Federal government shedding PhDs

Science reports that the US Government now has 10,000 fewer STEM PhDs than it did a year before. 

Land and Water Conservation Fund

The Land and Water Conservation Fund is under threat, which means that some of the more important natural lands in the US are also at risk. This would be a good time to read the ASLA policy brief on the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The 2023 update was set to include over $7 million for New Jersey, but the latest Senate proposal cuts the nationwide funding by $100 million. Keep an eye on the policy as it moves forward.

Open records are getting bigger

 Government Technology has posted data-rich story that shows how open records requests are becoming more complicated. But at the end, it seems to lack a celebration that of this as representing more open government. I appreciate that many of the readers of GovTech are open records officials who are overworked. But is the lack of emphasis on transparency meant to indicate that these datasets and videos are not helping democracy?

Land management

The recent headline in the Salt Lake Tribune just about says it all, "William Perry Pendley, opponent of nation’s public lands, is picked to oversee them as acting head of BLM."

He argued in a 2016 National Review article that the "Founding Fathers intended all lands owned by the federal government to be sold."

Readers interested in public lands will probably be watching this story unfold for a while.After all, this puts him in charge of about 250 million acres. By my rough math, that is an area larger than all of Texas and New Mexico combined.

Rough headline

The AP starts the new year with this rough headline:

Garbage, feces take toll on national parks amid shutdown

The Geospatial Data Act is almost law

For a while now, the GIS community has been trying to get the Geospatial Data Act passed by Congress. Yesterday, the bill finally passed out of Congress and headed down Pennsylvania Ave to await the President's signature, which is expected before Sunday.

In addition, the FAA Reauthorization bill asserted greater government authority over drones.

2020 Census woes

The Washington Post recently ran a headline that said The 2020 Census is in deep trouble. And, explained the opinion piece, the stakes could be high:

It is already woefully underfunded, understaffed, underappreciated and behind schedule. But it will determine, in a major way, the future of our political parties, if not our democracy.

The nominee to run the 2020 Census has just been withdrawn.

Recently, more than 160 mayors sent a letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross confronting him with the realities of the situation. Citylab reports that the letter raises serious concerns while pointing out that the census is a constitutionally mandated activity that has been proudly undertaken since 1790. Of course, in the dynamic landscape of this administration, there are questions regarding whether Ross will still be around in 2020.

If we wait long, it will simply be too late to fix it. It takes years for Bureau to staff up and build the necessary infrastructure for the decennial census. What can be done? Should states intervene? Or will lawsuits by groups like the NAACP help?  Keep watching.

(In the meantime, explore TIGERweb)

Source code

At Rutgers we are currently celebrating Reading Days. For those looking for something short to read, these histories of NYC zoning would be a great investment of a few minutes of your time.

For starters, the Institute of Public Administration at Baruch has posted a helpful overview of the history. New York City has an official page on city planning and the historic 1916 zoning code. The trigger for the whole thing was the Equitable Building, as explained by the Gotham Observer.

But if you get hooked, the original code is online from NYC Planning.

Most visitors will agree, the city has turned out alright.

Master Plans

As an assigned reading for Fundamentals of Environmental Planning, students should look over this ANJEC piece on municipal Master Plans in New Jersey.  But they can optionally look over this scan of the 2006 Chatham Borough Master Plan. Does the quality of the scan say more about 2006 technology or the Borough's commitment to engaging the public in their plan? Before you judge, the slides from their 2016 update seem much more engaging.


And, in case you lost the link, this great Steve Strom handout on Suitability Analysis.

LAF's New Landscape Declaration

The Landscape Architecture Foundation has released a new manifesto for those driving the field into the future: The New Landscape Declaration. At 382 words, it says a lot in just a little space. But what it definitely says is that landscape architecture is still a profession that is evolving and that will change the world.

Catalan independence

Could Catalan independence really happen? Here is a link to some explanations of likelihood and the implications.

Senate geospatial data bill

What is the Federal role for geospatial data? The US Senate has before it a bill that addresses just that question. S-740 is the US Geospatial Data Act of 2015. As Congressional regulars know, these sorts of things take all sorts of unusual paths, so the success or failure of this bill is not the only thing to watch. And there may be forces behind the scenes that will cause this to move in an unusual direction. However, it is exciting to see geospatial and the NSDI getting some attention. Maybe this will be the little step that we need.

Ocean-Space as Wilderness: A Geopolitical History of American Preservation

The first talk of the 2015 Geography Speaker Series will be held on 
Friday, Jan 23rd.

The talk will be given by Dr. Ryan Orgera from Louisiana State 
University,  titled "Ocean-Space as Wilderness: A Geopolitical History 
of American Preservation."

Date: Friday, January 23, 2015
Time: 3:00 pm
Location: Lucy Stone Hall B-115

Crowdsourcing barriers

A fascinating look at the barriers to crowdsourcing as well as accelerators.

GIS STEM software for schools

While I don't think that many people inside GIS doubt that GIScience is a central piece of the STEM fields, it is nice to have the White House on board with the idea.

It is about time

Twenty years ago this winter I made a presentation at a meeting of the Wisconsin Land Information Association showing clearly that government could be cheaper and more efficient through the use of geospatial technologies. But through the efforts of the Wisconsin Land Information Program and individual county leaders (usually LIOs) efforts could be coordinated to create further savings. We went on to document how a consortium of counties saved on image acquisition, how agencies coordinated to reduce duplication and how cooperation was improving outcomes.

Well, the US GAO has finally caught wind of these radical ideas. Their new report's title says it all, Geospatial Information: OMB and Agencies can reduce duplication by making coordination a priority. An interesting twist came in the section where they call out the FGDC for not making agency coordination a higher priority. There were some other interesting findings for GIS policy geeks, so head over and read it.

Results of a Regional Analysis of Lawrence Brook

Tuesday, September 17th

Milltown Senior Center 

7:30PM 

Dr. Jean Marie Hartman, of Rutgers University 

Results of a Regional Analysis of Lawrence Brook with Storm Water Management Recommendations

This talk should be of great interest to anyone living in the Watershed or similar areas.

HUD's Sandy Rebuilding Strategy

HUD has released their new strategy for rebuilding after Sandy.  The link will take you to an announcement where you can download the full plan as a PDF.

Sandy Shore news

According to the Star-Ledger, the NJ Supreme Court has ruled that Harvey Cedars couple does not have to be reimbursed for a lost view that is blocked the the state's rebuilding of a dune that will protect them and their neighbors. If the decision seems obvious to you, make sure you read the comments after the article.

The Star-Ledger also reports that many shore homeowners are finally realizing that they can't repair the damage and will have to remove their old houses and rebuild. It isn't clear whether they will get help from their banks or will rebuild in new ways, like modular construction.

And, despite encouragement to builder smarter and greener and dune-friendly, legislators are considering a bill that would green light new development in high-hazard coastal areas. Remember how well the amusement park on a pier held up? Would it be a good idea to encourage more of that?

New White House statment on Earth Observations

When you watch the movies, you would think that outer space is crowded with satellites for measuring land use and monitoring climate change (and chasing spies in exotic sportscars). In reality, we have a shortage of earth observation satellites and the situation is going to get worse before it gets better.

A recent issue of Nature reports:

Yet the long-term forecast for US Earth observations remains grim. The US government plans to launch just six satellites between 2014 and 2020, including only two of the four missions that the NRC panels deemed the most important. The other two — designed to measure long-term changes in solar radiation, ice-sheet velocities and terrestrial biomass — have been shelved indefinitely by the White House.

The White House recently acknowledged the situation with a new strategy document:

Today, the Obama Administration’s National Science and Technology Council released a National Strategy for Civil Earth Observations—a framework for increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the Nation’s Earth-observation enterprise.

Will it be enough?