Perspective on Department of Energy geospatial science: Past, present, and future

For many decades, the Department of Energy (DOE) has been an international leader in basic scientific and engineering research that utilizes geospatial science to advance the state of knowledge in disciplines impacting national security, energy sustainability, environmental stewardship, and associated basic research. However, the realized benefits from cross-cutting geospatial science contributions have fallen short of what they could have been with greater collaboration across the DOE complex, stronger emphasis on core geographic information science (GIScience) research and development to support advanced applications, increased strategic institutional support (e.g., for management of legacy data), and additional education and outreach concerning how geospatial science can benefit DOE programs and operations. We propose a vision for DOE's geospatial science based on expanded collaboration to address major national problems, additional advanced GIScience research and development, and a long-term strategy to better manage DOE's geospatial science resources (personnel, facilities, shared data, etc.).