Regarding President Trump’s Executive Order on a Comprehensive Plan for Reorganizing the Executive Branch
March 14, 2017 – "MAPPS, the association of private sector geospatial firms, commends President Trump for issuing this Executive Order. Such a review of the federal government is welcome and we offer our support and expertise. Geospatial data is the cornerstone of many government services, including intelligence and disaster response. This data assists communities in becoming more resilient through flood risk communication tools, allows more efficient logistics with improved road networks, and facilitates the wise use of tax payer dollars to improve critical infrastructure, among many others.
MAPPS is excited to offer ideas about the reorganization of federal geospatial activities to gain efficiency, expand public-private partnerships, become better stewards of tax dollars, and embrace emerging technology. This proposed evaluation will pave the way towards our future, which is becoming more reliant upon geospatial information. To take full advantage of autonomous vehicles or drone delivery concepts, we must first have an abundance of accurate mapping. We also consider this evaluation a great time to further integrate the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI), which is the geospatial backbone needed to create smarter decision support tools. This Executive Order also offers the opportunity to highlight current best practices, including NOAA’s Digital Coast Project and the USGS 3DEP Program, which are improving geospatial coordination and making our government function more efficiently."
About MAPPS
Formed in 1982, MAPPS is the only national association exclusively comprised of private firms in the remote sensing, spatial data and geographic information systems field in the United States. The MAPPS membership spans the entire spectrum of the geospatial community, including Member Firms engaged in satellite and airborne remote sensing, surveying, photogrammetry, aerial photography, LIDAR, hydrography, bathymetry, charting, aerial and satellite image processing, GPS, and GIS data collection and conversion services. MAPPS also includes Associate Member Firms, which are companies that provide hardware, software, products and services to the geospatial profession in the United States and other firms from around the world. Independent Consultant Members are sole proprietors engaged in consulting in or to the geospatial profession, or provides a consulting service of interest to the geospatial profession. MAPPS provides its member firms opportunities for networking and developing business-to-business relationships, information sharing, education, public policy advocacy, market growth, and professional development and image enhancement. For more information on MAPPS, please visit www.mapps.org.