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NSPS
Episode 25 - 4-29-2020
This episode with Executive Director Curt Sumner and Gary Kent, Chair of the Joint ALTA/NSPS Land Title Survey Committee is the first installment of “Table A Talk” in the age of quarantine/“shelter-in-place”/COVID-19. They talk about how communication with Surveyors helps the ALTA/NSPS Land Title Survey Committees shape additions, deletions, and revisions to the standards. Thanks for joining Curt and Gary as they discuss how standards are decided and settling uncertainty within the standards on this edition of “Table A Talk” here on the “Surveyor Says!”
NSPS
Congratulations to all who passed the Certified Survey Technician Exam during Cycle 1 – 2020 (January, February and March). To view a list to the 127 individuals who passed within the respective Levels (I, II, III) click here.
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Jim Nadeau, PLS, CFM - NSPS Representative to TMAC
Day 1 – The TMAC met virtually to discuss agenda items and share progress made by the other subcommittees. The meeting commenced with an introduction of attendees and included the welcoming of several new members to the council.This was followed by a unanimous vote to re-elect Jeffrey Sparrow, PE, as the Council’s Chair. Mike Grimm, of FEMA, then provided a general update on progress made and obstacles identified, allowing questions from the council. The council discussed the structure of the 2020 report, and Subcommittee 1 (the committee which I am on) presented research and findings to date, including a summary of a presentation entitled “The Nuts & Bolts of Probabilistic Modeling” prepared by subject matter experts Reuben Cozmyer, Mike DePue, and Sarada Kalikivaya. This presentation described reasons for the new rating approach, differences in deterministic and probabilistic parameters, and an overall conceptual introduction of the probabilistic process, examples, benefits, and future study conditions. As a land surveyor, my attention was drawn to the Lowest Floor Elevation (LFE) becoming just one of many parameters included in the proposed risk rating process. The use and timing of the Elevation Certificate may be modified when this new method of rating is finalized. Subcommittee 1 is also discussing options for a stakeholder engagement plan which may include online surveys of approximately 10 questions to various association or industry groups, state NFIP coordinators, and community officials. In follow-up to these surveys, virtual focus groups may be established to further specify topics of each group. NSPS Federal Lobbyist, John "JB" Byrd was in attendance for Day 1 of this TMAC meeting.
Day 2 – Subcommittee 2 presented research and findings to date. The Subcommittee discussed the vision needed to transition flood hazard and flood risk and included identifying obstacles, highlighting opportunities, identifying useful portions of the current program, and proposing specific roles that could be played by state, local, Tribal, Territorial, private, nonprofit, academic, and other entities in assessing, communicating, and managing flood hazards and risk. The next TMAC full council meeting has not been scheduled, but has been tentatively set for December. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is uncertain if the meeting will be in person or a virtual meeting.
NSPS
NSPS joined a coalition of organizations recommending in a coalition letter to the Department of Justice to "temporarily suspend operations" by Federal Prison Industries (FPI), a Federal government corporation operating under the trade name UNICOR, that uses inmate labor to produce goods and services. The organizations pointed out that with our economy in a spiral and law abiding, tax-paying Americans wanting and needing to work to support their families, it makes no sense for federal agencies to be buying products and services from inmates in FPI. With the Business Coalition for Fair Competition (BCFC), NSPS has been involved on FPI Reform due to markets being negatively impacted as prisoners have performed scanning, digitizing, and GIS/CAD conversion instead of being contracted to the private sector. Recent media reports have also found that FPI factories are "incubators" of the Coronavirus, infecting numerous inmates.
Copied by the NSPS Finance Manager from correspondence issued by The Hartford
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NSPS
NSPS joined a coalition of organizations on letters supporting the USGS 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) to the House and Senate appropriations committees in Congress for federal FY21 budgeting. A broad coalition of 52 organizations signed on to the letters urging funds to enable USGS to collect national elevation data, primarily using LiDAR. The letters state, "As you develop FY 2021 appropriations, we ask for your support for the USGS recommendation to provide $146 million to 3DEP, as requested by John Palatiello, on behalf of the 3DEP Coalition, in his testimony before the Subcommittee on February 6." The letter with widespread support was a follow-up action item from the February 2020 Congressional briefing NSPS sponsored with USGS 3DEP leadership on Capitol Hill pictured here.
NSPS
Through the Disaster Recovery Reform Act (DRRA) of 2018, Congress authorized the creation of a new pre-disaster mitigation program to include new grants. The FEMA Hazard Mitigation Assistance Program has released the new Building Resilience Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) Proposed Policy Guidance for a 30-day comment period through May 11. The FEMA Hazard Mitigation Assistance Program has also released the BRIC grant program Stakeholder Feedback Summary and a condensed stakeholder feedback fact sheet. This summary is compiled from stakeholder feedback garnished through the 2019 stakeholder engagement process.
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Inside GNSS
In its order allowing Ligado Networks to use satellite frequencies for on-the-ground wireless, the Federal Communications Commission set conditions on the firm’s operations, but only at the very tail end. Those conditions are there to help protect GPS receivers from interference — interference the FCC acknowledges as being quite possible.
The requirements are necessary because the FCC disregarded the established yardstick for protecting GPS in favor of one based on harmful interference.
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No matter what the future holds, prepare to meet challenges head on. Future-proof your resume by becoming a Certified Survey Technician (CST). This unique four-level certification program indicates official recognition by NSPS that a person can perform surveying tasks at a specific technical level.
Show what you can do! Decide between the field or office track. Visit http://www.cstnsps.com for details.
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CST Exams are available during the COVID-19 shutdown — Contact Sara Maggi for information.
Geographical
Geospatial data has long been used to track diseases. John Snow’s iconic mapping of cholera outbreaks in London in 1854 enabled him to identify the long misunderstood cause of the disease. Fast forward to 2014 and mapping tools and modelling were essential in the fight against the Ebola crisis in West Africa.
Today, geographic information systems have revolutionized this space.
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GPS World
The first GPS III satellite, “Vespucci,” was launched in December 2018, started signal transmission in January 2020, and was set healthy later that month. The second GPS III satellite, nicknamed “Magellan,” was launched on Aug. 22, 2019, on a Delta IV rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Magellan, also identified by its space vehicle number 75, started signal transmission with standard pseudorandom noise code number 18 on March 13.
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Geospatial World
As COVID-19 continues to spread worldwide, uncertainty has sparked historic volatility in the global markets and inspired drastic measures at national, regional, and local levels as the world tries to contain this pandemic.
As a global health crisis persists, information on where the virus has been contracted and where it’s currently concentrated is critical to understanding where it may spread next.
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Directions Magazine
A cholera outbreak in 1832 spurred the first application of geospatial analysis when Charles Piquet created a map illustrating hot spots for the disease across 48 districts in Paris. Fast forward nearly 200 years, as numerous organizations map the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, to see how technological advancements are transforming the geospatial industry and delivering interactive insights that were not possible even a decade ago.
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StateScoop
State officials in charge of geospatial information systems must coordinate data-sharing efforts with federal agencies to mature the United States’ GIS infrastructure, one state GIS leader recently told StateScoop.
Karen Rogers, president of the National States Geographic Information Council, says the National Spatial Data Infrastructure needs heightened collaboration across the various levels of government to ensure coordination and reduce duplicative efforts.
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GIS User
Have you ever wondered what kind of rocks make up those bright and dark splotches on the moon? Well, the USGS has just released a new authoritative map to help explain the 4.5-billion-year-old history of our nearest neighbor in space.
This animation shows a rotating globe of the new Unified Geologic Map of the Moon with shaded topography from the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter.
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| President, Mark Sargent (NH) |
Director, Thomas Brooks (AL) |
| President-Elect, Tim Burch (IL) |
Director, Bob Neathamer (OR) |
| Vice President, Amanda Allred (WA) |
Director, Danny Martinez (NE) |
| Treasurer, Bob Miller (PA) |
Director, Matt Morris (MT) |
| Secretary, Craig Amey (MI) |
Executive Director, Curt Sumner (MD) |
| Immediate Past President, Lisa Van Horn (WI) |
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Note: NSPS members may receive calls from MultiView sales associates regarding advertising opportunities in News & Views. MultiView, a partner of NSPS, produces the News & Views newsbrief each week.
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