the future.

## Licensing concerns 

- Sharing data within organization
- Sharing data with other federal partners
- Sharing data with non-federal partners (public/private, local/state, domestic/foreign...)
- Some agencies only use data that will allow full access between all partners (e.g. FEMA), while other enter into agreements with commercial vendors.

## Licensing concerns – agency examples:

- USAID, USDA, Commerce, Interior, Transportation,  NSF, State
- USAID –
- 	Cannot share purchased commercial data.
- 	Supports overseas activities with USDA and NOAA.
- 	Many international partners cannot afford licensing agreements.
- USDA –
- 	USDA Satellite Imagery Database
- 	National Resources Conservation Service and Forest Service find concerns greatly restrict their ability to share data with the public.

## Continue agency examples...

- Commerce –
- 	Data from non-NOAA satellites may be restricted to research use and not available for public distribution
- Interior -
- 	License restrictions on private data limits public release and use for policy decisions or may make the use of data too costly for researchers.
- Transportation -
- 	Licensing constraints severely limits the Coast Guard’s ability to distribute products to other agencies.

## Continue agency examples...

- State –
- 	Distinction between intelligence and non-intelligence agencies within State results in multiple purchases of the same imagery.
- NSF –
- 	Optimal data for research sometimes unavailable because of cost or restriction on satellite positioning and other technical factors.

## Conclusions

- Many federal agencies use remote sensing data
- Agencies would like to use data more, and would like to be able to share data with partners
- Chief concern is cost of commercial satellite data
- Data could be made more affordable OR
- Agencies could have more funding for data OR
- Some combination of these

## Since September 11th:

- Remote Sensing community has responded to thousands of map requests and worked with officials to address:
- What is the demographic impact?
- Where are people displaced and in what numbers?
- What is the impact to infrastructure?
- How can impacted areas be accessed?
- Where should displaced people go?
- What is the thermal activity and displacement of debris field?
- Etc...

## New concerns

- Information needs to be provided quickly and in a format easily used by city and state officials
- Importance of interoperability between different data sets
- Security concerns...what domestic data should continue to be provided publicly, on internet, and what is too dangerous?  Who decides?

## Contact Information

- Sherri_Stephan@govt-aff.senate.gov
- Report available at:
- _[www.senate.gov/~gov_affairs/ispfs.](http://www.senate.gov/~gov_affairs/ispfs.htm)__[htm](http://www.senate.gov/~gov_affairs/ispfs.htm)_