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Allyson L. Jason

Publications and source records attributed to Allyson L. Jason.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS2025

The 3D National Topography Model Call for Action—Part 2: The Next Generation 3D Elevation Program

The three-dimensional (3D) National Topography Model initiative to integrate elevation and hydrography data includes the next generation of hydrography data from the 3D Hydrography Program and the next generation of elevation data from the 3D Elevation Program (3DEP). The first-ever collection of light detection and ranging (lidar) data for the nation (IfSAR for Alaska) provides a critical baseline reference, and the addition of multiple repeat elevation mapping projects as part of the next generation of 3DEP would substantially expand analysis capabilities. As the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is closing in on our goal of complete coverage with 3DEP data available or in progress for 98.3 percent of the Nation at the end of fiscal year 2024, the USGS is already transitioning to the next generation of 3DEP. Based on the 3D Nation Study results and input from a broad range of stakeholders, the USGS National Geospatial Program has finalized a new design for 3DEP that provides increased lidar quality levels and refresh rates. The new program is designed with more flexibility to meet changing user needs and take advantage of improvements in mapping technologies. The program will aim to expand the level of interagency coordination for topobathymetric lidar acquisition for inland rivers. The next generation of 3DEP will also aim to emphasize research, including advancing program design, products, and services and engaging and leveraging the evolving 3D industry. Research goals also include becoming more flexible in meeting user needs and taking advantage of evolving remote-sensing technologies. The program also plans to move from focusing on producing standard products to producing a concept of a 3D Nation Ecosystem with a variety of inputs, products, and services.

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USGS2017

Status of the 3D Elevation Program, 2015

The 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) is a cooperative activity to collect light detection and ranging (lidar) data for the conterminous United States, Hawaii, and U.S. territories; and interferometric synthetic aperture radar (IfSAR) elevation data for Alaska during an 8-year period. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and partner organizations acquire high-quality three-dimensional elevation data for the United States and its territories that support requirements beyond what could be realized if agencies independently pursued lidar and IfSAR data collection activities. Data collection rates have been increasing as a growing number of State and Federal agencies participate in cooperative data acquisition projects. USGS and partner agencies expanded data collection, completed the initial product delivery systems and implemented changes to the program governance to include a restructuring of the 3DEP working group and formalizing the relationship to the Federal Geographic Data Committee during the final year (2015) of program preparation.

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USGS2015

Status report for the 3D Elevation Program, 2013-2014

The 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) goal is to acquire, manage, and distribute enhanced three-dimensional elevation data for the Nation and U.S. territories by 2023. This status report covers implementation activities during 2013–2014 to include meeting funding objectives, developing a management structure, modernizing systems, and collecting and producing initial 3DEP data and products. The Nation will not have complete coverage of 3DEP quality data until 2023 assuming that sufficient funding is available. In spite of the overall condition of government budgets, the 3DEP initiative has gained widespread support and had incremental budget success to include supplemental funding resulting from natural disasters. The 3DEP Executive Forum and a wide range of professional organizations are actively working to maintain support for the program. The systems that have been developed to support increasing acquisition and processing levels are largely in place. The first 3DEP quality datasets were released to the public in late 2014. In addition, light detection and ranging (lidar), interferometric synthetic aperture radar (ifsar), and digital elevation models (DEMs) acquired before 2014 are all supported within the new infrastructure and available for download. Research is ongoing to expand the suite of products and services, and to increase overall throughput and data management efficiency. Emerging technologies may result in lower acquisition costs in the future. Elevation data acquired by 3DEP partnerships will be available through The National Map representing one of the largest and most comprehensive databases publicly available for the United States.

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USGS2014

The 3D Elevation Program initiative: A call for action

The 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) initiative is accelerating the rate of three-dimensional (3D) elevation data collection in response to a call for action to address a wide range of urgent needs nationwide. It began in 2012 with the recommendation to collect (1) high-quality light detection and ranging (lidar) data for the conterminous United States (CONUS), Hawaii, and the U.S. territories and (2) interferometric synthetic aperture radar (ifsar) data for Alaska. Specifications were created for collecting 3D elevation data, and the data management and delivery systems are being modernized. The National Elevation Dataset (NED) will be completely refreshed with new elevation data products and services. The call for action requires broad support from a large partnership community committed to the achievement of national 3D elevation data coverage. The initiative is being led by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and includes many partners—Federal agencies and State, Tribal, and local governments—who will work together to build on existing programs to complete the national collection of 3D elevation data in 8 years. Private sector firms, under contract to the Government, will continue to collect the data and provide essential technology solutions for the Government to manage and deliver these data and services. The 3DEP governance structure includes (1) an executive forum established in May 2013 to have oversight functions and (2) a multiagency coordinating committee based upon the committee structure already in place under the National Digital Elevation Program (NDEP). The 3DEP initiative is based on the results of the National Enhanced Elevation Assessment (NEEA) that was funded by NDEP agencies and completed in 2011. The study, led by the USGS, identified more than 600 requirements for enhanced (3D) elevation data to address mission-critical information requirements of 34 Federal agencies, all 50 States, and a sample of private sector companies and Tribal and local governments. As proposed, the 3DEP effort would begin providing products and services to partners and the public in 2015. The strategy is to leverage funding from partners and to increase contributions from all sources so that the investment rises from the current level of approximately $50 million to $146 million annually. Because 3DEP depends on private sector mapping firms to collect data, jobs will be created as the funding increases. Additional jobs will result when the 3DEP data drive the implementation and development of applications, as documented in the NEEA study. At the full funding level, 3DEP could return more than $690 million annually in new benefits directly to the private sector and indirectly to citizens through improved government program services. When 3DEP data are widely available, further private sector and government innovations will follow for years to come.

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USGS2014

National requirements for improved elevation data

This report presents the results of surveys, structured interviews, and workshops conducted to identify key national requirements for improved elevation data for the United States and its territories, including coastlines. Organizations also identified and reported the expected economic benefits that would be realized if their requirements for improved elevation were met (appendixes 1–3). This report describes the data collection methodology and summarizes the findings. Participating organizations included 34 Federal agencies, 50 States and two territories, and a sampling of local governments, tribes, and nongovernmental orgnizations. The nongovernmental organizations included The Nature Conservancy and a sampling of private sector businesses. These data were collected in 2010-2011 as part of the National Enhanced Elevation Assessment (NEEA), a study to identify program alternatives for better meeting the Nation’s elevation data needs. NEEA tasks included the collection of national elevation requirements; analysis of the benefits and costs of meeting these requirements; assessment of emerging elevation technologies, lifecycle data management needs, and costs for managing and distributing a national-scale dataset and derived products; and candidate national elevation program alternatives that balance costs and benefits in meeting the Nation’s elevation requirements. The NEEA was sponsored by the National Digital Elevation Program (NDEP), a government coordination body with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) as managing partner that includes the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), among the more than a dozen agencies and organizations. The term enhanced elevation data as used in this report refers broadly to three-dimensional measurements of land or submerged topography, built features, vegetation structure, and other landscape detail. Additional information about NEEA and its later use in the development of a 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) can be found at http://nationalmap.gov/3DEP/index.html.

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USGS2008

Description of Existing Data for Integrated Landscape Monitoring in the Puget Sound Basin, Washington

This report summarizes existing geospatial data and monitoring programs for the Puget Sound Basin in northwestern Washington. This information was assembled as a preliminary data-development task for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Puget Sound Integrated Landscape Monitoring (PSILM) pilot project. The PSILM project seeks to support natural resource decision-making by developing a 'whole system' approach that links ecological processes at the landscape level to the local level (Benjamin and others, 2008). Part of this effort will include building the capacity to provide cumulative information about impacts that cross jurisdictional and regulatory boundaries, such as cumulative effects of land-cover change and shoreline modification, or region-wide responses to climate change. The PSILM project study area is defined as the 23 HUC-8 (hydrologic unit code) catchments that comprise the watersheds that drain into Puget Sound and their near-shore environments. The study area includes 13 counties and more than four million people. One goal of the PSILM geospatial database is to integrate spatial data collected at multiple scales across the Puget Sound Basin marine and terrestrial landscape. The PSILM work plan specifies an iterative process that alternates between tasks associated with data development and tasks associated with research or strategy development. For example, an initial work-plan goal was to delineate the study area boundary. Geospatial data required to address this task included data from ecological regions, watersheds, jurisdictions, and other boundaries. This assemblage of data provided the basis for identifying larger research issues and delineating the study-area boundary based on these research needs. Once the study-area boundary was agreed upon, the next iteration between data development and research activities was guided by questions about data availability, data extent, data abundance, and data types. This report is not intended as an exhaustive compilation of all available geospatial data, rather, it is a collection of information about geospatial data that can be used to help answer the suite of questions posed after the study-area boundary was defined. This information will also be useful to the PSILM team for future project tasks, such as assessing monitoring gaps, exploring monitoring-design strategies, identifying and deriving landscape indicators and metrics, and visual geographic communication. The two main geospatial data types referenced in this report - base-reference layers and monitoring data - originated from numerous and varied sources. In addition to collecting information and metadata about the base-reference layers, the data also were collected for project needs, such as developing maps for visual communication among team members and with outside groups. In contrast, only information about the data was typically required for the monitoring data. The information on base-reference layers and monitoring data included in this report is only as detailed as what was readily available from the sources themselves. Although this report may appear to lack consistency between data records, the varying degree of details contained in this report are merely a reflection of varying source detail. This compilation is just a beginning. All data listed also are being catalogued in spreadsheets and knowledge-management systems. Our efforts are continual as we develop a geospatial catalog for the PSILM pilot project.

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