Geodesy is the fundamental science of geospace. It supports and drives innovation in geospatial technology, the ~ $ 1 trillion/year geospatial economy, and the geospatial systems of nearly all military platforms and activities. In the early 1990s the U.S. government, especially the Department of Defense (DOD), largely disinvested in academic research and education in geodesy. In contrast, the countries of the European Union that contributed the most to the development of geodesy in the preceding centuries have maintained healthy academic training and research programs, which is also the case in Japan, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Furthermore, in the early 2000’s, China began to make large and ever-growing investments in geodetic training and research. It now has more Ph.D. geodesists than the rest of the world combined. During this time period the greatest national collapse in geodetic capability occurred in the U.S., as its geodesists steadily retired, and most were not replaced. The Chinese military and defense industries now have access to hundreds of Ph.D. geodesists. Perhaps the most shocking example of the U.S. decline relative to China is that the number of Ph.D. geodesists in the entire DOD, including the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), is now approaching zero. The same is true of the U.S. defense industry. The U.S. is on the verge of being permanently eclipsed in geodesy and in the downstream geospatial technologies. This threatens our national security and poses major risks to an economy that is strongly tied to the geospatial revolution, on Earth and, eventually, in space.
Averting these dangers at such a late date will require the U.S. to invest in geodetic research and training on an industrial scale. We recommend three distinct modes of training necessary to reverse the capacity crisis, and a more diverse and robust approach to the funding of geodetic research. There must be a major increase in funding for basic and applied research in geodesy and in the allied disciplines and technologies. This research should take place in academia, industry and government/DOD labs. All of the U.S. government’s geospatial agencies and services should be involved in the direction and funding of that research, to make that process more robust, and to ensure that all the important R&D issues are explored and addressed. A parallel educational effort should incorporate three complementary modes of training: (i) open-access, self-paced, no barrier to entry, internet-based instruction in geodesy designed to recruit large numbers of STEM students into the geodesy and adjacent disciplines, (ii) in-house training programs within the geospatial agencies of the U.S., and (iii) specialized training for the next generation of geodetic researchers. The third mode is necessarily tied to a major expansion of basic geodetic research in academia.
The situation in academia is particularly urgent because if it is not addressed very soon the U.S. will lose its ability to take corrective action at the scale required to avoid permanent disadvantage.