USGS Submissions

The USGS 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) is managing the acquisition of lidar data across the Nation for high-resolution mapping of the land surface, which is useful for multiple applications. While lidar data are available for many Department of the Interior (as well as other Federal) lands in the U.S., these data are underutilized for vegetation analyses, partly due to the lack of local personnel and software capable of processing and analyzing lidar data.

The goal of the USGS 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) is to complete nationwide coverage of lidar data for the conterminous United States, Hawaii, and the U.S. territories and interferometric synthetic aperture radar (IfSAR) for Alaska within 8 years—that is, by 2023--contingent upon sufficient funding.

The USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center and collaborative agencies in Canada and Mexico have published the first-ever 30-meter resolution consistent land cover product for all of North America.

The USGS National Land Imaging Program (NLIP) has built a long-term capacity to collect and analyze land imaging user requirements to advance the Nation’s operational and science objectives and better serve the land imaging community. The USGS documents the land imaging requirements of U.S.

The USGS is working with the National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) to formulate the future Landsat 10 mission, scheduled to launch in the mid-2020s timeframe as part of the Sustainable Land Imaging (SLI) program (https://sustainablelandimaging.gsfc.nasa.gov/).

To help assess the uses and value of Landsat imagery, social scientists at the USGS Social and Economic Analysis (SEA) Branch of the Fort Collins Science Center in Colorado are leading a long-term study, which includes surveys and case studies of Landsat imagery users.

The National Map Corps (TNMCorps), a crowdsourced mapping project, relies on volunteers to assist the USGS National Geospatial Program by collecting and editing man-made structures data for The National Map. Through their participation, volunteers make important contributions to the USGS’s ability to provide the Nation with accurate mapping information.

Archival aerial stereo-photographs are a source of information that can be used to create historical topography models for rapidly changing landscapes. Researchers completed a pilot study in Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park (MDSHP), which was once the largest hydraulic mine (1.6 square kilometers) in the Sierra Nevada of California. Legacy impacts in these mined landscapes include remnant steep exposures of highly erodible Eocene-aged auriferous sediments.

Vegetation growth is important to monitor in areas undergoing restoration. Color imagery collected using an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) at a bottomland hardwood restoration site in northeast Indiana was used to derive a vegetation height model using Structure from Motion (SfM) image processing. Data from that model were then compared to vegetation height data collected in field plots.

High-resolution hydrographic mapping, which provides essential data for flood mitigation and planning, has been completed on thirteen, 12-digit hydrologic units near Sioux Falls in southeastern South Dakota. A lidar-derived digital elevation model was processed to include culvert locations into the modeled drainage network.