GIF 2010 Volume: 8 Issue: 5 (July/August)

As many of you well know, Nashville and surrounding areas of Tennessee experienced unprecedented rain and severe flooding in May. As USGIF was to return to Nashville and the Gaylord Opryland for GEOINT 2010, we closely watched the situation.

When floodwaters receded and experts assessed the full scope of the damage, it was apparent the recovery would take much longer than initially expected. After extensive discussions with the Gaylord staff and city leaders, neither we nor they felt confident that the hotel and city would be fully ready to host our attendees, exhibitors, speakers and guests for GEOINT 2010. We mutually agreed that the potential risk to the success of our event was too great, and we at USGIF decided to change the venue for this year’s symposium.

We worked diligently—in parallel with preparing for GEOINT Community Week—to implement our contingency plan. As we evaluated our options, one venue clearly emerged as best suited for GEOINT 2010: the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, La.

So, it was with tempered excitement that we announced in mid-May that the GEOINT 2010 Symposium would return to New Orleans. The dates remain exactly the same, November 1-4, and the city is ecstatic to bring the GEOINT Symposium back to where it all began with Geo-Intel in 2003. The city has been wonderful to work with, and in a very short time has come up with some fantastic options for helping us make sure this is indeed the type of GEOINT Symposium you have all come to expect.

Of course, the people of New Orleans know all too well about the devastating impact of flooding. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 battered the Gulf Coast and wreaked havoc on the people of the Crescent City. Just writing the word “Katrina” evokes images of orange and white Coast Guard helicopters hovering low over homes and hoisting people to safety.

Many of us also remember how our member companies and agencies supported the rescue and relief efforts during and immediately afterward with our geospatial intelligence products and solutions—offering situational awareness to coordinators, providing overhead imagery for displaced homeowners to look at their properties, getting first responders accurate maps and elevation data to navigate the roads and plan operations, and keeping track of people as they were relocated and property as it was checked for survivors and damage.

The homeland security response, though sadly lacking from an overarching perspective, was a turning point for the use of GEOINT in support of domestic operations. Indeed, in the White House report on the response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the Coast Guard were the only two government agencies called out specifically for their superior performance.

Now in the immediate aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico, the role of the Coast Guard is again in the spotlight in New Orleans. This, in turn, provides the opportunity to reflect on the prominent role of geospatial intelligence in the homeland security mission.

In addition to the monitoring and mapping of the oil spill and the ongoing response efforts, there has been a recent push to deploy additional unmanned aerial vehicles to protect the U.S.-Mexico border from smugglers, drug runners, human trafficking, terrorists and other criminal activities.

The operating entities of the Department of Homeland Security, from Customs and Border Protection to the Transportation Security Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Secret Service and Federal Emergency Management Agency, all heavily rely on geospatial intelligence in one way or another.

Because of this tremendous need for geospatial intelligence, USGIF is committed to serving the homeland security community as it does the intelligence community and the Department of Defense. To that end, USGIF recently joined the Interagency Council for Applied Homeland Security Technology (ICAHST).

Although it is not an official body, ICAHST has a mission to “identify, investigate, and institute new science and technology to inform and advance counterterrorism and supporting activities for the entire homeland security/counterterrorism community.” This mission complements USGIF’s objectives, making the relationship even more important.

At the most recent ICAHST meeting on June 10, I was able to brief the group on USGIF and the current initiatives of the foundation. I look forward to again working with the new ICAHST chair, Bart Johnson, principal deputy under secretary for intelligence and analysis at DHS, and ICAHST to engage our USGIF members to become more involved with support to the DHS mission.

So, as we excitedly look toward New Orleans for GEOINT 2010, Nashville isn’t forgotten. Although we don’t plan to bring the GEOINT Symposium back to Nashville until 2015, the USGIF Young Professionals Group (YPG) will soon be kicking off a service project to help provide earth-science-related materials, such as maps and globes, to schools impacted by the floods. The YPG also is investigating a service project in New Orleans that may help restore homes for families still displaced from the 2005 hurricane or assist in the cleanup efforts from the gulf oil spill.

If you are interested in the USGIF Young Professionals Group or these service projects, I encourage you to call USGIF at 888-MY-USGIF and speak with staff member Carrie Drake, or send us an e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

I thank you for your support of USGIF and hope you share our ongoing concern for the people of Nashville and New Orleans. We eagerly look forward to seeing you in New Orleans in November. Registration is open at www.geoint2010.com!

Sincerely, Keith J. Masback President USGIF