1. USGS-EULand CoverApplied Research –
EROS Transatlantic
The Way Forward
EU Science Counselor Meeting, Washington DC
Dr. Ingrid Maria Verstraeten
U.S. Geological Survey
March 1, 2012
U.S. Department of the Interior
U.S. Geological Survey

2. The Role of Government-Sponsored Science
Linking science to decision making to ensure trade offs among
multiple goals are fully considered.

3. 133 Years of USGS Science
USGS established by the Organic Act of March 3, 1879, which mandated
"the classification of the public lands and examination of the geological
structure, mineral resources, and products of the national domain."
~9000 Employees
340 Locations
$1.4 Billion Annual Funding
Clarence King
First USGS Director, 1879 -1881

4. USGS Structural Organization
Follows our Science Strategy
Ecosystems
Energy and Minerals, and Environmental Health
Natural Hazards
Science Quality and Integrity
Water
Climate and Land-Use Change The Earth behaves as a system
in which oceans, atmosphere
and land, and the living and
Core Science Systems non-living parts therein,
are all connected.

5. Informatics – Core Sciences
 Informatics underpins all phases of the scientific process
 Create a more integrated and accessible environment for
vast USGS data resources.
 International activities include
 Global Biodiversity Information Facility and Ocean Biogeographic
Information System provides data, vocabularies, and standards.
 Global Earth Observations System of Systems (GEOSS)
 Charter member of OneGeology
 Partner in the development of the Global Map, 1: 1mil resolution.
 Cooperation with EEA.
Fish and
Real-time Migratory Bird Wildlife
Aerial Earthquake Distribution Disease
Land Cover Data
Characterization Photography Mapping Studies

6. Climate and Land Use (CLU) Change Mission Area
research, adaptation, mitigation
USGS Climate and Land Use Change programs help understand
these global changes and their impacts on society, resource
availability, and economic development.
•Research & Development
•Geographic Analysis and Monitoring
•Dept. of Interior Climate Science Centers
•Carbon Sequestration
•Land Remote Sensing
Earth Resources Observation and Science Center (EROS)
http://www.usgs.gov/climate_landuse

7. Research & Development International
Activities in
Polar Regions
Arctic Paleoclimatology and Sea-Ice History
Glacier Maps of Antarctica
Satellite Glacier Atlases of the World
WAIS Divide Project- West Antarctic Ice
Sheet Divide deep ice core
Arctic Spatial Data Information (SDI) System

8. Research & Development
International Paleoclimate Activities
Sea Level Studies: Impacts of Climate Change on
Coasts
Holocene Climate: Pacific Coasts, Arctic Ocean, Gulf
of Mexico, and the Caribbean
Climate Modeling and Model Verification:
• Dynamically downscaled climate models
• Exploring Future Flora, Environments, and
Climates Through Simulations (EFFECTS)
• PRISM3: Global Warming Analysis

9. Geologic and Biologic Carbon Sequestration
Evaluation of the potential to store carbon dioxide (CO2) in
underground rock formations and vegetation, soils and sediments.
Stations in Norway, Sweden , & Yukon River Basin Alaska: collaborations
to study small watershed carbon balance, carbon cycling, and
greenhouse gasses - comparison of field data, information exchange on
measurement instrumentation
http://rmgsc.cr.usgs.gov/carbon_seq/

10. 8 Climate Science Centers (CSCs)
To provide scientific information, tools and
techniques that land, water, wildlife and
cultural resource managers can apply
to anticipate, monitor and adapt to climate
and ecologically-driven responses at
regional-to-local scales.
They will work closely with a network of
“Landscape Conservation Cooperatives” (LCCs) to
inform adaptation and mitigation strategies

11. Landsat Earth Observations
•Free and open public access – over 4 million scenes
downloaded
•Continuous Earth Observation data since 1972
•Landsat Global Archive Consolidation Initiative
•Bilateral Civil Space & GPS Dialogs

12. Landsat Web-Enabled Imagery: Expanded Worldwide Use
Total Landsat Scenes Selected By Users Since October 1, 2008
ver 2.4 million images available
3M
70 times increase in educational users
ata delivered to 186 countries
ser shift to multi-year scenes at same location
Scenes Selected
2M
ighly favorable user response
xceeded 1 million scenes selected on August 17, 2009, Daily Average ≅ 3,125 scenes of
2 million on March 13, 2010, web-enabled data selected
3 million on August 8, 2010
4 million on November 27, 2010
1M
Daily Average = 53 scenes for
best year of sales (2001)
Daily Average
FY 2008 = 38
FY-2009 FY-2010
scenes

13. Landsat Downloads - EU Countries and
Candidate Countries 2011
Standard L1 Product Downloads by Country
(European Union Member and Candidate Countries)
MALTA 0
MACEDONIA
CROATIA
6
10
Close working relationship with the Norwegian Space Agency as they are
MONTENEGRO
ICELAND
14
24
part of our Landsat Ground Network (LGN) and there is an agreement for
LUXEMBOURG
SLOVAKIA
25
69
downlinking our Landsat data to one of the ground stations in Sylbard.
BULGARIA
SLOVENIA
97
125
We do Landsat 7 (L7) downlinks with them to Svalbard and NSA is part of
LATVIA
LITHUANIA
139
153
our Landsat 8 (L8) LGN configuration.
IRELAND 170
CYPRUS 224
ESTONIA 239
HUNGARY 492
FINLAND 605
CZECH REPUBLIC 627
ROMANIA 712
SWEDEN 1144
AUSTRIA 1306
PORTUGAL 1440
BELGIUM 1567
DENMARK 1665
GREECE 1799
POLAND 2104
TURKEY 2747
NETHERLANDS 3545
SPAIN 5533
FRANCE 6895
ITALY 7760
UNITED KINGDOM 8410
GERMANY 12295
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000

14. USGS - European Space Agency (ESA) Earth
Observation
• Landsat Global Archive Consolidation
– Successful video conference with ESA – Sept 6, 2011
– Agreed to repatriate all Landsat 7 data and Landsat 5
data older than 3 year.
– No need for formal Letter of Agreement
• Multi – mission Landsat MOU negotiations
– Landsat 8 annex final wording
• Sentinel 2 and LDCM Collaboration
• User products – processes used, product specifications, formats,
cloud cover assessment
• Data access and availability
• Calibration between Sentinel 2 and Landsat 8 (planned for Spring 2012)
• Ground segment capacities and ingest

15. Collaboration with German Space Agency (DLR)
The USGS has developed a draft MOU with DLR focusing
on possible collaborations in the following areas:
– Partnership between the World Data Center for Atmospheric
Observations (DLR responsibility) and the World Data Center for
Land Data (EROS responsibility).
– Increased access for the USGS to the TanDEM-X and TerraSAR-X
satellite data for our volcanic and seismic hazards scientists.
– Joint collaboration on remote sensing applications for emergency
response, including the access to satellite data for International
Charter for Space and Major Disasters.

16. Multi- Lateral Partnerships
• Ongoing collaboration within international
coordination groups:
– Group on Earth Observation
• Forest Carbon Tracking
• Global Land Cover Change
• Geo Hazards Monitoring
– Committee on Earth Observation Satellites
• CEOS Working Group (WG) on Climate
• CEOS WG on Calibration and Validation
• CEOS Land Surface Imaging Virtual Constellation
• CEOS support to GEO's GeoHazards Supersites Initiative
• CEOS support to GEOSS Common Infrastructure and GEOPortal
– International Charter on Space and Major Disasters

17. GEO Global Terrestrial Ecosystem Mapping Efforts
GEO Global 30m Land Cover Initiative
Mid-decadal year land cover types Annual land cover continuous variables

18. USGS-EU Collaboration
in Land Use and Climate Change
• Development of Terrestrial Essential Climate Variable
Standards, Calibration and Validation for Climate
Observations
• Collaboration on Global Land-Cover Data Initiative
• Collaboration in Famine Early Warning System and
• Collaboration on Crop and Rangeland Monitoring,
• Coordinated engagement in multilateral initiatives.

19. Next Steps
Land Use/Land Cover Change in Response to Climate
• Negotiate an Implementing Arrangement between the USGS and JRC
• Global Land Cover Initiative – 30 meter resolution
– Multilateral Collaboration through new GEO Workplan task (2012-2015) on
Global Land Cover
– Bilateral Collaboration
• Coordinate technical exchange meeting at Sentinel-2 Preparatory Symposium
(April 2012) to define GLC specifications
• Invite US participation in 6th GEO European Project workshop (Spring 2012 –
Rome)
• Plan Environment and Earth Observation workshop in conjunction with next JCG
in 2012
• Essential Climate Variables –
– Continue multilateral collaboration through the Committee on Earth Observations
(CEOS) working group on Climate
– Move forward on the priorities and recommendations documented at the EU-US Space
and Climate technical workshop held March 2011.
19

20. Terrestrial, Freshwater, & Marine Ecosystems
Understand factors influencing ecosystem structure, function & condition
to improve land management and restore degraded landscapes
• Fire Ecology – Western non-forested
• Wetlands and Coastal Ecosystems
• Energy Development – Biofuels, Wind, Solar
• High Altitude Systems
• Landscape, System Modeling

21. Fisheries & Invasive Species
• Emerging Diseases
• Imperiled Species – Vulnerability Assessments & Climate Change,
Water Use
• Science & National Assessments
• Fish Passage Research & Technology
• Water Availability & Ecological Use
• Improving forecasting and predictive modeling
• Early Detection and Rapid Assessment
• Understanding Effects
• Developing effective restoration techniques
• Developing innovative control & management techniques

22. Ecosystems Projects in Europe - Examples
Institute for the Biology
of Inland Waters,
Russia
Fisheries, environmental quality, biodiversity,
infectious diseases

23. Wildlife: Terrestrial & Endangered Resources
Focus on factors that determine the distribution, abundance, and
condition of wildlife populations and their habitats
• Emerging Diseases – WNS, Avian Influenza, Plague
• Arctic ecosystems – Terrestrial, marine
• Amphibians & ecosystem health, population declines
• Environmental Change and imperiled species
• Genetics and Comparative Genomics – distributions,
populations, conservation, health, rapid diagnostics

24. New Flood Preparedness Tools
Real-Time Flood Inundation
Mapping
Change views & see:
Satellite imagery
Impacted houses and streets
Zoom to street level
USGS-Norway collaboration
on hydro-acoustics

25. Flood Frequency Analysis - New Statistical Procedures
A) Paleoflood and Historical Information B) Improved Uncertainty Estimates
C) Detection of Multiple Low Outliers D) More Accurate Regional Information

26. Groundwater and Climate
 More emphasis on unsaturated zone and shallow groundwater
 Monitoring potential impacts on groundwater resources
 Distinguishing climate from pumping
 New version of groundwater-flow simulator, SUTRA, simulates
groundwater freeze/thaw.
Physics Today, April 2008

27. Water Census - Nationwide System to deliver
water availability information
 Precipitation  Ecological Needs
 Evapotranspiration  Water Withdrawals
 Storage in Reservoirs,  Return Flows
Lakes, Snow and Ice
 Consumptive Uses
 River Flow
 Run-of-the-
 Groundwater River Uses
 Recharge rates
 Water level in aquifers

28. Focused Water Availability Assessments
Water Quality Groundwater
Resources
Water Use Surface Water Trends,
Precipitation, etc
State, Local, Regional
Global Change Stakeholder Involvement
Eco Flows
Defined Technical
Questions to
be Answered

29. Water Use
Livestock Self-Supplied Domestic Public Supply Thermoelectric Power
Less than 1 percent 1 percent 11 percent 49 percent
1 percent 2 percent 4 percent 31 percent
Mining Aquaculture Self-Supplied Irrigation
Industrial

30. USGS Real-Time Water Quality Monitoring
• Expanding the use of real-time sensors for rapid
and reliable water quality data in rivers and streams
throughout the US
• Optical and wet chemical sensors for nutrients,
organic matter, sediment, CO 2 , etc.
• Applications from improving nutrient load
estimates to coastal waters to real-time
management of drinking water quality
Continuous measurements of dissolved organic matter fluorescence (FDOM) – most strongly linked to DOC concentrations, mercury transport and drinking water
concerns – showed that the magnitude of DOC response to changes in runoff can vary significantly within and between storm in large coastal basins like the
Precip (in/d)
Connecticut River.
0
2
4 7
6
y = 0.0862x + 0.616
120000 Discharge
DOC (mg/L)
5
r² = 0.97
DOC
100000
4
6
3
DOC (mg/L)
Discharge (CFS)
80000 2
20 30 40 50 60
In Situ FDOM (ppb QSE) 5
60000
40000
4
20000
0 3
-20000
-40000 2
10/1 11/1 12/1 1/1 2/1 3/1 4/1 5/1 6/1 7/1 8/1 9/1 10/1 11/1 12/1 1/1 2/1
2010 2011

31. USGS Energy Resources Program
Domestic and Global Petroleum Resources
Circum-Arctic Resource Appraisal
Update of global conventional oil and gas resource assessments
New global shale gas, tight gas, coalbed methane, tight oil resource assessment
Released Circum-Arctic oil and gas resource assessment
Gas hydrate research - Alaska North Slope and Gulf of Mexico gas hydrate resource
assessment
Cooperative projects with many countries including Sweden, Norway, Denmark,
Netherlands, Germany, Poland, and many more…..

32. USGS Energy Resources Program
Uranium
Assess uranium
resource potential
Support international
uranium interactions
Partner with DOE to
track uranium resources,
production, and
exploration
Geologic Carbon Sequestration
Assess CO2 storage resource potential (climate change)
Research on carbon sequestration
Coordination, both domestic and international, on assessment
methodologies including Canada and Mexico
Human Health Research
Research impacts of energy resources extraction on human health and
environment
Develop collaboration between biomedical researchers and earth scientists
Balkan Endemic Nephropathy
•Study linkages among coal, ground water, and disease in rural villages.
Study expanded to United States.

33. USGS Methodology & U.S. Analogs Can Be Used
to Assess European Shale Gas
Collaboration with Poland, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Ukraine, Germany,
Netherlands, Belgium, Armenia, and EuroGeoSurveys in general.

34. Arctic Gas Hydrate Stability Conditions
•USGS & Norway are interested in studying the Svalbard Margin

35. USGS Mineral Resources Program
Global Mineral Resource Assessment International Minerals Information
Project Statistics and information on the worldwide supply of,
Assess global resources of copper, potash, demand for, and flow of minerals and materials essential to
and platinum-group elements the U.S. economy, the national security, and protection of
Global inventory of known resources the environment.
Delineate permissive tracts for deposit types Collect, analyze, and disseminate mineral production,
of interest consumption, and resource information for 180 countries
Probabilistically estimate undiscovered Produce annual Minerals Yearbook and Mineral Commodity
resources in delineated tracts, where data Summaries
permits
Engaged numerous international
cooperators
North American Soil Geochemistry Project
Tri-national sampling and analytical protocol
Providing unprecedented continental-scale baseline
data
Sampling in U.S complete; analyses underway

36. Zechstein Sediment-hosted Cu Tracts
with deposits and occurrences
European Collaborators
• Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe
(BGR), Germany Danish and North German Tract
• Bureau de Recherches Geologiques et Minieres
(BRGM), France
• The Natural History Museum, London Center for
Russian and Central Asian Mineral Studies
(CERCAMS)
• Charles University, Czech Republic
• Geological Institute of Romania
• Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS)
• Geological Survey of Finland (GTK)
• Geological Survey of Ireland
• Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany
• Polish Geological Institute

37. Critical Mineral Resources for the 21st Century
A New USGS Effort as of October 2011
Collaborative Opportunities with the International Community
Methods Development for Critical Mineral Designation
Inventory and Characterization of Global and Domestic Rare
Earth Element Mineral Resources
Inventory and Characterization of Domestic and Global
Lithium Resources
Inventory and Characterization of Domestic and Global
Byproduct Critical Mineral Resources (Co, Ga, Nb, Re, Te, Ta…)
Investigations of Unconventional and Emerging Critical
Mineral Resources
Pathways and Biogeochemical Behavior of Critical and
Associated Metals 100 tellurite
tellurate
80
Percent sorbed
60
40
20
0
4 6 8 10 12
pH

38. Areas of Potential USGS-EU Cooperation on
Critical Mineral Resources and Supply Chains
 Improved inventory of identified resources
 Improved modeling of critical mineral-bearing
deposit types and assessment of undiscovered
critical mineral resources
 Improved data on mineral supply chains
concentrating on the initial stages of production
including mining, processing through the
production of a salable product, and initial
fabrication
 Improved mineral end use data in order to better
understand mineral supply chains and potential
sources of recycled materials
 Link data analyses with future technologies
 Encourage networking activities that leverage
existing investments

39. Next Steps Identified during the US-EU
meeting, Brussels 2011
 Transatlantic workshop bringing together expertise on
collection, classification and analysis of materials end-use
data . Lead US side: US Geological Survey. Lead EU side:
to be identified
 Support for networks linking EU and US researchers for
exchange of information and coordination of research in
this area
39

40. U.S. Geological Survey Health Activities
Human Health
Wildlife Health
Airborne and waterborne pathogens
Naturally occurring harmful minerals Environmental Health
Ecological context of disease
Zoonotic diseases
Disease mapping
Animal sentinels
Groundwater contamination
Contaminants
Recreational water monitoring
Emerging Infectious Diseases
• White Nose Syndrome in Bats
• Avian Influenza
• West Nile fever
• Chronic Wasting Disease
• Monkeypox
• Plague
• Tularemia

41. USGS Contaminant Hydrology and Biology –
Examples
Resolving Mercury Sources and
Cycling at the Global Scale
Acid Mine
Drainage
Sampling
transects
USGS is part of an international team studying current and
future levels of mercury exposure from ocean fish
Murray Assessing Endocrine
Rainbow
Fish Disruption in a Native
Australian Fish Species
Infectious pathogens
Wastewater
Mercury in Aquatic Systems-Consumption
discharges directly to
Murray River, of marine fish account for large percentage
Australia of human methylmercury exposure
Emerging Enviromental Contamination
Australia Commonwealth
Issues-Endocrine disruption studies
Scientific and Industrial
Watersheds and Regional Contamination-
Research Organization (CSIRO)
Watershed contamination from hard-rock
mining

42. Ecosystems Projects - Example
Leibniz-Institut für Zoo- und
USGS National Wildlife Health Center
Wildtierforschung
Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife
Research
 White-nose syndrome in bats may have been introduced to USA from Europe
 If emerging disease not stopped, potential billions of dollars damage to
agriculture

43. Human Health Projects - Example
Erasmus Medical Center,
Rotterdam
Avian influenza virus: investigating genetic
exchange between North America and Europe

44. USGS Natural Hazards Mission Area
• Has direct responsibility for these six programs:
• Coastal & Marine Geology
• Earthquake Hazards
• Geomagnetism
• Global Seismographic Network
• Landslide Hazards
• Volcano Hazards
• Coordinates and supports the broader hazards vision of
the USGS including floods, hurricanes and severe storms,
tsunamis, and wildfires.
• Coordinates USGS response activities following disasters.

45. USGS works with European and other countries to provide
rapid information on earthquakes worldwide
USGS National Earthquake
Information Center,
Golden, Colorado

46. National Geomagnetism Program
• As a member of Intermagnet:
– Operates 14 geomagnetic
observatories
– Collects and distributes data
in “real-time” on status of
Earth’s magnetic field.
– Develop models for the
Earth’s secular field for
navigation and mapping.

47. USGS response to Eyjafjallajokull eruption
During the eruption
• Provided advice to Iceland on
interpreting radar imagery.
Post eruption
• Provided scientists for ICAO’s
International Volcanic Ash Task
Force Dordis Hogndottir, Nordic Volcanological Institute
• Working with UK Met Office and
European colleagues on
improved ash cloud
forecasting.
• Participated in EU ash eruption
exercise in Brussels in 2011.
Sigrun Hreinsdottir, Nordic Volcanological Institute

48. Volcano Observatory Best Practices
Workshop: Eruption Forecasting
• Co-convened with Italy
(INGV) to bring volcano
observatories of 27
countries together to
identify best practices
• British Geological
Survey, France’s IPGP,
UNESCO, and the GEO
Secretariat also
participated

49. US-Russia Geo-Hazards Initiative
• Under the aegis of the Science and Technology and Emergency
Situations Bi-Presidential Commissions
• Identify mutually beneficial activities in disaster risk reduction
and resilience for Russian and American communities of the
northern Pacific

50. Comparative work and personnel exchange on
“twin” volcanoes
Two “world class” laboratory volcanoes: Kilauea,
Hawaii and Piton de la Fournaise, Reunion

51. RCA 1980
2004
005

52. USGS and European agencies together in
international geo-hazard risk reduction
• Global Earthquake Model (GEM) for seismic hazard
assessment and management (Secretariat in Pavia,
Italy).
• Global Volcano Model (GVM) for volcano hazard
assessment and management (now forming with
headquarters in UK).

53. Where does the U.S. have an ECS?
6 Areas Likely
Arctic
Atlantic
Bering Sea
Marianas (west)
East GoMex
West GoMex
9 Areas Maybe
Need more work
Aleutians
Gulf of AK
Pacific (3)
Marianas (east)
Kingman/Palmyra
Hawaii (south)
Johnston Atoll

54. USGS Engagement with UNESCO - Example
 USGS chairs the U.S. National Committee for the UNESCO IHP.
 USGS works with UNESCO IOC through OBIS-USA; we also
serve as the US Node to OBIS.
 USGS collaborates with UNESCO to assess conditions and
threats at World Heritage sites around the world.
 USGS together with UNESCO, DIVERSITAS, UNEP, and country
reps aids participates in the Intergovernmental Science Policy
Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).
Other Int. Organizations include WMO, WHO, IAEA, FAO, GBIF,
UNEP, World Bank,……

55. Overall Options for USGS – EU Collaboration
• Exchanges of scientists with access to USGS research
laboratories – PhDs & Post-Docs.
• Leveraging of Scientific Programs
• Mechanisms:
– Letter of Agreements -12-18 month programs
– MOUs – long-term programs
– No international grant process in place

56. Summary
 USGS is a applied science natural resource agency engaged on
a global, multilateral and bilateral level
This often involves complementary work with European colleagues.
Focus: Earth observations and climate, hazards, natural resources
including water, energy, minerals, fish, birds, …., informatics
 USGS’s global involvement in selected mission areas will
increase.
International organizations (e.g., UNESCO, GEO), the European Union,
national organizations, and individual scientists are driving
globalization of monitoring, analysis, and mitigation practices.
 Multilateral Cooperation is key