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41–573PS 2008

REMOTE SENSING DATA:

APPLICATIONS AND BENEFITS

FIELD HEARING

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON SPACE AND AERONAUTICS

COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND

TECHNOLOGY

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS

SECOND SESSION

APRIL 7, 2008

Serial No. 110–91

Printed for the use of the Committee on Science and Technology

(

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.science.house.gov

(II)

COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

HON. BART GORDON, Tennessee, Chairman

JERRY F. COSTELLO, Illinois

EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON, Texas

LYNN C. WOOLSEY, California

MARK UDALL, Colorado

DAVID WU, Oregon

BRIAN BAIRD, Washington

BRAD MILLER, North Carolina

DANIEL LIPINSKI, Illinois

NICK LAMPSON, Texas

GABRIELLE GIFFORDS, Arizona

JERRY MCNERNEY, California

LAURA RICHARDSON, California

PAUL KANJORSKI, Pennsylvania

DARLENE HOOLEY, Oregon

STEVEN R. ROTHMAN, New Jersey

JIM MATHESON, Utah

MIKE ROSS, Arkansas

BEN CHANDLER, Kentucky

RUSS CARNAHAN, Missouri

CHARLIE MELANCON, Louisiana

BARON P. HILL, Indiana

HARRY E. MITCHELL, Arizona

CHARLES A. WILSON, Ohio

RALPH M. HALL, Texas

F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER JR.,

Wisconsin

LAMAR S. SMITH, Texas

DANA ROHRABACHER, California

ROSCOE G. BARTLETT, Maryland

VERNON J. EHLERS, Michigan

FRANK D. LUCAS, Oklahoma

JUDY BIGGERT, Illinois

W. TODD AKIN, Missouri

JO BONNER, Alabama

TOM FEENEY, Florida

RANDY NEUGEBAUER, Texas

BOB INGLIS, South Carolina

DAVID G. REICHERT, Washington

MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas

MARIO DIAZ-BALART, Florida

PHIL GINGREY, Georgia

BRIAN P. BILBRAY, California

ADRIAN SMITH, Nebraska

PAUL C. BROUN, Georgia

SUBCOMMITTEE ON SPACE AND AERONAUTICS

HON. MARK UDALL, Colorado, Chairman

DAVID WU, Oregon

NICK LAMPSON, Texas

STEVEN R. ROTHMAN, New Jersey

MIKE ROSS, Arizona

BEN CHANDLER, Kentucky

CHARLIE MELANCON, Louisiana

BART GORDON, Tennessee

TOM FEENEY, Florida

DANA ROHRABACHER, California

FRANK D. LUCAS, Oklahoma

JO BONNER, Alabama

MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas

RALPH M. HALL, Texas

RICHARD OBERMANN Subcommittee Staff Director

PAM WHITNEY Democratic Professional Staff Member

ALLEN LI Democratic Professional Staff Member

KEN MONROE Republican Professional Staff Member

ED FEDDEMAN Republican Professional Staff Member

DEVIN BRYANT Research Assistant

(III)

C O N T E N T S

April 7, 2008

Page

Witness List ............................................................................................................. 2

Hearing Charter ...................................................................................................... 3

Opening Statements

Statement by Representative Mark Udall, Chairman, Subcommittee on Space

and Aeronautics, Committee on Science and Technology, U.S. House of

Representatives .................................................................................................... 6

Written Statement ............................................................................................ 8

Statement by Representative Tom Feeney, Ranking Minority Member, Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, Committee on Science and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives ............................................................... 9

Written Statement ............................................................................................ 10

Panel 1:

Mr. Jack G. Byers, Deputy Director and Deputy State Engineer, Colorado

Division of Water Resources

Oral Statement ................................................................................................. 11

Written Statement ............................................................................................ 13

Biography .......................................................................................................... 16

Dr. A. Simon Montagu, Director, Customer Resource and Support, Denver

Regional Council of Governments

Oral Statement ................................................................................................. 17

Written Statement ............................................................................................ 18

Biography .......................................................................................................... 22

Mr. Manuel Navarro, Fire Chief, City of Colorado Springs Fire Department

Oral Statement ................................................................................................. 22

Written Statement ............................................................................................ 23

Biography .......................................................................................................... 30

Mr. Frank J. Sapio, Director, Forest Health Technology Enterprise Team

(FHTET), U.S. Department of Agriculture

Oral Statement ................................................................................................. 30

Written Statement ............................................................................................ 32

Discussion ................................................................................................................. 37

Panel 2:

Mr. Kevin Little, Director of Business Development, Intermap Technologies,

Inc.

Oral Statement ................................................................................................. 47

Written Statement ............................................................................................ 48

Biography .......................................................................................................... 51

Mr. Matthew M. O’Connell, President and Chief Executive Officer, GeoEye,

Inc.

Oral Statement ................................................................................................. 51

Written Statement ............................................................................................ 53

Biography .......................................................................................................... 78

Ms. Jill Smith, President and Chief Executive Officer, DigitalGlobe, Inc.

Oral Statement ................................................................................................. 78

Page

IV

Ms. Jill Smith, President and Chief Executive Officer, DigitalGlobe, Inc.—

Continued

Written Statement ............................................................................................ 80

Biography .......................................................................................................... 81

Discussion ................................................................................................................. 82

Appendix: Answers to Post-Hearing Questions

Mr. Jack G. Byers, Deputy Director and Deputy State Engineer, Colorado

Division of Water Resources ................................................................................ 92

Dr. A. Simon Montagu, Director, Customer Resource and Support, Denver

Regional Council of Governments ....................................................................... 93

Mr. Manuel Navarro, Fire Chief, City of Colorado Springs Fire Department ... 94

Mr. Frank J. Sapio, Director, Forest Health Technology Enterprise Team

(FHTET), U.S. Department of Agriculture ........................................................ 95

Mr. Kevin Little, Director of Business Development, Intermap Technologies,

Inc. ......................................................................................................................... 96

Mr. Matthew M. O’Connell, President and Chief Executive Officer, GeoEye,

Inc. ......................................................................................................................... 97

Ms. Jill Smith, President and Chief Executive Officer, DigitalGlobe, Inc. ......... 98

(1)

REMOTE SENSING DATA: APPLICATIONS AND

BENEFITS

MONDAY, APRIL 7, 2008

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON SPACE AND AERONAUTICS,

COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY,

Washington, DC.

The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10 a.m., at Centennial Hall, 200 South Cascade Avenue, Colorado Springs, Colorado,

Hon. Mark Udall [Chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding.

2

3

FIELD HEARING CHARTER

SUBCOMMITTEE ON SPACE AND AERONAUTICS

COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Remote Sensing Data:

Applications and Benefits

MONDAY, APRIL 7, 2008

10:00 A.M.–12:00 P.M.

CENTENNIAL HALL

200 S. CASCADE AVENUE

COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO

Purpose

On Monday, April 7, 2008 at Centennial Hall, Colorado Springs, Colorado at 10:00

a.m.–12:00 p.m., the House Committee on Science and Technology, Subcommittee on

Space and Aeronautics will hold a hearing to examine the opportunities and challenges of using remote sensing data to benefit public and private sector activities

including urban planning, natural resource management, national defense, and

homeland security among other application areas.

Witnesses:

Witnesses scheduled to testify at the field hearing include the following:

Panel 1: Remote Sensing Data Users

Jack Byers, Deputy Director and Deputy State Engineer, Colorado Division of

Water Resources

Simon Montagu, Customer Resource and Support Director, Denver Regional Council of Governments

Manuel Navarro, Fire Chief, City of Colorado Springs

Frank Sapio, Director, Forest Health Technology Enterprise Team, U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service

Panel 2: Commercial Remote Sensing Data Providers

Kevin Little, Director, Business Development, Intermap Technologies, Inc.

Matthew O’Connell, President and Chief Executive Officer, GeoEye, Inc.

Jill Smith, President and Chief Executive Officer, DigitalGlobe, Inc.

Data and images collected from aircraft and satellites provide information that

can facilitate public and private operations and decision-making to benefit society.

In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, remote sensing images acquired from aircraft and from commercial and government remote sensing

satellites aided in the emergency response and recovery operations at Ground Zero.

Commercial remote sensing imagery has also been used by the U.S. military for the

Afghanistan and Iraq wars. In August of 2007, a National Aeronautics and Space

Administration (NASA) unmanned aerial vehicle used an infrared scanner to map

wildfires in the western U.S. Data from Earth-observing satellites are being combined with sources of information on the ground to manage natural resources and

monitor changes in land and Earth systems. Aerial photography and images acquired from satellites are used by State and local governments to map flood plains

and natural resources, among other applications.

The field hearing will address the opportunities and challenges of using remote

sensing data to address public and private sector needs. Witnesses will testify on

the ways that remote sensing data can assist public and private sector users in Colorado, for instance, in identifying forests vulnerable to fire and insect infestation,

managing water resources, planning urban development and road construction, and

mapping flood plains. Commercial providers of remote sensing data will testify on

the benefits of remote sensing data to State and local governments and on the role

4

that commercial data can play in addressing these civil applications as well as those

related to homeland security and national defense.

BACKGROUND

The ability to collect information and images of the Earth’s land, atmosphere, and

oceans from aircraft and satellites has been available for decades. The use of aerial

photography grew during the 1930s and 1940s as a means of military reconnaissance. The first U.S. meteorological satellite was launched in 1960 and the first U.S.

civil satellite to observe and monitor the land surface, Landsat, was launched in

1972. Over the last forty years, the U.S. Government has helped advance the state

of civil space-based remote sensing. Through NASA and the National Oceanic and

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Government has launched an ongoing series of increasingly more capable Earth-observing satellites to support an

operational weather monitoring service and to conduct research to better understand the Earth’s land, ocean, atmosphere, and biosphere, their relationships, and

how the Earth system changes over time. In addition, the U.S. Geological Survey

has been responsible for archiving and managing civil land remote sensing data.

The Land Remote Sensing Policy Act of 1992 set commercial land remote sensing

as a U.S. policy goal and included a process to license private remote sensing satellite operators. In the early 1990s the first licenses were issued to private remote

sensing operators and by 1999 the first commercial remote sensing satellite was

launched.

The advantages of remote sensing include the ability to collect information over

large spatial areas; to characterize natural features or physical objects on the

ground; to observe surface areas and objects on a systematic basis and monitor their

changes over time; and the ability to integrate this data with other information to

aid decision-making. Remote sensing from airplanes or satellites can be collected at

various spatial resolutions [spatial resolution refers to the smallest feature that can

be resolved in an image]. High resolution remote sensing images can resolve smaller

features—often less than a meter in size—whereas moderate or lower resolution images can detect features in a size range of tens to hundreds of meters or larger. Remote sensing instruments may also acquire data in different spectral bands of the

electromagnetic spectrum (e.g., infrared, near-infrared), which provides information,

for example, to help classify and categorize vegetation. Data collected in the thermal

infrared bands are especially useful for water management. Light detection and

ranging (lidar) instruments provide topographic data that can form the basis of digital elevation models.

The needs of local government often require high resolution data, which has long

been provided through aerial imagery. The advent of commercial high resolution remote sensing imagery in the late 1990s created another source of data that can

serve local and regional governments. In addition, States have taken advantage of

moderate resolution U.S. Government-provided Landsat data to monitor natural resources, such as forests and wetlands that span large areas, to analyze the ecological systems of land and watershed areas, and to help protect wildlife habitats.

State and local governments can also benefit from remote sensing information to

better monitor land use, assist in transportation planning, and deal with other infrastructure and public safety issues. In addition, commercial enterprises use the

data to help support their businesses. For example, real estate companies use imagery to enhance the information provided on real estate property listings, and

transportation companies may use remote sensing data to help route trucks.

Providers of remote sensing data

Remote sensing data for State and local applications is provided by both U.S. Government agencies and by commercial providers. Landsat satellites, which have been

developed and launched by NASA since 1972, are operated by the Department of

Interior’s U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the data are archived and managed

by the USGS Center for Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Data

Center. The USGS manages and archives publicly available aerial photographs and

lidar data, among other data sets. The USGS has responsibility for providing future

space-based land observation data after NASA’s launch of the Landsat Data Continuity Mission, which is planned for 2011.

NASA operates fourteen Earth-observing research satellites from space to further

our knowledge of the Earth system, including its atmosphere, oceans, land surface,

and biosphere. Some of these spacecraft support applied uses by public and private

organizations. The Terra and Aqua satellites, for example, collect data that support

fire monitoring and the Quick Scatterometer (QuickSCAT) and Tropical Rainfall

Measuring Mission provide data to help improve tropical cyclone and hurricane foreVerDate 11-MAY-2000 14:48 Nov 24, 2008 Jkt 041573 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 C:\WORKD\SA08\040708\41573 SCIENCE1 PsN: SCIENCE1
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casting. In addition, within NASA’s Earth Science Division, the Applied Sciences

Program works with federal agency partners and other organizations to apply

NASA’s Earth remote sensing data to decision support tools in the areas of agricultural efficiency, air quality, aviation, carbon management, coastal management, disaster management, ecological forecasting, energy management, homeland security,

invasive species, public health and water management. Many of the agencies and

organizations that use these tools provide services that extend to the State, local,

and regional levels.

The Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) operates the Nation’s fleet of civil operational weather monitoring satellites, which provide data to inform the National Weather Service’s forecasts. Future satellite systems in which NOAA is involved, including the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS), will also collect global data on the Earth’s weather, oceans, land and space environments. NOAA also

operates data centers that archive geophysical, climate, ocean, and coastal data and

provide information products to support scientific research and other purposes.

Multiple independent firms across the country provide services to collect aerial

photography. Federal agencies also collect aerial imagery to support their services.

United States commercial space remote sensing companies operate satellites and

sell imagery and applications to customers in the public, private, and non-government sectors. The market for commercial remote sensing data has largely been in

high resolution imagery. The Department of Defense has been a major user of commercial remote sensing imagery. Commercial remote sensing companies support applications including mapping, national security, environmental monitoring, urban

planning, natural resource management, homeland defense, and emergency preparedness and disaster relief, among many other areas. Several non-U.S. companies

also collect and sell space remote sensing data.

Digital information and communications technologies

The increasing capabilities of computers and communication technology have facilitated the development of remote sensing applications. Digital remote sensing

data can be acquired from and disseminated over the Internet, and manipulated on

desktop computers. Geographic information systems enable multiple sources of geographic information (such as locations of power plants and hospitals) to be integrated with remote sensing images. Global positioning data can be combined with

remote sensing data sources to enable applications that rely on accurate locational

information. In addition, software tools allow multiple sources of remote sensing

data to be blended together to maximize the information content for remote sensing

applications.

The availability of civil remote sensing data has led to the establishment of companies dedicated to processing and transforming remote sensing data into information products and applications for users. These companies create mapping products,

such as topographical line maps and digital elevation models, three-dimensional visualization tools, among other remote sensing applications.

6

Chairman UDALL. This hearing will come to order. Good morning

to all of you. I want to welcome the panel witnesses that we have,

a very esteemed and erudite group that we’re going to hear from

in a few minutes. In particular, I’m pleased that my colleague and

Ranking Member on the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee,

Representative Tom Feeney from the great State of Florida has

been able to join me here in our great State of Colorado.

I have to tell you as an aside that Congressman Feeney is a very

committed aerobic athlete. He got up this morning and ran five or

six miles here in Colorado, which is really impressive given that

he’s a flatlander and came from Florida just yesterday.

I’d also like to mention that Congressman Lamborn, who represents Colorado in the United States House of Representatives, he

does send his regrets. He would have liked to have joined us here

today, but he unfortunately had a previous commitment that made

that impossible.

Before we begin, I’d like to also take the opportunity to recognize

some of the local officials who are here and thank El Paso County

officials for their help with today’s hearing. I’m looking forward to

today’s hearing because it touches on an area that has great relevance for the lives of citizens here in Colorado, as well as for the

lives of folks all across America. It’s an area that hasn’t gotten as

much public attention as it deserves, especially relative to the impact it has had on the operations of our State and local governments, as well as on other public and private-sector activities in

Colorado and elsewhere. I am speaking, of course, of the way that

remote sensing data collected from commercial and government

spacecraft and aircraft have been used to provide societal benefits,

help strengthen our national defense, and protect our homeland.

And we are in an appropriate place to discuss these issues as

Colorado is leading the way in remote sensing technology. Not only

is our State the center of gravity for commercial remote sensing activity, but our State and local government officials are also on the

cutting edge of using this technology to help Colorado citizens. But

I don’t want to give too much away from our witnesses’ testimony

today.

I would like to note that we’ve come a long way since some of

the first aerial photographs were taken of Boston in 1860 from a

tethered balloon and even from the first civil remote sensing satellite, TIROS 1, which was launched a century later in 1960 to take

images to be used in weather forecasts. Today, remote sensing data

is becoming nearly ubiquitous through the use of advanced satellite, computing and communications technologies. One need only

call up web-based tools to access images of cities, neighborhoods

and unpopulated areas across the country at no cost.

The U.S. Government and commercial firms operate numerous

aircraft and satellites to collect and deliver the remote sensing data

to users on the ground. Today we will hear more about how these

data are used to benefit our society, and what needs to be done to

expand on the opportunities this information offers.

We need not look far to see and feel the challenges, some known

and some unknown, facing our municipalities and our nation. Rising energy costs, our scarce water supply, and urban sprawl are

complex problems. We need to bring to bear the best available inVerDate 11-MAY-2000 14:48 Nov 24, 2008 Jkt 041573 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 C:\WORKD\SA08\040708\41573 SCIENCE1 PsN: SCIENCE1
7

formation to ensure that we take effective and well-informed actions in response. Moreover, our natural environment and resources demand our vigilant stewardship. We depend on water, forests, and fertile land, among other resources, to support our needs.

Here in Colorado, we have a close relationship with the land

around us and are even more aware of how vulnerable these resources are. Drought, the pine beetle infestation, and fire have

wreaked havoc on our communities and our environment. I hope

our witnesses can give us insight into how remote sensing data can

be used to help us effectively manage our natural resources. Our

government and private institutions also need to ensure that we

are prepared in the event of emergencies and crises.

The tragedy of September 11, 2001 brought into stark reality the

need to assess our infrastructure and plan against the risks. Remote sensing was a vital asset in the response and recovery efforts

at Ground Zero. I’m very interested in learning about how remote

sensing data can help our State, local and federal agencies ensure

our security at home and abroad as well as respond to emergency

situations.

Our witnesses today will also discuss the role of commercial and

remote sensing in collecting and delivering the data to meet the

needs of both public and private sector customers. There is a

science and an art involved in turning the data collected by remote

sensing instruments into sophisticated tools to support decisionmaking, and I hope our witnesses will help us learn about the

range and types of products that are available.

In that regard, I want to add that as an avid skier, Tom, I was

pleased to learn the Colorado hosts a company [SnowVisual, Inc. of

Vail] that specializes in the use of satellite imagery to support the

snow sports industry. I consider that a true public service.

Congress has continued to provide policy direction for civil and

commercial remote sensing to ensure the continued availability of

this important data. The Land Remote Sensing Policy Act of 1992

called for the continuity of civil land remote sensing data and established the guidelines to enable commercial operation of space remote sensing satellites.

In addition, Section 313 of the NASA Authorization Act of 2005

directed NASA to support the pilot projects ‘‘to explore the integrated use of remote sensing and other geospatial information to

address State, local, regional, and other tribal agency needs.’’ As

we work on reauthorizing NASA this year, I intend to explore

whether Congressional legislation has been effective in addressing

those objectives, and whether Congress needs to consider additional

measures to enable the expanded use of remote sensing data and

information.

I hope that this hearing will help us also understand how we can

continue to improve the delivery of these data to users so that it

can be coordinated and shared among local, State, and federal institutions, especially in the event of a crisis. Finally, I look forward

to hearing from our witnesses regarding what, if anything, needs

to be done to sustain and grow a robust commercial remote sensing

industry in the United States.

Well, we’ve got a great deal to discuss today, and we have a very

capable set of witnesses before us. Before we begin with today’s

8

witness, I would like to note that while today’s hearing is focussed

on uses of remote sensing data, Colorado is home to several outstanding companies that design, build and manage critical sensors

to collect this information, including Lockheed Martin, Ball Aerospace, and ITT. Without their excellent sensor systems, our companies here today would not have much to work with. So I acknowledge their critical role in this area and am pleased that several

representatives from these companies are here today and will be

submitting testimony for the record.

In closing, I again want to thank all of our witnesses for participating in today’s hearing, and I look forward to your testimony.

[The prepared statement of Chairman Udall follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN MARK UDALL

Good morning. I want to welcome everyone to this morning’s hearing.

In particular, I’m pleased that my colleague and Ranking Member on the Space

and Aeronautics Subcommittee, Rep. Tom Feeney, has been able to join me here in

the great State of Colorado.

I’d also like to mention that Rep. Doug Lamborn, who represents Colorado

Springs in the U.S. House of Representatives, sends his regrets.

He would have like to have joined us here today, but unfortunately he has a previous commitment that made that impossible.

Before we begin, I would like to take the opportunity to recognize some of the

local officials who are here and thank El Paso County officials for their help with

today’s hearing.

I am looking forward to today’s hearing, because it touches on an area that has

great relevance for the lives of our citizens here in Colorado—as well as for the lives

of folks all across America.

It is also an area that hasn’t gotten as much public attention as it deserves, especially relative to the impact it has had on the operations of our State and local governments—as well as on other public and private-sector activities in Colorado and

elsewhere.

I’m speaking, of course, of the way that remote sensing data collected from commercial and government spacecraft and aircraft have been used to provide societal

benefits, help strengthen our national defense, and protect our homeland.

And we are in an appropriate place to discuss these issues as Colorado is leading

the way in remote sensing technology. Not only is our State the center of gravity

for commercial remote sensing activity, but our State and local government officials

are also on the cutting edge of using this technology to help Colorado citizens. But

I don’t want to give too much away from our witness’s testimony today. . ..

I would like to note that we’ve come a long way since some of the first aerial photographs were taken of Boston in 1860 from a tethered balloon . . . and even from

the first civil remote sensing satellite, TIROS 1, which was launched a century later

in 1960 to take images to be used in weather forecasts.

Today, remote sensing data is becoming nearly ubiquitous through the use of advanced satellite, computing, and communications technologies. One need only call

up web-based tools to access images of cities, neighborhoods, and unpopulated areas

across the country at no cost.

The U.S. Government and commercial firms operate numerous aircraft and satellites to collect and deliver the remote sensing data to users on the ground. Today

we will hear more about how these data are being used to benefit our society, and

what needs to be done to expand on the opportunities this information offers.

We need not look far to see and feel the challenges—some known and some unknown—facing our municipalities and our nation. Rising energy costs, our scarce

water supply, and urban sprawl are complex problems. We need to bring to bear

the best available information to ensure that we take effective and well-informed

actions in response.

Moreover, our natural environment and resources demand our vigilant stewardship. We depend on water, forests, and fertile land among other resources to support

our needs.

Here in Colorado, we have a close relationship with the land around us and are

even more aware of how vulnerable these resources are.

Drought, the pine beetle infestation, and fire have wreaked havoc on our communities and our environment.

9

I hope our witnesses can give us insight into how remote sensing data can be used

to help us effectively manage our natural resources.

Our government and private institutions also need to ensure that we are prepared

in the event of emergencies and crises.

The tragedy of September 11, 2001 brought into stark reality the need to assess

our infrastructure and plan against risks. Remote sensing data was a vital asset in

the response and recovery efforts at Ground Zero.

I want to learn about how remote sensing data can help our State, local, and federal agencies ensure our security at home and abroad as well as respond to emergency situations.

Our witnesses today will also discuss the role of the commercial remote sensing

industry in collecting and delivering the data to meet the needs of both public and

private sector customers.

There is a science and art involved in turning the data collected by remote sensing instruments into sophisticated tools to support decision-making, and I hope our

witnesses will help us learn about the range and types of products that are available.

In that regard, I want to add that as an avid skier, I was pleased to learn that

Colorado hosts a company [SnowVisual, Inc. of Vail] that specializes in the use of

satellite imagery to support the snow sports industry. I consider that a true public

service!

Congress has continued to provide policy direction for civil and commercial remote

sensing to ensure the continued availability of this important data.

The Land Remote Sensing Policy Act of 1992 called for the continuity of civil land

remote sensing data and established the guidelines to enable commercial operation

of space remote sensing satellites.

In addition, Section 313 of the NASA Authorization Act of 2005, which I helped

enact, directed NASA to support pilot projects ‘‘to explore the integrated use of . . .

remote sensing and other geospatial information to address State, local, regional,

and other tribal agency needs.’’

As we work on reauthorizing NASA this year, I intend to explore whether Congressional legislation has been effective in addressing those objectives, and whether

Congress needs to consider additional measures to enable the expanded use of remote sensing data and information.

I hope that this hearing will also help us understand how we can continue to improve the delivery of these data to users so that it can be coordinated and shared

among local, State, and federal institutions—especially in the event of a crisis.

Finally, I look forward to hearing from our witnesses regarding what, if anything,

needs to be done to sustain and grow a robust commercial remote sensing industry

in the United States.

Well, we have a great deal to discuss today, and we have a very capable set of

witnesses before us today.

Before we begin with today’s witnesses, I would like to note that while today’s

hearing is focused on uses of remote sensing data, Colorado is home to several outstanding companies that design, build, and manage critical sensors to collect this

information, including Lockheed Martin, Ball Aerospace, and ITT.

Without their excellent sensor systems, our companies here today would not have

much to work with!

So I acknowledge their critical role in this area and am pleased that several representatives from these companies are here today and will be submitting testimony

for the record.

In closing, I again want to thank all of our witnesses for participating in today’s

hearing and I look forward to your testimony.

Chairman UDALL. The Chair now recognizes Mr. Feeney for an

opening statement.

Mr. FEENEY. Well, thank you, and I’m delighted, Mr. Chairman,

to be in your home state. It’s a great pleasure to be here. You did

point out that I try to run every morning. The good news is this

morning I ran from the Broadmoor uphill, because if I had started

out downhill, I wouldn’t have made it back and would be out there

wandering around breathlessly. But I made it back, and I was inspired by the view and really enjoyed it.

I want to also thank our witnesses for taking time out of their

busy schedules to share their wisdom and concerns regarding the

10

benefits, future roles, and challenges confronting this increasingly

essential capability we’re talking about today.

It wasn’t too long ago that remote sensing data was largely a

product of cameras and other sensors carried on aircraft. But with

the advent of the government- and commercial-owned remote sensing satellites and their growing capabilities, and with the ability to

fuse databases, today’s marketplace offers a dynamic and sophisticated array of products.

Remote sensing data provide essential tools that help local and

regional government planners develop a comprehensive and dynamic view of their communities and lands. They enable the capability to monitor and measure the impacts and threats to agricultural and urban activities, such as measuring soil moisture, water

use, pest infestation, and land development. Equally important, at

the local level remote sensing data has fast become critical to the

delivery of emergency services.

One thing Florida and Colorado share now and then is the threat

from things like wildfires, and I look forward to hearing how the

many states and regions that are impacted by that threat can be

assisted by the technology. Nationally, remote sensing data provides critical information used to monitor and predict weather and

climate change—again, Florida has our own share of climate

change—land use changes at a macro scale, and monitor and protect our borders.

This morning our witnesses will provide compelling testimony

highlighting the utility of remote sensing data. In reading over the

witnesses’ testimony, I was particularly fascinated by the capabilities developed by emergency response personnel to devise plans

and methods to deal with threats to our communities, as well as

assuring rapid first-response services. As cities grow in size, timely

delivery of these services becomes more complex, and being able to

quickly target police, paramedic and fire services all the more critical.

While today’s hearing will be Colorado industry focused, I can

tell you that in my Congressional District along Florida’s Space

Coast, we’ve experienced a dramatic rise in population over the last

two decades. As a consequence of this growth, ensuring timely

emergency response services, measuring land-use impacts, and preserving adequate fresh water sources are considerations that now

control much of our future development considerations.

With that, Mr. Chairman, I again want to thank you and your

staff for your hospitality. I am excited to hear from our witnesses

and look forward to a good hearing.

Chairman UDALL. Thank you, Mr. Feeney.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Feeney follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF REPRESENTATIVE TOM FEENEY

Mr. Chairman, it’s a genuine pleasure to be here in Colorado to conduct this hearing on the opportunities and challenges of using remote sensing data. I want to join

with you in thanking our witnesses for taking time out of their busy schedules to

share their wisdom and concerns regarding the benefits, future roles, and challenges

confronting this increasingly essential capability.

It wasn’t too long ago that remote sensing data was largely a product of cameras

and other sensors carried on aircraft. But with the advent of government- and commercial-owned remote sensing satellites and their growing capabilities, and with the

11

ability to fuse databases, today’s marketplace offers a dynamic and sophisticated

array of products.

Remote sensing data provide essential tools that help local and regional government planners develop a comprehensive and dynamic view of their communities and

lands. They enable the capability to monitor and measure the impacts and threats

to agricultural and urban activities, such as measuring soil moisture, water use,

pest infestation, and land development.

Equally important, at the local level remote sensing data has fast become critical

to the delivery of emergency services.

Nationally, remote sensing data provides critical information used to monitor and

predict weather and climate change, land use changes at a macro scale, and monitor

and protect our borders.

This morning our witnesses will provide compelling testimony highlighting the

utility of remote sensing data. In reading over the witnesses’ testimony, I was particularly fascinated by the capabilities developed by emergency response personnel

to devise plans and methods to deal threats to our communities, as well as assuring

rapid first-response services. As cities grow in size, timely delivery of these services

becomes more complex, and being able to quickly target police, paramedic and fire

services all the more critical.

While today’s hearing will be a bit Colorado-centric, I can tell you that in my congressional district along Florida’s space coast, we have experienced a dramatic rise

in population over the last two decades. As a consequence of this growth, ensuring

timely emergency response services, measuring land-use impacts, and preserving

adequate fresh water sources are considerations that now control much of our future

development.

With that, Mr. Chairman, I want to thank again our witnesses for their presence,

and I look forward to their statements.

Chairman UDALL. And we’ll do a little bit of housekeeping here.

If there are Members of our subcommittee that are not here, Members who wish to submit additional opening statements, their statements will be added to the record. Without objection, so ordered.

Panel 1:

Chairman UDALL. Let me move to introduction here of the first

panel of the witnesses, and I’d like to recognize each of you in turn,

and we’ll come back to Mr. Byers to begin testimony. We are joined

by Mr. Jack Byers, who is the Deputy Director and the Deputy

State Engineer for the Colorado Division of Water Resources. To

his left is Dr. Simon Montagu, who is the Customer Resource and

Support Director for the Denver Regional Council of Governments,

also know as DRCOG, fondly so. Next to Dr. Montagu is the Fire

Chief, Mr. Navarro. He’s the Fire Chief of the City of Colorado

Springs Fire Department. We just saw each other last week in

Washington. And finally, next to Mr. Navarro, we have Mr. Frank

Sapio who is the Director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s

Forest Service, Forest Development Technology Enterprise Team.

Welcome to all of you. We have some great expertise in front of

us. I think you all know, as witnesses, that your spoken testimony

is limited to five minutes, and after which Members of the Subcommittee will have five minutes each to ask some questions and

further draw out the expertise that’s in front of us.

So we’ll start with Mr. Byers. Mr. Byers, the floor is yours.

STATEMENT OF MR. JACK G. BYERS, DEPUTY DIRECTOR AND

DEPUTY STATE ENGINEER, COLORADO DIVISION OF WATER

RESOURCES

Mr. BYERS. Thank you Chairman Udall, Congressman Feeney. I

really appreciate the opportunity to be here. And as the first witVerDate 11-MAY-2000 14:48 Nov 24, 2008 Jkt 041573 PO 00000 Frm 00015 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 C:\WORKD\SA08\040708\41573 SCIENCE1 PsN: SCIENCE1
12

ness, I guess I’m a native of Colorado. Welcome to Colorado Mr.

Feeney, and welcome back. We appreciate having you here.

My name is Jack Byers, for the record. I’m the Deputy Director

and Deputy State Engineer for the Colorado Division of Water Resources and I’m submitting this testimony on behalf of the State

of Colorado.

I want to point out that we are providing testimony that’s relatively focused today. It does not mean that we aren’t interested

in other areas or that we don’t support the other expertise and information being provided today. We have what we think is a significant need that we wanted to bring to the Subcommittee’s attention.

The other thing I’d like to mention is, although it was clear skies

here today, to the north we had some snow. We appreciate that

very much, and our snow pack is over 100 percent, which for us

is a big deal, and skiing is tremendous. So if you’d like to stay

longer, we’d be happy to have you ski.

Mr. FEENEY. I just might have to take you up on that.

Mr. BYERS. That would be very good. As I mentioned today, we

are providing testimony on a fairly focused area. The State of Colorado and many other western states have a critical need for highresolution, thermal and infrared remote sensing. This is a particular remote sensing.

Colorado and other water agencies are actively integrating thermal, infrared and remote sensing techniques as their management

strategies to estimate actual crop evapotranspiration. That’s with

combined plant and surface evaporation, to classify land covered by

vegetation types and quantify water consumption by irrigation, to

support transfer of agricultural water to growing cities, and I

should say that in a limited area. Here in Colorado, we do a great

deal of work at trying to limit those impacts, and we do following

programs and such, but we do know that there will be a transfer

of water here in Colorado from irrigated agriculture to the growing

cities. And this particular technology helped us a great deal in

working with that.

We use infrared remote sensing for estimating aquifer depletion,

river and canal transport modules, water rights, compliance with

water rights as well as water modeling, and most important, climate change initiatives and the scheduling of irrigation diversions.

This satellite-based information is highly beneficial in terms of

efficient water management. And I might add that much of this is

interstate compact water management, Colorado River Basin water

management. The Colorado River Basin, of course, is not just a

Colorado issue that you’d have Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, and New

Mexico, Nevada, and I believe there’s a western state, California,

that has a great interest in Colorado water, Colorado River Basin

water.

As you know, NASA launched the first Landsat satellite in 1972.

Landsat has the world’s longest, continuous program to collect digital, multispectral data of the Earth from space. LANDSAT 4,

launched in ’82, was the first LANDSAT series to carry thermal

imagery, and each successive LANDSAT has had the thermal infrared remote sensing capability.

13

Currently, we have some difficulties. It’s available only on

Landsat 5 and Landsat 7. I won’t bore you with the details, but I

will say that if we aren’t able to, with our next continuation of

Landsat, carry this camera and this imaging, it could be extremely

detrimental to westwide water management. I know that you’re

aware that the Western States Water Council has also taken the

position that this is critical, and Colorado joins the other western

states in again reminding the Subcommittee that this is very important to us in Colorado as well as the west.

I want to point out a couple of key issues that we had here in

Colorado, and that is that I mentioned our snow pack is very good

this year. It hasn’t been that good in the past. And when we have

to manage ground and we look at the Colorado River Basin and the

potential of climate change, climate adaptation. In this infrared

technology, the imaging is extremely critical. So it is a real

westwide issue. I might also say that it helps us with the evaluation of the impact of changing water and land uses on wetlands,

fish and wildlife, and endangered species, another key area that

Colorado would like to continue to work with.

Being a native of Colorado and knowing that time is short, I’m

not one to talk a whole lot. And in conclusion, I just want to say

that Colorado strongly supports NASA’s spending for the thermal

sensor on Landsat. And we don’t believe that the addition of a thermal sensor on Landsat will make a significant difference in the

scheduling. I have over 30 years of federal service, both State and

Federal Government, and with tribes, and I would be extremely

surprised if NASA put this satellite up on time and on schedule.

Therefore, I think that the addition of this unit would not significantly deter that mission.

We’re thankful for Chairman Udall, your support. We also have

a great deal of support from the other Congressional delegation

within Colorado. We thank them. Congressman Feeney, we’d like

to count you toward that support as well to work toward the resolution of what we think is a critical problem. Again, short testimony, and I’d be happy to answer any questions.

Chairman UDALL. Thank you, Mr. Byers.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Byers follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF JACK G. BYERS

Hon. Mark Udall, Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee:

My name is Jack Byers, Deputy Director and Deputy State Engineer for the Colorado Division of Water Resources. I am submitting this testimony on behalf of the

State of Colorado.

The State of Colorado and many other western states have a critical need for

High Resolution Thermal Infrared Remote (TIR) Sensing. Colorado and many western water agencies are actively integrating Thermal Infrared Remote (TIR) remote

sensing techniques into their management strategies to estimate actual crop

evapotranspiration (ET), to classify land cover by vegetation (crop) type, to quantify

water consumption by irrigation to support transfer of agricultural water to growing

cities and other uses, for estimating aquifer depletion and river/canal transport

losses, monitoring water-rights compliance, water modeling, climate change initiatives and for scheduling irrigation diversions and reservoir releases. For these applications, replacing on-the-ground reconnaissance with satellite-based information is

highly beneficial in terms of efficient water management, efficient use of limited resources and improved decision-making.

As you know NASA launched the first Landsat satellite in 1972, which makes

Landsat the world’s longest continuous program to collect digital multi-spectral data

14

of the Earth from space. Landsat 4, launched in 1982, was the first of the Landsat

series to carry a thermal imager, and each successive Landsat has had a thermal

infrared remote (TIR) sensing capability.

High resolution TIR (approximately 60 m to 120 m pixel resolution) is needed for

the water resources management activities identified above. The quantification of

water use from Landsat using thermal data is the only way to independently and

consistently measure water use on a field-by-field basis over large land areas. Typical field sizes in the U.S. range from 10 to 160 acres, or about 180 meters to 750

meters on a side. These sizes require relatively high resolution images to produce

information on an individual field. Other satellite platforms [MODIS, (Moderate

Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer), ASTER, (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal

Emission and Reflection Radiometer), AVHRR, (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer), GOES, (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites), NPOESS

National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System)] include TIR

capability but at insufficient resolution to be useful at the field scale level, or with

inadequate return times or communication down-link constraints.

Irrigation is the largest user of fresh water in the western U.S., and Landsat thermal data is the basis of the best and least expensive way to quantify and locate

where water is used and in what quantity. The 20+ year record of continuous high

resolution TIR data on future Landsat satellite missions or other platforms is uncertain. Landsat 8 scheduled to launch in 2011 does not contain a thermal imager. The

Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) also doe not currently contain specification of a high resolution TIR.

Irrigated agriculture accounts for 80–85 percent of the consumptive water use in

the West. Increasingly Western States use TIR data to observe land-surface temperature and energy balance differences from evapotranspiration (ET) and calculate

water consumption by agriculture and other vegetation. Without FY 2008 funding,

a TIR sensor likely cannot be built in time to meet the 2011 launch timeline and

this increasingly valuable data will be lost. Use of TIR data for water management

has only recently exploded, following a drop in the cost of the data after a failed

attempt at private commercialization. Landsat 5 and Landsat 7 are the only U.S.

sources of this data, but Landsat 5 is nearly 20 years beyond its design life and

Landsat 7 equipment failures have left data gaps. Landsat 6 was destroyed when

its launch failed. No other U.S. or foreign TIR remote sensing capabilities now, nor

for the foreseeable future, can provide the workable features which now allow a

growing number of data users to measure and monitor water use.

Currently, higher resolution TIR is available only on Landsat 5 and Landsat 7.

Landsat 7 data after 2003 are difficult to use operationally due to failure of the

scan-line corrector. Landsat 5 launched in 1984 is 24 years old and has had power

problems. The satellite was temporarily taken out of service in October 2007 following a cell failure within one of the satellite’s two operating on-board batteries.

The USGS announced on Feb. 29, 2008 that Landsat 5 is once again collecting and

down-linking land-image data.

Demonstrated water resources planning and management applications include:

• quantifying and monitoring consumptive water use by irrigated agriculture,

urban and suburban landscapes, and natural vegetation,

• estimation of transferable water due to land fallowing,

• calibrating ground water models,

• monitoring aquifer depletion,

• computing water budgets for surface water models,

• compliance with limits on water consumption under interstate compacts,

• monitoring the uniformity of irrigation water application,

• crop area, type, pattern and yield estimation,

• monitoring the exercise of water rights, in order to ensure their use according

to State and federal laws, decrees, compacts and negotiated agreements, rules

and regulations.

The availability of thermal data from satellites, especially Landsat, has enabled

the development of energy balance models that compute and map actual crop

evapotranspiration (ET). Evapotranspiration is a term used to describe the sum of

evaporation and plant transpiration from the Earth’s land surface to atmosphere.

Evaporation accounts for the movement of water to the air from sources such as the

soil, canopy interception, and water bodies. Transpiration accounts for the movement of water within a plant and the subsequent loss of water as vapor through

stomata in its leaves. Evapotranspiration is an important part of the water cycle.

15

This application is the first important use of Landsat thermal data, and it has the

clear potential grow dramatically.

• ET mapping has been accomplished using the SEBAL (Surface Energy Balance Algorithms for Land) and METRIC (Mapping ET at high Resolution

using Internalized Calibration) models in Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Montana,

Washington, New Mexico, Texas, Nevada and California. ET from individual

fields is estimated for purposes of water rights and irrigation water management. The use of METRIC, SEBAL and other processes that rely on Landsat’s

visible, near infrared, and thermal data, are substantially more accurate than

are simpler ET methods that use vegetation indexes, which are a combination

of the visible and near infrared spectrum only. The advantage of using thermal data in mapping water use is that land surface temperature can identify

fields that are short of water and thus have suppressed ET. This information

is important to quantify actual water use by both irrigated agriculture and

urban landscaping.

• In Colorado, Colorado State University has developed and applied its own

version of the surface energy balance model using TIR data, RESET (Remote

Sensing of ET), in the lower South Platte and Arkansas River Basins. Satellite based crop ET estimates will allow the direct estimation of actual crop

ET when crops are stressed by lack of water, salinity, or other stress factors.

The ability to continue the development and use of models like RESET will

be an important complement to the detailed crop ET/lysimeter research being

initiated in the Arkansas Valley and supported by DWR.

Data on cropped area/acreage and classification by crop type are periodically updated for use in hydrologic models used to determine compliance with interstate

compacts, such as the H–I Model in the Arkansas River Basin. Three remotely

sensed Landsat imagery bands are needed in this crop classification work: the visible, near-infrared and thermal. All three bands are used to identify unique crop signatures. The loss of the thermal band would seriously impact this work effort and

require greater expenditure of resources in ground-truthing of the remotely sensed

estimates. Additionally, the high resolution imagery allows crop and field identification at the scale of most fields in the Basin, with potential several pixels per field.

Colorado joins the Western States Water council and other western states in

strong support of increased funding for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Earth Systematic Missions Program and Landsat 8 thermal infrared (TIR) imaging technology needed to better manage water use. This data has

been provided since 1982, from NASA Landsat satellites. The Administration has

not requested NASA FY 2008 funding for a TIR sensor on Landsat 8, scheduled to

be launched in 2011. The total estimated cost is $90–$100 million, with $35 million

needed in FY 2008.

At present, TIR data is used for defining field boundaries, crop-type and water

consumption in Colorado, California, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada,

New Mexico, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, while other states are considering its future use. Related activities have been undertaken or proposed in the Arkansas, South Platte, Bear, Boise, Upper and Lower Colorado, Lemhi, Milk, North

Platte, Upper and Middle Rio Grande, Russian, Salmon, San Juan, Snake, and

Yakima River Basins. This important data gathering tool is now used or can be used

in the future for or to:

• Calculate water use on a field-by-field and regional scale and encourage water

conservation;

• More accurate water supply and demand planning, including multi-basin

water balances and budgets;

• Measure consumptive use of surface and ground water resources and impacts

of diversions/pumping;

• Administer water rights and evaluated proposed uses, changes in use and

water right transfers;

• Ensure compliance with interstate compacts, international treaties and other

water use agreements;

• Plan, mitigate and respond to drought, wildfire and other heat-related events;

• Monitor and assess the impact of climate change on water, wetlands, vegetation, land uses, etc.;

• Evaluate the impact of changing water/land uses on wetlands, fish, wildlife,

and endangered species; and

16

• Many other natural resources, emergency management, military, and other

uses of national interest.

The 2000 Census reported that one third of all Americans live in the West, and

that the West accounted for half of the overall U.S. population growth over that decade. The arid U.S. West is experiencing explosive population growth. As Colorado

and the West grows, water conservation is key, the increased demand for scarce

water supplies has shifted water management strategy to developing innovative concepts for sustainable use, developing more effective methods to allocate limited

water supplies. Water resources managers must understand water consumption patterns over large geographic areas; Landsat provides an important tool for effective,

sustainable water management.

Colorado is involved in the allocation and administration of water rights, Interstate compact compliance and planning for future water needs related to population

growth. For example, in the Colorado River Basin, which supplies the myriad water

needs of millions of people in seven western states, ongoing discussions over sharing

water shortages and balancing future needs depend to a large extent on measuring

and monitoring consumptive water use governed by international treaties, interstate

compacts and State and federal laws. Landsat thermal imagery is a tool with the

potential to help smooth the way towards a present and future water rights balance.

There are many other examples of such uses or potential uses of Landsat TIR imagery in water management in the West. In California, Landsat data and ET-related information help farmers determine their actual irrigation needs. In New Mexico, Landsat data and ET maps are helping water managers strike a balance between irrigation demands and riparian vegetation, as well as the habitat needs of

endangered species. In the State of Washington, water users have used ET estimates, again derived from Landsat thermal data, to encourage conservation of water

resources and increase streamflows for fish while maintaining crop production and

farm income. Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska are exploring the use of Landsat data

and ET to better monitor and manage ground water uses in order to control overdrafting. Montana uses Landsat data for water quality monitoring. Wetlands delineation, habitat identification and soil moisture monitoring are other Landsat uses.

In conclusion, Colorado strongly supports NASA spending for the thermal sensor

on Landsat 8 and urges the Subcommittee to remedy this critical omission. We are

thankful that Congressman Udall, Senators Allard and Salazar, as well as others

in the Colorado delegation and west-wide continue to work toward resolution of this

critical problem. I would be happy to answer any questions or provide any further

information the Subcommittee might request.

Thank you for the opportunity to submit this testimony.

BIOGRAPHY FOR JACK G. BYERS

Jack Byers is the Deputy Director and Deputy State Engineer for the Colorado

Division of Water Resources. Responsible for the leadership and management of the

Intrastate Water Supply, Development and Public Safety which includes the Engineering, Technology and Investigations Division, Water Supply and Well Permit Division and Budget management office. Jack oversees the safety of dams program,

hydrographic and Stream measurement program, well construction programs and

the enforcement and compliance with applicable decrees, statutes, rules and regulations. He serves on the National Dam Safety Review Board, Dept. of Homeland Security—Government Coordinating Council on Dam Security, Co-Chair of the Governor’s Water Availability Task Force, and serves on the Governor’s flood hazard

mitigation task force, Colorado homeland security task force, and provides technical

support to the Colorado Commission on Indian Affairs. Jack also is the co-author

of the Colorado Water Law Benchbook. Jack is a Colorado native, with a BS in Civil

Engineering and a MS in Water Resources, Geotechnical and Structural Engineering from Kansas State University. A Licensed Professional Engineer in Colorado

and Montana. Prior to the State of Colorado he was the Director for Indian Affairs

and Wyoming Office State Manager for MSE Inc. He also worked 18 years with the

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in a variety of management and leadership positions

in Denver, CO; Bismarck, ND and Billings, MT.

Chairman UDALL. Dr. Montagu.

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STATEMENT OF DR. A. SIMON MONTAGU, DIRECTOR, CUSTOMER RESOURCE AND SUPPORT, DENVER REGIONAL

COUNCIL OF GOVERNMENTS

Dr. MONTAGU. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and welcome home.

Congressman Feeney, welcome to the great State of Colorado. I

have no doubt that our Chairman has filled you in on the beauty

of the wonderments of this great state, and I hope you get to enjoy

your stay here. And I will attest that everything he says is true.

This is a fabulous state, and I’m very proud to be part of the community here, the geospatial community, and present this testimony.

I am Simon Montagu, the Director of Customer Resource and

Support Division of the Denver Regional Council of Governments,

affectionately known as DRCOG. We are the federally designated

metropolitan planning organization for the nine-county metro Denver region. We have 55 other governments ranging in size from

communities such as Byers and Deer Trail on the eastern plains,

all the way out to small mountain communities and the great cross

section of communities that we find in a metro area like Denver.

Our specific focus is on various things like mobility services for

the elderly community, the growing elderly community in Colorado.

Water quality, long-range planning, and a whole bunch of other

things that are best dealt with at a forum that addresses these

intrajurisdictional issues at a common place.

We are obviously a great consumer of geospatial information, and

much of that information derives from remote sensing technology.

And so, therefore, we greatly appreciate the opportunity to present

before this hearing, and give some sense of how we deploy these

resources in our daily work flow, not only at DRCOG, but of course

our 55-member governments that are part of the DRCOG membership.

In my written testimony, I’ve gone into some great detail about

some of the specific examples. And really what I want to do today

is just draw out one key point.

Our ability to do so is largely because of many decades of federal

investment in the remote sensing industry, and both the indirect

and direct follow-on benefits are federal involvement. So really

what I’m asking for is a continuation of that federal investment in

this program.

Some of the specific things that I did want to mention is, you

know, first of all, LANDSAT and NOAA and the various other federal programs of the acquisition side are vital. LANDSAT data is

being used at this moment in many of our mountain communities

in DRCOG for wildfire management at the strategic planning site.

I noticed photos of the Hayman fire which had a devastating effect

on at least one of our counties, Douglas County, in terms of the

water quality issues that came with that. So having imagery available is important to us.

NASA and its continuing involvement in areas like LIDAR is

very important to us. LIDAR is growing in importance across the

metro area in terms of its application. I mentioned in my testimony

the fact that we are in the process of collecting LIDAR at this very

moment for the downtown metro area in preparation for the Democratic National Convention coming up in August. That imagery,

18

that data will be used by the National Geospatial Intelligence

Agency for their strategic and tactical planning in regard to the

safety of all of those participants that will be at the convention.

We will also get access to that data going forward from that, and

we should be able to use all of that to help public planning. We’re

very excited to be able to partner with the USGS and NGA to collect that data.

I think the third thing I want to mention is the leadership that

many federal agencies have shown in terms of the distribution

model of moving this data around. We’re now reaching a stage of

maturation for this industry. We have significant volume of data,

and being able to get that data in the hands of the people that need

it is critically important.

The USGS, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and other federal agencies have taken a leadership role in terms of pushing this

stuff out over the Internet and making it more readily available.

Organizations like mine and the members that we represent need

this data, but they can’t necessarily store the vast amounts of data

that are being produced. And so being able to access that and call

on it when we need it is vitally important to us.

And so looking forward, then, what I’d like to ask is that the

Committee generally think about the continuation of support for

these federal programs that are not only doing the acquisition

work, but also the distribution side of it. Specific programs to mention are the national map that the USGS is working on, and the

National Agriculture Imagery Program, NAIP, which the USDA is

working on. The NAIP Program allowed us to get full coverage of

the State of Colorado, very recently, which is the first time that

we’ve got that.

So just in closing, I’d like to ask specifically for support in terms

of making data more readily accessible to everyone. And part of

that is a policy solution in the sense of saying we want this data

in the hands of folks that can use it. Part of it is also supporting

those distribution mechanisms that I’ve talked about. The other

one is to allow us a pathway to the Federal Government purchasing power to buy some of this imagery through federal programs and make it available. The Federal Government obviously

has interest in the commercial side. We can’t afford it, and we’d

like to tap into the federal resources there.

Thank you.

Chairman UDALL. Thank you, Dr. Montagu.

[The prepared statement of Dr. Montagu follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF A. SIMON MONTAGU

The Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG) is a member-driven Council of Governments comprised of 55 county and municipal governments from across

the greater Denver (Colorado) area. In its sixth decade of service, DRCOG is proud

of its collaborative approach to protecting and enhancing the quality-of-life that

make our region such an attractive place to live, work and play. Specific focus areas

include mobility, service to older adults, environmental quality, planning for the future, public safety, and the provision of high-quality information for sound decisionmaking.

DRCOG has statutory responsibilities under both State and federal law to plan

for the region’s future, particularly its transportation infrastructure and overall

growth and development. The signature product of this process, Metro Vision, embodies the collective vision of our member governments for the region and provides

policies to guide where, when, and how much growth will occur across the region.

19

DRCOG’s stewardship of this regional planning process has garnered many national awards and attracted international attention. We are rightly recognized as a

world leader in collaborative, ‘‘bottom-up’’ regional planning.

A hallmark of our regional planning process is the timely, accurate and objective

data that informs all of the visionary policies embedded in Metro Vision. Geospatial

data—information about the physical, social and economic make up of our region—

is vital to this process.

DRCOG is a major producer and consumer of geospatial data, large volumes of

which derive from remote sensing (RS) technologies. DRCOG is therefore appreciative of the Committee’s interest in the role of remote sensing data in regional

planning, and grateful for the opportunity to present our views on both the opportunities and impediments to making the information derived from RS technologies

more broadly available.

REMOTE SENSING DATA USE IN DENVER METRO REGION

Federal investment in research and development has and continues to be a significant driver in the growth and expansion of the Nation’s geospatial information

industry. DRCOG and its member governments leverage this investment in significant ways on a daily basis. We manage our urban environment, monitor the quality

of our natural resources, plan for the future, and make informed choices about

where to invest our scarce resources all with the help of data derived from remote

sensing technologies.

Across the Denver metro area and the State of Colorado as a whole, local, regional

and State agencies have come to rely on data derived from three general types of

remote-sensing technologies:

• Aircraft-based aerial photography

• Multi-spectral data

• LIDAR and related technologies

AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY

DRCOG and our member communities have relied on film-based aerial photography for many decades. High-quality orthophotography provides local communities

with spatially accurate, distortion free base data layers critical to all of their planning, public safety and governmental management functions.

Since 2002, DRCOG has led a successful consortium of public and private participants to jointly acquire high-quality digital aerial photography for the DRCOG region, exploiting the collective buying power of 30 individual organizations. We repeated the effort in 2004 and 2006. and planes are currently in the air collecting

2008 imagery. This year, the project expanded well beyond the territorial limits of

the DRCOG member region, allowing our neighbors in Weld and Grand Counties

to also benefit from this joint purchasing power.

The benefits to our member governments and all the other public and private sector participants are very tangible. High-quality, high-resolution digital

orthophotography of the type we’re collecting typically cost $100–$150 per square

mile. By contrast, the average cost for participants in the 2006 project was a mere

$11 per square mile. The average cost for DRCOG members was less than $1 per

square mile.

Colorado has a great tradition of this type of grass-roots, collaborative, goal-focused effort. DRCOG’s public-private consortium model is mirrored in the Colorado

Springs area, the emerging nine-county (15,200-square-mile) Sangre de Cristo Regional GIS Cooperative, and in the communities on the Western Slope.

Recently, the State of Colorado acquired statewide aerial photography under the

auspices of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP). This program allows State and local entities to leverage regular aerial

photography acquisition efforts by the USDA to obtain statewide photography for a

fraction of the total cost. Colorado was able to take advantage of this effort in 2005

resulting in the first complete coverage of the entire state all acquired at one time.

The State would never have been able to afford this photography if not for the NAIP

program. The data is now used widely by numerous federal, State and local entities,

as well as the private sector and universities.

MULTI-SPECTRAL IMAGERY

The broad availability of space-based multi-spectral sensors (MSS) in the 1970s

and 1980s extended and enhanced the functionality of traditional aerial photography, providing local, regional and State-level planners with a cost-effective way

to analyze and map critical environmental processes across large geographic areas.

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Multi-spectral imagery offers a number of data products from across the electromagnetic spectrum providing information that is imperceptible to the naked eye.

Many communities across the DRCOG region now utilize Color-Infrared (CIR) imagery, for example, to map impervious surfaces and monitor surface runoff and

downstream water quality. CIR data also plays a key role in both the tactical and

strategic aspects of wildfire management across the region. Douglas County, for example, recently acquired LANDSAT 5 data for mapping vegetation and modeling

fuel loads in the Pike National Forest and other heavily vegetated parts of the county. Other cities and counties across the region have similar mapping programs.

Broader applications of MSS-derived data include mapping the massive Pine Beetle infestation in our mountain counties.

LIDAR AND RELATED TECHNOLOGIES

Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) and other related ranging technologies

(Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar—IFSAR—for example) are becoming increasingly important to communities up and down the Front Range as acquisition

costs decrease and data from these sensors become more widely available.

LIDAR provides an extremely cost-effective method for collecting detailed and

highly accurate terrain information. This data then feeds into a range of sophisticated modeling processes that allow communities to more accurately map not only

ground features within their communities, but also key anthropogenic structures

such as buildings, bridges, dams, etc.

This information provides the foundation for the construction of three-dimensional

models of cities that are now widely used in land use and transportation planning,

emergency response tactical plans, and as aids in community involvement and

visioning efforts.

Specific examples of LIDAR use in the Denver region include security planning

around the upcoming Democratic National Convention. Working with several of

DRCOG’s member governments, the U.S. Geological Survey is currently acquiring

LIDAR data on behalf of the National Geospatial–Intelligence Agency (NGA). The

NGA will use LIDAR to identify line-of-sight and other tactical vantage points to

plan their surveillance and response strategies to ensure the safety of all those attending the convention.

Several of DRCOG’s larger member governments have acquired LIDAR in support

of their planning and public works programs. The City and County of Broomfield,

for example, is using LIDAR data in planning the development of a new reservoir.

They also rely on the data for initial assessment of new roads and trail systems and

for understanding the runoff and drainage implications of planned developments.

LIDAR is also playing an important role in the modernization of flood insurance

mapping across the state.

CHALLENGES AND IMPEDIMENTS

Although the use of data from remote-sensing technologies continues to grow

across the DRCOG region, there are a number of structural and logistical impediments that both undermine our ability to use the existing data products, and limit

our ability to integrate other RS data into current planning efforts.

Cost remains a significant challenge. The price tag for the 2008 DRCOG aerial

photography project is over $1 million, in a climate of little to no revenue growth

among the participating jurisdictions. This price reflects the combined purchasing

power of 30 public and private sector partners working to acquire this data collaboratively. Market rates for digital orthophotography continue to increase despite the

emergence of new capture and processing technologies (direct digital capture; automation, off-shore processing, etc.). Pricing of commercial satellite-based imagery remains similarly high, relative to the data budgets of most cities and counties.

High costs mean local, regional and State entities can acquire this data less frequently than they require. Our imagery program struggles to keep pace with the

rapid growth of the nine-county region, but can only afford to acquire new data

every two years. DRCOG estimates that our region adds on average about 100,000

new people, 65,000 new jobs and nearly 30 square miles of new development in any

given two-year cycle. Understanding and managing this growth with out-of-date imagery is a significant problem for both the staffs and elected officials of DRCOG’s

member governments.

‘‘Solving’’ this impediment is unrealistic expectation. The experience from Colorado is that communities working together, collaboratively, can bring their collective

buying power to the commercial marketplace and reap significant savings over the

cost of going it alone. This ground-up approach remains the most realistic solution

to cost containment at this time, at least in the Colorado context. The only request

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that I would put to the Committee is to continue to fund the various federal programs—most notably the National Map program led by the USGS and the National

Agriculture Imagery Program led by the USDA—that allow federal agencies to collaborate with local partners to secure geospatial data all across the country.

A second impediment is the challenge associated with the sheer volume of remotely-sensed data that is now available. The estimated volume of data from

DRCOG’s 2008 aerial photography acquisition, for example, is over 10 terabytes.

Few of our member governments have the internal capacity to store and maintain

all of this data. The problem compounds with each new project, as part of the value

of remote-sensed data lies in the ability to review multiple years of data at the same

time (comparing changes over time).

Another dimension of this problem is the effort associated with distributing data.

While Internet bandwidth continues to improve, online distribution of the large data

sets associated with most remote sensing technologies remains impractical.

Fortunately, new models of data distribution are starting to emerge that facilitate

the distributed storage and distribution of large geospatial data sets. Data throughput under these models is greatly reduced, pushing only the needed geographic window down to the end-user, rather than distributing the entire geographic data file.

Examples of this model exist in both the public and private sector. Several Colorado firms have established a national presence in this realm—DigitalGlobe, Inc. in

Longmont, CO, Intrasearch Inc. in Englewood, CO, and Sanborn Map Company here

in Colorado Springs. On the public sector side, federal agencies are playing a lead

role. The USDA maintains its ‘‘Data Gateway,’’ the USGS has a long history using

the Internet for data distribution, and the ‘‘e-government’’ initiatives sponsored by

the Federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) lead to the establishment of

the ‘‘Geospatial One-stop’’ portal.

Federal investment in research and development provided the initial impetus for

the evolution of the Internet and federal agencies continue to lead by example in

their innovative use of this infrastructure to distribute the tremendous wealth of

geospatial information we now possess. I urge Members of the Committee to recognize the important leadership role of the Federal Government in this realm and continue to support those federal programs that are augmenting the data distribution

services of the private sector.

My final comment in the area of impediments is of a technical nature. Like all

technologies, remote sensing data applies better to some applications than others.

Traditional multi-spectral technologies have tended to provide very broad-acre imagery that works well at a strategic planning level, but typically falls short when

used for more tactical, response-type planning. This is particularly true in the area

of wildfire management. Whereas the existing satellite imagery in the public domain provides useful input into fuel load modeling for understanding the threat of

wildfires across our region, the resolution of the available imagery renders it unusable in emergency response situations. Commercially available data provides better

resolution, but at a price that is often beyond the means of the typical fire protection districts that serve DRCOG’s mountain communities.

OTHER DESIRED PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

On behalf of my peers across the DRCOG region and the State of Colorado, I wish

to acknowledge the continued leadership of the Federal Government in the acquisition and dissemination of remote sensing data. I hope that the Committee now sees

how local and regional governments leverage this federal investment every day in

providing better, more efficient government to all our citizens.

DRCOG and its members have shown that local governments can realize significant cost-savings when communities band together to jointly acquire remote sensing

data. This type of collaborative endeavor is not limited to the local or regional scale.

With that in mind, I would like to suggest two other areas where greater federal

engagement would significantly enhance the accessibility of remote sensing data to

all levels of government.

First, recognizing the vast data libraries and the ongoing acquisition activities of

the Federal Government, local and regional governments across the country have

much to gain from greater access to these federal resources. Part of the solution is

a policy decision to make the data more broadly available. The other part is continued support for the innovative data distribution strategies that we are seeing from

key federal agencies like the USGS and USDA.

Second, following the collaborative models that we see across the State of Colorado, I would urge the Federal Government to allow local and regional governments

to leverage the tremendous purchasing power of the Federal Government in the

commercial remote sensing data marketplace. This industry continues to grow and

is a vital part of our economy, particularly so in the Denver region. However, many

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of the vital data products sold in the commercial marketplace are simply out of

reach of the small public-sector entities that would benefit most from these products. Allowing these entities to work through federal agencies (and their purchasing

programs) to acquire commercial imagery would realize significant benefits at the

local level.

BIOGRAPHY FOR A. SIMON MONTAGU

Dr. Montagu is the Director of the Customer Resource and Support Division with

the Denver Regional Council of Governments. This division is one of five core divisions within DRCOG and is responsible for the production and dissemination of the

geospatial, socioeconomic and travel modeling information produced by DRCOG. The

division also oversees the production of the ‘‘Growth and Development’’ part of Metro

Vision, the long-range strategic plan for the Denver metropolitan area.

In his seven years with DRCOG, Dr. Montagu has served as Geographic Information Systems Coordinator and Regional Information and Research Manager. Prior

to DRCOG, Simon was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at

Miami University in Oxford, OH, where he taught classes in GIS and Urban and

Regional Planning.

Dr. Montagu holds a Ph.D. in Regional Planning from the University of Illinois

at Urbana–Champaign and undergraduate degrees in environmental science and

natural resource management from Griffith University in Australia. He has over 20

years experience in the geospatial information technologies realm and has worked

in a number of capacities across the United States, Australia, and the South Pacific.

Chairman UDALL. Mr. Navarro.

STATEMENT OF MR. MANUEL NAVARRO, FIRE CHIEF, CITY OF

COLORADO SPRINGS FIRE DEPARTMENT

Mr. NAVARRO. Thank you. My name is Manuel Navarro; I am the

Fire Chief of the Colorado Springs Fire Department in Colorado

Springs, Colorado. I think it’s important to note that we have submitted a brief and we have many details in that and I’ll just sum

those for you.

I think it’s important to note that I’m a practitioner. I’ve been

in the field for 41 years. I know you’re saying, how old is this guy?

The reality is that I’d like to talk to you a bit about both mitigation

and response from a fire chief’s standpoint and how we can leverage some of the technology in our organization to help us with

those issues.

On the mitigation side of it, I call your attention to some of the

things that have happened in California. And by the way, I spent

28 years in the fire service in California. It wasn’t open in 1991

when a fire devastated several residential properties and killed 25

individuals. The map we used that day was hand drawn, and that

was in 1991. As a matter of fact, that map—I drew some of the

maps in that. That’s how bad the technology was on the fire service

side of it. We’ve been able to use that technology here, at least that

geospatial technology to get some good maps now.

Because one of the concerns we have, obviously, is seven days a

week, 24 hours a day, when a call for service comes in, we need

to find that location, and specifically that address, and we’re

leveraging that now with other GIS data to be able to weigh the

situation so that we have situational awareness when we get on

the site.

Oftentimes, we’re sent to facilities or occupancies where we have

no idea what’s in that unless we’ve experienced inspection beforehand. And given the size of our community, we simply can’t do

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that. So that base layer and all the technology that follows that is

extremely, extremely important on the response side.

I think you’ve got a picture of the Hayman fire. I’m not sure exactly when that was taken. Some of my planning staff was able to

facilitate some of the planning efforts there. But I will tell you, on

the ground, in a wildland fire, most fire officers really have to lay

a map out in front of them and guess at what’s happening. They

don’t have realtime analysis. We simply weren’t able to leverage

that with programs like Global Hawk and Predator. And I can tell

you how exciting it is from the response side of that to be able to

have situational awareness and realtime information relative to

what’s going on with the fire.

This is real personal stuff for us. A few years ago there was a

fatality in a San Diego fire. My nephew, who is a firefighter in

California, was at the end of that cul-de-sac and was told to back

out and stop, back out. And when he came back out, he saw the

fatality there because the fire had turned on him and moved. When

you’re in that position, it’s so hard to tell.

On the mitigation side of that, we’ve done some very interesting

things. We’re able to use risk analysis and portray that on our web

site. And our folks here in Colorado Springs are able to go to that

web site, take a look at that, and be partners with us.

Chairman UDALL. Mr. Navarro, can you pull the mic a little bit

closer? Some of the audience—no, you wouldn’t know. Some of the

audience—all the witnesses need to have it a little closer so the audience can hear.

Mr. NAVARRO. We’ll try this. Is that better?

On the mitigation side of it, we’ve been able to leverage that

technology to be able to get partners in our community. And most

recently, the greatest example of that is FEMA has awarded us

with a million dollar grant here in Colorado Springs. The match for

that has been neighborhood associations and local government to

be able to clean up some of the fuel. What we hope to prove is that

on the front end of these disastrous fires, we can have more info.

Just in concluding, I must tell you that local government is really

strapped to be able to leverage technology. When I talk to my staff,

they simply say we don’t have enough staff. We don’t have enough

resources, and the projects that we have in front of us, just to meet

the mission locally, is overwhelming us. We were able to leverage

an AVL system simply because we got really lucky. Public works

got a grant from the Federal Government to be able to do that, and

that helped us move that AVL system on our fire trucks. Otherwise

we wouldn’t have had that at all.

In conclusion, thank you very much. Thank you for your interest.

And the fire service is more than willing and able to be able to sit

down with you and talk about some of the specifics relative to this

type of technology.

Chairman UDALL. Thank you, Mr. Navarro.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Navarro follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF MANUEL NAVARRO

Introduction

Thank you for the opportunity to appear before the Committee on Science and

Technology and discuss with you some of the experiences that the City of Colorado

Springs and the Colorado Springs Fire Department have encountered in applying

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remote sensing and geospatial information systems to improve our emergency response and preparedness.

My name is Manuel Navarro; I am the Fire Chief of the Colorado Springs Fire

Department. As a 41-year veteran of the fire service, I am honored to present to

you today. Across my career and as the Chief of the Colorado Springs Fire Department, I have had the privilege to lead firefighters and emergency response personnel in dangerous and life threatening situations with a constant focus on our responsibility to protect lives and property from fire, medical, and disaster events.

Finding new ways to plan for, prepare, and respond to emergency situations is

something that I have charged my department with from the day I arrived in Colorado Springs. I think we have made some impressive advances in improving citizen

preparedness, community resiliency, emergency response planning and operational

situational awareness that I would like to share with the Committee. At the same

time, we have encountered some hurdles and lessons along the way that I would

also like to share.

In my presentation to the Committee, I will discuss the importance of gaining and

maintaining situational awareness of the environment necessary for effective and

safe firefighting. In the City of Colorado Springs, we have realized that remote sensing technology and geospatial information are key tools in improving our ability to

shape the environment that we operate in. We now rely on these tools to help us

prepare and plan for potential hazard and risk events, communicate with our citizens and adjacent emergency response agencies, and make the right decisions while

deploying in initial attack or during sustained operations during a large scale

wildland fire.

Before I offer testimony regarding the aforementioned issues, I think it is important that we establish a common understanding of the complexities involved with

managing fire service response to emergencies, 24 hours each day, seven days each

week. As we deliver emergency services, there can be no excuses regarding our response—lives and property are at stake; it must be timely, we must get to the proper address or location and we must be proficient in rendering the services we provide. With that said, we have grown to understand the value that planning has for

our organization. We must respond, we will respond, we will make tough decisions—

but there is no need for us to have to make those kinds of decisions without the

benefit of a very strong planning process. One bit of institutional humor for us is

that the fire service represents 150 years unimpeded by progress. Well, fortunately,

we have undergone a sea-change in our thinking where we have come to understand

that planning and mitigation work literally ‘‘shapes the battlefield’’ in which we operate tactically. For Colorado Springs, the operational response mission must be accomplished, in our case, from a network of twenty fire station locations housing fire

companies that are staffed by three different working shifts. But it doesn’t require

that we make our hard decisions without the benefit of thorough analysis and

thoughtful response. Management of the training, logistics and standard operating

procedures of fire companies to support this mission is challenging for any fire chief.

Emergency Response

When we receive a 911 call for emergency services, the appropriate emergency

unit must be notified and that crew must correctly navigate heavy apparatus

through heavy traffic conditions and difficult weather conditions at any time, day

or night, to the address or location. Accurate maps, occupancy of buildings and location of response vehicles is essential in completing our mission and to ensure the

safety of the responding firefighters.

The Colorado Springs Fire Department has employed geospatial technology for 25

years to create the most accurate map for the city and adjacent areas. As our city

has experienced significant growth and development over the last several decades,

the ability to accurately map new and changing streets have proven to be critical

in dispatching emergency apparatus rapidly, effectively, and efficiently. Using the

accurate base maps, we employ additional GIS technologies to layer critical information that can be utilized to provide additional information associated with that location or address to responding fire companies.

I cannot adequately express to this committee how important it is to provide responding fire officers with critical information regarding a specific building or hazard. The information allows fire officers to efficiently make critical decisions on the

way to and at the scene of an emergency. Those decisions based on accurate information, coupled with the education and experience of the fire officer, lead to safely

controlling emergencies while at the same time limiting property damage, saving

lives and providing for the safety of responding emergency personnel.

Lacking local resources to develop this additional functionality was a challenge for

us here in Colorado Springs. The city’s Public Works Department recently received

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a federal transportation grant to develop Automatic Vehicle Location System (AVL)

technology. The fire department had an opportunity to collaborate with our own

City Traffic and Public Works Divisions in the development of the AVL system that

provides the following functionality:

• Locates every emergency that is identified by the Emergency Dispatch Center

and transmits it to the traffic signal system computer.

• Provides every dispatched emergency unit with a map display showing a

route to the location.

• Preemption that signals the traffic lights along that route to turn green as

the emergency unit approaches the intersection.

• An on-board touch-screen computer developed by the department’s I.T. staff,

mounted in each emergency vehicle to archive and display additional layers

of information.

• Situational awareness delivered through the on-board computer which displays available data for the scene.

• Wireless, hands-free data updates (each fire station has been linked so that

data can be updated to the on-board computer).

The base map originally developed with geospatial technology has been leveraged

to work with the AVL system. It now provides routing capability for emergency vehicles to the location of an emergency and provides safe emergency response by controlling intersections. The base map is also used to identify individual addresses

which in turn is used to access the base for layers of GIS information essential to

safe and effective emergency operations. In the near future, fire companies will be

able to develop pre-plans for individual occupancies that will be added as additional

layers of information available in the apparatus to responding fire officers.

We are in the final process of reconciling our map centerline data in our computer

aided dispatch (CAD) system to provide automatic vehicle location dispatch and

move away form the current CAD tabular dispatch system. Once we have moved

to that technology we will be able to improve response times without adding additional responding units to the department by always dispatching the nearest appropriate emergency unit.

Wildfire Risk

The department has also employed remote sensing in the form of hyperspectral

imagery to study the city’s wildland-urban interface areas and watersheds. This remote sensing technology provides us with detailed mapping of fuels, construction

features, vegetation types, densities and locations that previously could only be categorized and mapped by laboriously walking and inspecting each area.

Hyperspectral remote sensing data is one of the most promising data collection

sources for planning and mitigation efforts related to wildland fire, community risk,

and environmental hazards. As a remote sensing data source, hyperspectal information allows communities to collect high quality data and extract multiple information elements from a single flight. We have collected and analyzed hyperspectral

data to detect and map specific features such as the type and status of wildland

fire fuels, the densities and location of high risk vegetation species, and the conditions and physical traits of at-risk structures and access roads. All of these traits

are of special concern during active fire fighting operations and typically are unavailable prior to incident operations. Highly accurate and data rich remote sensing

sources like hyperspectral systems provide decision-makers with true situational understanding and awareness of the terrain, access, fuel and vegetation layers and

building arrangements and locations. Within the Colorado Springs Fire Department,

this data is used across almost all of the department’s operations ranging from mitigation to response.

CSFD staff is currently developing a wildland urban interface (WUI) plan for the

drainage areas and neighborhoods in the city’s wildland urban interface. We will integrate the layer of fuels data provided by the hyperspectral imagery with current

information on fire behavior to provide responding command officers with planning

and operational situational awareness. We are also developing a map layer with

specific information to assist command officers in positioning staged apparatus,

evacuation zones and safe refugee areas, as well as displaying other potential fire

control and resident safety issues.

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1 ‘‘The national Firewise Communities program is a multi-agency effort designed to reach beyond the fire service by involving homeowners, community leaders, planners, developers, and

others in the effort to protect people, property, and natural resources from the risk of wildland

fire—before a fire starts. The Firewise Communities approach emphasizes community responsibility for planning in the design of a safe community as well as effective emergency response,

and individual responsibility for safe home construction and design, landscaping, and maintenance.’’ (www.firewise.org) 2 Includes geospatial data describing the city’s natural, social, and built environments.

Community Education

The department’s Community Services staff has also employed this technology to

inform and motivate community members to ‘‘FireWise’’ 1 their property. We have

created an interactive web site that maps each individual property and their risk

rating with regard to wildfire risk. Individual property owners can then access the

information utilized to develop the risk rating of that property and, more importantly, how that rating can be improved by employing FireWise risk-reduction treatments to the property.

We have employed technology to leverage the efforts of staff in educating the

thousands of households in the Colorado Springs wildland-urban interface areas.

Here in Colorado Springs we have approximately 40,000 residential properties in

these interface areas. Effective use of technology has greatly enhanced our efforts

in community education with regards to wildfire mitigation. I think this is an important distinction to make. We have transitioned the use of remotely sensed information from purely reactive and tactical to a forward thinking, mitigation and planning effort. I think it is understood by this group that remote sensing technologies

are tried and true in the operations arena—particularly the larger the incident is.

However, we have come to see much more value that these rich data sets can provide to us long before the incident begins. Our focus has increasingly transitioned

toward using the information provided by remote sensing as a real asset in our

planning and mitigation work. Our use of hyperspectral data is just one example

of how a local jurisdiction provided the specific information with which we could employ our risk analysis and thus educate individual property owners.

The use of these technologies has provided us with an opportunity to change our

approach to creating a safer community. By employing innovative uses of remote

sensing and geospatial technologies, citizens in our city are educated and motivated

to treat their own property and not rely on local government to provide that service.

We have developed a culture in our city that encourages citizens to partner with

local government to provide public safety. By creating our web site we have greatly

improved our efforts in getting individual property owners and neighborhood associations to partner with us in mitigating the fuel in these interface areas. Perhaps

this seems subtle, but it is an important note: these efforts have created an environment in which our citizens actively participate in their own outcome, effectively

sharing the responsibility—and that, after all, is the very definition of community.

Grant Proposals

The layers are also used to develop grant proposals utilized to secure funding

which support community wide fuel mitigation projects. In a recent example, the

City of Colorado Springs was awarded a one million dollar mitigation grant by

FEMA. That FEMA grant was the only one of its kind in the Nation. I firmly believe

we would not have been successful in winning that grant had it not been for the

robust data we were able to employ in the planning and justification for the grant.

It was successful in large measure due to the capability we developed with our risk

analysis of wildland fire issues using hyperspectral data. We were able to leverage

our investment in remote sensing to make a strong case to FEMA that we knew

both the nature of our problem and how to fix it.

Community Risk

Additionally, we have also embarked on developing a very sophisticated community risk assessment model. The model uses geospatial data2 which are evaluated

by all community stakeholders, to assess and categorize risk. It is a mixed-methods

approach that couples the input from subject matter experts and the community inputs (qualitative) with mathematical models (quantitative) that describe not just

where events have happened, but the very causes of those events.

The results of these assessments are clearly displayed on a map with shadings

indicating the degree of risk severity. The visual display quickly communicates the

location and extent of community risk so that citizens and policy-makers can openly

and with confidence discuss mitigation strategies. This is an important success for

us to highlight. This illustrates the success we have in communicating with our pubVerDate 11-MAY-2000 14:48 Nov 24, 2008 Jkt 041573 PO 00000 Frm 00030 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 C:\WORKD\SA08\040708\41573 SCIENCE1 PsN: SCIENCE1
27

lic due to our use of GIS and remote sensing technologies. If a picture is worth a

thousand words, how much is a dynamic living picture of risk and exposure worth

to a community that can access it 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We prepare

to respond 24x7, so why wouldn’t we mitigate and communicate the same way.

One of the innovative approaches that we are taking is that the results of the

qualitative criterion can be displayed next to quantitative criterion and where there

is convergence; policy-makers can have assurance that they are developing a good

decision that represents realistic informed consent in the affected communities.

Where the data does not converge, policy-makers can call out subject matter experts

and citizens to discuss the difference in opinions.

Funding

Locally, we have been challenged in developing the technology needed to provide

operational decision-makers and policy-makers with accurate, current and comprehensive data. Grant funding for the AVL system came to us by happenstance

through our Traffic Department. They had a 900 MHz radio system and wanted to

develop the vehicle location technology. We were able to place staff on the project

and not only developed and tested their applications but developed the application

for our emergency apparatus. We were very fortunate to be able to take advantage

of that transportation grant (Congestion, Mitigation and Air Quality—CMAQ) as

such funding is not available locally, through the state or through National Fire Administration grants.

The funding necessary for the geospatial and remote sensing over flights was

carved out of current operational budgets and partnering with other interested city

departments. We were very limited in the amount of resources we could employ to

gather this data. Again, this technology and data is vital to our public safety work

but we found very little support in the form of grant dollars to complete this work.

As my staff discusses the issues regarding development and use of technology in

the fire service, they portray the problem in clear and concise terms; there is no

staff dedicated to these projects, there is little additional time to allocate to these

projects, and there is no funding to have the work completed by others and yet we

have this essential mission to complete.

Education

I would add that employing current technology is also a significant educational

challenge for the fire service. Few, if any, fire service officers that are adept and

capable in emergency operations work have formal education or experience with

modern technology. We have been fortunate to have an accomplished information

technology staff in-house that supports our public safety mission. The collaboration

between experienced fire officers and a very sophisticated information technology

staff has allowed us to take advantage of finite resources and create innovative approaches to community safety employing new technology.

IT Staff

When I took command of this department some 14 years ago, I had a departmental information technology division. We had fire operations staff working side

by side with a very talented group of IT and GIS staff. The combination of those

two groups of very talented employees allowed us to investigate, research, and create opportunities to employ technology in the work we do. The results are that this

department is on the leading edge of utilizing technology to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the department.

Training

Operationally, fire officers rely on training, education and experience as a foundation in making decisions regarding management of a variety of emergency situations. Then at the scene of an emergency, officers and firefighters must apply that

training and situational understanding to the facts and observations made at the

incident to develop situational awareness.

Technology can provide a large quantity of data through GIS layers supported by

remotely sensed information and associated with a specific site and a specific type

of incident. That information will not be easily processed nor understood unless we

begin to train fire officers on how to recognize that information and use it in a situational awareness process. The fire service currently lacks that training and I know

of no support for that training.

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2008 California Fire Siege Example (move to emergency response and operations section)

The information available with the use of technology must also be employed in

the operational planning process prior to an emergency and as the emergency involves. We saw a graphic demonstration of this application in the recent California

wildfires. At that fire, overhead assets in the form of satellite platforms, unmanned

aerial vehicles (UAVs) from NASA and DOD, National Guard, civil and commercial

fixed wing and space-borne assets were able to bring into the planning process of

the command post real-time data including full-motion video. Technology available

to the military that provides situational awareness was deployed in California and

from my opinion has the potential to greatly improve our ability to manage and control these large wildland fires—particularly if these assets are directed by local and

State authorities with a mechanism to quickly capture, store, and disseminate the

information. It doesn’t really matter if we have this powerful remote sensing capability and we don’t put the information in the hands of the actual boots on the

ground when they need it. We should thoughtfully consider how we could institutionalize this capability vice scrambling when large events inevitably overtake us.

Personal Experience

I can tell you from experience that management of large wildfires is a most difficult task and having current and comprehensive data, maps of predicted fire behavior, and fire location and live video feeds are of tremendous assistance in managing the fire, saving citizens at risk, and controlling the position of fire apparatus

and firefighters. In 1991, I was a command officer with the City of Oakland when

in one afternoon we lost over 3,300 residential properties and the lives of twenty

five people.

We did not have a map of the fire’s perimeter or know the extent of damage until

late that night. The perimeter of the fire was drawn by hand over an existing city

map by a fire officer hanging out of a helicopter as it flew the area.

There are significant issues with bringing this technology to the fire service. As

stated, there is a lack of resources and funding to acquire the technology and to

gather the data. There is also the issue of training fire officers to understand and

employ that data in their decision-making. We also have an issue with standards.

Standards—move above Personnel Experience

In association with the International Association of Fire Chiefs, there has just recently been established a Technology Advisory Council to standardize data collection, storage, and exchange. The National Fire Protection Association has also

begun to appoint a technical committee on Fire and Emergency Service Geographic

Information Systems that will explore geospatial data needs and current applications to develop common fire service standards and protocols for exchanging

geospatial data between GIS user agencies and organizations during emergencies.

Perhaps for the first time, essential data elements gathered by local responders can

be utilized by incoming mutual partners whether they are local, State, or federal.

The development of standards is an essential step in developing GIS information

that can be utilized by the fire service.

We recently hosted a meeting of many individuals involved with these projects so

that they could share their individual efforts in order to develop a National Fire

Service Data Model for gathering this data. That effort should receive continued

support as we explore the development of this standard and look towards implementation at the local level.

Personal Comments

I perceive in the implementation of remote sensing technology that there are

many issues regarding the use in the fire service for response and mitigation activities. I do not profess to have sufficient expertise to comment on the technical aspects

of development of such technology. I can tell that you what we have done here in

Colorado Springs has greatly leveraged our ability to provide the best in public safety with regards to fire control and suppression and community education.

I will offer that the leadership in the fire service and the emerging leadership

must be trained so that they can fully employ the available emerging technology.

Most fire officers have learned their trade through training, classroom and didactic,

and with application of that training in practical experience. The introduction of remote sensing and GIS into the work we do must be accompanied by training and

practice. That training will come at some cost. As with any training program, we

must provide the training staff, develop the curriculum, and pay for the wages of

29

the attendees. The training then has its associated cost, all of which must be provided with finite resources currently available to local government.

I have been asked by the Committee to discuss how we have utilized remote sensing data and to also comment on barriers. Briefly, I have discussed with the Committee some of our work regarding how we have utilized this technology. With regards to barriers I would comment that there are several:

• Funding for such work is lacking at the local level. Local government has finite resources that are wholly dedicated to providing services and at the federal level, there are few available resources for this emerging technology in

the fire service.

• As we develop this technology and move to applications for response and mitigation, a national standard should be supported so that local, State and federal response resources can all utilize the data.

• There is a need to develop national policies, standards, and functional models

to enable data sharing and coordinated data exchange starting with local

agencies for decision support and situational status to incident commanders

during escalating events of national significance.

• Implementation of this technology must be accompanied with training of the

current and emerging fire service leadership. Perhaps it is possible to fund

the U.S. Fire Administration to develop a program through the U.S. Fire

Academy that provides support curricula with appropriate GIS and RS training. Additionally, some sort of train-the-trainer program for GIS specialists

in the fire service would create capacity nationally.

• The federal grant funding systems could recognize the value of the implementation of these technologies as a key piece in planning and risk-reduction efforts. It has been difficult to use grant mechanisms for these purposes despite

the huge successes we have had in our communities when we have used remote sensing and GIS together.

• The geospatial intelligence strategy to support national security and preparedness must start at the local level. This cannot happen until locals have

access to effective GIS and remote sensing products that support their daily

operational requirements. Effective widespread implementation of fire service

technology will require appropriate data, tools, funding, and education delivered to local responder agencies. These components need to be defined by appropriate input from the fire service, for the fire service. This can be accomplished by working through existing national fire service organizations and

leadership structures, most of whom have identified GIS and remote sensing

as an important technology for supporting their mission.

Conclusion

In closing, the Committee was also interested in comments regarding what would

be most valuable to the fire service in expanding the use of remote sensing data

for the future. We certainly support the use of geospatial information systems and

the remote sensing data that feeds data to it. Fire officers will find that information

extremely helpful in managing and controlling emergencies. The technology to support those activities in our estimation should be further researched and funding

needs to be provided to make that technology available at the local level.

We have been very successful in employing data from remote sensing platforms

to enhance our community education programs, to assist in the planning efforts with

regards to fuel mitigation, and to provide an easily understood display of community

risk to citizens and policy-makers. We were able to employ remote sensing to gather

data that would take prohibitive personnel and time commitment to gather. We

would support further research in the use of this technology to gather additional information such as roof types and other data essential to full development of community risk attributes.

Colorado Springs has shifted from binders on bookshelves to a community-based,

geospatially enabled risk-assessment methodology. We have strived to understand

the nature and characteristics of risk and then systematically work on risk reduction activities. We are developing mitigation strategies in addition to our response

applications. We believe that responding to emergencies without really seeking to

know what the underlying causes of the problems are is only part of creating a safer

community. We support technology that provides us with the data required to understand and analyze the community risk.

We have been very fortunate in Colorado Springs with developing and utilizing

remote sensing technology. We have utilized local staff and collaborated with some

extremely talented private sector contractors.

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We would strongly encourage the Federal Government to support these types of

activities at the local level in order to improve the fire service’s response to public

safety as well as provide situational awareness for incoming local, State, and federal

assets during major emergencies.

Again, thanks for having me here today, I would be happy to take any questions

you might have.

BIOGRAPHY FOR MANUEL NAVARRO

Manuel Navarro was born in Oakland, California. He was a life-long resident of

the San Francisco East Bay area until January of 1994 when he was appointed Fire

Chief for the City of Colorado Springs. Chief Navarro’s 41-year career began in the

San Francisco Bay area in 1966 and he has served as firefighter, Lieutenant, Captain, Battalion Chief and Assistant Chief prior to being appointed Chief of the Colorado Springs Fire Department.

Chief Navarro holds an Associate of Arts Degree in Fire Science and a Bachelor

of Arts Degree in Public Administration with a minor in business. In 1995, he attended the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, being awarded one

of four National Fire Protection Association fellowships given that year. He holds

a State of California Master Fire Instructor Certification and is certified to teach

a number of specialized fire science topics.

Chief Navarro is an experienced and knowledgeable fire command officer and participated as a command officer in three nationally declared disasters (1989 Loma

Prieta Earthquake, 1991 Oakland Hills Fire and 1992 Hurricane Iniki, Kauai). The

Chief is considered an expert in many technical areas—most notably in the field of

Urban Search and Rescue. He was responsible for the management of the Oakland

sponsored Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) National Urban Search

and Rescue Team and served as a member of the FEMA Urban Search and Rescue

Management and Control Committee.

Chairman UDALL. Mr. Sapio, the floor is yours.

STATEMENT OF MR. FRANK J. SAPIO, DIRECTOR, FOREST

HEALTH TECHNOLOGY ENTERPRISE TEAM (FHTET), U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Mr. SAPIO. Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee,

thank you for this opportunity to testify before you today on remote

sensing data, its applications and its benefits.

The Forest Service uses remote sensing technology ‘‘to foster the

development and use of technologies to protect and improve the

health of America’s forests.’’ Remote sensing technologies have

serviced resource management well in the past, and will be an increasing part of land management in the future. When used effectively, they provide a means of data collection that is accurate,

timely, and cost effective.

In our technology development, we try to select the appropriate

remote sensing methodology. The spatial, temporal and cost capabilities of each sensor must be carefully evaluated for each project.

If an appropriate match can be made, the Forest Service will try

to use that technology to aid it in the natural resource assessment

efforts. This assessment must be tactical, and they use imagery

from a broad scale to a fine scale. Some systems are governmentowned. Some systems are commercial systems.

Remote sensing is used at three principal scales, a broad scale

to a strategic regional and national assessments, and mid-scale to

assess landscapes, and a fine scale to aid in the mapping of forest

stands and areas of damage.

On a broad scale, our current data-collection methodologies from

national insect and disease assessments rely heavily upon aerial

sketchmapping surveys. These surveys are accomplished by aerial

31

observers flying in light aircraft who sketch observations on paper

or on pen-based portable computers. Though somewhat limited in

spatial accuracy, this low-tech approach is appropriate technology

and is particularly well-suited for trend analysis because we can

cover almost the entire country annually. This method was used in

developing a 2007 map of infestation in Colorado, and has been our

method of choice for some time.

Imagery collected at a broad scale also includes satellite images

from NASA, and NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging

Spectroradiometer (MODIS) which provides 250-, 500-meter and

one kilometer spatial detail. MODIS is used to detect and monitor

wildland fires, assist incident coordination, and to portray the fire

situation to the public. MODIS is utilized with other geospatial layers and forestry inventory information to produce large-area forest

cover-type maps and biomass maps.

Mid-scale imagery such as Landsat which is 30-meter resolution

and is used with geospatial data and forest inventory information

to produce individual tree species maps to be used as insect and

disease host layers for the production of the National Insect and

Disease Risk Map, a five-year strategic assessment produced by

Forest Health Protection. My office is currently preparing for the

2010 National Insect and Disease Risk Map. We are actively pressing for more modern methodology to be used in Colorado.

Landsat also provides the predominant mid-scale imagery driving the LANDFIRE project. LANDFIRE is a five-year, multi-partner project that produces consistent and comprehensive maps and

data describing wildland fuels and fire regimes across the United

States. It is a shared project of the U.S. Forest Service and the Department of Interior. LANDFIRE data products are created at a 30-

meter resolution data set. LANDFIRE information is produced at

scales that may be useful for prioritizing and planning hazardous

fuel reduction and ecosystem restoration projects.

At a fine scale, aerial imagery is utilized to aid in the mapping

of forest stands and damaged areas at a fine scale and is used routinely for forest inventory and local resource assessments. The U.S.

Forest Service participates in the USDA National Agricultural Imagery Program, which collects one-meter digital imagery on a fiveyear recurring basis. This imagery is used in mapping various resource conditions.

Project level planning requires finer resolution imagery. The Forest Service and other cooperating field units often utilize digital

high-resolution satellite imagery to assess local forest issues, such

as damaged and dead trees in the landscape. To be able to discern

trees that are just beginning to exhibit the effects of stress, field

practitioners prefer the six-inch and one-foot spatial-resolution

range. Airborne imagery, usually photography, as opposed to the

satellite imagery, is currently the imagery of choice for most field

foresters. In fact, my group is currently processing a large batch of

photography for Colorado.

We also use remote sensing technologies for complex issues tied

to land use. For example, the growing metropolitan fringe is extending farther into rural areas with attractive recreational and

aesthetic amenities, and areas where structures and other human

development meet or intermingle with undeveloped land. This

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land-use change has significant implications for wildfire and pest

management.

We use a myriad of geospatial technologies to conduct analysis

of WUI at different spatial and temporal scales.

Mr. Chairman, this concludes my prepared statement. I would be

happy to answer any questions you or other Members of the Subcommittee have. Thank you.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Sapio follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF FRANK J. SAPIO

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity

to testify today on remote sensing data applications and its benefits for the U.S.

Forest Service.

Introduction

As Director of the Forest Health Technology Enterprise Team (FHTET), I am

charged with managing the group’s mission ‘‘To foster the development and use of

technologies to protect and improve the health of America’s forests.’’ Remote sensing

is one of the geospatial technologies we use to fulfill that mission.

FHTET is a Forest Service unit within State and Private Forestry. The team is

comprised of two offices, one in Morgantown, West Virginia, and the other in Fort

Collins, Colorado. In Morgantown, members of the team work on the biological control of invasive pests, pesticide application technologies, and the study of non-target

impacts of pesticides. In Fort Collins, team members work on a variety of information gathering methods, including geographic information systems (GIS), spatial

analysis, remote sensing and image analysis, pest and pathogen modeling, invasive

species modeling, and quantitative analysis of the impacts of forest pests.

I have worked in forest pest management and forest health for over 26 years. My

career began as a research associate in a university setting where I developed forest

pest management methods. I then moved to State government where I worked on

forest inventory, forest health monitoring, and forest pest management for most of

my career. For almost five years, I have been the technology-development lead within Forest Health Protection, U.S. Forest Service, as the Director of FHTET.

I will organize this testimony along the lines of the questions posed by Subcommittee Chairman Mark Udall’s office in a letter to me dated March 26, 2008.

Questions and Answers

How is the Forest Service using data collected by remote sensing technologies to identify areas of high risk for forest fires and other factors, including insect infestations, disease, drought, and the proximity of forests

to development that affect the health of forests in Colorado and elsewhere?

Remote sensing is used at three principal scales within the agency by both

wildland fire and the forest health protection programs of the Forest Service.

Broad Scale

Our current data-collection methodologies for national insect and disease assessments rely heavily upon aerial sketch-mapping surveys. These surveys are accomplished by aerial observers flying in light aircraft who sketch observations on paper

or on pen-based portable computers. Though somewhat limited in spatial accuracy,

this very low-cost survey provides a quick and timely assessment for many insect

and disease events. This ‘‘low tech’’ approach of information acquisition is truly an

‘‘appropriate technology’’ for strategic regional and national assessments and is particularly well-suited for trend analysis. Digital sketch mapping uses a moving map

display on which the observer marks the screen instead of marking on paper maps.

This saves time in processing finished maps and improves location accuracy. We

continually strive to improve the collection of these data and have implemented digital aerial sketch mapping systems to improve the quality and timeliness of these

data sets.

Imagery collected at the broad scale also includes satellite images from the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) and National Oceanographic

and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Geostationary Operational Environmental

Satellites (GOES) and Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellites (POES)

to support domestic forestry and fire programs.

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The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) provides 250m-,

500m- and 1km-resolution spatial detail. MODIS is used to detect and monitor

wildland fires, assist incident coordination, and to portray the fire situation to the

public. MODIS is utilized with other geospatial layers and forest inventory information to produce large-area forest cover-type and biomass maps. These maps are used

in national assessments and are designed for strategic assessments. For example,

a cover map for all of America’s private and public forests was recently completed

by combining multi-resolution imagery from MODIS and Landsat with ground data

from the Forest Service’s Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program. Much of this

work is a continuation of interagency cooperative research and development activities spawned by the Multi-Resource Land Cover (MRLC) Consortium led by the Department of the Interior’s Geological Survey. We are also applying these broad-scale

synoptic mapping technologies to develop early warning systems and to produce

very large area damage maps. We hope to be able to post forest disturbance maps

on the web in near-real-time to guide our aerial surveys. The goal here is to augment and optimize aerial sketch mapping surveys (by providing near real time forest disturbance information to our aerial surveyors) that provide us with the majority of our national damage trend information.

Mid Scale

Mid-scale imagery such as Landsat, which is 30 meter resolution and is used with

geospatial data and forest inventory information to produce individual tree species

maps depicting the tree layers that host insect and diseases. These maps will be

used in the production of national risk maps. Mid-scale imagery is a significant activity in the FHTET Fort Collins office as we are preparing the development of national host models to be used in the next development of the National Insect and

Disease Risk Map, a five-year strategic assessment produced by Forest Health Protection. The 19-state, mid-scale hazard assessment for the Southern Pine Beetle

Prevention Program is a good example of how this technology is currently being

used.

Landsat also provides the predominant mid-scale imagery driving the LANDFIRE

project. LANDFIRE is a five-year, multi-partner project that produces consistent

and comprehensive maps and data describing wildland fuels and fire regimes across

the United States. It is a shared project of the U.S. Forest Service and the Department of the Interior. The data products from LANDFIRE include layers for vegetation composition and structure, surface and canopy fuel characteristics, and historical fire regimes. LANDFIRE national methodologies are science-based and include

extensive field-referenced data. LANDFIRE data products are designed to facilitate

national and regional level strategic planning and reporting of wildland fire management activities.

LANDFIRE data products are created at a 30-meter resolution data set.

LANDFIRE information is produced at scales that may be useful for prioritizing and

planning hazardous fuel reduction and ecosystem restoration projects. LANDFIRE

meets agency and partner needs for data to support large landscape, fire management planning and prioritization.

Satellite imagery is likewise used for the burned area emergency response (BAER)

program for developing a burn intensity index to guide on-the-ground rehabilitation

efforts. Landsat, ASTER (Advanced Space-borne Thermal Emission and Reflection

Radiometer) and an increasing amount of commercial satellite imagery (such as Advanced Wide-Field sensor (AWiFS) ) are being used to provide BAER teams with

rapid assessment burn severity map products.

Landsat has also been used repeatedly within the agency in various change-detection analyses. One such notable effort is the U.S. Forest Service Land Cover Mapping and Monitoring Program (LCMMP) in California, which addresses statewide

vegetation mapping and long-term monitoring using remotely sensed data. Remotely

sensed data and GIS are used to generate maps that describe the extent and condition of various land cover types and the magnitude and cause (e.g., urbanization,

natural succession, wildfire, and timber harvest) of land cover changes. The LCMMP

provides a single, consistent source of current land cover data from which the U.S.

Forest Service and California Department of Forestry (as well as other interested

Federal, State, and local governments and private citizens) can make informed resource management decisions. The LCMMP is a collaborative approach to land cover

mapping and monitoring that includes coordinated acquisition of resource photography, satellite imagery, and geo-processing on a five-year cycle. Regionally, monitoring can identify critical causes of change or provide an early warning system for

habitats being degraded. Locally, monitoring can assess county land use policies,

identify areas of insects or disease problems, or assess the extent of timber harvest

in a watershed.

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Fine Scale

Aerial imagery is utilized to aid in the mapping of forest stands and damaged

areas at a fine scale and is used routinely for forest inventory and local resource

assessments. The U.S. Forest Service participates in the USDA National Agricultural Imagery Program (NAIP), which collects one-meter digital imagery on a fiveyear recurring basis. This imagery is used in mapping various resource conditions.

Other than its use as an important mapping aid, NAIP’s ability to determine resource conditions for fuel loading and forest mortality is very limited. For projectlevel planning, finer resolution imagery is required to achieve the desired assessment of forest resource conditions.

Forest Service and other cooperating field units often utilize digital high-resolution satellite imagery for local forest resource assessments. An example is a sprucebeetle mapping effort conducted in the early 2000s using one-meter and 0.6-meter

satellite data. Dead trees were discernible in both resolutions of imagery; however,

recently dead or dying trees (known as faders) were not discernible in the coarser

one-meter imagery. To guide many insect and disease mitigation measures, the location and number of faders are needed. In addition to the identification of faders,

identification of tree species and sub-canopy is often needed, and imagery with a

resolution finer than 0.6 meters is required for these determinations. The imagery

resolution of choice from our field practitioners is in the six-inch to one-foot spatialresolution range. As of this moment, airborne imagery, usually photography (as opposed to satellite imagery) remains the imagery of choice for most field foresters.

The Research & Development arm of the Forest Service has been experimenting

for several years with using Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) sensors. Similar

to radar but using a laser instead of radio waves, LIDAR provides very high resolution images. Researchers are combining LIDAR with very accurate Global Positioning System (GPS) data to map stream channels, including pools, riffles, and

down woody material that are essential to understanding the health of aquatic habitats, and forest canopies. LIDAR imagery can see beneath the over story, allowing

researchers to map under story plants and help detect places where trees have been

removed, such as through thinning operations.

Pre-visual detection of stress on individual trees is currently a major focus for forest health remote sensing specialists. In order to intervene early in a pest outbreak

scenario, early indications of pest infestation—such as tree health at the edges of

known infestations—are important. This is especially true for exotic invasive species. Unfortunately, at the present time we do not have a mature repeatable technology to fulfill this need. Hyper-spectral data for host mapping or tree health mapping has the potential to fulfill this need, though at the present time results are

inconsistent. Alternatively, field surveys can be conducted to map positive detections

and to identify pest. The surveys are conducted with global positioning system

(GPS) coordinates and tree health ratings. However, early infestations are often

missed during field survey as damaged trees initially are characterized by very subtle changes in the tree canopy. Trees stress signs, while present, often go undetected

until they become obvious to the field specialist on-the-ground. Hyper-spectral imagery has been utilized by the Forest Service for limited developmental projects for

stress-detection, and its use may be increased as the technology development progresses.

Proximity of Forests to Development that May Effect Forest Health

Urban and suburban growth has resulted in the development of an outlying metropolitan fringe that extends into rural areas with attractive recreational and aesthetic amenities. This is especially true for urban growth near forests. This landuse change has significant implications for wildfire and pest management. The WUI

creates an environment with an increased likelihood that wildfires or pest outbreaks

will threaten structures, trees around homes, recreation sites, and people. The spatial extent and location and, most importantly, the growth of urban and suburban

areas are information that is sought by nearly all sectors of the natural resource

management community.

A myriad of geospatial technologies—including geospatial modeling of census

data, the ‘‘city lights’’ data set from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Geophysical Data Center (NOAA/NGDC), and virtually all other

remote sensing platforms mentioned thus far—are used to conduct analysis of the

WUI at different spatial and temporal scales. This is typically done on a projectby-project basis with the structure density threshold varying accordingly.

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Development Efforts and Refinement

The Forest Service has long used various remote-sensing methods to assess forest

health and detect damage, and continuously investigates new technologies as a strategic and tactical aid to natural resources management. There are advantages and

disadvantages to all such geospatial technologies. It is imperative that the right

platform, imagery, and analysis be matched to the specific problems that natural

resource professionals face. Remote sensing technologies have extended the ability

of resource specialists to assess forest conditions, and these technologies are increasingly being used at various spatial and temporal scales to address natural resource

management questions.

The future possibilities of ‘‘fusing’’ data from satellites with airborne LIDAR imagery and precise GPS coordinates offer great future potential for developing better

maps in the future. In particular, the ability of LIDAR to create three-dimensional

images of forest stand conditions instead of just the flat overhead look from satellites offers substantial promise for improving natural resource management.

Data acquisition and analysis in any form still requires a considerable investment

of resources and expertise. The Forest Service continues to improve its suite of hardware and software tools for processing and analyzing remotely sensed data. Most

national forest field offices now have such hardware and software, and are improving their expertise in using GIS or image analysis software to process and analyze

geospatial data sets. Land managers are also improving in their ability to select appropriate remote sensing technologies to address their data needs, and they are supported by technology transfer efforts of the Remote Sensing Applications Center

(RSAC), the Geospatial Technologies Service center (GSTC), and FHTET.

What are the benefits of using remote sensing data over data that are acquired by other techniques?

Remote sensing methods are effective tools to assess fire, forest pest and forest

conditions. One of the benefits of using remote sensing data over data acquired by

other techniques (for example, aerial survey and ground survey) is the spatial precision which allows for the analysis of other resource concerns, including the presence

and distribution of threatened and endangered species or the occurrence of multiple

threats through time. Also, ground surveys are often not cost-effective over very

large areas. Another benefit of remote sensing lies in its consistency and objectivity;

the data do not pass through the subjective filter of a human observer before being

recorded. Compared with a ground survey, once collected, remotely sensed data can

be easier to process and analyze, can cover more ground, and thereby reduce analysis time and improve overall planning productivity.

What, if any, are the challenges and impediments to the use of remote sensing data for these and other applications, and what are your recommendations for overcoming those barriers?

Performing remote sensing data analysis requires a wide-range of skill sets, from

basic repetitive tasks to high-end analytical support. A typical field user of remotely

sensed data needs to perform the full spectrum of skills from basic through advanced. Often, the skill-level for the advanced use of remote sensing technologies

is very limited at the field level, though regional offices and national service centers

can and do provide support for individual projects.

Basic tasks for the analysis of remotely sensed data are usually performed by

technician-level employees. This capability has diminished over the last few decades

as the workforce has shifted from technician-level employees to professional and administrative employees. Often, a field unit is left with little or no support for basic

remote sensing processing—a field staff officer may be doing the work of a field

technician due to staffing limitations. As these remote sensing skills evolve through

workforce evolution, skill sets must continue to improve for the utility of remotely

sensed data to increase. The national service centers for remote sensing applications

(RSAC), geometronics (GSTC) and forest health (FHTET) are all working on technology transfer efforts to develop field ready methodologies, and improve workforce

skills to meet today’s needs.

The early signatures of most forest pests are ephemeral and the timing of data

acquisition is another important challenge. Imagery must be acquired during the period of time during which pest damage signatures are most visible or when the information best supports managerial action. This is very often a very brief period,

sometimes less than two to three weeks. Imagery acquisition during this ‘‘bio-window’’ is difficult in some parts of the country due to imagery acquisition schedules

and the lack of suitable weather without clouds. Also, the effectiveness of on-theground treatments for a given forest health concern involve data timing considerations. Results from image analysis must be timely in order to facilitate time-senVerDate 11-MAY-2000 14:48 Nov 24, 2008 Jkt 041573 PO 00000 Frm 00039 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 C:\WORKD\SA08\040708\41573 SCIENCE1 PsN: SCIENCE1
36

sitive on-the-ground treatments. Remotely sensed data need to be collected, processed, and evaluated within a given timeframe so that the forest health concern is

observed and a response can be formulated and performed in a timely manner. For

tactical on-the-ground operations, the required turn-around time of imagery acquisition, image analysis, and treatment prescription often exceeds the biological window

available for the treatment to be effective.

Shortening the time to analyze remotely sensed imagery would significantly aid

in the practical implementation of remote sensing in the U.S. Forest Service. Efforts

to develop ways to reduce this time could be accomplished through close cooperation

of remote sensing commercial interests, researchers, field resource specialists, and

the technology development community within the U.S. Forest Service.

What remote sensing data, products or services, or supporting infrastructure would be most valuable for expanding the use of remote sensing data

in the future?

The key to providing continued support for the mid-scale mapping and on-going

forest condition monitoring is Landsat. Continued availability allows for the comparison of current conditions with reference conditions collected by previous Landsat

sensors to identify changes and trends in forest canopy, including the new challenges associated with global climate change. Landsat imagery has been a significant component within our natural resource information programs. Trends detected

through such an approach will yield insightful information which otherwise would

not be detected through other monitoring techniques.

In order for high-resolution satellite imagery to be more routinely used, it must

achieve finer resolution and be cost-competitive with aerial photography. Higher

resolution remotely sensed data (airborne or satellite) can be utilized when determined to be cost-effective for the extent of coverage needed. Often, a project’s spatial

extent exceeds the practical capability available given the small image ‘‘footprint’’

of various sensors. Also, the cost of high-resolution satellite imagery must match the

project area and not be cost-prohibitive. Lower-cost imagery (assuming useful interpretation) would ultimately yield better, more frequent monitoring of our forest resources.

The development of automated routines for preparing and interpreting imagery

would help to shorten the turn-around time between imagery acquisition and treatments. This can help reduce the need for basic interpretive skills and improve the

timeliness for deriving analytical information. Professional field specialists could

then better focus on problem-solving, for which they are most skilled: that is to

make natural resource decisions.

Image interpretation relies upon assigning certain characteristics, such as tree

species, to specific parts of the image-a process called classification. Building accurate automated routines to classify an image requires sufficient data from ground

plots to validate the classification routines.

Conclusion

The USDA Forest Service utilizes remote sensing and other geospatial technologies routinely to measure resource conditions. This is done both to assess current conditions and to predict future conditions. Assessments range from the strategic to the tactical and utilize imagery from a broad scale to a fine scale. Remote

sensing technologies range from analog photography (true color or color infrared) to

the latest in hyperspectral imagery. Acquisition platforms range from governmentowned systems to commercial systems. The agency maintains an active technology

development effort and continually tries to fit the task at hand with the various remote sensing methodologies available. Sensor capabilities (spectral, spatial, temporal, and cost) must be carefully tailored to the project; if a match can be made,

the Forest Service will likely use that technology in their resource assessment efforts.

Mr. Chairman, this concludes my prepared statement. I would be happy to answer

any questions you or other Members of the Subcommittee may have.

Acronyms and Abbreviations

FHTET—Forest Health Technology Enterprise Team

GIS—geographic information system

MODIS—Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectro-radiometer

BAER—burn area emergency rehabilitation

ASTER—Advanced Space-borne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer

AWiFS—Advanced Wide-Field Sensor

37

LCMMP—Land Cover Mapping and Monitoring Program

NAIP—National Agricultural Imagery Program

UAS—unmanned aerial systems

WUI—wildland-urban interface

NOAA/NGDC—National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/National Geophysical Data Center

RSAC—Remote Sensing Applications Center

GSTC—Geospatial Technologies Service Center

DISCUSSION

Chairman UDALL. Thank you, panel, and we want to move right

to a round of questions, and I will recognize myself for five minutes. I want to ask a very basic question, and each one of you have

spoken here, but I wanted to give you a chance to underline the

importance of this data.

What makes the use of remote sensing worthwhile for what you

and your organization do?

I want to start with Mr. Byers, and we’ll go on with Dr.

Montagu. Byers is a very well-known Colorado name. Are you related to former Governor Byers and the town of Byers and all the

other?

Mr. BYERS. I would like to say yes, but I’m not sure that I am.

You know, I try not to say that too often, so that folks—I’m very

proud of what the Byers family did in Colorado, even if they

weren’t directly related to me. I’m sure there’s something there.

Chairman UDALL. I’m sure you are. Middle Park in Grand County, which I represent is one of the most beautiful landmarks, Byers

Peak, which draws the eye immediately when you come up over the

pass.

Having gone off on a bit of a tangent, Mr. Byers, tell us how remote sensing data makes what you do worthwhile for you in your

organization.

Mr. BYERS. That’s all right, Mr. Chairman. I think you have the

license to do that when you choose.

This actually is—it is very serious to us because, as you know,

many of the State agencies are limited in funding here in Colorado.

We have a number of legislative initiatives that have kept our

growth of our budget to a limited area. The real value that we have

is that we get a great deal of data, very specific and high-resolution

data. It allows us to spend less time ground truthing information,

allows us to use less public funds in the general administration of

water rights for us, primarily, and I’m speaking of the Landsat

technology that I spoke of earlier.

The other aspect of it is, is that we tie into all of this. I act as

the emergency manager within our department and a number of

other things. We tie into all of this other technology, and all of it

saves us time, effort, and gives us better information faster, and allows us to respond to the public’s needs better. With that, I’ll stop.

Chairman UDALL. Dr. Montagu.

Dr. MONTAGU. I want to focus on one specific technology, and

mainly aerial—digital aerial photography. Obviously, the Denver

metro area is growing significantly and has been now for over a

decade. We’re adding about 20,000 households a year. I may get

that wrong.

38

The overall growth of the metro area, you know, trying to plan

for that and manage it so that we can put in the long range infrastructure requires that we have some sense of where this growth

is happening, and also develop some policies that hopefully direct

some of the growth and match the infrastructure that we’re trying

to build.

Aerial photography is critical for that, particularly, number one,

knowing where that growth is happening, but also for change detection, being able to look back and forth through time to see where

that growth is. So it’s vitally important to us that we keep that

going.

We have formulated our own approach to that, which is this public/private partnership that we have going. We have 30 different

agencies working collectively to acquire this imagery together. I’m

pleased to say that both the State of Colorado and the USGS have

partnered with us on that, developing that together collectively.

Chairman UDALL. Thank you. I’ll let the record note that I prefer

DRCOG as the acronym.

Mr. Navarro, please.

Mr. NAVARRO. Thank you.

The value, obviously, is being able to get to the location with the

centerline data that geospatial imagery gives us. But leveraging

that technology to also be able to layer for those response agencies

on specifically what it is they’re looking at, to get a specific address, then we know what’s in the building, or have a full deck on

final analysis that geospatial creation will provide.

Now, the other aspect of that interface is that any fire professional will tell you that weather is the major factor. But then you

have to layer in slope and terrain in the location where you’ll be

able to get good, accurate information relative to that vegetation

layer when you get there, because oftentimes these teams will come

in from across the country, and it’s vitally important to the safety

of mitigation.

Chairman UDALL. Mr. Sapio.

Mr. SAPIO. Remote sensing methods are effective tools to assess

fire, forest pest and forest conditions. One of the benefits of using

remote sensing data over other techniques (for example, aerial survey and ground survey) is the spatial precision which allows for the

analysis of other resource concerns. Another benefit of remote sensing lies in its consistency and objectivity; the data do not pass

through a subjective filter of a human observer before being recorded. Remote sensing data can be easier to process, analyze, and

covers more ground, reduces analysis time, and improves overall

planning productivity.

Chairman UDALL. Thank you.

At this time I want to recognize our Ranking Member, Mr.

Feeney, for his questions.

Mr. FEENEY. Well, thank you to all of our witnesses. I think Mr.

Byers suggested that there may be a gap should Landsat 5 or 7 fail

prior to launch of the Landsat Data Continuity Mission in 2011. If

that gap occurs, how much of a problem will it be for what you do,

and some of the other witnesses, and can that gap be mitigated by

surveillance, airborne surveillance assistance, if we’re going to have

a gap.

39

Mr. BYERS. Thank you, Mr. Feeney.

Mr. FEENEY. Bring that closer.

Mr. BYERS. Our view, as we look at this collectively with the

western states as well as within Colorado is that, yes, there are opportunities for us to cover the gap. But the costs and the efforts

associated with that are detrimental to the overall well-being of the

public. We have the opportunity here to assure continuity, and an

efficient and effective way to do that, should we have a gap, should

we have a problem.

We believe one, we’ve wasted the opportunity that is presented

in front of us to get this sensing instrument up in space. The other

one is that the next time we’re able to do that is considerably farther down the road, and the expense to all of the public agencies

is going to be extreme. And the problems we have facing us in the

west with climate change, and just all of the land and water issues.

Water here in the west is so valuable and so critical to life. When

I worked with the tribes, water is life, and that’s how they would

explain it. And that’s how it is here in the west. And that’s why

it was so important to us to see how—see all of this information

so that we can manage our water resources collectively in the best

way possible.

Mr. FEENEY. Anybody have anything to add to that? Mr. Sapio.

Mr. SAPIO. The Landsat program has been a real workhorse in

monitoring vegetation and vegetation change. Landsat 5 and

Landsat 7 are operating well, well beyond their design lifetime.

Landsat continuity is key to providing support for mid-scale mapping for forest services, to monitor ongoing conditions, and to address new challenges associated with drastic forest changes that

we’re seeing here in Colorado.

Landsat or other Landsat sensors will also be useful in evaluating vegetation changes in climate. Continued availability of this

kind of imagery, the short wave, red band in particular, allows a

comparison of current conditions with reference conditions already

provided by thousands of previous Landsat collections. An example

of this would be the Aspen incline in the west of Colorado.

Mr. FEENEY. Thank you. I have an interest in, given the capabilities of this optical scanning equipment, whether privacy issues

have been raised and to what extent, and to where—I don’t know

for those over here or in California, but in Florida we have sunshine laws that virtually aid in protecting the public. Ongoing

criminal investigations, for example, are totally accessible with few

exceptions to the public, to the press.

And so how do you deal with privacy, and are there concerns, for

example, with tourists, or evildoers would get, you know, whether

it’s a nuclear plant or whatever it is, to get access to some information that would be useful in doing harm? You know, technology is

morally neutral.

It can be used for good or evil, and I want to know to what extent you folks have dealt with those questions.

Mr. BYERS. Thank you, Congressman. We have—we certainly,

from a water management standpoint, believe that the transparency is important. We think that California ought to know what

Colorado is doing, and we certainly would like to know what California is doing with our water, tongue in cheek there a little bit.

40

We think that’s a good thing, and here the Colorado, we do have

open records and such.

However, as I’ve mentioned, I work several hats. I also sit on a

government coordinating council with the Department of Homeland

Security for dam security. And we are very concerned about how

much of this aerial information is available. But the fact of it is

that most of the location information is already out there. We do

a very good job of looking at how to deal with security issues on

individual structures and regional areas.

Like, for example, we will look at how all of the infrastructure

and protection of the infrastructure with the Democratic National

Convention coming here in Denver. We’ve already started much of

that work. We also do it all across the U.S. as a national look. We

watch carefully from Colorado to look at who’s asking for the information so that we can provide that information to the appropriate

authorities.

But as far as the transparency of the information, we don’t view

that as a problem. Transparency is a good thing. Folks knowing

what kind of crop issues, how water is managed, what climate

change issues to look at, topography, all of that stuff we think is

a good thing.

We think it has, actually, very good application to the southwest

with the recent drought and some of the issues they’ve had to deal

with. We think it has great application there, and I’m sure it is

used.

Dr. MONTAGU. It’s a very critical issue in terms of all of this data

that is available now. And I know it’s a subject of conversation

across this consortium that we have—like I said, we have 30 different local governments, utility companies, and some members of

private sector all getting access to this data, and we talk a lot

about the privacy concerns of it.

I think Mr. Byers is right. It is a transparency question in the

sense of the public value that comes from it, from its dispersion is

more important than the potential for nefarious use down the road.

And the fact of the matter is, there’s so much of this data out in

the public domain now, that the ability to stop it at this point in

time would be very difficult.

That said, though, I know that all of our member governments

treat this data very carefully, and it’s—you know, the security that

goes with all of those sorts of things, that’s something we all take

seriously to make sure it doesn’t end up places we don’t want it to.

And we do have tracking systems that go through a process that

tracks where this data is going.

Mr. NAVARRO. That’s a great question there. We’ve wrestled with

that internally, officers at our command in that part from south

central region that individually facilitate that within that office.

We have a grant from Federal Government for planning for terrorist responses. We use a tremendous amount of GIS information

and we share that with our partners. So we’ve been very careful,

relative to those agreements within in our group on how the data

is used and how it’s shared. But the reality is some of that data

is public data.

I think, if we look at it as the data is a tool, which individuals

can get access to, how we plan based on that data is really more

41

sensitive to us, rather than just the data itself. It’s the great thing

about living in America, and the lousy thing about living here.

Mr. SAPIO. In my experience, I hear a lot about this, but I

haven’t run into any practical situations where it’s been a problem

for us in the Forest Service. The nature of collecting the data over

remote forest areas, we’re not collecting overseas. The data is commercially available, and it’s available in the public domain. We’re

bound as federal employees to protect personal identifiable information, and trying to do so. So if there were a situation for that

to arise, I would imagine we would find a way to work around it.

Mr. FEENEY. Mr. Chairman, I’m way over my time. But if I could

just note that, again, technology is morally neutral, and a lot of it

is already out there. But for example, somebody that wanted to do

a lot of harm could look at the dryness patterns and which way a

wildfire was likely to grow. Somebody would know where to drop

most of the poison if they wanted to do harm. And you can go on

the web site and punch in my address and get a 360 circular picture of my home and anybody that wants to break in a home. So

it is scary. I don’t know what the answer is, but I thought it was

an important question.

Chairman UDALL. I think that’s a very important question. I

think it was an important discussion and we ought to continue it.

And there’s obviously more we need to understand.

We’re going to do a second round of questions, and I would like

to come back to the four of you and ask you what opportunities you

foresee for the expanded application of remote sensing to your work

and what’s needed to realize those opportunities. I know some of

you have spoken about that with Landsat and other technologies,

but please take—if you had a wand, what else would you like me

to do?

Mr. BYERS. If I had a wand, I’d like to know what the snow pack

is going to be next year this year. That is what I’d really like to

know. And speaking of snow pack, some of the opportunity that we

see is with our evaluation of the snow water equivalents and the

distribution of snow pack in the State of Colorado.

We have certainly—currently working on a snow program, which

is a cooperative program with several federal entities as well as

several entities within State government. And one of the things

that we look at is trying to have a better—because that water supply is so important to us, as well as the rest of the west, is trying

to look at how do we get a better handle on what’s there and what

kind of distribution, what kind of timing we’ll have with respect to

runoff. Of course, again, all of what has been discussed today is

very important to the State. We’ve focused a little bit on water in

the Subcommittee hearing, and we appreciate the opportunity to do

that.

Dr. MONTAGU. My crystal ball would have the tools and the processes in place to start to integrate a lot of this data together. We

have collected a lot of stuff over many decades now that we typically tend to use for specific applications. But in reality, we can

start to look at our urban and our rural environments much more

holistically. We can start to blend some of these data sets together.

Understanding the health of urban vegetation, for example, is

very important for understanding the impacts of climate change

42

and the likely heat effects that happen in urban environments. So

being able to draw some of that information together with some of

the long-range plans that we’re producing will allow us to leverage

this information much more efficiently going forward.

Chairman UDALL. Is that a function of software? Is it a function

of the digital resources to bring those data sets in closer proximity.

Dr. MONTAGU. I think it’s a function of a whole range of things.

One is starting to draw expertise together to say we need to look

at this more closely. The other one is starting to rethink a little bit

about how we use this data. So we put up these sensors for a specific purpose when, in fact, we could be saying we need to be more

holistically looking at the number of different applications we can

use it for.

Mr. NAVARRO. You know, I was very interested in comments just

made, because it’s really the page that we’re opening up recently

in Washington, talking with some of the representatives from DHS

from the standards and technology group and the data group.

The fire service itself, I’m on an advisory committee, and we’re

trying to formulate a standard by which we produce this data and

use this data. One of the conversations we had, relative to that,

was what’s the output? What is that going to look like? What’s the

utility of using that particular data? But on the long view of that,

from my standpoint, from leadership in the fire service, is we have

to start educating the fire service itself and the technology that’s

there and how that’s going to be used. Bring it to that leadership,

whether it’s the city manager, or mayor, or local fire chief, how

does that get used in a holistic fashion?

That’s going to be a very interesting migration as we go forward.

Chairman UDALL. Mr. Navarro, I’d like to pursue that more in

commentary. As you know, I’m a homer. I talk a lot about what

you all have done down here. At the risk of getting you in a little

bit of trouble with your fellow fire chiefs, how many other departments, how many other urban areas, how many other cities are at

the point you all are in using this data to prevent and then respond, hopefully not necessary, but if the case does arise.

Mr. NAVARRO. None that I know of to the extent we’re doing

that. We had an IT section in my administration when I arrived

here in ’94, but we do have a very large group that’s been formed

of users. Chief Rector over in California, and the California Fire

Service is very interested in accumulating this information, and

how it’s going to be leveraged on the other end of it. So we’re starting to open up that page.

We actually hosted a meeting there two weeks ago, of the practitioners, to try that standard process, and the advisory committee

is looking at that right now. But we’ve got a ways to go. We’ve got

to catch up with what DOD has been doing for years in terms of

situations where—much the same, our warriors are in the field

doing something a little bit different.

Chairman UDALL. I was on the Elk Meadow fire that same summer we had the Hayman fire. Supervisor Cables was there, Mr. Cables, and he said, Mark, the best analog here is to fight another

war. This is a war-like environment, realtime situation. So your

analogy, as well, makes real sense, Chief Navarro. So I’d like to get

a breakdown of what you’re doing.

43

Mr. NAVARRO. I encourage you to do that as much as you can.

Chairman UDALL. Okay, thank you.

Mr. Sapio.

Mr. SAPIO. With the temporal regulation groups, various commercial entities, we’re likely to use the technology more and more,

resolutions, temporal and spatial. If there were more preprocessed

imagery routines available where features have already been extracted in the commercial sector, we’re more likely to see casual

users use LIDAR remote sensing imagery so they don’t have to go

through the training and the large amount of image prep necessary

to extract information from the imagery.

One thing that’s particularly important to my group in the Forest

Service is that if there were vegetation information available of the

city, that would be extremely useful for us to model the risks of insects and diseases that could be introduced at those industries. So

those are the things I can think of off the top of my head that

would make remote sensing more useful to the Forest Service.

Chairman UDALL. Well, it’s exciting to hear all those potential

applications, obviously. We have a bit of homework and additional

work to do, and other resources, and continue to work together,

which is why I’m, to provides a lot of opportunity.

The Chair recognizes the Ranking Member for another round of

his questions.

Mr. FEENEY. Well, thanks. You know, Mr. Navarro, talking about

the lead you have in using this technology, the—one of the aerial

vehicles in California, Oregon and Washington, we have a series of

serious fires, and it would help if I got a pinpoint accuracy in terms

of what the direction of the fire was going. Obviously, this is valuable capabilities, even though you talk about firefighters having to

make instant decisions and how accurate the information is.

What organizations, nationally, can you use to share these capabilities, and not just in fire, but maybe Dr. Montagu or Mr. Byers,

what organization in city and local governments are addressing

this in your conferences or charters?

Mr. NAVARRO. We actually are going to be on the docket for FRI

here in Denver with—and I don’t brag for myself. I’m probably the

lead individual in GIS within our organization. And what we’re

able to do is we had some very expert technical advice, married

with some operational folks. And as they sat down, they started a

vision with what this technology can do. And that’s how we’ve been

able to launch some of that.

That discussion is going to be taking place at FRI. We’re looking

at what that agenda might look like to be able to convince. Because

when you’re talking leadership, they’re very pragmatic about

things. They know what works and what doesn’t work. They don’t

want to try anything that’s not going to work for them. The obvious

kind of thing is, as part of the papers, you know, we’re impeded

by 100 years of tradition. But the reality is, if it works, they’re

going to start using it. We have to show the utility of that information.

If you provide a great deal of data that’s not in a processed form,

for someone trying to make discreet decisions very quickly, they’re

going to disregard it.

44

It’s got to come in a form that makes some sense to them. The

reality is that that hasn’t happened too often.

California, I think, is a great example of what just occurred, because they were given a realtime situation like this. And I can’t tell

you how valuable it would be to have that base layer really knowing what was out there before, and then video from my global on

what’s happening on the ground, to be able to move resources

around, be able to do the evacuations and do the other kinds of

things.

Those large fires cannot be managed. They are going to burn

until the weather stops. That’s one of the problems for firefighters

that’s interesting. We are subject to some horrific fire behavior in

this State if we don’t do something about that. On the response

side of that, we can provide some safety for those individuals that

are going to be doing that, in terms of either evacuation or real response. So I hope that answers your question.

Dr. MONTAGU. The key point to make about DRCOG is, you

know, we are a long-range planning agency, so we don’t typically

deal with tactical short-term stuff. The need for realtime information is not as critical, at least in the land use. I’ll address the

transportation side in a little bit.

But one of the concrete examples I can come to is the LIDAR

that we are collecting at the moment for the Democratic National

Convention is being used by the NGA in a tactical response. So

they want to know all of the planning that goes with the security

around the convention. But that information, when it flows back to

us, we can start to create these three-dimensional models of the

city.

One of the things that a lot of people struggle with is trying to

imagine what something will look like 30 years from now. So being

able to take that data and combine with the software that we have

and create a vision of what the future might look like is very important to them.

Mr. FEENEY. Well, it’s interesting you say that, because while we

don’t have a model of geospatial imaging, we do have a national

model for simulation. We make everything from Tiger Woods golf

to football. My nine-year-old tested it the other day, and I was

sworn to secrecy about what was in it. We have all five branches

of the military. We create the software there, and one of the things

we have to put together here is the geospatial stuff. It’s a great history of what’s happening now.

What simulation can do is tell us what’s going to happen next,

and can train people, you know. You could run a wildfire in the offices in front of computers and test every commander in Colorado

based on his or her behavior and get a very good picture of that

wildfire many times before you actually had to fight it. And every

one of them would be an A plus student by the time you actually

have a real fire. It’s an interesting possibility.

I have no further questions. Thank you.

Chairman UDALL. I’m going to hold a third round with a focus

on—Mr. Feeney has questions, do it in 10 minutes, and we have

paneled the next people. But if I might have each one of you talk

to what you think the most important role for the Federal Government is in facilitating the use of remote sensing data to support

45

both public- and private-sector activities in the war-fighting campaign.

Mr. BYERS. First of all, give me a chance to really think my

thoughts through.

Chairman UDALL. The next panel I’ll alternate. I learn as I go.

Mr. BYERS. With respect to the Federal Government, I think that

when these issues are beyond an individual State’s borders, when

they are, in fact, for the public good, that that’s where the Federal

Government comes in and has a role in coordinating the acquisition

of the data, trying to work with how to utilize the data, and I think

even through the education and exposure of various tools, of how

to use and how to integrate some of that data. So I think that

when it’s the overall public good, that’s where the Federal Government comes in.

When I think of it from a more local perspective, obviously, to

use that same role would be that the State has a responsibility,

particularly in its region or, for example, with us for the Western

States Water Council, or a particular technical area, whether it is

in the dam safety arena, whether it’s in the forestry arena or whatever, to be able to be a facilitator and focus for getting some of that

coordination between the Federal Government and the local and

the hands-on practitioner.

But I think there’s a variety of roles as a collaborative effort, a

cooperative effort, and we have to continue to stretch each other’s

comfort so that we are pushing the envelope. And maybe that’s the

best scenario when I talk about this being, you know, kind of space.

We do need to continue to stretch that envelope and go to new frontiers.

Dr. MONTAGU. I come back to the comments that I made in my

testimony. It really is about leadership. The Federal Government

has led this industry for a long period of time. And thinking of it

from the point of view of a local government and a regional government, the cost not only of the direct acquisition, but also all of the

R&D that goes in behind that is something that only the Federal

Government is really resourced to do.

And, you know, Mr. Byers’ comment about the expanse, the fact

that this is broad acre stuff that we’re talking about here, so it

transcends local, regional, even State boundaries. So to have the

federal involvement and leadership on that front is vitally important.

I think that the leadership on the distribution side, the models

that the Federal Government is coming up with now to push the

stuff out to people is very important. Again, we’re talking about

terabytes and terabytes of information that none of us locally can

afford to store. And so to have those resources distributed across

the country and being able to tap into those is vitally important for

us.

Chairman UDALL. Chief.

Mr. NAVARRO. The lead agencies, in my estimation, on the federal side for some of the work that we do is DHS, FEMA and National Fire Administration. And for years we really didn’t have that

support, that a disaster or a local emergency basically was a local

emergency, and at some point it morphed into this other thing.

46

I think back to the ’60s when I started, and we had actual civil

defense folks working in fire service because we had a national

emergency because we thought we were going to get nuked at some

point. That went away. Now we have a national threat again.

I think that we can partner with DHS, with FEMA, and with the

National Fire Administration to alleviate some of the issues we had

in terms of response mitigation at a local level, but also migrate

that to the larger level. Because it starts here and it goes to there.

We don’t have the resources at a local level to be able to do this,

whether it’s the staff, the technology, whether it’s the process piece

of it and integrating it into what we do. And I think we need to

see the leads coming from the feds to help us with that. But we

have a common purpose relative to those types of responses. DHS

and FEMA do come in. The reality that they’re going to be interfacing with the locals, they need to have situational analysis that

we should be able to provide, and vice versa.

Chairman UDALL. Mr. Sapio.

Mr. SAPIO. There are four things that come to mind that all

would be done under the umbrella of both partnership with other

agencies and commercial entities in remote sensing. One that’s

very important is a provision of imagery and its distribution, which

you’ve heard already. The provision of extracted information from

imagery, like fuel loadings and pest risk. Thirdly, the provision of

new analytical techniques. This would be particularly useful for

local assessments, if we learn how to produce some extraction for

a particular risk factor that’s useful locally. And fourth, the provision of models that project future resource conditions, and this

would be particularly useful for planning.

Chairman UDALL. Thank you. I note that all of you, in a sense,

have talked to the opportunity here for two-fers or three-fers. And

Chief, you talked about the civil defense needs in the ’60s. And

now, in a sense, history is repeating itself with a different kind of

enemy. And then the role FEMA plays in their own like self-interest, and having the data they need when they’re called to be on the

ground. I know, Florida, Colorado, Mr. Feeney mentioned, have

some similar challenges that Mother Nature presents, and the severity and the intensity which they can arrive.

But I think both, at the time, are partnered by setting aside

what happened in New Orleans, that FEMA has begun to do a

more preventative analysis, and preventative investments, and it

seems like a very smart way to use federal dollars, as well as to

draw in the local responders.

Mr. Feeney.

Mr. FEENEY. I’ve enjoyed all of the witnesses. I appreciate your

testimony, and your advice. Thanks for having me today.

Chairman UDALL. Thank you for being here.

We’ll take a couple of minutes, and the next panel will join us,

and we look forward to their testimony. I know you all would be

willing to answer questions for the record if we give them to you.

Thank you.

[recess.]

47

Panel 2:

Chairman UDALL. The hearing will return to order. We have a

wonderful, fascinating, erudite second round of witnesses, and I’d

like to take a moment to introduce this second panel.

Kevin Little, he’s the Director for Business Development for

Intermap Technologies. To his left, Matt O’Connell who’s the President and Chief Executive Officer of GeoEye. And we also have with

us Jill Smith, who’s the President and CEO of DigitalGlobe, Inc.

Again, I want to welcome each of you, and we’ll dive right in and

start with Mr. Little and his testimony.

STATEMENT OF MR. KEVIN LITTLE, DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS

DEVELOPMENT, INTERMAP TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

Mr. LITTLE. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. We appreciate

the opportunity to participate with you and your committee. I

thought I would do a few visuals. I’d like to talk a little bit about

what the applications really are from a real-world standpoint.

What we have over here on the poster board, everyone has been

referencing the Hayman fire. With this particular, the red is the

color of infrared. False color can spot image.

And I’m sorry, we’ve got this thing going in the background. I

wish we had more screens. Actually, the poster is what I’m referencing. It’s actually an image of the Hayman fire. It’s a 170,000

acre area. The technology that’s the base layer does the slope aspect of the actual digital elevation while the wildfire is actually

burning. That particular technology can actually see through the

smoke cover.

We had to do the spot collection after the fact a few weeks after

the rain had put the fire out. And we discriminate on the red there.

The area that’s red is the healthy vegetation. The other part, of

course, is the burned area on the right side. And at the bottom, we

were able to do a sloping aspect. And with that we were able to

figure the mud slide, those sorts of things, vegetation burned, et

cetera.

As mentioned, I am Kevin Little with Intermap based here in

Denver. Do you want to fire up that other one, please?

Yeah, let’s do this one. This is actually Yosemite, high-resolution

elevation. I think this is actually DigitalGlobe imagery draped over

the top. And what this is, we actually have a positional accuracy

of X, Y and Z with this image, that actually you can use this in

a handheld device. It’s all commercial. It’s all very user-friendly.

We wanted to use this one because we know how you have probably climbed that in the past several times.

Chairman UDALL. I have. Don’t hold it against me. I did kill a

lot of brain cells on the mountains.

Mr. LITTLE. Perfect. Scott, if you want to kill that one. Another

one I want to know is on this poster over here, the NEXTMap Britain poster, if you could. From an application standpoint, collecting

commercially throughout the whole country.

This is all in Scotland. It’s cloud free. That’s an initiative right

now collecting all over the U.S., which we’re at about 65 percent

of that whole collection right now with this same level of accuracy.

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What we’re showing is, we’re utilizing very substantial benefit.

It’s not just one specific technology. And if there’s one thing I could

leave you folks with today is the idea that applications that are fit

for purpose. It’s not technology specific. It’s more application specific. There are actually areas where you need to have high-definition satellite imagery. For instance, in doing city centers, doing

ports, doing choke points on borders, those sorts of things. Having

that revisit with a high-resolution commercial satellite system is a

wonderful thing.

Some of you heard people talk about the LIDAR application

today. LIDAR is a very wonderful technology more designed for

smaller areas. So we’re looking for, perhaps, coastal areas, sometimes city centers and other flood areas. The radar technology

that’s been used in the past, which is what Intermap utilizes, is

good for broad area collection of high-resolution digital elevation

models, if you will.

If we could look at Merrill Pass, Alaska. This is actually a program that was done in conjunction with Space Imaging back in the

important part of GeoEye. So the high-resolution imagery is the

Space Imaging stuff. The terrain is the Intermap. This is in conjunction with FAA and with NASA. This Merrill Pass, Alaska area,

people take off out of this airport, fly into this area. They get stuck

in the fog and they run into the mountains.

So what we’re able to do here with my handheld GPS, in a position where we are in relationship to the terrain. So once again, this

is a combined product, if you will, with some real-world applications. We know within a meter, plus or minus on the X and Y,

about one meter on the Z of the altitude where we’re at in conjunction with this line. And the line that was drawn, this particular

day, was going to be the wind’s best approach through this valley.

Chairman UDALL. Where is that valley, just out of curiosity?

Mr. LITTLE. Merrill Pass is just due west of Anchorage. You take

off from Anchorage International. They actually fly through this

pass to get on the other side of the range. And some of these mountain tops are 14 to 20,000 feet tall. You have a little trouble getting

through this area. It’s not so bad in Florida. We could do a flight

with this in Florida with no problem.

Next one I want to show here, Kevin if you don’t mind showing,

this is actually the coast area, the border area on the left, shuttle

radar coastal imagery. California is on the north. The red line is

the Mexican border. And Mexico, of course, is on the south. And

what we have is on the right side is a one contiguous data set of

the—it’s 1.25 meter pixel of one meter on the Z, showing the applications for—this is to indicate the northbound. It’s the Mexican

border. We can do the Canadian border also.

I’m sorry, my red light came on.

Chairman UDALL. Why don’t we leave it there, and we’ll come

back in plenty of time for other questions and you’ll all have a

chance to make more comments.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Little follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF KEVIN LITTLE

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics,

Intermap appreciates the opportunity to testify before you today on: Remote Sensing

Data: Application and Benefits.

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Our CEO, Brian Bullock, extends his regrets in that he cannot attend this session, but wishes to convey his appreciation for the invitation to testify.

I am Kevin Little, Director of Strategic Business Development and Government

Relations for Intermap Federal Services Inc., a Colorado company, and Director of

Business Development for Intermap Technologies, Inc., both of which are

headquartered in Englewood, Colorado.

Intermap is a remote sensing firm that creates and sells digital elevation models

(DEMs) and value-added mapping products derived from our proprietary airborne

Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (IFSAR). Intermap operates its IFSAR

systems throughout the world for various domestic and international customers, including the U.S. Government’s defense and intelligence interests.

Intermap Technologies Inc. is a commercial, publicly traded remote sensing company with its global headquarters in Englewood, Colorado, with international offices

in Europe, Asia, and Canada.

Intermap currently employs approximately 145 people in our Denver office and

continues to increase the number of this high-tech workforce. Our total number of

global employees exceeds 650 and also continues to grow.

Intermap Technologies was one of the first remote sensing companies to realize

the value of collecting and archiving geospatial data for large geographies, and the

first and only to collect country-wide elevation data on a global scale.

1) Please describe the ways that remote sensing data can assist public and

private sector users in Colorado and provide benefits to State and local

governments.

In the broadest sense, remote sensing is the acquisition of information of an object

or phenomenon, by the use of either recording or real-time sensing devices that are

not in physical or intimate contact with the object (such as aircraft, spacecraft, satellite, ship, buoy, or in-situ).

Intermap’s technology is airborne specific and we work in a very complementary

and synergistic manner with the commercial satellite companies. Satellite systems

are easily deployed in areas where access is denied to commercial aircraft; however,

technical capabilities allow IFSAR to be used in areas of extreme cloud cover and

are able to accomplish their collection mission even at night.

Though the technology behind the manner in which satellites and airborne remote

sensing companies gather their data are very dissimilar the ‘‘fused’’ product generated by orthorectifying satellite imagery with IFSAR DEMs produces a product

unparalleled in its usefulness to the end-user, both civilian and defense related.

Remote sensing and the technology that is fit for purpose allows for the most

rapid and accurate terrain mapping for country-sized areas. (See poster:

NEXTMap® Britain) Utilization of these combined technologies provide substantial

benefit for a wide range of real-world applications that may utilize the data for not

only x and y position coordinates, but for the z—or elevation—coordinates as well.

Specific to the question of ways that remote sensing data can assist public and

private sector users in Colorado and provide benefits to State and local governments, we offer the following real-world application:

The Hayman Fire Area: (See Poster)

The Hayman Fire in June, 2002, was the largest in Colorado’s recorded history,

destroying over 600 structures and burning 137,000 acres. Soon after containment

of the fire, Intermap Technologies, in collaboration with Space Imaging (now

GeoEye) and USGS, acquired IFSAR elevation data and radar intensity imagery of

22 7.5’ quadrangles encompassing the Hayman Fire burn and surrounding areas

while the fire was still active.

Intermap collected and provided reflective surface and bald-earth IFSAR DEM

and Digital Orthophoto Quadrangle (DOQ) radar magnitude image data using single-pass X-band IFSAR for the Morrison and Cheesman Lake Quadrangles.

The USGS Rocky Mountain Mapping Center made the Intermap IFSAR data

available to federal, State, and local agencies for use in post-fire recovery, remediation planning, and training.

Subsequent to the delivery of elevation and imagery data by Intermap, the USGS

Rocky Mountain Mapping Center held workshops for stakeholders and users to illustrate the applications of the data sets.

Individuals representing 14 federal, State, and local agencies with interests in the

Front Range and the Hayman Fire area attended these workshops.

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The Hayman Fire Area: Flood Plain Mapping

USGS Rocky Mountain Geographic Science Center, used the IFSAR data set to

update the South Platte 100-Year Flood Plain Maps. ‘‘The Hayman Post Hazard

Mitigation Maps’’ were produced for FEMA for flood risk assessment purposes. The

revised 100-Year Flood Plain of the South Platte takes into account the Hayman

Wildfire incident, and assumes worst-case scenarios (lakes at full capacity level).

These maps were also distributed to the Colorado Water Board and local county

managers.

Alaska Aviation Safety Project (see Merrill Pass, AK fly-through video)

Another effort that combined commercial and government expertise to satisfy a

real-world issue was the Alaska Aviation Safety Project (AASP), which moved from

developmental stage to public participation. The Alaska Department of Military &

Veterans Affairs (DMVA), NASA, the FAA, Anchorage-based E–Terra LLC, and Colorado-based Space Imaging and Intermap Technologies joined forces to provide Alaska aviators with the latest technology in flight simulation using Alaska’s unique and

challenging terrain. The program was designed to help lower the number of aircraft

accidents in Alaska.

Address Specific Flood Risk Assessment: (see PowerPoint slides)

With the use of various remote sensing products including elevation data and aerial imagery, as well as utilization of existing building models, vector data and a proprietary storm-surge algorithm, individual buildings in the Commercial Business

District of Miami, Florida were modeled on an address-specific basis.

The storm surge algorithm mimicked a Katrina-like event, with a three-meter

storm surge with the duration of approximately three hours.

2) What role can remote sensing data play in homeland security and national defense?

Homeland Security & National Defense—

With the increasing awareness of Homeland Security issues, agencies that control

and manage border areas, critical infrastructure, coastlines, and transportation

‘‘choke-points’’ are in need of an accurate, consistent topographic base map and corresponding high-resolution images.

The current maps and imagery available to agencies concerned about Homeland

Security issues do not provide an appropriate level of situational awareness for policy development, planning, operational organization, and action.

Security decisions need to be made with the most accurate and current information available.

Among other considerations, IFSAR allows for better terrain mapping that leads

to a greater knowledge and capabilities for all areas of mid-continent, coastal, and

border areas of the United States, and has a unique value to Department of Homeland Security, State, county, and local authorities. Intermap is currently partnered

on the Secure Border Initiative (SBI), a comprehensive multi-year plan to secure

America’s borders. (See poster: Comparison of Digital Surface Models)

High-resolution terrain data allows for better understanding of homeland security

defense and planning measures (especially in rugged terrain areas that exist in

states like Colorado and along the border areas), and provides a better visualization

of all airport and military installation terrain issues. Following a calamitous event,

whether a natural disaster or otherwise, commercial remote sensing assets can be

tasked to evaluate an area and provide information concerning details of the event,

magnitude of the event, evacuation planning, and plume drift and provide change

detection. The responsiveness of these commercial assets was well proven following

the Aceh Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina.

These remote sensing data sets are extremely synergistic and complementary.

3) What are the main impediments to the effective use of commercial remote sensing data for public sector application and what would you recommend be done?

The U.S. DOD has done an excellent job of tapping the commercial market to take

advantage of technology advances, free market pricing and other similar opportunities. Commercial purchases afford the government better products at more competitive pricing. This is a win-win for the government and for the private sector, both

contractors and end-users of the data.

FEMA has entered the final year of Congressionally appropriated funding of the

Flood Map Modernization Program. Upon completion, map modernization will proVerDate 11-MAY-2000 14:48 Nov 24, 2008 Jkt 041573 PO 00000 Frm 00054 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 C:\WORKD\SA08\040708\41573 SCIENCE1 PsN: SCIENCE1
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vide reliable digital flood hazard data and maps for 92 percent of the Nation’s population, and easy access and sharing of that information.

In order to leverage the successes of map modernization and further enhance the

usability and value of flood hazard mapping, FEMA has developed the Risk MAP

strategy, which combines flood hazard mapping, risk assessment tools, and mitigation planning into one seamless program. The intent of this integrated program is

to encourage beneficial partnerships and innovative uses of flood hazard and risk

assessment data in order to maximize flood loss reduction.

FEMA, which has undertaken the extremely daunting task of remapping the

United States for these applications, is extremely short on resources and funding.

Wherever possible, government agencies should couple their programs with other

existing programs that are currently being undertaken and have shared goals, allowing them to satisfy their requirements and accomplish their mission.

It is important that the commercial sector be allowed to drive the technology in

a manner in which all government entities may take advantage of these advances.

The entire map modernization program needs to embrace many remote sensing

technologies that have a reasonable currency, meet a minimum specification or

standard and are fit for purpose for applications.

These technologies include satellite and aerial photography as appropriate for cities, ports, urban change detection, and border choke-points, LIDAR for at-risk coastal areas and city centers, and IFSAR for large area collection.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

I am happy to address any questions the Subcommittee or guests may have.

BIOGRAPHY FOR KEVIN LITTLE

Kevin Little is Director of Business Development for Intermap Technologies, Inc.

Intermap delivers high-accuracy digital 3D terrain data and related mapping products derived from interferometric synthetic aperture radar (IFSAR) (X- and P-bands)

mapping systems to a variety of international customers.

At Intermap, Little is responsible for building relationships with new business

partners on an international basis and the development of value-added businesses

with Intermap’s present customers. Little also supports sales of products and services to markets that include the Department of Defense and other government agencies, as well as aerospace, air navigation, aviation/simulation, insurance, intelligent

transportation systems and other vertical markets.

Since 1991, Little’s experience in the aerospace and remote sensing industry has

included delivering solutions using multi-spectral, hyperspectral, radar and LIDAR

data from spaceborne and airborne remote sensing systems. Little’s broad experience extends to derived geophysical data products, data distribution and handling

systems and decision support tools.

While serving in various executive-level positions in more traditional industries,

as well as geospatial information technology companies, Little has been responsible

for program management, business development, marketing and sales, government

relations and corporate management on an international level.

Prior to joining Intermap, Little was employed at DigitalGlobe—purveyor of the

highest resolution satellite imagery in the world—during the preparation and

launch of its QuickBird 1 and QuickBird 2 satellites.

Prior to joining DigitalGlobe, Little worked for the Boeing Company on their

start-up, RESOURCE21 program and was involved with development of its four-satellite optical array being developed for global Earth observation.

Chairman UDALL. Mr. O’Connell, the floor is yours.

STATEMENT OF MR. MATTHEW M. O’CONNELL, PRESIDENT

AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, GEOEYE, INC.

Mr. O’CONNELL. It’s a great honor to talk to you all about what

GeoEye does to support the State and local governments, the defense and Intel community, the warfighters, and still provide value

to our international and commercial customers. GeoEye is the leading provider of geospatial information, imagery and solutions. We

help our strategic partners and commercial partners. We help them

to better map, measure and monitor the world.

We have a constellation of Earth imaging satellites, and two

mapping aircraft. Our constellation includes the .8-meter resolution

52

IKONOS satellite, and our new satellite, GeoEye-1, which we will

launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base later this summer. It will

be the world’s highest resolution and most accurate commercial imagery satellite, imaging the world at .41 meters in color. And we

will also have an international network of ground stations, a robust

imagery archive, and an advanced geospatial imaging processing

capability that’s really the center of innovation.

GeoEye’s imagery products serve the growing national and international demand of highly-detailed imagery in applications such as

mapping, national security, homeland defense, emergency preparedness, urban planning, environmental monitoring, resource

management and commercial fishery. In addition to operating imaging satellites, GeoEye’s a worldwide leader in advanced image

processing and photogrammetry. We produce a broad spectrum of

imagery products from a wide variety of satellite and airborne sensors, both our own and other people’s. We also create fused images,

digital elevation models and land-use classification maps, and other

image-derived products that help our clients to incorporate valuable information into any geospatial applications. We are a financially healthy and viable company, publicly traded on the

NASDAQ, and our revenues are growing.

The remote sensing industry is not only strong and growing, we

also play a critical role in supporting both national security and

commercial applications. Many people on Capitol Hill realize that

imagery from the commercial sector is the most cost-effective solution for the Nation’s mapping needs, and that the taxpayer benefits

when the U.S. Government buys imagery from the commercial sector.

Here’s how it works. We make about 50 percent of our revenues

from international and commercial customers. Those revenues provide a significant offset every time the U.S. Government buys imagery from the commercial sector.

As a result, it’s a better deal for the taxpayer.

If the government builds its own imaging system, the taxpayer

pays 100 cents on the dollar (possibly more when you consider the

cost overruns of some recent programs). You could even say that

we are subsidizing the U.S. Government because we provide needed imagery and services at lower costs than if the government attempted to perform the function in-house.

So by supporting the commercial industry, the U.S. Government

receives several benefits. Our technology helps protect American

lives. In addition, the technology to build our satellites can’t be exported. It’s located in states like Florida and Colorado. So when the

U.S. Government buys imagery and products from the commercial

sector, it is protecting the American industrial base.

You could say, in short, that by buying imagery from the commercial industry, the U.S. Government protects American jobs and

protects American security at 50 cents on the dollar.

Through this partnership, the U.S. obtains technical leadership,

which results in allies seeking our assistance instead of developing

their own capabilities. Current U.S. policy encourages a robust

commercial imagery segment, global leadership, and reliance on

commercial imagery services, while discouraging the government

competition with the private sector.

53

The commercial remote sensing industry fulfills the Department

of Defense and the Intel community with mapping, charting and

geodesy requirements at a fraction of the cost of national systems.

That’s why we believe that the industry provides the best value for

the government’s broad area collection requirements while still

meeting the needs of our commercial and international customers.

Mr. Chairman, thank you for your leadership and for your commitment to the remote sensing industry. Our American workforce,

coupled with leading-edge American technologies is going to continue to play a significant role in national security while creating

new jobs and providing value to our international and commercial

customers.

Chairman UDALL. Thank you.

[The prepared statement of Mr. O’Connell follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF MATTHEW M. O’CONNELL

Good morning Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Feeney, and Members of the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics. Thank you for inviting me to participate in

today’s hearing. It’s a great honor for me to share with you how GeoEye supports

the State and local governments, the intelligence community and the warfighters,

while providing value to our commercial customers.

GeoEye is a leading provider of geospatial information, imagery and solutions for

the national security community, strategic partners, and commercial customers. We

help them to better map, measure and monitor the world. GeoEye owns and operates a constellation of Earth imaging satellites and two mapping aircraft. Our constellation includes the one-meter resolution IKONOS satellite, and our new satellite,

GeoEye-1, which we will launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base this summer. It

will be the world’s highest resolution and most accurate commercial imagery satellite, imaging the Earth with a ground resolution of 0.41 meters or about 16 inches,

and will be able to produce those images in color. In addition, we have an international network of ground stations, a robust imagery archive, and advanced

geospatial imagery processing capabilities.

GeoEye imagery products serve the growing national and international demand

for highly-detailed imagery in applications such as mapping, national security,

homeland defense, emergency preparedness, environmental monitoring, urban planning, resource management and commercial fishery. In addition to operating imaging satellites, GeoEye is a world-wide leader in advanced image processing and photogrammetry. We produce a broad spectrum of imagery products from a wide variety

of satellite and airborne sensors both owned by GeoEye and those of our customers.

We also create fused images, digital elevation models and land-use classification

maps, and other image-derived products that enable our clients to incorporate imagery into virtually any geospatial application. We are a financially healthy and viable company, publicly traded on the NASDAQ and our revenues continue to grow.

The American remote sensing industry is not only strong and growing, we also

play a critical role in supporting both national security requirements and commercial applications. Many on Capitol Hill realize that imagery from the commercial

sector is the most cost-effective mapping solution for the U.S. Government and the

taxpayer benefits. Here’s how it works: we make about 50 percent of our

revenues from international and commercial customers—so those revenues

provide a significant offset in the overall price the U.S. Government pays

for imagery and services. Consequently, it is a better deal for the taxpayer.

If the government builds its own imaging systems, the taxpayer pays 100

cents on the dollar (possibly more when you consider the cost overruns of

some recent programs.) You could even say that we are subsidizing the U.S.

Government, because we provide needed imagery and services at lower

costs than if the government attempted to perform the function in-house.

By supporting the commercial industry, the U.S. Government receives several

benefits. Our technology helps protect American security. In addition, the technology to build our satellites cannot be exported. Therefore, when the U.S. Government buys imagery products and services from us, it is also protecting the American

industrial base. In short, by doing business with us, the government protects

American jobs and American security at fifty cents on the dollar. It is

through this partnership that the U.S. retains technical leadership which results in

allies seeking our assistance instead of developing their own competing capabilities.

54

Current U.S. policy encourages a robust commercial imagery segment, global leadership, and reliance on commercial imagery services, while discouraging government

competition with the private sector. The commercial remote sensing industry fulfills

the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Intelligence Community’s (IC) mapping,

charting, and geodesy requirements at a fraction of the cost of national systems.

We believe that the industry provides best value for the government’s broad area

collect mission, while meeting the needs of the user community.

Mr. Chairman, thank you for your leadership and commitment to keeping the

American commercial remote sensing industry strong and vibrant. Our American

workforce coupled with leading-edge American-developed technologies will continue

to play a significant role in national security while providing value to our international and commercial customers. I look forward to your questions.

Testimony Submitted for the Record

There are multiple uses for commercial remote sensing data-to include providing

assistance to public and private entities. You may be interested to know that we

have almost a dozen partners in Colorado. The combined revenues of these companies exceed $20 million, and they support hundreds of employees in the commercial

remote sensing industry.

While we do sell to the U.S. Government, we also established the GeoEye

Foundation which gives imagery grants to geospatial students and researchers. The GeoEye Foundation’s mission is to foster the growth of the

next generation of geospatial technology professionals. The Foundation gives

satellite imagery to students and faculty at select educational institutions to advance research in geographic information systems. To date, the Foundation has provided imagery at no cost to support land use studies over Mexico, polar ice studies

in the Antarctic, and city planning studies over Jerusalem. The Foundation has also

made grants to almost two dozen educational institutions and other non-profit organizations which include the University of Denver, Denver Metropolitan State University, the Plains Conservation Center in Aurora, Colorado, and the Mountain

Studies Institute.

The Plains Conservation Center had a project aimed at prairie conservation; in

particular, it focused on rattlesnakes. The Center surgically implanted radio transmitters into several female and male rattlesnakes over two years, and outfitted with

a radio receiver, directional antenna, and GPS receiver, and tracked these snakes

from spring to fall each year with the help of trained volunteers. Information about

the micro-habitat environment of each snake’s tracked location, as well as natural

history data was collected. While the Center learned much about rattlesnake movements, it did still needed to see the snakes’ movements visually using aerial views

of the study site. This is where we came in.

The GeoEye Foundation offered a sharp, up-to-date satellite image of the study

site to the Center without charge. From the satellite imagery, the Center could

clearly see routes the snakes traveled in relation to specific vegetation types, geologic formations, and man-made structures. The image enabled the Center to compare snake movements relative to prairie dog colonies, and by overlaying the image

with snake home range polygons, see the degree of overlap between snakes of both

sexes. In addition, the Center was able to provide information to concerned groups

as to where snakes traveled and suggest ways that people might dissuade snakes

from entering their property. Naturalists at the Plains Conservation Center have

used the image when speaking to school groups and visitors about prairie conservation and the role of rattlesnakes in the natural environment. We hope to see this

research published in a journal soon.

You will be pleased to know that the Foundation has supported other Coloradobased requests including: the Mountain Studies Institute which requested of the

San Juan Mountains in Southwest Colorado to research the impact of airborne mercury contamination in high elevation ecosystems; the University of Denver request

for the Luang Prabang World Heritage Site preservation in Lao, and the Denver

Metropolitan State University which requested imagery to study the impact of pine

beetle infestation in and around a few Colorado ski areas.

Additionally, GeoEye does business with Colorado entities through reseller or

partnership agreements with other companies. For example, last year, the City of

Fort Collins purchased GeoEye imagery though one of our partners, Walsh Environmental Scientists & Engineers, to analyze prairie dog habitats and the impact on

the local community.

Finally, GeoEye was glad to support to the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office when

it called requesting assistance in a missing person’s case last fall. We acted quickly

and turned over several images of the areas in question from our archives. The incident was resolved, the person found alive, and we were happy to assist.

55

How commercial remote sensing data supports homeland security and national security?

GeoEye supports our warfighters, intelligence community, and first responders 24

hours a day seven days a week. Our constellation of satellites helps to create a more

robust National constellation, providing for revisit, assured access, redundancy and

surge. Our satellites provide unclassified imagery and derived products that are easily used and shared by warfighters and allied/coalition partners. The GeoEye systems architecture supports direct down-link and tasking—with access to imagery in

minutes. GeoEye provides the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) imagery through the ‘‘NEXTVIEW’’ contract. It is also through this contract that NGA

provided 50 percent funding for our satellite, GeoEye-1, which we will be launching

later this summer.

The commercial remote sensing industry provides real value to the U.S. taxpayers

because the government only pays for the capacity it needs. At the same time, the

government benefits from access, revisit, and redundancy of the entire constellation.

Our private financing enables more satellites and capabilities for the same tax dollars because the commercial segment absorbs percentage of the costs. GeoEye provides the government with a low financial risk because we bear the risk and the

government only pays for data that is delivered. In order to serve our intelligence

community, GeoEye has a secure facility in St. Louis, Missouri that provides provide

high-quality image processing services based on the world’s most advanced digital

processing techniques. With more than two decades of image-processing experience,

our remote sensing professionals develop, provide and deliver both radiometric and

geometric image processing services. We process images from a variety of data

sources including our own IKONOS and OrbView-2, as well as and high-altitude

and low-altitude aerial imaging systems, Quickbird, Landsat, SPOT and IRS satellite imagery. Our processing services include radiometric balancing,

geopositioning, digital elevation data production, orthorectification and mosaicking,

and land-use and land-cover classification.

During Hurricane Katrina, we ceased taking imagery for our commercial customers to focus solely on the devastation in New Orleans and the Gulf area. We

were moving so much imagery that our usual connection to NGA was stretched to

capacity. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) asked us to set up a separate down-link just for them, which we did immediately. Through this communications pipe, we sent DHS our entire collection of imagery of these areas. This imagery was shared with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the military and National Guard, State and local officials. Because our imagery is unclassified, it was shared immediately as soon as it downloaded from the satellite.

What are the main impediments to more effective use of commercial remote sensing data for public sector applications? Our recommendations?

Commercial remote sensing data is making serious gains beyond the traditional

national security requirements and other users. With the global Internet-use explosion, interest in Yahoo Maps, Google Earth, and Microsoft Virtual Earth has also

skyrocketed. No longer must one be an imagery analyst to appreciate the multiple

uses of commercial imager. One could say that the Internet has turned million of

consumers into novice imagery analysts. I would also like to remind the Subcommittee that the imagery we sell to the on-line search engines are from our archives, and not new imagery.

Ours is a unique industry. Only we can claim that our satellites have a short time

to market (typically only three years), when coupled with low risk acquisition approach that locks down design requirements and does not permit engineering

change proposals (such as non-reoccurring engineering costs)—these factors contribute to holding costs down while providing value to the government and

the taxpayers.

We believe that it is imperative that the U.S. Government allows the American

commercial remote sensing industry to continue to be the best in the world. Foreign

competition is nipping at our heels. It is critical that the government removes the

handcuffs so we can continue to lead, not follow, the commercial remote sensing industry. A review of the current resolution policy of .51 meters would be an excellent

starting point.

As you may know, GeoEye-1 will collect at .41 meters, but because of U.S. policy,

we must decrease the resolution and sell it to our international and commercial

partners at .50 meters. Meanwhile, other countries are moving quickly ahead to

build next-generation capability that will eventually best this figure. In order for

our industry to continue what we do best—provide fast, unclassified down-links, we

need to continue to be on the cutting edge of technology, and not on the sidelines.

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Our industry is unique in that we sell almost 50 percent of our data in the commercial marketplace, and it is this sector that is growing and steadily demanding

concessions that the national security community may not like. However, the main

objective behind the President’s policy has always been to strike a balance between

commercial considerations and national security requirements.

The U.S. Government does not need to ‘‘help’’ us per se, but it should not hold

us back when foreign governments are actively helping its’ own home-grown companies to launch smaller, better resolution satellites. Essentially, the competitive landscape has changed enough that the U.S. Government is not protecting anything new

by holding us back because foreign competitors are actively engaged in besting our

technologies. Mr. Chairman, America’s greatness should not be constrained by our

own government.

CONCLUSION:

Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member Feeney, thank you for your leadership and

commitment on this very important issue. As you know, the future is already here.

The demand for commercial imagery will only increase with growing government requirements and by commercial demands—to include environmental organizations,

oil and gas, utility companies, and non-profit institutions. Given the growing consumer appetite for commercial imagery, we believe we are in a unique position to

support both national requirements and to satisfy international and commercial

needs. In essence, if we are given the opportunity to participate—our industry will not only fulfill many of the U.S. Government’s requirements, but

also sustain the industrial base by providing American jobs. This includes

the industrial base of satellite manufacturers and ground infrastructure,

the second tier subcontractors to the primes, and the geospatial intelligence community. Our imagery enables multiple applications and they, in

turn, spawn new businesses. These are high-tech, highly-skilled, and good

paying jobs. The Department of Labor recently highlighted geospatial technologies as one of the top three fastest growing and most important high

growth industries in the 21st Century (the others were nanotechnology and

biotechnology.) This is clearly a win-win situation for America and for the

American taxpayers.

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ATTACHMENT A

U.S. Space Policy Excerpts

• U.S. Commercial Remote Sensing Policy (2003)

• Rely to the maximum practical extent on U.S. commercial remote sensing

space capabilities for filling imagery and geospatial needs for military, intelligence, foreign policy, homeland security, and civil users;

• Develop a long-term, sustainable relationship between the United States Government and the U.S. commercial remote sensing space industry;

• Competitively out-source functions to enable the United States Government

to rely to the maximum practical extent on commercial remote sensing space

capabilities for filling imagery and geospatial needs;

U.S. National Space Policy (2006)

• The United States is committed to encouraging and facilitating a growing a

entrepreneurial U.S. commercial space sector. Toward that end, the United

States Government will use commercial space capabilities to the maximum

practical extent, consistent with national security.

• Enable a dynamic, globally competitive domestic commercial space sector in

order to promote innovation, strengthen U.S. leadership, and protect national,

homeland, and economic security.

• Refrain from conducting activities that preclude, deter, or compete with U.S.

commercial space activities, unless required by national security or public

safety.

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BIOGRAPHY FOR MATTHEW M. O’CONNELL

Mr. O’Connell is GeoEye’s President and CEO. GeoEye, headquartered in Dulles,

Virginia, is a leading provider of satellite and aerial imagery and geospatial information. The company, with 400 employees, operates two Earth-imaging satellites,

IKONOS and OrbView-2, two mapping aircraft, possesses an international network

of regional satellite receiving ground stations and has advanced geospatial imagery

processing capabilities. Key customers include the Department of Defense and intelligence community, strategic business partners, U.S. and international resellers and

commercial customers. GeoEye is traded on the Nasdaq exchange (GEOY) and is

listed on the Russell 3000 index. GeoEye is launching its next generation satellite,

GeoEye-1, later this year. GeoEye-1 will be the world’s highest resolution and most

accurate commercial Earth-imaging satellite, with a ground resolution of 0.41 meters or about 16 inches.

Mr. O’Connell has over twenty years of experience in communications management and finance. He came to the commercial remote sensing industry in 2001 as

CEO of GeoEye’s predecessor, ORBIMAGE. In January 2006, Orbimage merged

with Space Imaging to form GeoEye, Inc. In January 2008, O’Connell was appointed

by the Department of the Interior to serve on its National Geospatial Advisory Committee. In February 2008, O’Connell was elected to the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence

Foundation’s (USGIF) Board of Directors and in October 2007 was presented with

their Industry Leader award. Also in October 2007, Deloitte named GeoEye as one

of the Fast 50 companies in the Washington D.C. area, ranking the company number twelve. In June 2007, Mr. O’Connell was named ‘‘Entrepreneur of the Year’’ by

Ernst and Young for Communications in the Washington D.C. region. The Washington Post ranked GeoEye number one of all companies in the D.C. area for 2006

revenue growth. Additionally, Space News named O’Connell one of the ‘‘10 Who

Made a Difference in Space in 2006’’ and Via Satellite Magazine named O’Connell

as ‘‘One to Watch in 2008.’’

Prior to joining GeoEye, Mr. O’Connell was a Managing Director at Crest Advisors, a New York-based private merchant bank that invested in and advised communications companies, and Senior Vice President of Legal and Business Affairs for

Sony Worldwide Networks, a division of Sony Corporation specializing in radio and

Internet programming. Before working at Sony, he served as Senior Vice President

and general counsel of Osborn Communications Corporation, a publicly traded radio

and television station operator. Prior to his tenure at Osborn, Mr. O’Connell was

the assistant general counsel at Cablevision Systems Corporation, where he was responsible for acquisitions and finance, including the company’s initial public offering. Mr. O’Connell began his career on Wall Street as a lawyer specializing in mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance. Mr. O’Connell holds a Bachelor of Arts

degree in Classics from Trinity College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa,

and a Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia Law School.

Chairman UDALL. Ms. Smith.

STATEMENT OF MS. JILL SMITH, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF

EXECUTIVE OFFICER, DIGITALGLOBE, INC.

Ms. SMITH. Thank you. Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for giving me opportunity to appear before

you today on behalf of DigitalGlobe to discuss the applications and

benefits of remote sensing data.

DigitalGlobe was founded on the principal that remote sensing

data, specifically that acquired through satellite and aerial imaging

capabilities, can change the way organizations conduct business

and how governments protect their constituencies. Today more

than ever, we at DigitalGlobe are seeing some of the unique ways

businesses are improving their efficiency and streamlining business

processes. We are also seeing increasing use by governments on

emergency response planning, urban development, and environmental monitoring.

DigitalGlobe’s customers range from defense and intelligence entities to civil agencies supporting land development and emergency

79

response to companies providing consumer applications, including

personal navigation services, and Internet portal tools.

There are several advantages as a company being headquartered

here in Colorado, from the synergies that are created by having the

second largest aerospace industry in the Nation, to enjoying the

benefit of having a robust GIS and remote sensing industry located

here, and also the ability to partner with several of the country’s

leading, excuse me, academic institutions to develop relevant technical talent and also a fabulous lifestyle that allows us to attract

the best people.

State and local government agencies, including those in Colorado, use remote sensing data to meet the requirements of many

essential public service projects. Towns, cities and counties rely on

remote sensing data to understand the makeup of their areas for

tax assessments, public works and public safety applications. In

Colorado, in particular, as we’ve heard today, it’s particularly valuable for agricultural monitoring, wildfire risk assessment, and watershed mapping.

At the same time, users at the national level utilize remotely

sensed data for a variety of purposes. Specifically, certain U.S. Government defense and intelligence agencies supply their users with

unclassified, commercial data for homeland security, national defense and intelligence programs. Availability of commercial satellite

imagery has provided the government with flexibility in how it

gathers intelligence, conducts surveillance, and manages ground,

air and naval forces. Because commercial imagery is unclassified,

it can be shared across organizations and agencies, across domestic

users and with allies, coalition forces and humanitarian aid workers to facilitate coordination.

Remote sensing data can help to speed decision-making for military planning and in-theater activities and for emergency response

activities. The remote sensing data provided by satellite imagery

provides the capability to conduct detailed reconnaissance and subsequent extraction of critical information on targets.

In addition to military uses, remote sensing data can be very valuable to civilian homeland defense efforts, including mapping potential fire, flood, hurricane or earthquake paths; monitoring the

expansive U.S. borders both land and sea; and identifying possible

breaches of secure and protected high-risk facilities such as nuclear

plants and seaports.

One of the key enablers of the broader use of commercial remote

sensing data has been the continued support of the U.S. Government. In 1992 Land Remote Sensing Policy Act set a baseline for

the licensing and operation of commercial remote sensing space

systems and is still in effect today. And more recently, in the Commercial Remote Sensing Policy of 2003 and the 2006 U.S. National

Space Policy have the stated objective of creating a ‘‘dynamic, globally competitive domestic commercial space sector in order to promote innovation, strengthen U.S. leadership, and protect national,

homeland and economic security.’’

We believe the policies encourage the U.S. Government to: (A)

rely to the ‘‘maximum practical extent’’ on U.S. commercial capabilities, (b) ‘‘refrain from conducting activities that preclude, deter,

or compete with U.S. commercial space activities,’’ (c) ‘‘develop a

80

long-term, sustainable relationship’’ between the U.S. Government

and U.S. industry, and (d) provide a ‘‘timely and responsive regulatory environment’’ for licensing the operation and export of remote sensing systems.

Congress has been a consistent and vocal supporter of U.S. defense and intelligence use of commercial remote sensing data

through the ClearView and NextView programs. These programs

have helped the U.S. Government provide an increasing amount of

commercial imagery to the warfighter, intelligence analysts and relief workers every day. The industry looks forward to continuing to

work with Congress to ensure continuity of programs such as these

well into the future.

While we believe there is widespread Congressional and Executive branch support for the growth of the commercial remote sensing industry, many obstacles nevertheless exist. U.S. Government

advocates must remain vigilant that the enabling tenants laid out

in the 1992 Act, and the 2003 and 2006 policies continue to have

support. We believe the benefits of commercially available remote

sensing data are significant and that the industry is only just beginning to develop applications.

So on behalf of DigitalGlobe, I would like to thank the Congress,

especially this subcommittee and Congressman Udall, Senior Ranking Member Feeney, for your support from the earliest days of the

industry into the future. That concludes my testimony. I would be

happy to answer questions. Thank you.

[The prepared statement of Ms. Smith follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF JILL SMITH

Mr. Chairman, and Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for giving me the

opportunity to appear before you today on behalf of DigitalGlobe to discuss the applications and benefits of remote sensing data.

DigitalGlobe was founded on the principal that remote sensing data, specifically

that acquired through satellite and aerial imaging capabilities, can change the way

organizations conduct business and how governments protect their constituencies.

Today more than ever, we at DigitalGlobe are seeing some of the unique ways businesses are improving their efficiency and streamlining business processes. We are

also seeing increasing use by governments on emergency response planning, urban

development and environmental monitoring.

DigitalGlobe’s customers range from defense and intelligence entities to civil agencies supporting land development and emergency response to companies providing

consumer applications, including personal navigation services, and Internet portal

tools.

There are several advantages of being headquartered here in Colorado, from the

synergies that are created by having the second largest aerospace industry in the

Nation, to enjoying the benefit of having a robust GIS and remote sensing industry

located here. Another important advantage is the ability to partner with several of

the country’s best academic institutions for developing relevant technological talent

and the lifestyle that allows us to attract the best people.

State and local government agencies, including those in Colorado, use remote

sensing data to meet the requirements of many essential public service projects.

Towns, cities and counties rely on remote sensing data to understand the makeup

of their areas for tax assessment, public works and public safety applications. In

Colorado, it is particularly valuable for agricultural monitoring, wildfire risk assessment, and watershed mapping.

At the same time, users at the national level utilize remotely sensed data for a

variety of purposes. Specifically, certain U.S. Government defense and intelligence

agencies supply their users with unclassified, commercial data for homeland security, national defense and intelligence programs. Availability of commercial satellite

imagery has provided the government with flexibility in how it gathers intelligence,

conducts surveillance, and manages ground, air and naval forces. Because commercial imagery is unclassified, it can be shared across organizations and agencies,

81

1 U.S. National Space Policy (2006) 2 U.S. Commercial Remote Sensing Policy (2003); U.S. National Space Policy (2006) 3 U.S. National Space Policy (2006) 4 U.S. Commercial Remote Sensing Policy (2003) 5 U.S. Commercial Remote Sensing Policy (2003); U.S. National Space Policy (2006)

across domestic users and with allies, coalition forces and humanitarian aid workers

to facilitate coordination. Remote sensing data can help to speed decision-making for

military planning and in-theater activities and for emergency response activities.

The remote sensing data provided by satellite imagery provides the capability to

conduct detailed reconnaissance and subsequent extraction of critical information on

targets.

In addition to the military uses, remote sensing data can be very valuable to civilian homeland defense efforts, including mapping potential fire, flood, hurricane or

earthquake paths; monitoring the expansive U.S. borders both land and sea; and

identifying possible breaches of secure and protected high-risk facilities such as nuclear plants and seaports.

One of the key enablers of the broader use of commercial remote sensing data has

been the continued support of the U.S. Government. The 1992 Land Remote Sensing

Policy Act set a baseline for the licensing and operation of commercial remote sensing space systems and is still in effect today. And more recently, the Commercial

Remote Sensing Policy of 2003 and the 2006 U.S. National Space Policy have the

stated objective of creating a ‘‘dynamic, globally competitive domestic commercial

space sector in order to promote innovation, strengthen U.S. leadership, and protect

national, homeland and economic security.’’ 1 We believe the policies encourage the

U.S. Government to: (a) rely to the ‘‘maximum practical extent’’ 2 on U.S. commercial

capabilities, (b) ‘‘refrain from conducting activities that preclude, deter, or compete

with U.S. commercial space activities,’’ 3 (c) ‘‘develop a long-term, sustainable relationship’’ 4 between the U.S. Government and U.S. industry, and (d) provide a ‘‘timely and responsive regulatory environment’’ 5 for licensing the operation and export

of remote sensing systems.

Congress has been a consistent and vocal supporter of U.S. defense and intelligence use of commercial remote sensing data through the ClearView and NextView

programs. These programs have helped the U.S. Government provide an increasing

amount of commercial imagery to the warfighter, intelligence analyst and relief

worker every day. The industry looks forward to continuing to work with Congress

to ensure continuity of programs such as these well into the future.

While we believe there is widespread Congressional and Executive branch support

for the growth of the commercial remote sensing industry, many obstacles nevertheless exist. U.S. Government advocates must remain vigilant that the enabling tenets

laid out in the 1992 Act, and the 2003 and 2006 policies continue to have support.

In particular, it is important that the U.S. Government continue to maximize its use

of commercial imagery, ensure a regulatory environment that promotes the commercial imagery business, and enable U.S. industry to continue to be competitive in the

global imagery market.

We believe the benefits of commercially available remote sensing data are significant and that the industry is only beginning to develop potential applications.

On behalf of DigitalGlobe, I would like to thank the Congress, especially this subcommittee and Congressman Udall, for your support from the earliest days of the

industry into the future. That concludes my testimony. I will be happy to answer

any questions you may have.

BIOGRAPHY FOR JILL SMITH

Jill is a veteran corporate leader with a long history of strategic management and

successful brand building. She was President and Chief Executive Officer of eDial,

a collaboration software company that she successfully turned around and sold to

Alcatel. Prior to leading eDial, she was Chief Operating Officer of Micron Electronics, Inc., a $1.5 billion direct PC manufacturer and marketer. While at Micron,

Jill drove the PC business to profitability, and grew HostPro, Micron’s award-winning web hosting division, into the third-largest web and application hosting company, and a candidate for an IPO. Prior to Micron, Jill co-founded and led Treacy

& Company, LLC, a successful boutique consulting and investment business that

was merged with an Internet consulting firm, and was Chief Executive Officer of

SRDS, L.P., a private publishing and printing company that she successfully repositioned and established as an electronic publishing leader. Her earlier experience includes executive positions at Sara Lee Corporation and Bain & Company, where she

82

was a Vice President. Jill holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from

the MIT Sloan School of Management.

DISCUSSION

Chairman UDALL. Thank you, Ms. Smith, and thank you to a

very important group of witnesses. I’m going to move right to questions, and recognize myself for five minutes, and I would like to ask

each of you in turn. I’ll start with Mr. Little, and I’ll remember

later on I’ll start with Ms. Smith on the next question, in the spirit

of Mr. Byers who was on the previous panel.

The benefits of commercial over federal data, this is an important discussion. What opportunities do commercial remote sensing

data enable over remote sensing data available from federal and

other public sources? And as a follow-on, could you please describe

the applications that the commercial remote sensing data can support?

Mr. LITTLE. Absolutely. Thank you for the question. It’s quite

valid. As one of my colleagues indicated earlier, the advantage of

having commercial remote sensing data to the community, with coalition partners, et cetera, it’s unclassified, typically accessible via

the Internet, lots of commercial applications to support that. We

ask that commercial be looked at a little more strongly.

The NGA and DOD has done an excellent job of looking at the

outside community, if you will, at the commercial side, to do the—

take care of some of these technologies.

Chairman UDALL. Mr. O’Connell.

Mr. O’CONNELL. As Kevin—it is a great question, sir, as Kevin

said. The fact that we’re unclassified is a terrific advantage, as we

learned with Hurricane Katrina. The government can’t disseminate

it’s classified images quickly. In Katrina, I know that both Jill and

I devoted a lot of our taskings to New Orleans. And as soon as the

imagery was available, it became publically disseminated. In fact

we had a lot of discussion with the NGA at the time. They did a

very good job of saying, how do we get this public? Dump it on all

of the different providers, not just Google, not just Microsoft, so a

relief worker could immediately find out what was going on.

Similarly, we refer to them in articles such as Space News, that

overseas our warfighters find unclassified imagery terrific because

they can turn to an English person, and you see a tank. They can’t

do that as easily with classified imagery. So the fact that we’re unclassified really helps.

Another thing that helps terrifically is our private financing

helps relieve the government of financing expensive satellites. Jill

and I both benefited to the tune of about $500 million. I would say

the government benefited even more. We go out and borrow privately, and provide much of, if not most of the operating and investment capital. So I think that we provide great services, great

price. The fact that it’s unclassified means that it gets out faster

to the people who need it.

Ms. SMITH. Thank you. Reinforcing what’s already been said in

terms of unclassified. Second of all, as Mr. O’Connell highlighted,

the proven economics of the commercial remote sensing providers,

in terms of their ability to manage large contracts and deliver on

time and on budget.

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Thirdly is, of course, supporting the U.S. industry in terms of

space technologies, and reinforcing and perpetuating a leadership

in the world that the U.S. is established, aided and abetted by the

policies that have been adopted.

And so those things in combination should ensure that the benefits to the user are evident in terms of the applications we’ve heard

about. The economics of the taxpayer are evident in terms of the

delivery that the commercial remote sensing providers have been

able to secure, and should ensure that there is continued leadership on the part of the U.S. globally in terms of technologies for

the source.

Chairman UDALL. I would like to come back to that leadership

role you play in the next round. Congressman Feeney has five minutes, and then we’ll come back to the second round of questions.

Mr. FEENEY. Well, thank you to all of our witnesses. Mr.

O’Connell, you talked a little bit about foreign competition. Can

you describe the capabilities some of the foreign competition has,

which countries, which private sector activity or government activity, and what forms of relief do you think we need to help our

American companies with as we face the potential for more foreign

competition.

Mr. O’CONNELL. Congressman Feeney, thank you for asking the

question.

Mr. FEENEY. You’re welcome.

Mr. O’CONNELL. The French—in short, I’ll just say France,

Israel, Korea, Taiwan, India, Russia all have domestic programs.

None of them are truly commercial, so we’re competing with our

hands tied behind our back with people. France has .7 meters coming on stream. They’re currently using the spider model Kevin

showed you earlier. It’s five meters that they artificially turn into

2.5 meters.

India has one meter. It’s wildly inaccurate. Our satellites are

both highly accurate. I know that ours is true within three meters.

The Indian satellite, although it has one meter imagery, can be inaccurate by 225 meters. So it’s not terribly good for that. The

Israelis have imagery which is pretty and .7 meters resolution. It’s

not accurate.

The Koreans have imagery that’s one meter, and although the

accuracy is not good, they’re working on improving it. The Taiwanese have roughly one meter accuracy. Their satellite is unusual

because it always follows the same ground tracks. However, all of

these nations are trying to compete with us.

I would say, sir, that we don’t need relief. I think that the partnership we have is a true partnership. We believe that we deliver

good imagery to our warfighters, to FEMA. We’re not looking for

a subsidy. If the government continues to buy from us at what we

believe are highly advantageous rates, then the government will

not only get the imagery and solutions it needs, it will keep the foreign competitors at bay. It will continue to have America be the

leaders. And as I think all three of us have said, it’s much better

for the foreign countries to come here and buy imagery from us

than for us to have to go buy our imagery from foreign countries.

Mr. FEENEY. Well, you mentioned, for example, Taiwan in that

list. Surely Taiwan has the capabilities the Chinese do. They’re just

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not using it for commercial purposes. Their entire space program

is under the Defense Department, and it’s very opaque or secretive.

Mr. O’CONNELL. Yes, the Chinese have the formidable capability.

They’re not as highly advanced. America is still the best in the

world, Jill and I both do a lot of good imagery. The foreigners are

definitely trying to catch up.

I would say that the French are highly competitive. The mainland Chinese have the most aggressive program in terms of volume

in satellites. Of course, we’re unsure about exact details, but they

have a very different attitude. If they tried and failed, they’ll try

10 more times.

Mr. FEENEY. Ms. Smith, anything to add about the foreign competition.

Ms. SMITH. No. I think Mr. O’Connell highlighted the essence of

that competition, except to say that as we think about the future

of this industry, in some ways the emphasis is getting away from,

as it were, simply vernacular. We use the raw pixels, and to provide better solutions as we heard this morning about new ways to

disseminate data. It’s no longer just having the data; it’s what you

can then do with the pixels to then provide value to applications.

And so the emphasis of the U.S. industry to increasingly focus

on superior applications, and around utility, including dissemination, is an essential part of our defensive response and offensive response to foreign competition.

Mr. FEENEY. You heard earlier—this is for all of the witnesses.

Just briefly, you heard the earlier panel talk about problems that

could be created for them if Landsat 5 or 7 went down and we had

a gap. Would it create specific problems for what you do in terms

of your capabilities.

Mr. O’CONNELL. It would create problems for some of the people

that we consider clients. But we have a satellite called OrbView2 that delivers ocean information that’s used by researchers around

the world. I know that would be a significant issue for them.

We’re actually developing a deeper relationship with those people

because we created a foundation to the scientific community to develop new applications. Similar to the extent they suffer, we suffer.

You’ll be happy to hear that the University of Florida and lots of

schools in Colorado are using that imagery. We wanted to develop

innovative products, as Ms. Smith said. It’s very important for

America to continue to have the cutting edge. So in the terms of

the scientific community, it doesn’t hurt us directly, but hurts us

indirectly.

Mr. FEENEY. I may have a question or two on the second round.

Mr. Chairman.

Chairman UDALL. Let’s move to the second round, I’ll recognize

myself again for five minutes. I want to peer at this discussion,

drill down a bit further on what Congressman Feeney brought up.

What’s the most important factor enabling your company to compete and agree in the global remote sensing industry? And as a follow-on, what role does the government play in promoting a healthy

commercial remote sensing industry.

We covered a little bit of this ground. I want to get this on the

record, and opportunities that will—that are present for us. So

we’ll start with Jill.

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Ms. SMITH. I think there are two core areas where the—how

Congress plays out and how the U.S. Government manages the industry and materially helps ensure that we, as an industry, are

able to retain leadership. The first is around policies and regulations. And I’ll come back to that in one second. And second is

around advocacy.

And with regard to policy and regulation, the first from our perspective is to ensure vigilance around implementation of the policies that have already been articulated, have already been put in

place, are to ensure that we are using commercial imagery and

commercial companies to the maximum extent possible for investing and building out U.S. Government assistance.

The second wall is ensuring that the licensing regulations that

are governing our industry don’t further impede the industry. And

where appropriate, and as the markets change, enable us to be as

competitive as we can be in the industry while still, of course, protecting national security.

With regard to advocacy, we have, today, in place an office of

space commercialization which is currently under NOAA. There is

a legislation that has been proposed by the Department of Commerce to reinforce and strengthen the role of the office of space

commercialization, and we would agree that this is a very important potential step forward to ensure long-term advocacy.

Mr. O’CONNELL. I’d like to echo what Ms. Smith said. I think

that there are existing policies in place right now that are terrific

policies. I think that the government has to be vigilant to be sure

that they’re adhered to. The policy currently states that the U.S.

Government should, to the extent possible, use as well as it can for

its commercial remote sensing needs.

There are a lot of areas that we can fulfill, as I said before. The

collection of broad area mapping is something that we can do, we

think, faster, better and cheaper than the U.S. Government, so we

would like the government to continue to use us for that, and in

fact to look at our other areas where we could do that.

Again, we believe that the taxpayer benefits every time they buy

a pixel from us. We also believe that the current regulations

have—that have recently been relaxed allow us to distribute imagery at a resolution of .5 meter. That’s important. It came a little

late because the French actually started distributing—or, I’m sorry,

the Israelis were distributing imagery at a lower resolution than

Americans were permitted to for a while.

So I think the government has to continue to monitor that.

There’s no reason why we should be playing. Right now, on our

next satellite, we’ll image at .41.

We’ll be required to raise that imagery up to .5. That doesn’t

bother us at the moment because nobody’s competitive, although it

doesn’t really make that much sense. I think that it’s important

that the—it’s important that the U.S. stay the leader and not be

the follower.

Chairman UDALL. Mr. Little.

Mr. LITTLE. Yes, very quickly I concur with everything they’ve

said. Another thing that just came to mind is the fact that, for instance, this is a daunting task in satisfying the requirements, et

cetera. They spend a lot of money doing a lot of things. And my

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opinion is that they probably shouldn’t be spending that money to,

like, remap the U.S. The risk map that FEMA is putting together,

and flood plane mapping, et cetera. They’re asking the Congress for

five years, and that can more readily be done by the commercial

entities that are available, and they could spend their efforts and

their monies probably a little more wisely. Thank you.

Chairman UDALL. I was saying to Congressman Feeney that he

and I are going to look further into the situation you just described

because we have limited resources. We have a lot of needs. We

don’t want to sort of duplicate activities. I know we’re going to have

a third round. I’m going to end the second round and recognize Mr.

Feeney.

Mr. FEENEY. What, Mr. O’Connell, prohibited some of the finer

capabilities that you have? Is that for security means? I mean,

what—you know, I honestly don’t think anything in this environment is secure, but what would be the type of reasoning that government agencies would prohibit you from making available what

your capabilities allow you to?

Mr. O’CONNELL. That’s a great question, sir. Your own question

about privacy, yes, it is related to overall security. There is a lingering sentiment in some parts of the government that there

should be no private-sector involvement, and there should be no

commercial involvement in overhead surveillance.

As I think Mr. Byers said, the cat is kind of out of the bag on

that one. Our question on privacy was a very good one, and I’d like

to kind of talk about that, because I think that that’s different than

what we’re talking about here. Mr. Byers said that he believed in

transparency. I think we all think it’s good being able to see what’s

going on in Iran. You have to balance that transparency out of our

natural desire for privacy. We think the government has done a

good job so far. It’s tough. We’re all subject to follow all those laws

and regulations.

Having said that, when terrorists use dual imagery to strike a

British camp in Iraq, that was obviously troublesome. When disseminating things to places like Google, that we just adopt a simple

rule. Let’s not image active military bases in the field. That hasn’t

been acted on because it’s the beginning of a tough question. Then

you say, well, how about military headquarters like the Pentagon?

How about hospitals? How about schools? People won’t stick with

simple solutions. So that’s never gotten anywhere.

Also, as Mr. Navarro said, it’s tough because you have American

companies. The government can regulate us. But if the French and

Indians and Israelis, and whoever else—the French will sell their

imagery. I said it with the French sitting next to me, and they’re

proud of it. So I don’t know how we can constrain an information

flow when America doesn’t constrain the information.

Chairman UDALL. Ms. Smith.

Ms. SMITH. I have nothing else for that. I think Mr. O’Connell

covered it very, very well.

Mr. FEENEY. I guess my last question would be with respect to

the data that you rely on from NOAA and NASA, how much do you

rely on the data, if at all, from NOAA and NASA, and how free are

they in terms of responding to the data requests when you have it?

For all the witnesses.

87

Ms. SMITH. I think it was Mr. O’Connell who referred earlier to

fundamentally our job is to provide superior solutions for our customers. And there are, indeed, certain types of applications or simply availability and capacity necessitates that the customer take

lower, or I should say, a lower resolution imagery from NASA or

NOAA or otherwise.

So we as a company do sometimes put together solutions on integration of multiple sources. And so in that sense, to the extent to

which there were any difficulties getting access to that imagery, as

Mr. O’Connell said earlier, it would be the customers that suffer.

We have had no issues with regard to access to that imagery at all,

and likely that it is available to as many users as it is.

Mr. O’CONNELL. We actually do use NASA imagery, and some of

our blended products. As Ms. Smith said, it’s getting more and

more important not just to have pixels, but what do we do with

pixels. So we’ve had to work with the development of complex products. Our efficient product uses our satellite imagery as a base

map, and then takes a different resource. That’s the terrific part.

We sell them imagery. So I can see it has all been great.

I would say on NOAA, on the regulatory side, NOAA has been

a very good overseer. They sometimes get, I think—the pace with

which the commercial sector operates is daunting, and NOAA has

risen to the challenge. I might say, I know it’s off the subject, but

as long as you’re asking, about what Congress may be doing, and

that has restricted both of us.

We’re not trying to do—we’re not trying to put a ground station

in China, but we had to send a replacement part to Israel for a

ground station that was approved 10 years ago. It took us nine

months to get approval. I’m not sure why that works that way.

Mr. LITTLE. Quickly, NOAA, NASA, et cetera, NOAA on the

coastal flood areas, NASA on a number of items, we’ve worked on

them globally, as I mentioned earlier on the Merrill Pass in Alaska

program. That was an FAA initiative that was funded by NASA,

and a very interesting relationship. So they’re good folks to work

with from our standpoint, very innovative.

NASA’s mission is a little different nowadays. As I recall, there

was a study done a few years ago that suggested that NASA should

probably get out of the Earth observation business and get into the

space exploration business where they actually belong, and leave

the export of Earth observations to commercial. Thank you.

Mr. FEENEY. Thanks. I don’t have any further questions. I’ll just

say that I sort of instinctively, out of habit, support the commercial

side. What I call a phone book test, if more than two people in the

private sector provide a good or service, it’s probably very unlikely

that I would be supportive for the government getting involved. So

you’ve got a sort of instinctive ally.

I want to pass to the Chairman again.

Chairman UDALL. Before I ask this final question, I did want to

take just a moment to acknowledge an advantage of a product that

each one of your companies provide. Because in part the whole

hearing was to further educate the public and trumpet what you

all are doing. And I know Intermap has a product, like what we

saw on the screen that we use in places like Iraq and Afghanistan

as a phenomenal tool.

88

Mr. O’Connell, I commend to everybody’s attention, the second

half of your testimony. Some of the best things you’re doing in

monitoring wildlife and helping us do what we need to do to maintain the populations that not only are important because of our interest in wildlife and the thrill and the inspiration they provide for

us, but they help keep our planet healthy.

And then Ms. Smith, DigitalGlobe, some of you may remember,

in Boulder County two years ago we were looking for a missing

Marine. On immediate request on the weekend, your staff responded, and to the family and to many of us trying to find that

Marine. So there’s a talent of stories of what you all are doing. It’s

exciting, cutting edge. The jobs you all provide pay healthy salaries. It’s just—it’s inspirational. I, like Congressman Feeney, suggest that we default to want to support what you all are doing.

Let me have one final question. Following Dr. Montagu who was

on the earlier panel, he urged the Federal Government and the

local and regional government to leverage the tremendous purchasing power of the Federal Government in the commercial remote sensing data marketplace.

What’s your response to this idea, and are there other things

that Federal Government can do? And maybe we’ll start with you,

Mr. Little, and move back across.

Mr. LITTLE. Very much so. We had a situation with the wildfires

in California where NGA and, actually, more Northcom purchased

IFSAR data along the coastal areas in California, and inclusive of

that. That’s part of the whole program. We have, as I mentioned,

about 65 percent of the U.S. collected already, very high-resolution

terrain.

One of the things that happened out there was a plan to do some

C130 drops, water drops. They were trying to do some planning in

case there were—they had to evacuate hospitals and nursing

homes, those sorts of things. They had to put Marines on the

ground, shoes on the ground, boots on the ground, if you will.

In part of the discussion, they also said, what would happen, if

we provide this data, gave a license to NGA at this time, under

their customers, could we provide to the end-users in California.

And we said certainly, as what happened with the tsunami incident in Aceh a few years ago when the satellite guys made their

stuff available. We want to encourage that as much as we can. The

usage of that is important. So our licensing techniques or methods,

we license to the Federal Government. And through that licensing

mechanism, it can be licensed ultimately to the end-user.

I think one of the things that came up on the previous panel was

it’s an education thing as much as anything, because the folks at

the end-user level don’t understand that it’s available or how it’s

available or how it’s licensed. So I hope that answers your question.

Mr. O’CONNELL. As Mr. Little said, we do deliver a lot of imagery

at the State and local governments, currently. Our model with

NGA is a little different. NGA paid half the cost of the next generation satellite we’re building and half the cost of the satellite that

was just launched. When you pay that much up front, you get a

good discount. That’s why the Federal Government would get a faVerDate 11-MAY-2000 14:48 Nov 24, 2008 Jkt 041573 PO 00000 Frm 00092 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 C:\WORKD\SA08\040708\41573 SCIENCE1 PsN: SCIENCE1
89

vorable price from us. We would be happy to talk to them about

it.

But a part of the next competition was that we had to contemplate we were commercially viable. If you just change it now,

it changes some of the revenue streams we were looking at. We’re

not objecting to it, because we have this really good partnership

with NGA. But it’s a night and day point where the Department

of Labor has said that three of the highest growing areas of jobs

are nanotechnology and biotechnology and geospatial sciences.

It’s one of the reasons why some—there’s been such terrific

growth in our offices in Thornton.

We can only hire all those people, in competition with people like

Lockheed Martin and ITT who is sitting right here if we are making money. So the revenue mix is complicated. We’d be happy to

look at expanding the model and letting the states leverage. I think

it’s very important that they do use the imagery, but I think that

it’s a complex issue.

Ms. SMITH. Thank you. Several opportunities have been identified. I’d also like to add the opportunity for better coordination

around homeland security. And certainly as an industry, I think we

feel as if we are underservicing homeland security because of the

challenge of operating both at a local and at a federal level. And

therefore we believe there are many opportunities to support that.

Similarly, in terms of ensuring that homeland security acts in a

way that is consistent with the commercial remote sensing policy

in terms of looking for commercial resources, commercial remote

sensing resources, ahead of proprietary U.S. Government resources,

therein lies an opportunity to ensure that that’s pushed down, not

only the federal level, but also into a local level to the benefit of

all. Thank you.

Chairman UDALL. Thank you. I did, as I bring the hearing to a

close, want to acknowledge the presence of Lockheed Martin, Ball

Aerospace, and ITT who have been here as well. And Mr. O’Connell

and everybody at the table here knows that they’re key links in

this whole chain.

I want to thank the two panels of witnesses, citizens of Colorado

Springs that have joined us, other interested parties. And to keep

faith with Congressman Feeney, as colleagues of mine, if there’s no

objection, the record will remain open for additional statements of

Members and for answers to follow-up questions the Subcommittee

may want to ask other witnesses. And without objection, it’s so ordered.

The hearing is now adjourned.

[Whereupon, at 12:11 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]

(91)

Appendix:

ANSWERS TO POST-HEARING QUESTIONS

92

ANSWERS TO POST-HEARING QUESTIONS

Submitted to Jack G. Byers, Deputy Director and Deputy State Engineer, Colorado

Division of Water Resources

These questions were submitted to the witness, but were not responded to by the

time of publication.

Questions submitted by Chairman Mark Udall

Q1. How significant is the issue of training your workforce to use remote sensing information and incorporate it into your organization’s services and operations?

What role, if any, should the Federal Government play in ensuring that opportunities exist to train workers in the use of remote sensing data and information?

Q2. You testified on the valuable uses of remote sensing data and the benefits your

organization has gained in return. What are your suggestions on ways to disseminate or share these applications with other State and local agencies that

may be considering the use of remote sensing data or that are unaware of the

value it may offer?

93

ANSWERS TO POST-HEARING QUESTIONS

Responses by A. Simon Montagu, Director, Customer Resource and Support, Denver

Regional Council of Governments

Questions submitted by Chairman Mark Udall

Q1. The development of data standards can help facilitate the widespread use of remote sensing data and information. Based on your experience, how well are

mechanisms to coordinate the development of data formats and standards

among Federal Government agencies and other remote sensing data users such

as yourselves working? What, if any, actions should the Federal Government

take to strengthen efforts to develop data standards?

A1. My experience with the mechanisms to coordinate the development of data formats and standards is limited to observing the activities of the Federal Geographic

Data Committee (FGDC). I have observed the development of various FGDC standards in three different capacities as an educator (teaching GIS at Miami University

in Ohio), a data standards ‘‘consumer,’’ and as a member of the professional association with direct interest in some of outputs of the FGDC’s work.

Generally speaking, the FGDC coordinates these efforts well, allowing for appropriate input and deliberation before publishing the final standards. My only critique

would be that some of the resultant standards are overly complex. However, in fairness to the FGDC, this is probably a reflection of the complexity of the subject matter, and the broad scope of the various standards themselves, rather than any inherent flaw in the FGDC process.

Q2. How significant is the issue of training your workforce to use remote sensing information and incorporate it into your organization’s services and operations?

What role, if any, should the Federal Government play in ensuring that opportunities exist to train workers in the use of remote sensing data and information?

A2. The geospatial technologies industry as a whole remains an important and

growing sector of the Colorado economy. This trend is mirrored across the Nation.

Sustaining this growth will require a commitment from all levels of government to

support the basic skills and knowledge training needed to ensure the industry has

the talent it requires.

Fundamental to this is an improved commitment to basic math and analytical literacy. All of the geospatial sciences, but especially remote sensing, require a solid

background in the fundamentals of mathematics. My experience teaching in the Geography department at Miami University revealed a wide discrepancy in the level

of math preparedness of students coming into college.

For this country to remain a leader in the geospatial technologies industry, our

future workforce must receive a basic grounding in math as high school students,

rather than play ‘‘catchup’’ in college. The Federal Government’s direct role in this

is perhaps limited. However, the past history of the aeronautical and engineering

sciences suggests that Federal Government leadership and goal setting does do a

lot to promote State and local engagement in broader, national endeavors.

Q3. You testified on the valuable uses of remote sensing data and the benefits your

organization has gained in return. What are your suggestions on ways to disseminate or share these applications with other State and local agencies that

may be considering the use of remote sensing data or that are unaware of the

value it may offer?

A3. Fortunately for DRCOG, the community of Regional Planning Commissions/

Metropolitan Planning Organizations is relatively small and thus ‘‘knowledge transfer’’ is relatively easy. Indeed, DRCOG learned a great deal from its peers as we

put together the Denver Regional Aerial Photography Project.

Additionally, we have as one of our mandates the provision information and tools

to our local government membership of matters that are typically outside the purview of their normal governmental operations. This typically includes matters that

transcend their jurisdictional boundaries, but also includes matters of new technology of which they may not be aware. We provide this service through a number

of avenues, ranging from one-on-one training, informational products distributed

both in hard copy and electronic format, and through custom workshops and training courses. We have used all of these formats in recent years to provide DRCOG’s

member governments with information about current and emerging geospatial technologies with relevancy to the business of local and regional governance.

94

ANSWERS TO POST-HEARING QUESTIONS

Submitted to Manuel Navarro, Fire Chief, City of Colorado Springs Fire Department

These questions were submitted to the witness, but were not responded to by the

time of publication.

Questions submitted by Chairman Mark Udall

Q1. The development of data standards can help facilitate the widespread use of remote sensing data and information. Based on your experience, how well are

mechanisms to coordinate the development of data formats and standards

among Federal Government agencies and other remote sensing data users such

as yourselves working? What, if any, actions should the Federal Government

take to strengthen efforts to develop data standards?

Q2. How significant is the issue of training your workforce to use remote sensing information and incorporate it into your organization’s services and operations?

What role, if any, should the Federal Government play in ensuring that opportunities exist to train workers in the use of remote sensing data and information?

Q3. You testified on the valuable uses of remote sensing data and the benefits your

organization has gained in return. What are your suggestions on ways to disseminate or share these applications with other State and local agencies that

may be considering the use of remote sensing data or that are unaware of the

value it may offer?

95

ANSWERS TO POST-HEARING QUESTIONS

Responses by Frank J. Sapio, Director, Forest Health Technology Enterprise Team

(FHTET), U.S. Department of Agriculture

Questions submitted by Chairman Mark Udall

Q1. How significant is the issue of training your workforce to use remote sensing information and incorporate it into your organization’s services and operations?

What role, if any, should the Federal Government play in ensuring that opportunities exist to train workers in the use of data and information?

A1. The availability of training opportunities has not been an impediment. Between

vendors and internal cadres of technical experts, the agency offers an array of

geospatial technology training opportunities for natural resource land managers.

The Federal Government should continue to work in partnership with vendors to

develop and provide training in the use of data and information collected through

the application of remote sensing technologies.

Q2. You testified on the valuable uses of remote sensing data and the benefits your

organization has gained in return. What are your suggestions on ways to disseminate or share these applications with other State and local agencies that

may be considering the use of remote sensing data or are unaware of the value

it may offer?

A2. For the State and Private Forestry Forest Health Protection (FHP) staff, this

issue is very relevant. FHP field staff is trained and able to provide technical assistance to State and local partners for use of new technology or technical adaptations.

This system works well, though on technology issues, adoption is sometimes slow

even with willing State partners. Early stakeholder involvement synergizes the

technology adoption process. Involving State partners in the design phase of a

project increases the opportunity for the project’s successful adaptation and application. A recent example of this type of development is the Southern Pine Beetle Hazard Maps Project, where State partners in 13 southern states had an integral role

in project development.

Our Technology Service Centers such as the Remote Sensing Applications Center

and the Forest Health Technology Enterprise Team both have robust web sites.

Reaching our partners through regular, disciplined, updates of our web site is crucial in keeping our partners aware of the latest developments. Sharing raw and

processed data through the multiple agency spatial data clearing houses is also a

crucial part of the strategy.

96

ANSWERS TO POST-HEARING QUESTIONS

Responses by Kevin Little, Director of Business Development, Intermap Technologies,

Inc.

Questions submitted by Chairman Mark Udall

Q1. The development of data standards can help facilitate the widespread use of remote sensing data and information. Are you satisfied with the opportunities

available to commercial remote sensing companies to help coordinate data formats and standards among Federal Government agencies, academic institutions,

and other remote sensing data producers and users? What actions, if any, do you

believe would strengthen mechanisms to coordinate the development of data

standards?

A1. Overall, the Defense and Intelligence communities within the US government

have done an excellent job over the years in evolving and focusing their requirements in out-sourcing their technology needs to the commercial community.

Outsourcing allows these agencies to focus on the complex and dynamic mission

requirements that drive their organizations and allow them to remain flexible in

partnering with the commercial industry to assist them in satisfying these requirements.

By out-sourcing these requirements, these agencies leverage the funding they receive to maximum benefit. Working with the private sector, the agencies can develop

a series of minimum requirements for data production but do not have to commit

resources for in-house production of such data. The private sector will make the investment in ensuring that these minimum data requirements are met. Further, all

technological improvements and upgrades in the production of such data are borne

by the private sector—again preserving agencies funds to meet core mission requirements.

Many federal agencies do not have a similar level of experience the Defense and

Intelligence communities possess in leveraging that which the private sector can

offer. There oftentimes is a tendency to utilize scarce budget amounts to build entire

systems. System development requires updates and modifications—all of which can

be sustained by the private sector. The Defense and Intelligence communities have

realized they can contract for only the data that their programs require without investing in the overall system themselves. This approach satisfies the need for accurate, updated and timely data with a clear understanding that the data production

in the future will continue to improve. Typically, when the private sector continues

to invest in technological upgrades, it can offer the data it produces at lower costs

because it understands the government will be a market rich environment for the

data.

The complexity of vision and mission statement for many civilian agencies, combined with an understaffed and underfunded work force, makes it more critical than

ever to engage the commercial sector. The private sector can help these agencies

focus on their goals and develop the appropriate technologies, solutions and standards to assist them in accomplishing their mission.

97

ANSWERS TO POST-HEARING QUESTIONS

Responses by Matthew M. O’Connell, President and Chief Executive Officer, GeoEye,

Inc.

Questions submitted by Chairman Mark Udall

Q1. The development of data standards can help facilitate the widespread use of remote sensing data and information. Are you satisfied with the opportunities

available to commercial remote sensing companies to help coordinate data formats and standards among Federal Government agencies, academic institutions,

and other remote sensing data producers and users? What actions, if any, do you

believe would strengthen mechanisms to coordinate the development of data

standards?

A1. In response to your question for the record regarding data standards, there are

currently several government specific standards we use. While these standards are

sufficient for the process and dissemination of commercial imagery, we believe that

new standards such as XML-based metadata could exponentially increase the delivery of data. However, the government is very slow to adopt new standards simply

because so many of its other systems are legacy-based. We believe our imagery

would be more usable to the Department of Defense community if it could be delivered in GeoTIFF/MrSID formats with an XML metadata file. This would expedite

the speed in which users could access and receive the data. Nonetheless, we do not

believe industry would benefit from any new standards as the government is still

attempting to evolve its legacy systems to today’s technologies.

98

ANSWERS TO POST-HEARING QUESTIONS

Responses by Jill Smith, President and Chief Executive Officer, DigitalGlobe, Inc.

Questions submitted by Chairman Mark Udall

Q1. The development of data standards can help facilitate the widespread use of remote sensing data and information. Are you satisfied with the opportunities

available to commercial remote sensing companies to help coordinate data formats and standards among Federal Government agencies, academic institutions,

and other remote sensing data producers and users? What actions, if any, do you

believe would strengthen mechanisms to coordinate the development of data

standards?

A1. In response, let me offer that, from DigitalGlobe’s perspective, there is currently

ample opportunity for industry to participate in the development of remote sensing

data formats and standards.

Æ