Eastern Geographic Science Center
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Status and Trends |
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Eastern Geographic Science CenterEGSC scientists monitor and analyze changes on the land, study connections between people and the land, and provide relevant science information to inform decision making. Learn more about our research activities by selecting your topics of interest below.
Best Management Practices in Developing LandscapesWhy? Land use change and development alters surface water flow patterns and affects landscape water quality, quantity, and timing, impacting area steams and downstream estuaries and ecosystems. What? Study specific structures and actions that are designed to mitigate the negative environmental effects of land use change. More information.... 
Causes and Consequences of Land Use and Land Cover Changes in the Chesapeake Bay WatershedWhy? Over the next 30-years, continued changes to the landscape due to human activities and climate pose great challenges to our ability to restore and maintain the ecosystem. What? The goals of this project are to (1) inform local and state decision-makers of the causes and consequences of land change to water quality, habitat, and hazards in the Chesapeake Bay, (2) enhance monitoring of past and present land change patters, and to (3) evaluate the impacts of past, present, and future land changes to water quality and ecosystems. More information.... 
EGSC Landscape TrendsWhy? Characterize the types, rates, and temporal variability of change for a 30-year period. Document regional driving forces and consequences of change. Prepare a national synthesis of land cover change. What? Document the types, geographic distributions, and rates of land cover change on a region-by-region basis from 1973 to 200 for the conterminous U.S., and determine some of the key drivers and consequences of the changes. More information.... 
EGSC Land Cover Change-National Land Cover Database (NLCD)Why? NLCD 2006 will lay the foundation for the MRLC partners' goal of making NLCD a land cover monitoring program. Integrated with ongoing efforts to develop change products for NLCD 1992 and NLCD 2001, NLCD 2006 will contribute to a consistent, nationwide land cover monitoring program. What? Use change detection, land cover classification, and other analytical and GIS techniques to generate NLCD 2006 land cover and imperviousness layers. More information.... 
Enhancements of the SLEUTH Urban-Growth Model for Regional UseWhy? Reduce the computer memory requirements of the SLEUTH model because the input images employed for regional modeling are substantially larger than those used in earlier USGS work. This will speed up processing during model calibration. What? Produce a modified version of the SLEUTH model for use in modeling regional growth within the Chesapeake Bay watershed. More information.... 
Loosely couple the Chesapeake Bay Land Cover Model with the Chesapeake Bay Program Watershed Model, SPARROW, and with Groundwater and Habitat ModelsWhy? The Chesapeake Bay is listed as an impaired water body under the Clean Water Act due to poor water-quality conditions because of low dissolved oxygen levels and poor water-clarity conditions related to nutrient and sediment pollution. What? The U.S. Geological Survey and the EPA Chesapeake Bay Program are developing the Chesapeake Online Adaptive Support Tool Kit (COAST), a Web-based framework of tools and information to help meet the needs of CBP partners by applying adaptive management principles to decision making. More information.... 
National Land Change Community Modeling SystemWhy? Inject credible alternative land-cover futures into the formation of public policy at all levels of government. What? Evolve the NLCCM into an integrated mosaic of regional and national models which will serve as a bridge between local-extant models and global models. More information.... 
Operation of the Research and Development Computer Cluster (Beowulf)Loosely couple the Chesapeake Bay Land Cover Model with the Chesapeake Bay Program Watershed Model, SPARROW, and with Groundwater and Habitat ModelsWhy? The Beowulf expands USGS capabilities in quantitative geography beyond those agreeable to solutions with conventional desktop geographic information systems. What? Address the need for general, professionally administered computational systems. More information.... |
U.S. Department of the Interior |
U.S. Geological Survey |
DOI Inspector General
URL: http://egsc.usgs.gov/archivescience1test_statusandchange.html
Page Contact Information: Web Administrator
Page Last Modified: Thursday, 16-Jul-2009 10:36:37 EDT
