Jul 18, 2019

Doug D. Nebert NSDI Champion of the Year Award: HIFLD

ArdentMC’s HIFLD Clients, Program Staff, and Subcontractors recognized with the 2018 Doug D. Nebert National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) Champion of the Year Award, for excellence in delivery during the 2017 Hurricane Season.

(July 17, 2019 – Rosslyn, VA) – ArdentMC is proud to announce that its Federal customers, employees, and partner organizations have been recognized directly by the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) with the 2018 Doug D. Nebert National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) Champion of the Year Award for excellence in delivery of the Homeland Infrastructure Foundation- Level Data (HIFLD) Program during the 2017 Hurricane Season.

In response to the devastating effects of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, ArdentMC’s HIFLD team worked tirelessly and collaboratively to provide a common centralized open site, using GeoPlatform.gov, to host and publish unclassified publicly available geospatial data, applications, tools, and web services.  HIFLD4Harvey and HIFLD4Irma (which was also used to support Hurricane Maria) served as critical repositories of open geospatial data and web services to 12,850+ users with over 2,920 downloads in a little over 30 days of being launched. These portals became a key authoritative source of relevant data for use by local, state, federal, tribal, private-sector organizations helping with response and recovery efforts. This ‘first-of-its-kind’ type of operational response of HIFLD has been met with great enthusiasm and direct positive feedback from the Executive Office of the White House, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and especially to the Urban Search & Rescue Teams as they arrived on scene.

“The HIFLD initiative embodies the principles within OMB Circular A-16, applies National Geospatial Data Asset (NGDA) data for decision-making, and meets all eight foundational precepts of the Doug D. Nebert Award selection criteria” said Dr Timothy Petty, Chair of the FGDC. “Please join me in congratulating the HIFLD Team on their award.”

“This is a tremendous honor for ArdentMC! I could not be prouder of our employees and to share this amazing National-level recognition with our customers (the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the US Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of the Interior) as well as our HIFLD delivery partners (Booz Allen Hamilton Inc, Esri, and the National Alliance for Public Safety GIS).” Said Brandon LaBonte, CEO of ArdentMC.  “The entire effort meant rapidly leveraging the power of partnerships to apply state-of-the-art geospatial technology and open data to help our Nation bounce back in the wake of these terrible storms.”

About ArdentMC

Virginia-based software development firm, Ardent Management Consulting (ArdentMC) is a certified HUBZone Small Business Administration (SBA), CMMI Dev 3 company with offices in Arlington, VA and Tulsa, OK. ArdentMC brings a significant history of providing software development, modernization, and coaching services, with ongoing contract engagements in many DHS mission components and in the commercial sector. For more information on ArdentMC visit www.ardentmc.com or call 703-964-8010.

About the Doug D. Nebert NSDI Champion of the Year Award

This award recognizes an individual or a team representing Federal, State, Tribal, regional, and (or) local government, academia, or non­profit and professional organization that has developed an outstanding, innovative, and operational tool, application, or service capability used by multiple organizations that furthers the vision of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI). The award honors Doug D. Nebert who was a respected colleague, technical visionary, and recognized national leader in the establishment of spatial data infrastructures (SDI).

The vision of the NSDI is to assure that spatial data from multiple sources—Federal, State, Tribal, regional, and local governments, academia, and the private sector—are available and easily integrated to enhance the understanding of our physical and cultural world.