Geospatial Working Group

Community Mission

Expand awareness and leveraging of geospatial engineering for operational effects.

Community Chair

Scott Ensign, GISP
MSgt, Ret, USAF, Air Force Civil Engineer Center

Mission: Expand awareness and leveraging of geospatial engineering for operational effects.

Why: Build awareness and deployment of people, processes, and tools to create the digital foundation for engineering better outcomes across basing, support and battle spaces.

• Geospatial Engineering is one of three doctrinal U.S. military engineer functions (Combat, General, Geospatial).  It leverages and contributes to Geospatial-Intelligence (GEOINT) activities providing support to cross-functional missions of the entire Force.  It does not stand alone.
• Geospatial Engineering:  Geospatial engineering consists of those engineer capabilities and activities that portray and refine data pertaining to the geographic location and characteristics of natural and constructed features and boundaries.

Who: A diverse community of experts enables the Geospatial Engineering function.  Experts include but are not limited to architects, cartographers, coders, data analysts, data architects, data scientists, draftsman, engineers, environmentalists, geographers, surveyors, remote sensing specialists, sUAS pilots, and much more.  Government career fields include but are not limited to-

• OPM Job Series include- Geography Series 0150, Engineering Technical Series 0802, Construction Analyst Series 0828, Cartography Series 1370, Cartographic Technician Series 1371, Land Surveying Series 1373, Geodetic Technician Series 1374

• Army:  12T – Technical Engineer, 12Y- Geospatial Engineer, 125D- Geospatial Engineering Technician

• Air Force:  3E5- Engineering

• USMC: 1361 – Engineer Assistant

• U.S. Navy:  Engineering Aide

The (USACE) Geospatial Community of Practice is an umbrella community encompassing Survey and Mapping, Remote Sensing, GIS, CAD-BIM, and other groups engaged in geospatial work.

(Source: slide 36, USACE EGI&S Program, Defense Installations GIS Program Successes brief, Feb 2023)

Strategic Alignment Lines of Effort (LOE)

• LOE 1:  Support the Joint Operations Engineering Board (JOEB) Work Plan Focus #7 – Geospatial Engineering
• LOE 2:  Communications- Advocate for a TME Geospatial Engineering Issue, Submit JETC GWG activities articles, Develop Geospatial video series covering COI functional topics.
• LOE 3:  JETC- Integrate Joint Geospatial Engineering Seminar into Warfighter Seminar/ FAM Forum, conduct GeoWERX demonstrations, host quarterly DoD Installation Geospatial Information and Services (IGI&S) Governance Group meeting, and update the Executive Advisory Group.
• LOE 4: Identify and support cadre of GWG Liaisons integrating into COI’s and Local Post activities.

GeoWERX:  GeoWERX is a live 3-day scenario driven demonstration executed annually during the Joint Engineer Training Conference & Expo (JETC). The goal of this event is simple- expand awareness and leveraging of geospatial engineering capabilities for better informed decisions, actions, and outcomes for all engineering missions.  Deeds, not words.

GeoWERX III – JETC 2023, San Antonio, Texas

• GeoWERX III (Story Map)
• GeoWERX III (Video)
• In Focus: Managing Assets at JETC (Article)

GeoWERX II – JETC 2022, Aurora, Colorado

• GeoWERX II (Story Map)
• GeoWERX II Geospatial Solution (Video)
• GeoWERX II – a Geospatial Engineering Demonstration at JETC (Announcement Video)

GeoWERX I – JETC 2019, Tampa, Florida (Video)

The Past and Future- Digital Twin:  Pursuit of infrastructure Digital Twins has a very long history, but modern interests have been ignited by continued and sustained advances in technologies making them more accessible.  The power of these types of capabilities are currently only limited by imagination and available resources; their potential return on investment- staggering. From traditional survey, BIM/ CAD, cartography, and GIS to Digital Twin, High-Definition Survey (HDS), sUAS, AI/ ML/ AR and beyond geospatial engineers continue to excel, showing the way!

The key is to think about geospatial technology not as playing one particular role but as adding unique capabilities and progressively more value at different stages of the digital twin journey.

• National Institute of Building Sciences Digital Twin Integration Sub-Committee

• Paper:  Digital twins for the built environment An introduction to the opportunities, benefits, challenges and risks

• Article:  Modelling and simulating cities with digital twins

Education Partnership:  SAME has entered a partnership with Bootcamp GIS to offer our members the latest program of geospatial industry short courses.  Engineers, planners, and environmental scientists can elevate their skills in the growing $18B Geographic Information System industry.  As a Subject Matter Expert platform, our members can apply to author a course or sign up as a student to learn applied skills.  You can take an individual course or earn a GIS certificate by taking six courses in six months.

SAME National Webinars

• 
  May 14, 2024

  Webinar

  Carbon Goals – Start Now, It’s Easier Than You Think

  Recently, artificial intelligence (AI) has been prevalent in the news, but did you know that AI in the energy industry has been around for over 20 years?  Over that time, its use has both grown and evolved; however, there are still foundational principles that remain for AI in the energy sector.
• 
  August 22, 2024

  Webinar

  Public-Private Partnership (P3) Opportunities for Fed Energy and Sustainability Projects

  The Federal Government of the United States, as the country’s largest real property asset holder, oversees approximately 500 million square feet of built environment.