Eastern Geographic Science Center
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Science |
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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.Status and Trends in Land Cover Change and Understanding the Causes and Consequences
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 streams 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.... Back to top Land Cover Dynamics and Environmental Processes
Flint River Vegetation Dynamics and Water AvailabilityWhy? Accurate and cost effective tools are needed to estimate the impacts that changes in climate, land use, and therefore streamflow will have on aquatic habitat and species abundance. What? Acquire knowledge of the impact that spatially and temporally variable land surface properties have on the hydrologic, geochemical, and energy fluxes of the watershed area that drains to the stream. More information.... 
Land Cover Dynamics and Environmental Processes ProjectWhy? People influence the availability and condition of water and biologic resources directly though their use and indirectly through modification of land cover. What? Develop, evaluate, and apply landscape process understanding to improve the hydrologic and biologic science used in decision-making at Federal, State, and Local government levels. More information.... 
Sudden Salt Marsh DiebackWhy? Sudden salt marsh dieback has consequently been identified as an issue of very high priority for both the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service in this region. What? Develop satellite-based remote sensing techniques that can be used to accurately determine the regional severity and extent of sudden salt marsh dieback. More information.... 
Detecting Evidence of Climate Change in the Forests of the Eastern United StatesWhy? Establish meteorological, land surface, and land cover tracking capabilities that form a foundation for an ecosystem monitoring network. What? Examine whether climate-change related signals in Shenandoah National Park canopy phenology are detectable in satellite imagery and explore the implications of any detected signal(s) for watershed hydrology in the region. More information.... 
South Florida Landscape DynamicsWhy? Provide restoration-critical information regarding past and current land surface characteristics of the Greater Everglades. What? Use remote sensing and geospatial analysis for improved landscape scale modeling and restoration monitoring. More information.... Back to top Partner-driven Decision Support Tools for Investigating Land Cover Change and Hazard-related Risk and Vulnerabilities
Land Use Portfolio Modeler-Ecosystems Analysis in South FloridaWhy? Intense pressures for development of the land outside of the Urban Development Boundary in Miami-Dade County, Florida, threaten to impact both the Everglades and Biscayne National Parks. What? In response, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with The National Park Service and the Wharton School of Economics, has developed a prototype for a Web-enabled geospatial information tool-the South Florida Ecosystem Portfolio Model, or EPM. More information.... 
Visualizing the Spread of West Nile Virus and Five Other Diseases across the United StatesWhy? Map out how the West Nile Virus has spread and is spreading across the United States. What? Configure maps, charts, and tables that track the spread, number of people affected, and the peak season of the virus. More information.... 
Web Application Framework DevelopmentWhy? Increasingly, decision makers at all levels are challenged not by the lack of information, but by the absence of effective tools to synthesize the large volume of data available, and to utilize the data to frame policy options in a straightforward and understandable manner. What? The EGSC is addressing the need for more acces¬sible, manageable data tools by developing a suite of Web-based geospatial applications that will incorporate USGS and cooperating partner data into the decision making process for a variety of critical issues. More information.... 
Web-based Land Cover Data Retrieval and Classification ToolsWhy? USGS’s National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD) is used widely by scientists and land managers to assess changes in land cover that affect water quality, wildlife habitat, human and animal population distribution, carbon storage related to global climate change, and other important environmental, ecological, and societal examples. What? USGS developed the Land Cover Analysis Tool (LCAT), a Web-based tool kit that allows users to quickly locate, display, and download NLCD data, including the recently developed NLCD Change Product, which displays changes in land cover between 1992 and 2001. More information.... 
Web Based Tools and Applications: Web Enabling a GIS-Based Decision Support System for Memphis, and Shelby County, TennesseeWhy? Historically, Shelby County has been the site of some of the largest earthquakes in North America. Planners in Memphis and other U.S. cities at risk from devastating earthquakes need decision support tools to help them develop more cost-effective hazard mitigation policies. What? The LUPM been has developed into an interactive, GIS-based decision support system that stakeholders can use to select locations in which to invest a hazard mitigation budget, evaluate metrics such as the mean and variance of community wealth, and compare and rank policies. More information.... |
U.S. Department of the Interior |
U.S. Geological Survey |
DOI Inspector General
URL: http://egsc.usgs.gov/science.html
Page Contact Information: Web Administrator
Page Last Modified: Monday, 28-Sep-2009 23:23:01 EDT
