Water as both resource and hazard affecting human security was the theme of a joint meeting of two working groups, the Homeland Infrastructure Foundation-Level Data (HIFLD) Working Group and the World Wide Human Geography Data (WWHGD) Working Group, held September 30–October 1 at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) campus in Springfield, Virginia. Keynote speakers included Ellen McCarthy, NGA chief operating officer; Monique Yates, director of the NGA Office of Geography; W. Craig Fugate, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency; and Lee Schwartz, geographer of the United States. CIESIN director Robert Chen gave a presentation on October 1 as part of a panel on water for humanitarian assistance and human security, highlighting key water-related data resources and research activities from the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) and other CIESIN projects. More than 300 participants from both governmental and nongovernmental organizations attended in person, with additional online participation from around the world.
Established in 2002, the HIFLD working group is a coalition of Federal, state, and local government organizations and supporting private industry partners that recently became a subcommittee of the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC). The WWHGD working group, established in 2011, is building voluntary partnerships around human geography data and mapping in support of human security data needs.
See:
World Wide Human Geography Data (WWHGD) Working Group
Homeland Infrastructure Foundation - Level Data (HIFLD) Working Group Online Community