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Introduction
Political GSDI
Examples
Constraints

Before I begin my remarks, I would like to thank Governor James B Hunt Jr for hosting this conference and for helping bring attention to this important effort. I would also like to welcome the many distinguished guests who have come from around the world to contribute their energy and expertise to this ambitious undertaking. While I cannot acknowledge each of you individually, I would like to express our collective appreciation to our European colleagues, represented here by Conference Chair Michael Brand, who have done so much to help organise these meetings.

Allow me to turn to the other side of the world to acknowledge the role the Japanese Government is playing as the Secretariat of the International Steering Committee for Global Mapping. This group's goal of developing consistent global maps will help give the abstract concept of GSDI a well-defined focus. Finally, on behalf of Secretary Albright and Secretary Babbitt, I wish to express how pleased we are that this year's GSDI conference is being held here in the United States. Let me assure you that our role as host reflects this country's commitment to ensuring the formation of an effective GSDI.

At this point, I must confess that, while I have come here today to demonstrate my enthusiasm for, and my commitment to, the creation of a GSDI, this is no doubt a wonderful opportunity for me to further improve my standing with my former boss, and a patron of this conference, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt. As the chair of the United States Federal Geographic Data Committee which oversees the development of US National Spatial Data Infrastructure, Secretary Babbitt is naturally an avid supported of the GSDI concept. In fact, it is Secretary Babbitt who first introduced me to the wonderful world of geospatial data and convinced me of the potential of geographically referenced information systems to help policy makers conserve natural resources, protect sensitive habitat and endangered species, and guide land use planning.

So why, you might ask, should the Under Secretary for Management at the Department of State be interested in a seemingly abstract concept like GSDI? Well, largely because I believe that we must use the most advanced information technology and systems available to help us make the right decisions in responding to emergencies, solving problems and charting economic development. And furthermore, because many of these decisions will undoubtedly require that controversial resource trade-offs be made, I believe it is especially important that we base these decisions on the best available data.

However, I also have a personal perspective on the use of geospatial data that I would like to share with you. I have a daughter who tells me she is ABD -- all but the dissertation -- in getting her doctorate in marine biology with a masters in civil engineering. Her friends always say she is a real "earth muffin", and now I think I understand why. While she was pursuing her degree, she was forever talking to me about computer models of "ocean activity". So as baffled as I was then by her field of study, I can now claim to have been following the development of this exciting field for quite a long time.

As the Assistant Secretary of Interior for four years, I worked with a number of earth scientists who produced first rate maps that depicted species migration patterns, land cover, the distribution of fires and fire-prone areas, and a lot of other very useful information. And yet, these scientists who were in possession of all this important information often struggled to get policy makers to even look at it, let alone incorporate it into their decision making. And now at State, I am seeing the same kind of richly informative materials being produced by analysts who, in the end, are met with the same resistance to using the information as their counterparts at Interior.

While not a geospatial data producing agency, the State Department makes abundant use of geospatial data every day, though not always in a co-ordinated fashion. A well designed and widely supported GSDI will help the State Department solve problems more effectively, more quickly, and less expensively.

Each of the Department's strategic goals, which encompass issues of national security, economic prosperity, law enforcement, democracy building, humanitarian crises response, and global environmental issues, require the use of precise geographic data of one kind or another. For instance, for our overseas economic activities, an improved GSDI could help us analyse patterns of trade and investment and examine how natural resources are being used to spur economic growth. For AID programs, geospatial information could help us determine what programs are most effective in helping poor people improve their living conditions. In terms of humanitarian assistance, spatial data could help us respond more quickly and effectively to both natural and man-made disasters that now claim countless lives each year.

These are not abstractions, but rather a few examples that involve important management decisions. To achieve our objectives in each of these strategic areas, we plain and simply will need access to the best available geospatial information -- and typically we will need it fast. However, in my mind, the real challenge is not developing the geospatial data infrastructure but rather getting policy makers, at State and elsewhere, to use it.

Political GSDI
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In thinking about what I might say to you this morning, I asked myself how I might be most helpful to you in your effort to further develop a GSDI. What I propose to you today is this: While there is a clear need for those involved in the technical side of GSDI to develop standards and protocols, there is a concomitant need to develop an international policy context that supports -- both financially and politically -- the development and use of a GSDI. There are two parts to the campaign of sorts that we need to launch in order to expand GSDI: a technical one and a political one. I don't need to tell you what the technical component is for it is you who are the world's experts on the technical aspects of implementing a GSDI, and you who are here today to try and address exactly those problems. However, I can perhaps speak to the political side of the challenge.

At the political and diplomatic levels, we who are in policy making positions must work to convince other governments -- and even some members of our own government -- of the importance of supporting the accelerated development of global geospatial data infrastructure. But in order to be successful in that effort, we need you, the technical experts to make our jobs easier by figuring out how to make this concept and its vital applications accessible to both policy makers and to the public at large. We need you to package the GSDI concept in such a way as to transform the sceptical policy maker or government official into a believer and an advocate. In essence, both policy makers and the global mapping community have important roles to play in seeing that GSDI doesn't just become a nifty tool for techno-wizards but rather an indispensable tool for policy makers. And yet, while you are at the table, policy makers are still largely absent from this discussion.

Examples
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At this point, I would like to share with you several geospatial experiences of my own that I have had as an official with both the Interior and State Departments. These anecdotes will serve to illustrate both the wide variety of geospatial data uses and the effectiveness of applying geospatial data to important policy decisions, from the national to international arena.

[BEGIN SLIDES]

[Slide #1: Glen Canyon Dam]

Last year, the Interior Department oversaw the intentional flooding of a part of the Grand Canyon that lies downstream from the Glen Canyon Dam. The purpose of the prescribed flooding was to restore the beaches and fish spawning areas that had been damaged by the irregularly timed and dam-controlled river flows that are associated with the fluctuating power demands of cities as distant as Phoenix and Salt Lake City.

[Slide #2: Surveyor]

Despite doomsday predictions by all parties involved, the project was a tremendous success. According to Secretary Babbitt, the experimental flooding worked largely because of the role that geographic information systems, or GIS, played in creating consensus among the many different stakeholders, who ranged from hydroelectric power users to trout fisherman to Indian tribes.

[Begin Slides #3-9 (space 3 seconds apart): riparian vegetation - 1965, riparian veg-1992, environment studies map, beach and man, sandbar, beach and boat, snowy river bank]

While nearly all the stakeholders acknowledged that the natural floods that had occurred nearly every spring before the dam was built had been beneficial, none wanted to see them re-created fearing that nature-mimicking floods would jeopardise their respective interests. Using GIS data and modeling techniques to simulate the impact of the proposed flooding, all the parties were able to better understand how the prescribed flooding would likely affect their resource or water rights. The GIS-based simulations predicted that the flood would have the desired effect on downstream natural resources without abridging the existing rights of the other water users. Needless to say, the experimental flood was a success for all affected parties. The sharing of GIS modeling information, and the comprehensive perspective that it provided, enabled the stakeholders to realise that the plan could work and that, with their input and assistance, it would work.

[Slide #10: North America, Digital Elevation Model]

Another conservation area where geospatial data in the form of GIS has been critical to producing successful outcomes is Interior's work on endangered species protection. The Department of the Interior is faced with the daunting task of trying to protect an increasing number of plant and animal species whose very existence is threatened by encroaching development and habitat degradation. Because the Endangered Species Act has proved effective but inflexible in past efforts to save species, there has been growing pressure on the Interior Department to find solutions that use the strength of the ESA to protect species habitat while allowing a certain degree of controlled development in the process.

[Slide #11: So. Cal HCP, habitat conservation]

The DOI has been exploring a new approach in the form of Habitat Conservation Plans, or HCPs, in which the focus is on protecting whole ecosystems and communities of species, instead of only those that are in trouble. Developers also benefit from knowing in advance where they can and cannot develop which saves them both time and money.

One of the best examples of successful conservation planning is in southwestern San Diego County [pictured here] where use of GIS has allowed planners to understand the relationships between the geographic, geologic, biologic, and human-made features of regional landscape they were dealing with. [Slide #13: Co. Cal HCP, Property] By overlaying maps that reveal the existence and distribution of the area's biological resources with those that depict land ownership patterns and current and potential land uses, planners were able to ascertain which areas needed protection and which could be developed without further threatening the imperiled species or the larger ecosystem in which those species lived.

Without the benefit of a comprehensive view of the regional landscape that the GIS technology offered, identifying the necessary components of a sustainable preserve system would have been extremely difficult, if not impossible. The majority of environmentalists and developers who had a stake in the project are happy with the outcome because both parties benefited more than they would have under the conventional regulatory enforcement approach to administering the Endangered Species Act.

There are also many examples of regional co-operation where two countries work together and use spatial data to meet the needs of their common border areas.

[Slide #14: Mexico Pop Density and Topography]

One such example is the US - Mexico Transboundary Mapping Initiative, one of a growing number of efforts, inspired by the signing of NAFTA, to develop joint GIS applications along the US-Mexico border. By convention, our countries' maps end at the border between us, even though the water and wildlife resources for which we are both responsible move back and forth across that border. Even on the US side of the border, existing US maps are of varying quality and usefulness.

[Slide #15: Calif/Baha border]

The US Geological Survey is in the process of producing a series of maps, such as the one shown here, which will be used by the two countries to conduct environmental surveys and land use studies, develop agriculture and forestry plans, and design and implement habitat and ecosystem management plans.

[Slide #16: Calexico, CA - Mexicali, MX border]

Only by better understanding the environment along our mutual border will Mexican and American land managers and public health officials be able to protect the area's natural resources and ensure that this rapidly developing border region is a safe place to live and work.

But let me give you a less encouraging example of how geospatial data is not being used where it could be very helpful. I just returned from Mexico where I was touring Mexico City and the Border area. Prior to my trip, I was given an extensive briefing by our political analysts and intelligence people. And yet, until I asked, no one was going to tell me anything that included consideration of Mexico's geography which, if you know anything about the country, you know is a strong determinant of many key issues from community and regional development to natural resource management to health policy. It made me wonder how many such briefings all together ignore geographical considerations. Again, geographic data that is current and of good quality together with good science should be the basis of the many important decisions regarding environmental management that our two countries will make in the coming years. Clearly, GIS data and mapping technology must be the foundation upon which many of those key decisions are made.

[Slide #17: GTOP030, global map]

Of more immediate concern to many of us here is the current El Nino event that scientists are predicting may be the "climate crisis of the century". As you know, there have been countless seminars and conferences held across the globe in recent months on this year's El Nino which has already caused droughts and floods and is widely predicted to further disrupt weather patterns this coming winter and spring.

[Slides #18-19: El Nino, precipitation and temps]

At these gatherings, climate scientists brief water managers, agricultural specialists, emergency management officials and others on the potential impacts of a severe El Nino event in order to help policy makers prepare for the likely increases in precipitation, droughts, and floods.

[Slide #20: Earth image, El Nino thermal and vapour patterns]

The scientists' predictions are based on geospatial data that enable us to understand the dynamics of El Nino-caused ocean thermal changes and the shift in weather patterns that accompany those temperature changes. Moreover, the data can also tell us a great deal about the possible socio-economic impacts of El Nino on areas likely to be hit with droughts, floods, tropical storms, and other weather pattern disturbances. For instance, a great deal of work is being done to try to predict El Nino-caused shifts in precipitation patterns in drought-prone regions of Africa over the next several growing seasons. Equipped with information on likely rainfall, soil, climate, agronomics, and population distribution, agricultural ministry officials have a better chance to anticipate crop failure and take corrective actions such as adapting crop selection and planting schedules. In this way tens of millions of people living on marginally productive land stand a better chance of avoiding food shortages and famine.

Unfortunately, we did not have use of GIS during the last El Nino event that caused major catastrophes across the globe in 1982/83. Insurance companies are now telling us that preventative measures to avoid the most severe impacts of extreme weather episodes will save us billions of dollars and, more importantly, thousands of lives.

Another vivid example of the importance of geospatial data in both anticipating and solving environmental disasters is the smog problem that is presently gripping most of Southeast Asia. This year's El Nino phenomenon has reduced rainfall throughout much of Southeast Asia, particularly in Indonesia where dry conditions led to an outbreak of hundreds of forest fires on the islands of Sumatra, Java and Borneo.

[Slide #22: SE Asia smoke]

Smoke from the fires, shown here in this NOAA satellite image, spread across much of Southeast Asia last month creating one of the region's worst ecological and health crises to date. Thick layers of smog have blanketed densely populated areas such as Singapore and Kuala Lumpur resulting in countless deaths and serious respiratory illness among millions of the area's inhabitants.

One of the first actions I had to take in my new job as Under Secretary at State was to oversee a plan to drawdown embassy staff in Kula Lumpur who were at risk from the smog that enveloped the city.

The data from the NOAA satellite imagery [you see here] was used to help locate the fires throughout the Indonesian archipelago. Experts using this same data were able to help my staff understand the severity of the smog haze and anticipate the direction it was moving in order to make informed decisions regarding the evacuation of embassy staff.

I would now like to end this tour of geospatial data applications with a few remarks about GSDI and climate change. There seems to be an ever greater number of international environmental issues that are posing serious threats to economic prosperity, human health, and ecosystems. For instance, the slow but sure process of soil degradation and erosion associated with desertification and deforestation have and will continue to rob millions of people of productive land. However, no issue is more ominous to me than the specter of climate change and the many alarming consequences of a warming planet.

There are now several data-based systems in place, such as the Global Climate Observing System and the Global Ocean Observing System, that will help scientists better understand and predict the extent of future climatic changes as well as the effects of those changes on natural ecosystems and human civilisation. These kinds of data collection systems are critical in that we will need a comprehensive set of baseline data to assess future climatic changes. An issue so enormously complex as a changing climate will require a sophisticated and globally-linked system with which scientists and other experts can share, integrate and interpret all of the available and relevant data.

I am sure the irony of the situation we face with regards to climate change is not lost on any of you. The rapid pace of industrialisation and economic development that has gotten us into the mess we are in is the very same that has allowed us to invent the incredible instruments and sophisticated technology that we hope will enable us to get out of that same mess. My expectation is that a GSDI will be a large part of the solution.

A second constraint on the development of a GSDI is the often poor quality and incompatibility of geospatial data parameters and geospatial software and data collection programs. Related to the problems of costly and poor data is the fact that there are still many countries that lack basic geospatial technology and infrastructure.

A third limitation of current geospatial data capabilities is that there is still insufficient remote sensing imagery at scale resolutions large enough to be useful for solving many local problems. This problem is rapidly being solved with the use of commercial satellites. But questions remain as to who will have access to this type of data and at what price.

A fourth hindrance to the effort to create a workable GSDI is the absence of a clear mechanism for co-ordinating international efforts. Many of you are already creating these institutional links which, in my mind, reinforces the notion that it is you, and not new technology, that will constitute the backbone of a GSDI.

Most of these constraints I have alluded to are "supply" issues in that they require you the mappers to come up with technical solutions to improve the quality of the product. On these more technical issues, I can only encourage you to use whatever resources you have to try and lower the cost of some of the data and focus more of your work on producing larger scale satellite imagery. But, ultimately, only you know what really needs to get done to make geospatial data more useable and accessible for those who need it. That is precisely why you are here.

But there is also the "demand" issue which is what I find the most troubling. Are we taking full advantage of the substantial investments we've made in data collection? If not, why isn't this vital data being more widely used? Why aren't governments clamouring to figure out ways to take advantage of geospatial data to make better policy decisions and respond more effectively to crises. Think of the money that could be saved if geospatial information was systematically incorporated into every policy making body's deliberations. I ask the question: is this a matter of resistance or ignorance? We had better figure out which and then set about to reverse this kind of Luddite thinking.

In the next several decades, this and every other country in the world are going to be faced with a variety of formidable issues that will require serious trade-offs and tough decision making: climate change, migration, deforestation, desertification, the spread of lethal diseases, a possible increase in the frequency and severity of EI Nino and other weather events, increased incidence of malnutrition and starvation, species and habitat loss -- the list is nearly infinite. As these decisions become ever more complex and the consequences ever more dire, we have no choice but to rely on the best available information. When we are dealing with the numerous issues that could mean life or death for millions of people, it would border on criminal to not use every bit of vital information that is -- or should be -- available to us. We most certainly do not want to be in a position of saying, as thousands of people are dying from smoke inhalation in Malaysia or starvation in Ethiopia, "too bad we didn't spend that extra couple million dollars -- or that extra one-one hundredth of a percent of the national budget -- to further develop GSDI; think of what it could do for us now."

So now I challenge you to not only work with one another to develop international data standards and improve the quality of the data, but to help me, the policy maker, better educate my colleagues about the importance of developing GSDI. I am committed to helping you with this issue because I understand how useful geospatial data could be in making the world a better place. But there are a whole lot more people that still need convincing. I am relying on you to provide me with the message and the strategy that we will need to make GSDI a household name.

At the 1996 National Research Council/Mapping Science Committee workshop, the framing question for the group to consider was the following: In the year 2010, how will societal needs and public policies affect the requirements for spatial information and services and their integration at the individual, community, national and global levels?

I leave you with the opposite question: in the year 2010, how will geospatial information affect our global society's ability to cope with disasters and plan for a sustainable future?

Thank you.