Dr. Tom Creel

Creating and maintaining a “foundational map” of the world is no small feat. While the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) has functional management authority to produce Foundation GEOINT for the National System for Geospatial Intelligence (NSG), the creation of Foundation GEOINT is a team sport. That team is expanding to transform Foundation GEOINT and the business processes/models by which it is compiled. New data options such as crowdsourcing, do-it-yourself data collection from drones and other sensors, and machine learning approaches are coming to supplement traditional foundation products with truly on-demand content.

While Foundation GEOINT is inclusive of other mapping, charting, and geodesy (MC&G) components such as surveying, elevation modeling, and gravity modeling; Global Navigation Satellite System/GPS monitoring and processing; and satellite and aerial imagery, LiDAR, and radar collection; this article will focus primarily on vector mapping components. Foundation GEOINT is truly the foundation upon which all geospatially referenced intelligence analysis is built: it provides the cartographic backdrop and location referencing that enables imagery, signals, human, and all-source intelligence.

S. Carter Christopher, Ph.D., NGA Foundation GEOINT Group; J. Edward Pickle, Radiant Solutions; and Nathan Frantz, Geospatial Research Laboratory, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers