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U.S. Department of the Interior
The USGS National Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Project Office, the USGS Cascades Volcano Center, and Department of the Interior (DOI) Office of Aviation Services (OAS) trained personnel and equipment were deployed on May 17, 2018, to support the remote sensing data acquisition needed for monitoring eruptions of the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii.
The recent infestation of an Asian scale insect was blamed for a widespread phragmites (marsh grass) dieback in southeast Louisiana that alarmed resource managers.
Invasive buffelgrass (Pennisetum ciliare) spreads easily in the Sonoran Desert ecosystem, where it forms a continuous fuel layer that carries fire across the landscape, threatening native flora and fauna species. Current management of buffelgrass in Saguaro National Park (SNP) includes the targeted application of herbicide, which is most effective when the grass is photosynthetically active.
The USGS project Patterns in the Landscape–Analyses of Cause and Effect (PLACE) is leveraging improvements in image processing capabilities to advance understanding of the driving forces and impacts of landscape change over time.
One of the most valuable uses of remote sensing imagery is for mapping and monitoring landscape change, and Landsat-based land cover data such as the National Land Cover Database (NLCD) and the Cropland Data Layer (CDL) from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have been used for countless applications.
The USGS is leading a 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) effort to coordinate with other Federal agency partners and the State of Alaska to acquire new Alaska elevation data statewide using remote sensing techniques. Under its Geospatial Products and Services Contract (GPSC), the USGS is contracting with vendors to acquire 5-meter (m) resolution elevation data using Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) sensors flown on aircraft.
The USGS National Land Imaging (NLI) Program is partnering with Federal agencies and the Administration’s Earth Observation Assessment (EOA) to document Earth Observation (EO) user requirements and measurement capabilities.
In late May, the Department of the Interior (DOI) announced that the LANDFIRE (Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools) Program was the recipient of the 2017 DOI "Environmental Dream Team" award. The award recognizes the program team as exceptional environmental champions and agents of change. Led by the DOI and the U.S.
The USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center’s National Land Cover Database team, in collaboration with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), is producing the most comprehensive remote-sensing-based quantification of western U.S. shrublands to date.
The National Land Cover Database (NLCD) provides nationwide data on land cover and land cover change at 30-meter (m) resolution. The current version of NLCD has quantified the U.S. land surface for land cover, percent impervious surface, and percent tree canopy cover for three periods: 2001, 2006, and 2011.
