USGS Submissions

Agriculture

Crop Water Productivity of the World’s Leading Crops

Submitted by tadamson on

The USGS is conducting crop water productivity (CWP; “crop per drop”) studies of the world’s major crops (wheat, rice, corn, soybeans, barley, potatoes, pulses, sugarcane) using multiple satellite, multiple resolution remote sensing through machine learning algorithms run on cloud-computing platforms such as Google Earth Engine (GEE).

Archeology

Structure from Motion Modeling Using Unmanned Aircraft Systems to Support Paleontological Surveys

Submitted by atripp on

The USGS National Unmanned Systems Project Office (NUPO), in collaboration with the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, constructed a photogrammetric three-dimentional digital surface model (DSM) and orthometric image map via an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) using Structure from Motion (SfM) techniques.

Coastal Studies

Developing Bare-Earth Digital Elevation Models from Structure from Motion Data on Barrier Islands

Submitted by atripp on

Barrier islands are dynamic environments. Under calm conditions, they are gradually shaped by currents, waves, and tides; during hurricanes and other extreme storms, they can evolve within hours to days. Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) can collect monitoring data, especially elevation information, via Structure from Motion (SfM) techniques, with a temporal resolution that is well-suited for these dynamic environments.

Mapping Habitats in Beach, Dune, and Intertidal Environments

Submitted by atripp on

Barrier islands, headlands, and coastal shorelines provide numerous valuable ecosystem goods and services, including storm protection and erosion control for the mainland, habitat for fish and wildlife, salinity regulation in estuaries, carbon sequestration in marshes, and areas for recreation and tourism. These coastal features are dynamic environments because of their position at the land-sea interface.

Retrieval of Intertidal Biofilm Quantity and Nutritional Quality through Field Spectroscopy

Submitted by atripp on

Microbial biofilm communities (comprised of bacteria, diatoms, protozoa, and fungi) inhabit the surface of intertidal mudflats and comprise a large proportion of shorebirds’ diets. Given their major role in intertidal food webs, understanding biofilm distribution, quantity, and nutritional value for shorebirds is of vital importance.