Governor Phil Murphy • Lt. Governor Tahesha Way

NJ Geospatial Forum

About Task Forces

Task Forces are an important component of the NJGF. As a need arises, the Executive Committee can establish a Task Force to meet a defined set of goals over a specific period of time. Forum members can volunteer to participate on one or more Task Forces. Each Task Force has a liaison on the Executive Committee. It is through this liaison that Task Forces can formally bring issues to the Executive Committee for discussion. If necessary, the issue can be raised at a NJGF meeting, and go as high as the Governor's Office for action. Thus, the members of Task Forces are truly empowered.  

Current Task Forces:

 

Trails Task Force

Mission: To develop a methodology for creating and maintaining statewide datasets of trails and trailheads.

Goals:

  • Identify stakeholder needs & uses of dataset
  • Identify types of trails to be mapped
  • Discuss existing data standards
  • Inventory existing trail datasets in NJ
  • Develop attribute and schema standards
  • Identify a strategy for creating, updating, and hosting data

Chair: Tanya Nolte
Co-Chair: Mackenzie Piggot

Executive Committee Liaison: Tanya Nolte

 

Geodetic Task Force

Mission: To get a comprehensive understanding of the National Spatial Reference System 2022 being put forth by the National Geodetic Survey and potential impacts and plan to implement statewide.

Goals:

  • Research and provide guidance on Transformation tools between datums and State Plane systems.
  • Produce Best Practice and Standards documents for data and metadata, including model RFP language.
  • Collect and produce educational materials for the Geospatial Community. Plan publicity campaign for professional groups and decision makers.
  • The New Jersey Society of Professional Land Surveyors (NJSPLS) will facilitate necessary legislation changes. The task force will communicate these changes, keeping the forum membership informed.

Chair: Stephen Eckhardt

Executive Committee Liaison: Gary Veenstra

 

Utilities/Public Works

Mission: To develop metadata field standards that span across multiple industries to maintain utility assets within the State’s utility sectors by utilizing field standards common to everyday use. The task force will be broken out into four subcommittees: Electric, Gas, Sewer/Storm, and Water.

Goals:

  • Identify stakeholder needs and use cases for specific industries
  • Develop schema (fields) that are common to a specific industry, and thus can be utilized in GIS
  • Open discussion of data standards, or what we envision the standards will be
  • Inventory existing sewer/stormwater/water, etc. that constitutes these industries and how we can leverage existing standards (National Association of Sewer Service Companies (NASSCO) Pipeline Assessment Certification Program (PACP), etc.)
  • Develop/standardize attributes/fields using existing schema (we can work on modifying these fields bringing in Esri and NASSCO, as an example)
  • Identify the process of how we can update the fields
  • Host and collaborate with other agencies who would like input in the process
  • Develop watershed-based modeling for both storm and wastewater
  • Integrate stormwater assets into the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD)

Chair: Dom Elefante
Co-Chair: Christopher McClain

Executive Committee Liaison: Gary Veenstra

Subcommittees:

  • Electric
  • Gas
  • Sewer/Storm
  • Water