Possible LIDAR funding source – 3DEP

I wanted to pass this along, since it is a change on how the federal government is funding LIDAR acquisition.

Thanks to Matt Artz for this information.  Click here to see his full article.

As outlined in the White House FACT SHEET: Taking Action to Support State, Local, and Tribal Leaders as They Prepare Communities for the Impacts of Climate Change (July 16, 2014), The Department of the Interior's U.S. Geological Survey and other Federal agencies are launching a 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) partnership designed to bring Federal agencies, academia, corporate entities, states, tribes, and communities together to develop advanced 3-dimensional mapping data of the United States. These data and related tools will be used in the areas of flood risk management, water resource planning, mitigation of coastal erosion and storm surge impacts, and identification of landslide hazards as an essential component of supporting action on climate resilience. 3DEP data are critical to many more applications, as documented in The National Enhanced Elevation Assessment.

As a follow-up, on July 18, 2014, the USGS issued a Broad Agency Announcement that provides detailed information on how to partner with the USGS and other Federal agencies to acquire high-quality 3D data. Information and contacts are now available at FedBizOps website. Offerors may contribute funds toward a USGS lidar data acquisition activity or they may request 3DEP funds toward a lidar data acquisition activity where the requesting partner is the acquiring authority. Federal agencies, state and local governments, tribes, academic institutions and the private sector are eligible to submit pre-proposals.