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U.S. Department of the Interior
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) leverages ground, air and spaceborne remote sensing technologies to support its mission to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. These technologies include aerial and close-range photography, multispectral, hyperspectral, and thermal infrared camera/imaging systems, as well as radar and light detection and ranging (lidar). The BLM also utilizes passive and active imaging system information collected by uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS). Remote sensing data and products are being used to address a host of BLM monitoring requirements, including energy development, mine production verification, assessment of land cover condition through time, and wildfire response and mitigation. Finally, the BLM requires field-based measurements to support management decisions covering vast expanses of land. By integrating remote sensing into the BLM's Assessment, Inventory, and Monitoring strategy, field-based data are used to generate information and maps that support land management decision making. The BLM is leveraging remote sensing to provide an integrated, quantitative monitoring approach to efficiently and effectively document the impacts from authorized and unauthorized disturbance and land treatment activities at local and regional scales.
Landscape Cover Analysis and Reporting Tools (LandCART) is an online mapping application being developed by the BLM Geospatial Imaging group at the National Operations Center (NOC) through a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Science (ROSES) grant in partnership with U.S. Geological Survey and University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) geospatial researchers.
Since 2014, the National Operations Center (NOC) has provided remotely sensed geospatial data products to support management officials conducting Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation (ESR) activities on wildfire-affected BLM lands. The ESR program is implemented to lessen post-fire effects such as erosion and to restore affected habitats.
Above average snowpack across Colorado in 2018–19 led to an unprecedented avalanche season, with the concomitant deposition of debris in streams creating flooding hazards across the state. This was especially true for Lake City in Hinsdale County, sitting at the confluence of Henson Creek and the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River, which together had more than 30 avalanches upstream of town.
Remotely sensed data and derived information contribute significantly to mission-critical work across the Department of the Interior (DOI). This report from the DOI Remote Sensing Working Group (DOIRSWG) highlights a sample of DOI remote sensing applications and illustrates the many types of technology, platforms, and specialized sensors employed.* DOI personnel use remote sensing technology to evaluate and monitor changing land-surface and natural resource conditions over the vast areas for which DOI has responsibility.
In summer 2017, the BLM National Operations Center (NOC) participated in a BLM Washington, D.C., Office pilot program to use imagery from unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) to characterize important cultural, archaeological, and paleontological sites on BLM land. As part of this program, the BLM NOC spent a week in June 2017 at the Farmington Field Office (FFO), Farmington, Ne
The BLM National Operations Center (NOC), as part of an ongoing pilot project with the Royal Gorge Field Office (RGFO) in Canon City, Colorado, is using remotely sensed imagery from unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for mine site production verification (PV). The current PV process is labor-intensive, includes extensive field work, and is cost prohibitive, which results in a
Across vast areas of BLM-managed western lands, prehistoric surficial rock features such as tipi rings, medicine wheels, cairns, and other ambiguous rock arrangements have lain in situ, undisturbed for hundreds or thousands of years.
The Permian Basin in New Mexico and Texas is a leading source of oil production for the United States and is experiencing rapid energy development. The BLM holds millions of acres of mineral estate—including within the Permian Basin—which must be administered.
The BLM National Operations Center (NOC) provides remotely sensed geospatial data products to support fire management officials conducting Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation (ESR) activities on wildfire-affected BLM lands. The ESR program is implemented to lessen post-fire effects such as erosion and to restore affected habitats.
Remotely sensed data and derived information contribute significantly to mission-critical work across the Department of the Interior (DOI). This report from the DOI Remote Sensing Working Group (DOIRSWG) highlights a sample of DOI remote sensing applications and illustrates the many types of technology, platforms, and specialized sensors employed.* DOI personnel use remote sensing technology to evaluate and monitor changing land-surface and natural resource conditions over the vast areas for which DOI has responsibility.
