The Harlow Report

The Harlow Report-GIS

2023 Edition


ISSN 0742-468X
Since 1978
On-line Since 2000



first published week of:   02/13/2023

 Remember When?
A "Harlow Report" From September 4, 2009

MAPPS To Testify On Parcel-Based GIS As Early Warning System For Mortgage Crisis


by MAPPS

MAPPS, the association of private geospatial firms, will testify before Congress to advocate the use of national parcel data and other geospatial technologies to provide transparency and accountability for oversight of Federal financial services programs.

Susan Marlow, President, Smart Data Strategies (Franklin, TN), chair of the MAPPS cadastre task force, will testify before the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Committee on Financial Services.

The hearing, “Utilizing Technology to Improve TARP and Financial Oversight” will focus on how technology can be used to ensure federal agencies provide strong, coordinated oversight of financial services activity. Ms Marlow will discuss the role geospatial technology can play to provide transparency and accountability for programs, such as TARP, and be an early warning system for disruptions in the market, such as increased foreclosures. Her testimony will explain how the technology provides a method for tracking assets, such as the portfolio of mortgages the Federal government now holds, and other applications ranging from health care to climate change. She will call on Congress to amend the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) to require data collection at the parcel level.

Ms Marlow was a member of the National Research Council panel that produced the report, “National Land Parcel Data: A Vision for the Future.” She will tell Congress the challenge to creating a national cadastre or parcel system in the NSDI “is not technical, it is political and institutional” and was first identified as such in the 1980 National Academy study, “Need for a Multipurpose Cadastre.”


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