Vision

NDOP was formed with the purpose of developing and promoting a national strategy that acquires or accesses the best orthoimagery data for Federal agencies while flexible enough to create partnerships with State, local, tribal, and private organizations.

Goals:

• Creating partnerships with Federal, State, and local governments, tribal and private organizations.
• Leveraging consortium resources to satisfy multiple requirements and to minimize redundant data production.
• Assuring availability of, and public access to, digital orthoimagery and associated metadata from distributed databases.
• Investigating, evaluating, promoting ,and implementing new technologies to improve orthoimagery accuracy; data acquisition, processing, and access; maintenance strategies; and derivative products.
• Performing cost benefit studies and government cost estimates to ensure the federal government and its partners obtain the most cost efficient orthoimagery products possible.
• Supporting coordination and standards goals, and objectives established by Federal, National and International Standards organizations such as the FGDC, the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NDSI), American National Standards Institute (ANSI), and the International Organization of Standardization (ISO).

• Orthoimagery coverage for all 50 states, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and other U.S. territories and possessions.
• Develop and promote a national strategy that acquires or accesses the best value orthoimagery data for Federal agencies, yet flexible enough to create partnerships with State, local, tribal, and private organizations.
• Create and distribute annual maintenance plans that graphically depict on-going and planned activities.
• Implement variable-length maintenance cycles that support Federal requirements, and are coordinated with State orthoimagery maintenance programs.
• As much as possible, support a variety of open source, non-proprietary imagery types and formats.
• Support the maintenance and archiving of imagery and digital orthoimagery and associated metadata as part of the national database. Maintain all imagery in the public domain, where possible.
• Support the integration of orthoimagery data into seamless orthoimagery databases of variable resolution.
• Investigate the accessibility, accuracy, integration, and application of data collection from emerging technologies, including, but not limited to: airborne digital and satellite sensors, lidar, and ifsar systems.
• Coordinate Federal and State agency imagery requirements and agreements through the NDOP Subcommittee Program Management Subgroup, Federal, USGS State liaison staff, and State GIS councils/committees or the equivalent. State GIS councils will be, where appropriate, the coordinating body for state and local requirements.
• Support the use of aerial or satellite acquisition strategies when applicable, to provide efficient and practical alternatives to cover specific areas of interest.
• Be aware of Federal and State Emergency Operations requirements to assure data processing and distribution capabilities facilitate data use in time of emergency.