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May 20, 2020

TOP NEWS

Please join NSPS leadership and staff in thanking/honoring on Memorial Day (May 25) all who sacrificed their lives while serving in the U.S. military.

Happy Birthday to the Land Ordinance of 1785 Information copied from Wikipedia The Land Ordinance of 1785 was adopted by the United States Congress of the Confederation on May 20, 1785. It set up a standardized system whereby settlers could purchase title to farmland in the undeveloped west. Congress at the time did not have the power to raise revenue by direct taxation, so land sales provided an important revenue stream. The Ordinance set up a survey system that eventually covered over 3/4 of the area of the continental United States. The earlier Land Ordinance of 1784 was a resolution written by Thomas Jefferson calling for Congress to take action. The land west of the Appalachian Mountains, north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River was to be divided into ten separate states. However, the 1784 resolution did not define the mechanism by which the land would become states, or how the territories would be governed or settled before they became states. The Ordinance of 1785 put the 1784 resolution in operation by providing a mechanism for selling and settling the land, while the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 addressed political needs.

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Coalition of Geospatial Organizations (COGO) Sends Letter Regarding Ligado to Senate and House Armed Services Committees NSPS As readers of NSPS News & Views are aware, NSPS is one of 13 national professional societies, trade associations, and member organizations in the geospatial field that comprise COGO in order to speak collectively when all organizations agree to take action on issues, legislation, etc.

NSPS Spring Auction NSPS Benefits the Get Kids into Survey Fund. Please email your bid with item number to info@nsps.us.com. A few items have been added including an Old Transit donated by Trent Keenan at Diamondback Land Surveying.The auction will close Wednesday, May 27 at 5:00 pm EDT. Winners will be notified on Friday, May 29. Visit the Auction webpage to view current bids. Click here to see items.

NSPS COVID-19 Webpage NSPS NSPS staff continues to add information/resources for use by members regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. The May 14, 2020 General Resources posting includes several links, including a link to “Frequently Asked Questions”.

Highway Funding in New House COVID Bill Reinforces State Funding Formulas NSPS Last week's $3+ trillion coronavirus relief bill introduced by House Democrats (H.R. 6800, the HEROES Act) included a $15 billion appropriation to state governments to use on highway programs. The money was requested by states as an “immediate revenue backstop” to replace “revenues that would otherwise have been collected for a wide range of state DOT activities without the COVID-19 pandemic” (though the states requested $50 billion, not $15 billion). But the House bill would distribute that money using a formula that has nothing to do with the levels of revenues raised by states for their DOTs, which will create wide disparities on a state-by-state basis when states try to use that money to replace falling tax revenues. The $15 billion certainly functions a lot like revenue replacement – the House bill would allow the money to be used not only for broad highway and bridge capital projects as described under 23 U.S.C. §133(b) but also “for administrative and operations expenses, including salaries of employees (including those employees who have been placed on administrative leave) or contractors, information technology needs, and availability payments…” Click here to see a table on how your respective state would fare. The HEROES Act has been deemed a highly partisan “messaging” bill that is considered “dead on arrival” in the Republican controlled U.S. Senate. Prospects for the next CoVID-19 relief and recovery bill that has bipartisan support are unclear at this point.

Surveyor Says NSPS Episode 28 - 5-20-2020 Our latest “Future Focus” episode within the NSPS “Surveyor Says!” podcast series is a discussion with Chris Jepson, Vice President of the Land Surveyors Association of Washington (LSAW). Host Curt Sumner and Chris got together recently to talk about growing up a son of a surveyor, working his way through the ranks, and what he sees for the future of surveying associations. (Spoiler: it will include more technology, social media and lots of mentoring!) Thanks for listening!

House Democrats Seek to Codify Environmental Inequality Mapping Tool NSPS A group of House Democrats has introduced legislation to codify a requirement for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to maintain and update its mapping and screening tool for communities impacted by environmental inequality. The EPA currently has a tool, called EJSCREEN, that provides demographic and environmental information for any given area. The legislation (H.R. 6826) to codify its use was introduced in the House by Democratic Reps. Donald McEachin (D-VA), Nanette Diaz Barragán (D-CA), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), and Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ). A similar measure has been introduced in the Senate as both a stand-alone bill and as part of a bipartisan water infrastructure package. The EJSCREEN online tool allows users to select a geographic area and provides information about that area's racial, income and age demographics and also provides environmental information such as levels of certain types of air pollution and lifetime cancer risk due to air toxic inhalation for the area. Environmental justice advocates have long called for action to tackle the unequal effects of environmental issues on low-income and minority communities. Studies have shown, for example, that these groups face greater impacts from pollution.

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Competing Consumer Privacy Bill Introduced in Congress NSPS NSPS outlined a consumer privacy bill introduced earlier this month by Senate Republicans in News and Views last week. A competing bill (S. 3749/H.R. 6866) was introduced recently by Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Reps. Anna G. Eshoo (D-CA), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), and Suzan DelBene (D-WA) titled the "Public Health Emergency Privacy Act" to set strong and enforceable privacy and data security rights for health information. The bill would ensure that data collected for public health is strictly limited for use in public health; prevent the potential misuse of health data by government agencies with no role in public health; and give the public control over their participation in these efforts by mandating meaningful transparency and requiring opt-in consent. It has no impact on traditional surveying and GIS services. NSPS’s lobbyist John “JB” Byrd and consultant John Palatiello continue to educate Congress on the nature of the work performed by surveyors and other geospatial practitioners to minimize any effect on the profession of a health-related or comprehensive consumer privacy bill. NSPS has an adopted guideline on consumer privacy and geographic information. READ MORE

Tracking COVID-19 With Big Data, GIS and Social Media SDSU Newscenter A new hub of research information to assist in monitoring and visualizing outbreak patterns of the coronavirus (COVID-19) in San Diego County is now housed in one location: the Research HUB for COVID-19. Ming-Hsiang Tsou, director of The Center for Human Dynamics in the Mobile Age at San Diego State University, and his team developed the hub to serve as a single source of information given the large amount of COVID-19-related data available. READ MORE

Reinventing Business From Space Reuters As the focus on supply chains takes on more importance in the wake of the coronavirus, Descartes Labs, a tech company with origins out of Los Alamos National Labs, is helping companies distill geospatial information in "data refineries" to better monitor, measure, and predict changes to physical operations across the globe. In this interview with Phil Fraher, Descartes Labs CEO, we explore how the company leverages its geospatial analytics platform to blend remote sensing data with internal company data to train AI models and increase visibility into supplier networks. READ MORE

NGA Focusing on Building Modern Software Engineering Culture MeriTalk For the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), the biggest challenges for implementing new tools include working through policy points and providing balanced product teams to do software engineering well."It's not just the tools we have, but it's designing and building with our users and to do that we really need our balanced product teams," NGA Deputy CTO Alexander Loehr said, while adding that teams should include user experience professionals along with product managers that are empowered to make prioritization decisions. READ MORE

Become a Certified Survey Technician (CST) 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 www.cstnsps.com for details.

New Wearable System Paves Way for Mobile Mapping for Mainstream Use in Surveying GIM International NavVis, a pioneer of indoor spatial intelligence technology and enterprise solutions, has announced the launch of NavVis VLX, a wearable mapping system that captures high-quality data in even the most complex built environments such as construction sites, stairwells and small technical rooms. The all-in-one reality-capture capabilities of NavVis VLX include both survey-grade point clouds and high-resolution panoramas. READ MORE

Experian Launches Interactive US Map Showing Populations Most Susceptible to Developing Severe Cases of COVID-19 Sensors & Systems In an effort to aid in the country's re-opening efforts, Experian is making available a free interactive heat map of geographic populations at-risk of being most susceptible to developing severe cases of COVID-19. The Experian COVID-19 Outlook and Response Evaluator (CORE) tool is intended to guide healthcare organizations and government agencies as they plan for the "new normal" and coronavirus recovery in the months ahead. READ MORE

NSPS EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

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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