[Jolter]

Crucially, the thing they was recently de-funded was not mapping but the federal agency that does hydrology. Hydrology being the science of how water flows in the environment around us.

For example, using GIS data combined with meteorological forecasts, a hydrological model may predict water levels of rivers or flood plains. If nobody is around to run the hydrological model on today’s data, you’re not getting your flood warning today.