Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Policy, Management and Budget Scott Cameron announced the launch of the new Geospatial One-Stop portal at the 2005 Annual Conference of the National Association of Counties meeting in Hawaii today.

The faster, more efficient www.geodata.gov is an online tool for combining thousands of geospatial resources from federal, state, local, tribal and private sources. The portal enables decision-makers to access geospatial resources and respond more quickly during an emergency to protect lives, property and basic services. Geospatial One-Stop provides access to more than 72,000 federal, state and local government geospatial resources.

Specific portal improvements include the addition of the Google search appliance and a new "community" allowing better tracking, prediction and discussion of wildfires.

"There is no doubt that www.geodata.gov serves as a critical information resource during emergencies," Cameron said. "As multiple hurricanes pummeled the Southeast last year, decision-makers could do everything from viewing real-time weather maps of the United States to using stream-gaging tools to assess streams approaching flood stage."

In addition to emergency response, www.geodata.gov facilitates long-term collaboration related to transportation planning, social services, regional planning and environmental protection.

Federal, state and local partnerships for data-sharing are at the heart of Geospatial One-Stop and Geodata.gov.

"Geospatial One-stop version 2 is now available for our partners to view, and I encourage partners to provide feedback," Cameron said. "Our commitment to our partners and those we serve is to provide a product that meets their needs, and feedback is one-way of knowing if we hit or missed the mark."

The portal aims to improve access to geospatial data and resources, making it easier for citizens and businesses to interact with the government while saving taxpayer dollars and streamlining government-to-government transactions.

The administration launched Geospatial One-Stop in November 2001 as one of 24 e-government initiatives to help make federal technology resources more accessible to state, local and tribal governments. The www.geodata.gov portal was launched in June 2003. The development of the latest, enhanced version of the portal has been underway since early spring 2005.