Utilizing Use Cases for Valuation of Geospatial Information

Abstract:

The expanding investment and use of earth observations by government entities and private industry is a hallmark of the 21^st century. Today in the U.S. alone, civil earth observations estimated funding in 2014 included $2.5 billion in satellite systems and more than $1 billion for airborne, terrestrial, and marine networks and surveys [OSTP, 2014]. There is universal agreement that legacy systems such as Landsat, NEXRAD, GOES, and others) have contributed to the protection and quality of life. However, standardized practices have yet to be established for measuring the contribution to society of these and other systems. Further, the value of proposed new geospatial information systems may be embedded in uses that have yet to be realized. We explore construction of use cases that have been used traditionally to characterize process elements as a method to establish the value of current and future geospatial information systems. We will focus on two important areas: Disasters and Ecosystems. These areas are from among the nine GEO Societal Benefits areas, the twelve Societal Benefit Areas in the US National Plan for Civil Earth Observations (2014), the four Program Areas of NASA Applied Sciences, and the six program areas of the USGS Science strategy.