Search USGS⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search USGS

Results for “Information Systems”

Search indexed USGS publications on groundwater, aquifers, geologic maps, mineral resources and earthquakes. Explore source records by subject and place.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources
USGS1983

Geotherm: the U.S. geological survey geothermal information system

GEOTHERM is a comprehensive system of public databases and software used to store, locate, and evaluate information on the geology, geochemistry, and hydrology of geothermal systems. Three main databases address the general characteristics of geothermal wells and fields, and the chemical properties of geothermal fluids; the last database is currently the most active. System tasks are divided into four areas: (1) data acquisition and entry, involving data entry via word processors and magnetic tape; (2) quality assurance, including the criteria and standards handbook and front-end data-screening programs; (3) operation, involving database backups and information extraction; and (4) user assistance, preparation of such items as application programs, and a quarterly newsletter. The principal task of GEOTHERM is to provide information and research support for the conduct of national geothermal-resource assessments. The principal users of GEOTHERM are those involved with the Geothermal Research Program of the U.S. Geological Survey. Information in the system is available to the public on request. ?? 1983.

Computers & Geosciences↗
USGS2007

Somerset County Flood Information System

The timely warning of a flood is crucial to the protection of lives and property. One has only to recall the floods of August 2, 1973, September 16 and 17, 1999, and April 16, 2007, in Somerset County, New Jersey, in which lives were lost and major property damage occurred, to realize how costly, especially in terms of human life, an unexpected flood can be. Accurate forecasts and warnings cannot be made, however, without detailed information about precipitation and streamflow in the drainage basin. Since the mid 1960's, the National Weather Service (NWS) has been able to forecast flooding on larger streams in Somerset County, such as the Raritan and Millstone Rivers. Flooding on smaller streams in urban areas was more difficult to predict. In response to this problem the NWS, in cooperation with the Green Brook Flood Control Commission, installed a precipitation gage in North Plainfield, and two flash-flood alarms, one on Green Brook at Seeley Mills and one on Stony Brook at Watchung, in the early 1970's. In 1978, New Jersey's first countywide flood-warning system was installed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in Somerset County. This system consisted of a network of eight stage and discharge gages equipped with precipitation gages linked by telephone telemetry and eight auxiliary precipitation gages. The gages were installed throughout the county to collect precipitation and runoff data that could be used to improve flood-monitoring capabilities and flood-frequency estimates. Recognizing the need for more detailed hydrologic information for Somerset County, the USGS, in cooperation with Somerset County, designed and installed the Somerset County Flood Information System (SCFIS) in 1990. This system is part of a statewide network of stream gages, precipitation gages, weather stations, and tide gages that collect data in real time. The data provided by the SCFIS improve the flood forecasting ability of the NWS and aid Somerset County and municipal agencies in the planning and execution of flood-preparation and emergency-evacuation procedures in the county. This fact sheet describes the SCFIS and identifies its benefits.

Fact Sheet↗
USGS2010

The CEOS-Land Surface Imaging Constellation Portal for GEOSS: A resource for land surface imaging system information and data access

The Committee on Earth Observation Satellites is an international group that coordinates civil space-borne observations of the Earth, and provides the space component of the Global Earth Observing System of Systems (GEOSS). The CEOS Virtual Constellations concept was implemented in an effort to engage and coordinate disparate Earth observing programs of CEOS member agencies and ultimately facilitate their contribution in supplying the space-based observations required to satisfy the requirements of the GEOSS. The CEOS initially established Study Teams for four prototype constellations that included precipitation, land surface imaging, ocean surface topography, and atmospheric composition. The basic mission of the Land Surface Imaging (LSI) Constellation [1] is to promote the efficient, effective, and comprehensive collection, distribution, and application of space-acquired image data of the global land surface, especially to meet societal needs of the global population, such as those addressed by the nine Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Societal Benefit Areas (SBAs) of agriculture, biodiversity, climate, disasters, ecosystems, energy, health, water, and weather. The LSI Constellation Portal is the result of an effort to address important goals within the LSI Constellation mission and provide resources to assist in planning for future space missions that might further contribute to meeting those goals.

earthzine, an IEEE online publication↗
USGS2004

Toward a comprehensive information system to assist invasive species management in Hawaii and Pacific Islands

The need for coordinated regional and global electronic databases to assist prevention, early detection, rapid response, and control of biological invasions is well accepted. The Pacific Basin Information Node (PBIN), a node of the National Biological Information Infrastructure, has been increasingly engaged in the invasive species enterprise since its establishment in 2001. Since this time, PBIN has sought to support frontline efforts at combating invasions, through working with stakeholders in conservation, agriculture, forestry, health, and commerce to support joint information needs. Although initial emphasis has been on Hawaii, cooperative work with other Pacific islands and countries of the Pacific Rim is already underway and planned.

Weed Science↗
USGS1995

Recent data and information system initiatives for remotely sensed measurements of the land surface

As part of the International Satellite Land Satellite Climatology Program (ISLSCP) Workshop on Remote Sensing of the Land Surface for Studies of Global Change, five invited presentations were given on recent data initiatives relevant to the ISLSCP community. The presentations are summarized in this paper along with some observations by the authors on data systems for the land sciences community. The invited presentations are by no means all inclusive but were selected as examples of current data activities, representing a range of topics associated with data for land sciences including: the generation of global and local scale data sets, the reworking of historical data sets, new data initiatives and some programmatic aspects of land data base development. This paper serves to provide information on these data initiatives and to air some of the issues concerning land science data systems that were raised at the meeting.

Remote Sensing of Environment↗
USGS2003

Geographic Information System Tools for Conservation Planning: User's Manual

Public and private land managers desire better ways to incorporate landscape, species, and habitat relations into their conservation planning processes. We present three tools, developed for the Environmental Systems Research Institute?s ArcView 3.x platform, applicable to many types of wildlife conservation management and planning efforts. These tools provide managers and planners with the ability to rapidly assess landscape attributes and link these attributes with species-habitat information. To use the tools, the user provides a detailed land cover spatial database and develops a matrix to identify species-habitat relations for the landscape of interest. The tools are applicable to any taxa or suite of taxa for which the required data are available. The user also has the ability to interactively make polygon-specific changes to the landscape and re-examine species-habitat relations. The development of these tools has given resource managers the means to evaluate the merits of proposed landscape management scenarios and to choose the scenario that best fits the goals of the managed area.

Information and Technology Report↗
USGS2010

Geographic information system datasets of regolith-thickness data, regolith-thickness contours, raster-based regolith thickness, and aquifer-test and specific-capacity data for the Lost Creek Designated Ground Water Basin, Weld, Adams, and Arapahoe Counties, Colorado

These datasets were compiled in support of U.S. Geological Survey Scientific-Investigations Report 2010-5082-Hydrogeology and Steady-State Numerical Simulation of Groundwater Flow in the Lost Creek Designated Ground Water Basin, Weld, Adams, and Arapahoe Counties, Colorado. The datasets were developed by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the Lost Creek Ground Water Management District and the Colorado Geological Survey. The four datasets are described as follows and methods used to develop the datasets are further described in Scientific-Investigations Report 2010-5082: (1) ds507_regolith_data: This point dataset contains geologic information concerning regolith (unconsolidated sediment) thickness and top-of-bedrock altitude at selected well and test-hole locations in and near the Lost Creek Designated Ground Water Basin, Weld, Adams, and Arapahoe Counties, Colorado. Data were compiled from published reports, consultant reports, and from lithologic logs of wells and test holes on file with the U.S. Geological Survey Colorado Water Science Center and the Colorado Division of Water Resources. (2) ds507_regthick_contours: This dataset consists of contours showing generalized lines of equal regolith thickness overlying bedrock in the Lost Creek Designated Ground Water Basin, Weld, Adams, and Arapahoe Counties, Colorado. Regolith thickness was contoured manually on the basis of information provided in the dataset ds507_regolith_data. (3) ds507_regthick_grid: This dataset consists of raster-based generalized thickness of regolith overlying bedrock in the Lost Creek Designated Ground Water Basin, Weld, Adams, and Arapahoe Counties, Colorado. Regolith thickness in this dataset was derived from contours presented in the dataset ds507_regthick_contours. (4) ds507_welltest_data: This point dataset contains estimates of aquifer transmissivity and hydraulic conductivity at selected well locations in the Lost Creek Designated Ground Water Basin, Weld, Adams, and Arapahoe Counties, Colorado. This dataset also contains hydrologic information used to estimate transmissivity from specific capacity at selected well locations. Data were compiled from published reports, consultant reports, and from well-test records on file with the U.S. Geological Survey Colorado Water Science Center and the Colorado Division of Water Resources.

Data Series↗
USGS2009

Rock slope stability analysis along the North Carolina section of the Blue Ridge Parkway: Using a geographic information system (GIS) to integrate site data and digital geologic maps

In 2008, the North Carolina Geological Survey (NCGS) completed a five-year geologic and geohazards inventory of the 406-km long North Carolina segment of the Blue Ridge Parkway (BRP). The ArcGIS™ format deliverables for rock slopes include a slope movement and slope movement deposit database and maps and site-specific rock slope stability assessments at 158 locations. Database entries for known and potential rock slope failures include: location data, failure modes and dimensions, activity dates and levels, structural and lithologic data, the occurrence of sulfide minerals and acid-producing potential test results. Rock slope stability assessments include photographs of the rock cuts and show locations and orientations of rock data, seepage zones, and kinematic stability analyses. Assigned preliminary geologic hazard ratings of low, moderate and high indicate the generalized relative probability of rock fall and/or rock slide activity at a given location. Statistics compiled based on the database indicate some general patterns within the data. This information provides the National Park Service with tools that can aid in emergency preparedness, and in budgeting mitigation, maintenance and repair measures.

Conference Paper↗
USGS2006

An interface between the Agricultural Non-Point Source (AGNPS) pollution model and the ERDAS Imagine Geographic Information System (GIS)

The U.S. Department of Agriculture developed the Agricultural Non-Point Source (AGNPS) pollution model. The AGNPS pollution model simulates the behavior of runoff, sediment, and nutrient transport from watersheds that have agriculture as their prime use. This model has been used extensively by scientists conducting hydrologic or water quality analyses using computer modeling in an attempt to further understand the complex problem of managing non-point sources of pollution in a watershed hydrology domain. A difficulty with AGNPS is creating and formatting all of the data necessary to execute the model to conduct landscape modeling and watershed analyses. A unique Windows-based program, the AGNPS Data Generator ( ADGen ), has been developed to simplify the task of preparing and creating the input for AGNPS through an interface with ERDAS Imagine (a Leica Geosystems product). Because of the complexity and quantity of the input required and the nature of the output text file produced by AGNPS, ADGen is a helpful tool for the researcher who is trying to analyze non-point source pollution.

Geographic Information Sciences↗
USGS2014

The Pedestrian Evacuation Analyst: geographic information systems software for modeling hazard evacuation potential

Recent disasters such as the 2011 Tohoku, Japan, earthquake and tsunami; the 2013 Colorado floods; and the 2014 Oso, Washington, mudslide have raised awareness of catastrophic, sudden-onset hazards that arrive within minutes of the events that trigger them, such as local earthquakes or landslides. Due to the limited amount of time between generation and arrival of sudden-onset hazards, evacuations are typically self-initiated, on foot, and across the landscape (Wood and Schmidtlein, 2012). Although evacuation to naturally occurring high ground may be feasible in some vulnerable communities, evacuation modeling has demonstrated that other communities may require vertical-evacuation structures within a hazard zone, such as berms or buildings, if at-risk individuals are to survive some types of sudden-onset hazards (Wood and Schmidtlein, 2013). Researchers use both static least-cost-distance (LCD) and dynamic agent-based models to assess the pedestrian evacuation potential of vulnerable communities. Although both types of models help to understand the evacuation landscape, LCD models provide a more general overview that is independent of population distributions, which may be difficult to quantify given the dynamic spatial and temporal nature of populations (Wood and Schmidtlein, 2012). Recent LCD efforts related to local tsunami threats have focused on an anisotropic (directionally dependent) path distance modeling approach that incorporates travel directionality, multiple travel speed assumptions, and cost surfaces that reflect variations in slope and land cover (Wood and Schmidtlein, 2012, 2013). The Pedestrian Evacuation Analyst software implements this anisotropic path-distance approach for pedestrian evacuation from sudden-onset hazards, with a particular focus at this time on local tsunami threats. The model estimates evacuation potential based on elevation, direction of movement, land cover, and travel speed and creates a map showing travel times to safety (a time map) throughout a hazard zone. Model results provide a general, static view of the evacuation landscape at different pedestrian travel speeds and can be used to identify areas outside the reach of naturally occurring high ground. In addition, data on the size and location of different populations within the hazard zone can be integrated with travel-time maps to create tables and graphs of at-risk population counts as a function of travel time to safety. As a decision-support tool, the Pedestrian Evacuation Analyst provides the capability to evaluate the effectiveness of various vertical-evacuation structures within a study area, both through time maps of the modeled travel-time landscape with a potential structure in place and through comparisons of population counts within reach of safety. The Pedestrian Evacuation Analyst is designed for use by researchers examining the pedestrian-evacuation potential of an at-risk community. In communities where modeled evacuation times exceed the event (for example, tsunami wave) arrival time, researchers can use the software with emergency managers to assess the area and population served by potential vertical-evacuation options. By automating and managing the modeling process, the software allows researchers to concentrate efforts on providing crucial and timely information on community vulnerability to sudden-onset hazards.

Techniques and Methods↗
USGS2000

Toward a global information system for invasive species

The growing frequency and impact of biological invasions worldwide threaten biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, resource availability, national economies, and human health ( Ruesink et al. 1995 , Simberloff 1996 , Vitousek et al. 1997 ). Organisms are spreading into new regions at unprecedented rates. As a result, hundreds to thousands of nonindigenous species of invertebrates, vertebrates, plants, bacteria, and fungi have become established in all but the most remote areas of the planet ( Vitousek et al. 1997 ). Recent examples are abundant and, in some cases, alarming. Cholera bacteria and toxic dinoflagellates have been discovered in the ballast waters of cargo ships ( McCarthy and Khambaty 1994 , Hallegraeff 1998 ). Asian tiger mosquitos—vectors of yellow fever and encephalitis—have spread to new continents in imported truck tires ( Moore et al. 1988 ). Pasture and crop lands in Australia are being invaded by Parthenium , an aggressive Caribbean weed that causes severe allergic reactions in livestock and humans ( Evans 1997 ). Rapid and widespread dieoffs of native freshwater mussels are occurring in the wake of the zebra mussel invasion in North America ( Ricciardi et al. 1998 ). [[AQ4]Hardwood trees in American cities are being killed by Asian long-horned beetles introduced with wooden packing crates ( Haack et al. 1997 ).

BioScience↗