Alaska Mapping Executive Committee Minutes

Alaska Mapping Executive Committee Meeting Minutes 

Meeting Date: May 17, 2023

Attending Co-Chairs for the Meeting: Tanya Trujillo, Department of the Interior (DOI) Assistant Secretary for Water and Science; Kelly Kryc, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Fisheries.

Background: The Alaska Mapping Executive Committee (AMEC) held its 2023 annual meeting on May 17 in Anchorage, Alaska at the National Park Service Regional Office. Forty participants joined in person in Anchorage and sixty joined via teleconference.

Meeting Introduction:  After introductions, the co-chairs offered comments acknowledging the strong interagency partnerships being formed though AMEC participation. Co-chair Trujillo noted that she participated in the 2011 roundtable that set the framework for establishing AMEC. She noted that coincident to the AMEC meeting, First Lady Jill Biden and DOI Secretary Deb Haaland were in Bethel, Alaska, announcing a broadband initiative to support underserved communities. She also mentioned U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earth Mineral Resources Initiative (Earth MRI) acquisitions planned for Alaska. Newly seated co-chair Kryc noted that in her role as the NOAA Arctic Policy Lead, she represents NOAA’s efforts to provide service equitably across all people on the landscape. She expressed that climate change is a driving force that must be confronted, and that AMEC collaboration must strive to lessen the human impacts of climate change. Co-chair Kryc also mentioned that NOAA had recently submitted a cross-agency Arctic funding request and that the Office of Management and Budget was in support of an Arctic initiative proposal.

Recent Accomplishments: Significant accomplishments since the November 2021 AMEC meeting were announced, including completion of GRAV-D for Alaska, strong advances in wetlands and terrestrial hydrography mapping, publication of the Alaska Coastal Mapping Implementation Plan, and significant lidar elevation acquisitions for critical locations across the State. Draft AMEC Charter and 18-Month Tactical Plan updates were developed by the AMEC Technical Subcommittee; these will be sent electronically to AMEC executives for approval this summer.

State of Alaska Report: The State of Alaska expressed some of the challenges associated with mapping Alaska. Emergency management and hazard response are critical applications for AMEC partnerships to help ensure the safety of all Alaskans. Geospatial data are essential to multiple applications in the State including human safety and emergency response, carbon storage and offsets, and exploring renewable energy. The State is coordinating with AMEC through the Alaska Geospatial Council (AGC) and its 10 working groups. AGC and the Alaska Geospatial Office are sponsoring a fall 2023 GeoSummit mapping conference for continued collaboration and information sharing. The State noted that it maintains a Geoportal and Imagery and Elevation online map services and maintains a satellite imagery contract that is supporting joint State/Federal applications. AMEC monitored themes are important to Alaska and its people. Funds to support underserved communities are expanding. Data required statewide include physical addressing, cadastral, networked transportation, and utilities. Equitability is being exacerbated by not having adequate data. Policy, legislation, funding, partnerships, increased capacity, and enhanced State/Federal cooperative agreements are needed to ensure equitable support of all Alaskans.

Terrestrial Mapping: A 2023 Alaska 30cm-resolution imagery mosaic is being acquired by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Alaska High Altitude Photography (AHAP) collected circa 1978-1986 is being made geographic information system (GIS)-ready to support landscape change detection. Significant lidar acquisitions are happening in Alaska with over 100 projects currently being tracked by the State. The State suggested jointly funding an elevation coordinator position to support all the increased lidar acquisition. USFWS presented that wetlands mapping is available or in work for 89% of the State and announced an exciting collaboration with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the Bristol Bay Native Corporation to jointly map wetlands and terrestrial hydrography over environmentally sensitive lands in southwest Alaska. The 3D Hydrography Program (3DHP) is advancing rapidly in Alaska with 46% statewide coverage available or in work. USGS announced it is beginning the update of topographic mapping for the State and has provided a new service to the public, topoBuilder, to create USGS topographic maps on demand, including off standard USGS quadrangle grid map centering. Earth MRI experts reported that significant funding for geophysical data collection is being made available for Alaska and that the partnership between Earth MRI and the Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys enables significant geological mapping and application of the data. Community engagement is imperative to this effort.

Vegetation Mapping: An assessment of the requirements to map vegetation statewide was presented as a follow up to a previous AMEC request. Many agencies require vegetation mapping, and a coordinated approach would benefit many applications. Further analysis of the requirements will be performed this coming year.

Typhoon Merbok Collaboration: Lessons learned from Federal and State collaboration in response to Typhoon Merbok were presented. It was noted that years of relationship-building and available geospatial data coordinated through AMEC provided a strong platform for and greatly supported the storm response. Response to future emergencies can be enhanced with additional improved data and increased pre-event coordination, including formalizing roles and responsibilities across State and Federal entities.

Coastal Mapping and GRAV-D: NOAA presented on the status of coastal mapping in the Alaska. Imagery and lidar is being collected for 5,600 square miles in support of Typhoon Merbok response. NOAA announced the completion of GRAV-D for Alaska. A new Vertical Datum for Alaska may become available as soon as 2024-2025 using information from increased water level collection sites. Topo-bathymetric lidar collections are increasing, and topographic lidar collections are including tidal coordination requirements that advance coastal mapping goals. NOAA shoreline mapping for AK has reached 71.8%. Alaska’s unmapped seafloor elevation data reduced by 32,000 square miles in the last year, but considerable work remains to complete the mapping around Alaska.

Open Discussion: Two open discussion sessions generated valuable comments, insights, and several follow-on actions. 

• The State of Alaska introduced the topic of statewide lidar. It was noted that even in broad roadless areas it can be very helpful for a variety of applications. It was suggested that the State and the Federal government should work together in the future to advance a Statewide lidar objective. Many lidar contractors are establishing offices in Alaska to acquire lidar more effectively. The Barry Arm project is a good example of localized utilization of lidar and multi-beam bathymetry to understand and characterize a specific hazard scenario.
• The National Weather Service reported that the first National Water Model implementation in Alaska will be available in the August 2023 timeframe for the Matanuska-Susitna, Cook Inlet, and Copper River subbasins. In the future, flood inundation modeling will be available nationally including all of Alaska based on 3DHP data coordinated through AMEC.
• The State of Alaska Geoportal has an imagery service that displays metadata for all the scenes used in the 2020 Alaska imagery mosaic. A service is also available from the State displaying completed and planned elevation acquisitions.
• Representatives from the Census Bureau noted the value of the AMEC-acquired imagery layer for their operations. Census is preparing a detailed map of habitable structures in Alaska that are outside of the major cities and villages for use in the next decennial Census. The State of Alaska provided Census with a structures layer, and Census is using the imagery to verify structure locations and define local transportation routes at these locations. Census operations were greatly enhanced using the high-resolution statewide Alaska Imagery mosaic acquired through AMEC collaboration.
• Connecting local users to mapping data and applications would be a valuable AMEC contribution. Challenges to making AMEC-supported data available to the public, local governments, and educational entities should be discussed. A suggestion was made to add an outreach objective to the AMEC 18-month Tactical Plan in the Communication section. It was also noted that AGC is in a good position institutionally to support any potential outreach investigation and implementation plan.
• The need for structures data and addressing was noted as a critical need for Alaska. The State funded creation of a structures layer but there are legal restrictions preventing the State from directly accessing and using Census data. Crowdsourcing was suggested as a possible solution to refining locational information, but some noted that crowdsourcing addresses is not as effective in Alaska as in the lower 48 states. Exploring the use of the USGS National Map Corps to support addressing was suggested.
• Preparation for future Alaska emergency events was discussed. Coordination with the Alaska State Emergency Operation Center is critical. Local level ability to use GIS data needs to be increased. There are tremendous post-event imagery collection options available in Alaska via satellite, airplane, and UAS but it is still very awkward to respond quickly. There is not consistent data for all the communities. There are communication challenges, in particular poor internet, that impair coordination with local governments. Effective emergency response in Alaska requires people who understand operations in Alaska. Data refresh is required but temporal change in specific locations must be understood to prioritize data refresh objectives. Maritime navigational surveys are critical but available charts are not the appropriate scale or timely enough. Resurvey of bathymetry for the entire Merbok impact area is needed but is difficult and expensive, so mobile assets or satellite technology could be investigated. It’s important to learn how best to convey post-event information to the communities. For example, many communities will require paper maps. PDF formatted materials are helpful but there are bandwidth problems. NOAA mentioned considering regional service providers to reach large groups of communities. Alaska Native Corporations and local health service centers are good connections. People in Alaska Native communities live in one location but subsist across the broader landscape, so all such lands need to be considered in a post-event response. 
• Flooding in the State occurs catastrophically on many AK rivers each spring. 2023 looks especially bad. The State of Alaska is currently supporting National Weather Service with satellite imagery via Planet contract to monitor flooding areas. AMEC should consider investigating opportunities to address flooding issues and impacts.
• The DOI Gravel to Gravel Initiative (a collaborative plan among FWS, BLM, tribal organizations, etc. utilizing ecosystems restoration funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law) was noted. This mountains to sea restoration framework will guide Congressional investments. Kuskokwim Delta and Norton Sound were mentioned as areas with dramatic ecosystem threats and drastic salmon reductions, where restoration would have a huge impact on lives and subsistence living. AMEC should seek coordination opportunities that would advance critical restoration activities in Alaska that align with the Gravel to Gravel Initiative.

AMEC Actions following the meeting:  

1) The AMEC Technical Subcommittee will amend the draft AMEC 18-Month Tactical Plan by adding a bullet regarding investigating options for advancing public outreach and information exchange with local entities and working outreach issues through the AGC.

2) The AGC Vegetation Working Group will develop an implementation plan that includes a cost estimate for statewide vegetation mapping and will coordinate with the Federal Geographic Data Committee regarding support for a vegetation standard. The Vegetation Working Group will nominate a Federal Champion to advance the statewide vegetation mapping initiative.

3) The Technical Subcommittee will investigate opportunities for using the State-funded structures dataset across AMEC participating agencies.

4) The Technical Subcommittee will coordinate with the Alaska Geospatial Information Officer to investigate opportunities and requirements for development of statewide data needed to support underserved communities, including a routable roads network, transportation routes, physical addressing, and cadastral data.

5) The Technical Subcommittee and the State Geospatial Information Officer will consider opportunities to enhance cost sharing capacity.

6) The State of Alaska and USGS will discuss needs and requirements for statewide lidar.

7) Kevin Gallagher will send the draft updated AMEC Charter and 18-Month Tactical Plan to the executives via email for review, comment, and approval.