Geology topics

Rudy Schuster

Publications and source records attributed to Rudy Schuster.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS2026

Monitoring recreation on federally managed lands and waters—Aspects of visitor use

Federally managed public lands and waters receive around 1 billion recreational visits each year. Data on these visitors can aid in guiding policy decisions, managing resources effectively, and communicating the economic contributions of lands and waters. This report explores the methods used by agencies to collect data on aspects of recreational visitor use to Federal lands and waters (apart from visitation numbers, which are the focus of a companion publication). Aspects of recreational visitor use include visitor demographics, recreational activity participation, visitor satisfaction, visitor attitudes and experiences, trip characteristics, and economic contributions. We review practices used to understand aspects of visitor use across seven Federal agencies, revealing similarities such as the use of visitor intercept surveys and coverage of similar topic areas, and differences in how survey programs are operationalized and how specific questions on visitor surveys are worded. We also evaluate emerging technologies, such as geolocated social media and mobile device location data, for their potential to aid in understanding aspects of visitor use. This report concludes with potential opportunities to enhance data collection and coordination, ensuring cost- effective data collection and informed decision making.

Scientific Investigations Report↗

USGS2026

Cultural benefits knowledge and social learning in Elwha River dam removal and ecosystem decision-making

In a retrospective case study of the seminal Elwha River dam removal in Washington State, USA, we explore pathways through which ecosystem services (ES) knowledge can inform environmental decision-making. We specifically investigate how knowledge of cultural benefits linked to the Elwha River ecosystem was made available. Through interviews and historical document review we identify diverse forms of cultural benefits knowledge (i.e., how individuals or groups know the contributions of an ecosystem to their identities, experiences, and capabilities), including both knowledge in the form of practices – embodied or enacted forms of knowledge, and knowledge in the form of products – quantitative or written documentation. Recognizing and learning from the diverse forms in which benefits knowledges are conveyed can support more accurate and equitable consideration of the diverse values, well-beings, and human-nature relationships linked to ecosystems. With this case study, we illuminate pathways for meaningful consideration of multiple knowledge forms, and the plural ecosystem values they convey, with relevance for environmental decision processes in the Puget Sound and beyond.

Washington↗

USGS2026

Monitoring recreation on federally managed lands and waters—Aspects of visitor use

Federally managed public lands and waters receive about 1 billion recreational visits each year. Data on these visitors can aid in guiding policy decisions, managing resources effectively, and communicating the economic contributions of lands and waters. This report explores the methods used by agencies to collect data on aspects of recreational visitor use to Federal lands and waters (apart from visitation numbers, which are the focus of a companion publication). Aspects of recreational visitor use include visitor demographics, recreational activity participation, visitor satisfaction, visitor attitudes and experiences, trip characteristics, and economic contributions. We review practices used to understand aspects of visitor use across seven Federal agencies, revealing similarities such as the use of visitor intercept surveys and coverage of similar topic area, and differences in how survey programs are operationalized and how specific questions on visitor surveys are worded. We also evaluate emerging technologies, such as geolocated social media and mobile device location data, for their potential to aid in understanding aspects of visitor use. This report concludes with potential opportunities to enhance data collection and coordination, ensuring cost-effective data collection and informed decision-making.

SocArXiv↗

USGS2025

Using public participatory geographic information systems (PPGIS) to explore uses and values for Mojave Trails National Monument, California

Many people ascribe a variety of values to public lands and waters, but some values are more difficult to assess and quantify than others. Public participatory geographic information systems (PPGIS) are tools that have been used to help quantify and map the public’s diverse values for a landscape. This work describes the first known Office of Management and Budget–approved use of PPGIS by a Department of the Interior bureau. The U.S. Geological Survey developed an internet-based application to aid in gathering PPGIS data, called Values Mapping for Planning in Regional Ecosystems (VaMPIRE). Further, this work describes the first pilot of the VaMPIRE application in coordination with the Bureau of Land Management to collect spatial data and other survey data regarding the public’s uses of and values for locations within Mojave Trails National Monument. We emailed the link to the VaMPIRE application to an interested party email list in 2024 with 207 valid emails and received 74 responses; we also received 47 responses from members of an off-roading social media group. Of the list of 16 value options, recreation was the most popular value for the monument, followed by wilderness and inspirational. Over 1,000 points were placed throughout the monument, indicating locations people use or value, with the locations spread throughout the entire monument. Additionally, most survey respondents stated their ability to receive benefits in locations they mapped would not change in response to a hypothetical scenario related to recreational facility development. This report describes exploratory results from the first use of the VaMPIRE tool in Mojave Trails National Monument and includes reflections on how the process went and considerations for future use of VaMPIRE.

California↗

USGS2025

Scoping decision-maker needs and science availability to support regional natural capital accounting in the U.S. Colorado River Basin

Natural capital accounting has the potential to yield important policy insights at multiple scales, but there remains a disconnect between regional-scale natural capital accounts and their use for informing policy. In this paper, we propose a roadmap that could lead to the creation of policy-relevant regional accounts, with steps split across an initial scoping phase and a subsequent development phase. We demonstrate the scoping steps in action with an application to the Colorado River Basin (“Basin”), a large watershed in the southwestern United States (U.S.) that has faced aridification and substantial high-profile tradeoffs around the use of its water and other natural resources. Drawing on prior U.S. Geological Survey science co-production efforts, we conducted a series of eight discussion sessions with 41 scientists and science representatives whose work is relevant to Basin water, riparian and riverine ecosystems, upland ecosystems and energy and minerals. We summarise participants' thoughts on key topics and economic linkages, their insights and questions of interest and their recommendations on existing scientific data sources and gaps. We evaluate the suitability of the available data for construction of System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) Central Framework and SEEA Ecosystem Accounting accounts, including those for land, water, forests, energy and minerals and ecosystems (covering extent, condition and ecosystem services). We present a series of lessons learned during the scoping phase, as well as lessons that could be relevant for future practitioners engaging in the development phase. The information can help guide the development of timely and relevant regional-scale environmental-economic accounts in the U.S. and beyond.

Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico,↗