Esri • Fall 2009 www.esri.com/arcnews Vol. 31 No. 3 Governance of the NSDI By Will Craig, President of the National States Geographic Information Council The concept of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) has been around since the early 1990s, and the name has been in existence since 1994, when President Bill Clinton used it to label his executive order creating it. The name sounded strange when I first heard it; why infrastructure? Then I realized that data is infrastructure. Everybody else got it too. It was the first time the United States began to see data as infrastructure—equivalent to concrete roadways and metal pipes. This was the new information age, and data was the basis for economic growth and environmental integrity. continued on page 3 Create and Deploy Mashups and Web Applications Free Web Mapping APIs ArcGIS Web Mapping APIs are now available for free for all noncommercial use, allowing mapping and GIS capabilities to be more easily embedded, consumed, and deployed in Web or desktop applications. continued on page 22 California Selects GIS as One of the Six Key Enterprise IT Strategies By Michael Byrne, Geospatial Information Officer, State of California California is the ninth largest economy in the world, the largest agricultural producer in the United States, one of the most biologically diverse places on the planet, and a leader in science and technology innovation. It is the nation’s most populous state and is also home to floods, fires, and earthquakes. It covers more than 160,000 square miles and has temperate rainforests, deserts, mountains, and a spectacular coast. Recently, I was flying from San Diego in Southern California to San Jose (about halfway up the state) with a colleague from another state, and as we landed, he turned to me and said, “This is a big place.” continued on page 8 New downloadable samples are published in the Web Mapping APIs Code Gallery weekly. GIS, Design, and Evolving Technology By Jack Dangermond More than 12,000 GIS professionals met in San Diego, California, in July for the 29th Annual Esri International User Conference. Given current economic conditions, I appreciate the extra effort it took to make the trip to San Diego. I’d like to recap, for those who could not attend, some of the key points shared at the conference. continued on page 14 A Model for a “Virtual USA” VIPER: Virginia Deploys Web-Based Emergency Management System The Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM) recently launched an emergency management system—the Virginia Interoperability Picture for Emergency Response (VIPER)—that has transformed how it prepares for emergencies and responds to disasters. The GIS-based enterprise platform integrates with numerous information systems and links with approximately 250 data feeds. It supplies a Web-based common operating picture and numerous analysis tools. Emergency commanders; first responders; and police, fire, and government officials can tap into a single information resource. continued on page 6 GIS for Renewable Energy GIS is being extensively used in the quest to find and develop renewable energy resources, such as wind, solar, geothermal, and biomass energy. GIS is also being used to search for the best locations (considering natural and cultural resources) and to p. 28 Wind p. 30 Solar Yield find the best corridors for transmission and distribution of resources. GIS technology is supporting and underlying the progress of this monp. 33 Airflow p. 31 Biomass p. 32 Boston Solar umental change. GIS is not only improving the way we produce and deliver energy but also changing the way we view our earth’s resources. This issue of ArcNews explores some of the ways organizations around the globe are using GIS to foster renewable energy initiatives. (See the GIS for Renewable Energy special section on pages 26–33.) USGS History, Part 1: 1884–1980 125 Years of Topographic Mapping By E. Lynn Usery, Dalia Varanka, and Michael P. Finn, U.S. Geological Survey On December 4–5, 1884, John Wesley Powell persuaded the U.S. Congress to authorize the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to begin systematic topographic mapping of the United States. During the next 125 years, mapping techniques evolved from field surveys through photogrammetry to the computer-based methods currently used, and the scales and content of the topographic maps changed. It is the purpose of this two-part article to provide details of the USGS mapping processes through time and to help demonstrate that innovations by USGS employees and provision of public domain geospatial data helped spur the evolution and development of digital GIS and the commercial market for geospatial data and products of today. This first article describes topographic mapping continued on page 12