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USGS2025

Second Integrated Hydro-Terrestrial Modeling (IHTM 2.0) workshop: USGCRP federal agency perspectives

U.S. federal leadership, mobilizing close interagency coordination across sectors, is key to tackling compound climate and human impacts on our nation’s water resources. Recognizing this need, federal agencies and academic collaborators conducted a series of workshops to advance Integrated Hydro-Terrestrial Modeling (IHTM). IHTM is focused on supporting a multiscale framework to accelerate research insights, better integrate operational and planning perspectives, and bridge national-to-regional capabilities to address major interdependent societal water challenges. This framework leverages the capabilities of different agencies and institutional partners across sectors to advance a shared vision for use-inspired modeling and open science. The IHTM conceptual framework has developed over several community workshops in recent years: ● In September 2019, a community coordinating group on IHTM hosted an interagency workshop (“IHTM 1.0”) with support from NSF, DOE, and USGS. The resulting report identified the need for agencies to invest resources in designing pilot use cases, setting the stage for an integrated national IHTM capability. ● In November 2020, the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) held a virtual Coastal-IHTM (C-IHTM) workshop in collaboration with the MultiSector Dynamics Community of Practice, which engages researchers across universities and national labs. Building on IHTM 1.0, this workshop aimed to identify coastal modeling capabilities and appropriate coastal applications of the IHTM framework. The workshop report detailed needs for open science, geographical or topical use cases, integrated modeling frameworks, and linking communities of practice. ● From October 31 to November 2, 2023, USGCRP hosted a hybrid IHTM 2.0 community workshop that brought together 160 scientists and managers from nine federal departments/agencies (DHS-FEMA, DOC-NOAA, DoD-USACE, DOE, DOI [U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR), USGS], EPA, NASA, NSF, USDA [ARS, FS, NRCS]) and 32 non-federal academic, non-profit, and private institutions and consortiums. The workshop was organized by a federal Interagency Steering Committee with representatives from DOE, USGS, NSF, NASA, and NOAA, as well as a Scientific Organizing Committee comprising experts from academia and additional federal agency technical experts. The IHTM 2.0 workshop focused on moving the IHTM 1.0 concepts to action by making advances in designing national and regional integrated modeling experiments in five geographic testbeds. These modeling testbeds seek to facilitate collaborative water resources research and assessment that responds to societal needs, extending from basic research to resource management operations, including the assessment of water quantity, quality, and use at national and regional scales. Ultimately, we envision that the IHTM testbeds will improve our ability to provide water resources assessment scenarios to decision-makers and the public. This document summarizes USGCRP and member agencies’ perspectives of the IHTM 2.0 workshop. Sections 2 and 3 build on the work of the IHTM 2.0 workshop Scientific Organizing Committee to outline the importance of IHTM, summarize the workshop, and propose near- and medium-term IHTM priorities. Section 4 presents select ongoing and potential interagency activities that could help realize the IHTM 2.0 vision and align with three of USGCRP’s strategic goals for this decade: Advancing Science, Informing Decisions, and Engaging the Nation. Finally, Section 5 summarizes this report and offers information about how to connect with USGCRP’s IHTM activities. USGCRP and its member agencies are well-positioned to coordinate federal efforts to enhance IHTM capabilities in the coming years.

Conference Paper↗
USGS2025

U.S. Geological Survey Pollinator Science Strategy, 2025–35—A Review and Look Forward

This “U.S. Geological Survey Pollinator Science Strategy, 2025–35—A Review and Look Forward” (“Pollinator Science Strategy”) describes the science vision of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to support management, conservation, and policy decisions on animal pollinators and their habitats. As the science arm of the Department of the Interior, the USGS has a primary role in providing scientific information to natural resource managers and policymakers across the United States. This “Pollinator Science Strategy” was drafted by a team of USGS pollinator researchers and was further developed through feedback from Federal, State, Tribal, nongovernmental organizations, and industry partners. This “Pollinator Science Strategy” highlights the USGS’s role in the research to promote healthy pollinator populations and address partner information gaps so they can make more informed management decisions. By outlining the importance of USGS science in addressing the information needs of other agencies, organizations, and the public, the “Pollinator Science Strategy” reaffirms the USGS’s commitment to pollinator research and showcases our research priorities for 2025–35. With more than 300 research centers nationally, the USGS is equipped to address pollinator science across scales of complexity and geographic range. USGS pollinator science is organized according to the following five thematic areas: Assessing species ecology, distributions, and natural history requirements. Tracking species status and trends. Understanding species threats and stressors. Informing restoration and management actions. Developing novel methods for improving pollinator research, monitoring, and population outcomes that can benefit our Nation. Our pollinator information products and associated data are made widely available to the public to ensure scientific transparency and accessibility. This “Pollinator Science Strategy” concludes with several research goals that the USGS will work towards from 2025 to 2035, representing our vision for USGS science. These research goals include synthesizing and modernizing the latest information on pollinator threats, developing research that assists managers with habitat design and restoration, providing training to partners on native bee identification and monitoring design, and developing new technologies for assessing the status and trends of our nation’s pollinators.

Circular↗
USGS2009

Feature pruning by upstream drainage area to support automated generalization of the United States National Hydrography Dataset

The United States Geological Survey has been researching generalization approaches to enable multiple-scale display and delivery of geographic data. This paper presents automated methods to prune network and polygon features of the United States high-resolution National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) to lower resolutions. Feature-pruning rules, data enrichment, and partitioning are derived from knowledge of surface water, the NHD model, and associated feature specification standards. Relative prominence of network features is estimated from upstream drainage area (UDA). Network and polygon features are pruned by UDA and NHD reach code to achieve a drainage density appropriate for any less detailed map scale. Data partitioning maintains local drainage density variations that characterize the terrain. For demonstration, a 48 subbasin area of 1:24 000-scale NHD was pruned to 1:100 000-scale (100 K) and compared to a benchmark, the 100 K NHD. The coefficient of line correspondence (CLC) is used to evaluate how well pruned network features match the benchmark network. CLC values of 0.82 and 0.77 result from pruning with and without partitioning, respectively. The number of polygons that remain after pruning is about seven times that of the benchmark, but the area covered by the polygons that remain after pruning is only about 10% greater than the area covered by benchmark polygons. ?? 2009.

Computers, Environment and Urban Systems↗
USGS2011

Topographic mapping data semantics through data conversion and enhancement

This paper presents research on the semantics of topographic data for triples and ontologies to blend the capabilities of the Semantic Web and The National Map of the U.S. Geological Survey. Automated conversion of relational topographic data of several geographic sample areas to the triple data model standard resulted in relatively poor semantic associations. Further research employed vocabularies of feature type and spatial relation terms. A user interface was designed to model the capture of non-standard terms relevant to public users and to map those terms to existing data models of The National Map through the use of ontology. Server access for the study area triple stores was made publicly available, illustrating how the development of linked data may transform institutional policies to open government data resources to the public. This paper presents these data conversion and research techniques that were tested as open linked data concepts leveraged through a user-centered interface and open USGS server access to the public.

Book chapter↗
USGS1987

Overview of the land analysis system (LAS)

The Land Analysis System (LAS) is a fully integrated digital analysis system designed to support remote sensing, image processing, and geographic information systems research. LAS is being developed through a cooperative effort between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Space Flight Center and the U. S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation Systems (EROS) Data Center. LAS has over 275 analysis modules capable to performing input and output, radiometric correction, geometric registration, signal processing, logical operations, data transformation, classification, spatial analysis, nominal filtering, conversion between raster and vector data types, and display manipulation of image and ancillary data. LAS is currently implant using the Transportable Applications Executive (TAE). While TAE was designed primarily to be transportable, it still provides the necessary components for a standard user interface, terminal handling, input and output services, display management, and intersystem communications. With TAE the analyst uses the same interface to the processing modules regardless of the host computer or operating system. LAS was originally implemented at EROS on a Digital Equipment Corporation computer system under the Virtual Memorial System operating system with DeAnza displays and is presently being converted to run on a Gould Power Node and Sun workstation under the Berkeley System Distribution UNIX operating system.

Conference Paper↗
USGS1990

Catalog of US GeoData

The development of geographic information systems (GIS) is a rapidly growing industry that supports natural resources, studies, land management, environmental analysis, and urban and transporation planning. The increasing use of computers for storing and analyzing earth science information has greatly expanded the demand for digital cartographic and geographic data. Digital cartography involves the collection, storage, processing, analysis, and display of map data with the aid of computers. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the Nation's largest earth science research agency, through its National Mapping Program, has expanded digital cartography operations to include the collection of elevation, planimetric, land use and land cover, and geographic names information in digital form. This digital information is available on 9-track magnetic tapes and, in the case of 1:2,000,000-scale planimetric digital line graph data, in Compact Disc Read Only Memory (CD-ROM) format. Digital information can be used with all types of geographic and land information systems.

General Information Product↗
USGS2005

Geography for a Changing World - A science strategy for the geographic research of the U.S. Geological Survey, 2005-2015

This report presents a science strategy for the geographic research of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for the years 2005-2015. The common thread running through the vision, mission, and science goals presented in the plan is that USGS geographers will provide national leadership to understand coupled human-environmental systems in the face of land change and will deliver pertinent information to decisionmakers on the vulnerability and resilience of these systems. We define land change science as the study of the human and environment dynamics that give rise to changed land use, cover, and surface form. A number of realities shape the strategic context of this plan: The Department of Interior Strategic Plan focuses on meeting society’s resource needs and sustaining the Nation’s life support systems, underscoring the importance of characterizing and understanding coupled human-environmental systems. In redefining its mission in the mid-1990s, the USGS envisions itself as an integrated natural science and information agency. The USGS will assume a national leadership role in the use of science to develop knowledge about the web of relations that couple biophysical and human systems and translate this knowledge into unbiased, reliable information that meets important societal information needs. The following trends will influence USGS geography-oriented science activities over the next decade. Most of the emerging earth science issues that the USGS will address are geographic phenomena. A growing international concern for aligning society’s development activities with environmental limits has led to an articulation of a science agenda associated with global environmental change, vulnerability, and resilience. Earth science investigations have evolved toward the study of very large areas, and the resulting huge volumes of data are challenging to manage and understand. Finally, scientists and the public face the challenge of gaining intelligent insights about geographic and environmental processes from these data, with the ultimate goal of guiding resource-management decisions. The first four science goals in the plan support understanding the human and environmental dynamics of land change. Each science goal has an associated set of strategic actions to achieve the goal. These goals and actions are consistent with national science priorities and the Department of Interior and USGS missions, take advantage of existing expertise, and lead to the strengthening of critical geographic research capacities that do not exist in other USGS disciplines.

Circular↗
USGS2006

The 20th-Century Topographic Survey as Source Data for Long-Term Landscape Studies at Local and Regional Scales

Historical topographic maps are the only systematically collected data resource covering the entire nation for long-term landscape change studies over the 20th century for geographical and environmental research. The paper discusses aspects of the historical U.S. Geological Survey topographic maps that present constraints on the design of a database for such studies. Problems involved in this approach include locating the required maps, understanding land feature classification differences between topographic vs. land use/land cover maps, the approximation of error between different map editions of the same area, and the identification of true changes on the landscape between time periods. Suggested approaches to these issues are illustrated using an example of such a study by the author.

Open-File Report↗
USGS1985

US GeoData: Digital cartographic and geographic data

The increasing use of computers for storing and analyzing earth science information has sparked a growth in the demand for various types of cartographic data in digital form. The production of map data in computerized form is called digital cartography, and it involves the collection, storage, processing, analysis, and display of map data with the aid of computers. The U.S. Geological Survey, the Nation's largest earth science research agency, has expanded its national mapping program to incorporate operations associated with digital cartography, including the collection of planimetric, elevation, and geographic names information in digital form. This digital information is available for use in meeting the multipurpose needs and applications of the map user community.

General Information Product↗
USGS2009

Monitoring land use on military installations

The US Geological Survey's Land Cover Trends is a research projects aimed to understand the rates, trends, causes, and consequences of contemporary US land use and land-cover change. The project is using the EPA Level III eco-regions as a geographic framework to process geospatial data collected between 1973 and 2000 to characterize ecosystem responses to land-use changes. The results are expected to be used for collaborative environmental change consequences research with various partners including the National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The Land Cover project can provide geographic understanding of the state of the nation's ecosystems. The project is scheduled to be completed by 2010 and expected to provide an unbiased, national synthesis of land-cover changes.

Military Engineer↗
USGS2026

Mississippi’s resiliency and changing environmental conditions

Mississippi is experiencing shifts in environmental conditions, many of which are expected to intensify in the coming decades, and will have important implications for ecosystems, species, and natural resource management across the state. Historical climate analyses and downscaled projections summarized for the state’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) level III Ecoregions show that Mississippi will likely face increases in extremely hot days, more intense heatwaves, greater evapotranspiration, and reductions in cold-season extremes. Temperature trends indicate that while Mississippi has warmed relatively little over the last century, recent years have been among the warmest on record. Projections suggest substantial increases in the number of days with maximum temperatures at or above 95°F across all Ecoregions, particularly under higher warming scenarios. Correspondingly, the number of freezing nights is expected to decline, with statewide decreases of 7–21 days depending on the global warming level and timeframe. These combined patterns are likely to reshape habitat conditions, influence species’ thermal stress, and alter ecological processes such as soil moisture retention and stream temperature regimes. Mississippi’s hydrological systems are also expected to be significantly affected. Extreme rainfall events, particularly the most intense 1% of precipitation days, are projected to increase across the state, raising risks of flooding, erosion, and altered stream flow. Coastal Mississippi faces additional stress from sea‑level rise, which is already contributing to more frequent high‑tide flooding; projections show continued increases in inundation risk throughout the century. These flooding patterns, combined with stronger hurricane rainfall rates and the potential for landfalling storms to stall, pose ongoing threats to coastal ecosystems and communities. The state is also vulnerable to extreme weather hazards such as tornadoes. Recent research shows a geographic shift in tornado activity toward the Southeast, with Mississippi experiencing some of the nation’s greatest increases in favorable tornado days and nighttime tornado frequency—hazards that have direct implications for wildlife, habitat stability, and human safety. Drought conditions may intensify as well: higher temperatures and increased evapotranspiration during dry spells could worsen water stress regardless of uncertainty in average annual precipitation. These changing environmental conditions have important consequences for Mississippi’s Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN). Vulnerability assessments and ecological niche models indicate that several fish, mussel, crayfish, plant, amphibian, bird, and mammal species may face heightened stress due to warming temperatures, shifting hydrology, habitat loss, and increases in extreme events. For example, many cold‑water and moisture‑dependent species in the state’s rivers and wetlands are already near their thermal limits, and further warming could reduce suitable habitat. Birds breeding in bottomland hardwood forests, such as the Prothonotary Warbler, are increasingly susceptible to nest loss from flooding. Similarly, species like the Louisiana Black Bear may encounter higher risks from habitat inundation and shifting food availability. The “A Closer Look” section underscores the vulnerability of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain—one of the state’s most ecologically rich yet heavily altered Ecoregions. Its bottomland hardwood forests, wetlands, and floodplain habitats support diverse wildlife but are increasingly threatened by rising temperatures, hydrological changes, development pressures, and compounded disturbances. These habitats provide critical ecosystem services such as water filtration, flood attenuation, and biodiversity support, making their conservation particularly urgent under future conditions. Collectively, these findings indicate that Mississippi’s ongoing and projected environmental changes present both challenges and opportunities for natural resource management. Incorporating adaptation strategies into the State Wildlife Action Plan will be essential for sustaining habitats, mitigating risks, and supporting the long‑term resilience of Mississippi’s wildlife and ecosystems.

Mississippi↗
USGS2013

An evaluation of the individual components and accuracies associated with the determination of impervious area

The percentage of impervious surface area in a watershed has been widely recognized as a key indicator of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem condition. Although the use of the impervious indicator is widespread, there is currently no consistent or mutually accepted method of computing impervious area and the approach of various commonly used techniques varies widely. Further, we do not have reliable information on the components of impervious surfaces, which would be critical in any future planning attempts to remediate problems associated with impervious surface coverage. In cooperation with the USGS Geographic Analysis and Monitoring Program (GAM) and The National Map, and the EPA Landscape Ecology Program, this collaborative research project utilized very high resolution imagery and GIS techniques to map and quantify the individual components of total impervious area in six urban/suburban watersheds in different parts of the United States. These data were served as ground reference, or "truth," for the evaluation for four techniques used to compute impervious area. The results show some important aspects about the component make-up of impervious cover and the variability of methods commonly used to compile this critical emerging indicator of ecosystem condition.

GIScience and Remote Sensing↗
USGS1990

U.S. Geological Survey National Computer Technology Meeting; Program and abstracts, May 7-11, 1990

he Water Resources Division of the U.S. Geological Survey has made major advancements in the use of computer technology to meet the Survey‘s mission of providing the hydrologic information and understanding needed for the optimum use and management of the Nation’s water resources. The Division requires substantial computer technology to process, store, and analyze data from about 60,000 sites. To meet this workload, the Division organized its computer resources in 1982 through the Distributed Information System (DIS) Program Office, which manages the Division's national network of computers. The DIS is designed to provide computer resources in support of the Division’s current and future activities -acquisition and storage of hydrologic information, hydrologic data analysis, geographic information systems, reports and electronic report processing, and administration. The Water Resources Division sponsored the first DIS Site Administrators Meeting in March 1984 in Denver, Colorado, and a second meeting in October 198.5 in Hyannis, Massachusetts. The thrust of the first two national meetings was the training of Water Resources Division personnel in the use and administration of the Division’s computer hardware and software. Starting with the third meeting, which was held in Atlanta, Georgia, in May 1987, the name was changed to the National Computer Technology Meeting because the format evolved to include presentation of papers prepared by computer and scientific personnel in the Division. These papers document work done in the field of computer science as applied to hydrology, including the design and use of geographic information systems, use of nationally distributed software, the development of procedures for data-base management, and research papers on the expanding field of computer technology. Training continues to be a major part of the National Computer Technology Meeting. This year’s meeting includes training on the use of UNIX operating system, UNIX system administration and security, the C programming language, local area networking, as well as a publication seminar. This report includes abstracts for papers and posters that have been accepted for presentation at the Fifth National Computer Technology Meeting.

Open-File Report↗
USGS1998

Assessing simulated ecosystem processes for climate variability research at Glacier National Park, USA

Glacier National Park served as a test site for ecosystem analyses that involved a suite of integrated models embedded within a geographic information system. The goal of the exercise was to provide managers with maps that could illustrate probable shifts in vegetation, net primary production (NPP), and hydrologic responses associated with two selected climatic scenarios. The climatic scenarios were (a) a recent 12-yr record of weather data, and (b) a reconstituted set that sequentially introduced in repeated 3-yr intervals wetter–cooler, drier–warmer, and typical conditions. To extrapolate the implications of changes in ecosystem processes and resulting growth and distribution of vegetation and snowpack, the model incorporated geographic data. With underlying digital elevation maps, soil depth and texture, extrapolated climate, and current information on vegetation types and satellite-derived estimates of leaf area indices, simulations were extended to envision how the park might look after 120 yr. The predictions of change included underlying processes affecting the availability of water and nitrogen. Considerable field data were acquired to compare with model predictions under current climatic conditions. In general, the integrated landscape models of ecosystem processes had good agreement with measured NPP, snowpack, and streamflow, but the exercise revealed the difficulty and necessity of averaging point measurements across landscapes to achieve comparable results with modeled values. Under the extremely variable climate scenario significant changes in vegetation composition and growth as well as hydrologic responses were predicted across the park. In particular, a general rise in both the upper and lower limits of treeline was predicted. These shifts would probably occur along with a variety of disturbances (fire, insect, and disease outbreaks) as predictions of physiological stress (water, nutrients, light) altered competitive relations and hydrologic responses. The use of integrated landscape models applied in this exercise should provide managers with insights into the underlying processes important in maintaining community structure, and at the same time, locate where changes on the landscape are most likely to occur.

Montana↗
USGS2007

Management and analysis of water-use data using a geographic information system

As part of its mission, the U.S. Geological Survey conducts water-resources research. Site-specific and aggregate water-use data are used in the Survey's National Water-Use Information Program and in various hydrologic investigations. Both types of activities have specific requirements in terms of water-use data access, analysis, and display. In Kansas, the Survey obtains water-use information from several sources. Typically, this information is in a format that is not readily usable by the Survey. Geographic information system (GIS) technology is being used to restructure the available water-use data into a format that allows users to readily access and summarize site-specific water-use data by source (i.e., surface or ground water), type of use, and user-defined area.

Water Resources Bulletin↗
USGS2000

Northeastern Gulf of Mexico Coastal and Marine Ecosystem Program: Coastal Characterization: an overview and update

The U.S. Geological Surveys Biological Resources Division (BRD) mission is to provide leadership in gathering, analyzing, and disseminating biological information as support for sound management of the Nation's natural resources. Since becoming operational in October of 1996 through the transfer of programs from various bureaus within the Department of the Interior, the BRD, in cooperation with other Federal, State, and local partners, has begun research, inventory and monitoring, information sharing, and technology transfer. Through these activities, the BRD is fostering an understanding of biological systems and their benefits to society, and providing the essential scientific support and technical assistance required for management and policy decisions. The role of BRD' s National Wetlands Research Center (NWRC) in Lafayette, Louisiana, with project offices in Baton Rouge, LA and Gulf Breeze, FL, is to provide leadership in research and development related to the Nation's natural resources for the Southeast. The research focuses on wetlands ecology, animal ecology, and the development and application of spatial analysis techniques for natural resource related studies. Current geographic information system (GIS) technologies in use at NWRC are designed to provide natural resource managers with the on-line data and computerized techniques necessary to make informed decisions. Major GIS activities at NWRC include: compilation and analysis of digital databases for monitoring of natural resources; integration and transfer of databases with existing digital databases from various sources into a comprehensive GIS; and development of multifunctional decision support systems for natural resource managers using these data. NWRC is also an active participant in the National Information Infrastructure (NIT), in particular the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) and the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBTI), which will facilitate the dissemination of research results and other knowledge and information gained from these efforts. This summary and the three summaries that follow provides an overview and update of a four year study entitled, Northeastern Gulf of Mexico Coastal and Marine Ecosystem Program: Coastal Characterization.

Minerals Management Service↗
USGS1996

National Digital Orthophoto Program

A critical component of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) is Framework. Framework provides a base on which to collect, register, and integrate geospatial information accurately and consistently. The Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) proposed that Framework include geodetic control, orthoimagery, elevation, transportation, hydrography, governmental units, and cadastral data. The Mapping Science Committee of the National Research Council recommends that geodetic control, orthoimagery, and elevation data become the critical foundation of the NSDI. The National Digital Orthophoto Program (NDOP) is a working model on how Federal, State, and local government, as well as private industry, can participate to develop the orthoimagery Framework for the Nation.

Report↗
USGS1997

USGS Wildland Fire Workshop, EROS Data Center, Sioux Falls, SD, July 9-10, 1997

Report on the first workshop on USGS wildland fire expertise and capabilities. The workshop brought together operational and research representatives ofthe Federal fire management agencies to initiate a more comprehensive assessment ofthe USGS's capabilities and the appropriate role(s) for USGS interaction and involvement with the fire community. The report discusses how the USGS can play a significant role in wildland fire research and offer the fire community several unique capabilities. Foremost capability is the role as data producer; fire detection, assessment, ecological modeling, and rehabilitation and restoration relying on digital elevation models, digital line-graphs, national technical means, and image data are also discussed. The bureau offers technical expertise using geographic information systems (GIS), image processing and analysis, data base management and clearinghouse experience, and access to national technical means data. The bureau must exploit the USGS's expertise and prominence in wildland fire research. The USGS is an experienced player in fire ecology, fire assessment, and fuels loading research. Finally, the USGS also offers strong interdisciplinary experience in watershed and geologic landslide modeling, which is key for assessing postfire effects.

Report↗