CDI Collaboration Area Activity in FY26
Fifteen collaboration areas were active CDI in FY26.
As part of networking and sharing knowledge and experience, the CDI facilitates Collaboration Areas that form around common interests, help address challenges, and identify solutions that enable data integration efforts. Fifteen collaboration areas were active CDI in FY26, including two new collaboration areas. Several collaboration areas were put into "hibernation" as priorities and availability evolved in our community.
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Collaboration Areas
Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning | Cryosphere | Data Management | Federal GeoAI | Fire Science | Geomorphology | Imagery Data | Inland/Bathymetry | Internet of Things (IoT) | Metadata Reviewers | Power Platform | Risk | Reproducible Scientific Communication | Software Development | Team Science
Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning
| Date | Topics | Presenter |
|---|---|---|
| January 27, 2026 | AI/ML at USGS - Status, Capabilities, and Roadmap | Tom Burley, Paul Exter, Neal Pastick (DOI) |
| February 24, 2026 | GenAI strategy across Department of the Interior | Peter Doucette (DOI) |
| June 9, 2026 | Using machine learning to advance hydrological drought prediction for the conterminous U.S. | John Hammond, Jeremy Diaz, and Phillip Goodling (USGS) |
| July 7, 2026 | Kiro for AI-Enabled Development: What It Is, How It's Used, and Real-World Demos | Brendan Wakefield (DOI) , Daniel Brushchenko (DOI), Richie Erickson (USGS) |
| August 25, 2026 | Scalable Building Footprint Mapping from National Multisource Geospatial Data: Benchmarking CNN and Transformer Models Across Diverse Urban Morphologies | Ernie (Jung Kuan) Liu (USGS) |
| November 10, 2026 | Environmental forecasting in the Chesapeake Bay by integrating machine learning and process-based modeling | Dante Horemans (Virginia Institute of Marine Science) |
Cryosphere
| Date | Topic | Presenter |
|---|---|---|
| March 17, 2026 | Cryosphere community discussion | Kaitlyn Florentine, Theo Barnhart, Erich Peitzsch, and Miriam Jones (USGS) |
Data Management
| Date | Topic | Presenter |
|---|---|---|
| December 8, 2025 | USGS Public Access Plan Implementation Part 1: Publications | Kelly Haberstroh and Catharine Boucher (USGS) |
| February 9, 2026 | USGS Public Access Plan Implementation Part 2: Data | Viv Hutchison (USGS) |
| March 9, 2026 | Dremio - Use Cases from the Water Mission Area | Carol Morel (USGS) |
| April 13, 2026 | Data Cataloginator | Leslie Hsu and Grace Donovan (USGS) |
| May 11, 2026 | Federal Geographic Data Committee: National Geospatial Data Assets and the National Spatial Data Infrastructure | Joy Pochatila (USGS) |
| June 8, 2026 | My Database is in the Cloud, Now What?; Example Cloud Databases from USGS | Ron Rodriguez, Andrew Yan, Megan Hines, Alice McCarthy (USGS) |
| July 13, 2026 | Parquet Use Cases in the USGS | Dave Blodgett, Mike Wieczorek, Nathan Bonham, Richie Erickson, Jeremy Diaz, Matt Cashman, Marc Hunter (USGS) |
| August 10, 2026 | Writing and Reviewing Metadata with AI | Jordan Duft (Esri), Sofia Silvis (USGS), Adrian Moore (USGS), Roberto Silva (Marine Minerals Administration), Jimmy Clark (USGS), Richie Erickson (USGS) |
| September 14, 2026 | Introduction to Globus Transfer | Madison Langseth and Tamar Norkin (USGS) |
Fire Science
| Date | Topics | Presenter |
|---|---|---|
| November 18, 2025 | USGS's role in implementing Executive Order 14308: Empowering Commonsense Wildfire Prevention and Response, and DOI SO 3443: Elevating and Unifying DOI's Wildland Fire Management. | Michele Crist (USGS) |
| December 16, 2025 | Synthesizing paleo records of fire, climate and people for long-term benchmarks of historical fire in southern Colorado | Becky Brice (USGS) |
| January 20, 2025 | Capturing Wildland Fuels in 3D: Terrestrial Lidar Across the Black Hills and Sierra Nevada | Katelyn Wolfrey, Hazel Mebius, Ethan Ilse & Peter Streufert (contractors to USGS) |
| February 19, 2025 | Post-fire erosion across California: field data, model validation, and new paleohazard applications | Amy East (USGS) |
| March 17, 2026 | Causal analysis of fire regime drivers in California | Jon Keeley (USGS) |
| April 21, 2026 | Building State-and-Transition Models for Management of Pinyon-Juniper Ecosystems of the Colorado Plateau using Ecological Site Groups | Mike Duniway and John Severson (USGS) |
| May 19, 2026 | A review and synthesis of post-wildfire shifts in hydrologic processes and streamflow generation mechanisms | Brian Ebel (USGS) |
| June 16, 2026 | Repeated High-severity Fire in the Sierra Nevada and Southern Cascades of California, United States: Landscape Trends and Belowground Effects | Seren Bagcilar (USGS) |
| July 21, 2026 | Wildfire Risk on Tribal Landscapes: Ongoing Work with the White Mountain Apache Tribe in Arizona | Aaron Russell (USGS) |
| August 18, 2026 | Exploring fire trends and patterns with the Wildland Fire Trends Tool (WFTT) | Douglas Shinneman (USGS) |
| September 15, 2026 | Risk modeling for military installations | James Meldrum (USGS) |
Federal GeoAI
| Date | Topic | Presenter |
|---|---|---|
| February 3, 2026 | Overview of the OGC AI-DGGS Project | Nathan McEachen (Terraframe) |
| April 9, 2026 | Hawaii Cropland Data Layers (HCDL) V2.0: A Satellite Embedding Approach to Crop Mapping | Zhe Li, (USDA) |
| June 18, 2026 | NOAA’s Satellite Technology is a Game Changer for Wildfire Detection in the United States | Geoffrey Berlin (Penguin Technologies), Jessica Block (UCSD) |
| August 12, 2026 | Geospatial Agentic Services (GAS) | Zhenlong Li (Penn State) |
Geomorphology
| Date | Topics | Presenter |
|---|---|---|
| December 16, 2025 | River-Scale, High Resolution Mapping of Submerged Grain Size with Bathymetric Lidar | James White (USGS) |
| January 27, 2026 | An automated hydraulic modeling tool for Massachusetts road stream crossing replacement projects in USGS StreamStats | Gardner Bent (USGS) |
| February 26, 2025 | Disentangling geomorphic equifinality in sediment and hydrologic connectivity through the analyses of landscape drivers of hysteresis | Se Jong Cho (USGS) |
| March 24, 2026 | Ecohydraulic approaches to invasive carp management | Jessica LeRoy (USGS) |
| April 28, 2026 | Toward an efficient framework for remote sensing of river bathymetry: Comparing sensors and algorithms on an inaccessible proglacial river in Alaska | Carl Legleiter (USGS), Christy Stegman (NPS) |
| May 26, 2026 | Bridging sediment transport science with environmental and water resource management in the Colorado River in Grand Canyon | Gerard Salter (USGS) |
| June 23, 2026 | Morphodynamics and sedimentation in an impounded, urban river reservoir | Julia Cisneros (Virginia Tech) |
| August 25, 2026 | Characterizing river morphology and infilling remotely sensed bathymetry using channel shape approximations | Carl Legleiter (USGS) |
Imagery Data
The Imagery Data collaboration area hosted a Teams site with conversations and links related to imagery data.
| Date | Topics | Presenter |
|---|---|---|
| March 20, 2025 | Flow Photo Explorer | Phillip Goodling, Jennifer Fair, and Ben Letcher (USGS) |
| May 21, 2025 | Imagery Work in the Willamette River Basin | Paul Kinzel (USGS) and Mahmoud Ayyad (Stevens Institute) |
| September 18, 2025 | GRIME AI | John Stranzl (University of Nebraska-Lincoln) |
Inland Bathymetry
| Date | Topic | Presenter |
|---|---|---|
| December 17, 2025 | Inland/Coastal Bathymetry Coordination Call | Phil Rufe (USGS) |
| January 29, 2026 | Inland/Coastal Bathymetry Coordination Call | Phil Rufe (USGS) |
| February 27, 2026 | Inland/Coastal Bathymetry Coordination Call | Phil Rufe (USGS) |
| March 31, 2026 | Inland/Coastal Bathymetry Coordination Call | Phil Rufe (USGS) |
| April 27, 2026 | Inland/Coastal Bathymetry Coordination Call | Phil Rufe (USGS) |
| May 27, 2026 | Inland/Coastal Bathymetry Coordination Call | Phil Rufe (USGS) |
| July 30, 2026 | Inland/Coastal Bathymetry Coordination Call | Phil Rufe (USGS) |
| September 11, 2026 | Inland/Coastal Bathymetry Coordination Call | Phil Rufe (USGS) |
Internet of things (IoT)
| Date | Topic | Presenter |
|---|---|---|
| March 26, 2026 | IoT Community Discussion on future meetings, topics, collaborations, and outreach | Tom Gushue (USGS) |
| April 23, 2026 | IoT Data Ingest into AWS | Tim Rapp and Sam Congdon (USGS) |
| June 25, 2025 | IoT Lightning Talks: IoT Ingest (Part 2!); Data Ingest Updates and Beyond; Update from NIST on IoT | Sean Thiboldeaux (USGS), Tom Gushue (USGS), Tyler Boyle (NIST) |
| August 27, 2026 | Smart Sensors, IEEE 1451 Standards, and Interoperability for IoT Applications | Eugene Song (National Institute of Standards and Technology) |
| September 24, 2026 | LoRa & LoRaWAN Use Cases around the USGS | Ethan Weikel, Sean Thiboldeaux, Bill Selbig, Patrick Haluska (USGS) |
Metadata Reviewers
| Date | Topic | Presenter |
|---|---|---|
| December 1, 2025 | Metadata Consistency Discussion | Madison Langseth (USGS) |
| January 5, 2026 | Open Discussion - Non-ascii characters; Citing Unpublished non-USGS data | Madison Langseth (USGS) |
| February 2, 2026 | Open Discussion - Non-ascii character checks in review checklists; SBDR Modernization | Madison Langseth (USGS) |
| March 2, 2026 | Open Discussion - Summary of Metadata 101 Training; Dealing with Large CSVs | Madison Langseth (USGS) |
| April 6, 2026 | Open Discussion - Documentation of CSDGM profiles in Metadata Records; Process Step Citations | Madison Langseth (USGS) |
| May 4, 2026 | Metadata Movement and Open Discussion | Madison Langseth (USGS) |
| June 1, 2026 | Open Discussion - Updated Definition for Geospatial Data; Entities and Attributes; Data Dictionaries; Enumerated Domains | Lisa Zolly (USGS) |
| July 6, 2026 | Open Discussion - Crediting Additional Roles in Metadata; Documenting Cloud Optimized Files | Madison Langseth (USGS) |
| August 3, 2026 | Open Discussion - ISO Keywords in Metadata; Metadata Tools in Use at USGS | Madison Langseth (USGS) |
Power Platform
| Date | Topic | Presenter |
|---|---|---|
| December 17, 2025 | Power Platform updates, Demo - AWS Cost Tracking App (Andrew Rogers) | Rebecca Bushon and Laura Hempel (USGS) |
| July 15, 2026 | Power Platform updates, community check in, and a Copilot Studio (chatbot) demo | Rebecca Bushon and Laura Hempel (USGS) |
Reproducible Scientific Communication
| Date | Topic | Presenter |
|---|---|---|
| February 25, 2026 | Expanded group scope, SPN templates and Overleaf, USGS Green Open Access, Quarto in the CDI RFP Process | Rebecca Ransom, Kelly Haberstroh, and Leslie Hsu (USGS) |
| May 27, 2026 | Kiro for reproducible worfklows, Overleaf update | Richie Erickson and Rebecca Ransom (USGS) |
| August 26, 2026 | PowerPoint presentation templates, Open Access support at the USGS updates | Rebecca Ransom and Kelly Haberstroh (USGS) |
Risk Research and Applications
| Date | Topic | Presenter |
|---|---|---|
| November 20, 2025 | Learning from the 30 July 2025 Kamchatka Earthquake and Tsunami: Risk, Alerts, and End-User Expectations | Gavin Hayes (USGS), Dave Snider (NOAA) |
| December 3, 2025 | FY26 Risk RFP Information Session | Alice Pennaz (USGS) |
| December 9, 2025 | From Research to Implementation: PODs, GeoAI, and Planning | John Hogland, Christopher O'Connor (USDA FS) |
| January 15, 2026 | Legal implications of USGS applied and operational science | Athena Clark (USGS), Kasie Durkit (SOL) |
| January 28, 2026 | Bridging the Science Management Gap: How WLCI moves from Research to Decisions | Patrick Anderson (USGS) |
| March 19, 2026 | Risks, rewards, and science applications in addressing the nation's cheatgrass-wildfire cycle | Matt Germino (USGS) |
| April 16, 2026 | Building a geospatial framework for salt marsh management: from water samples to Landsat 9 ; USGS Tribal Relations Toolkit Launch | Neil Ganju, Annie Scott (USGS) |
| May 21, 2026 | The 2025 UNDRR-ISC Hazard Information Profiles | John Rees, Julia Crummy, Virginia Murray (British Geological Survey) |
| May 22, 2026 | R2X Transition Planning | Jack Friedman (USGS) |
| June 18, 2026 | Implications of Assessing the Role of Coral Reefs in Coastal Risk Reduction | Curt Storlazzi (USGS) |
| July 16, 2026 | From Alerts to Action: VNS Subscriber Trends to Inform and Improve Volcano Hazard Communication | Tim Honeneder, Geraldine O'Mahony (Heartland Consulting) |
| July 21, 2026 | What can happen after the Big One? Past, present, and future of communicating aftershock forecasts at USGS | Max Schneider, Anne Wein, Andy Michael (USGS) |
| August 20, 2026 | Communicating through Design: Shooting Stars Graphic Novel for Asteroid Impact Threats | Lori Pigue (USGS) |
| 17-Sep-26 | Emergency Manager - Ask-Me-Anything (EM AMA) | Carrie Karl (Bend, OR EM), Jay Wilson (Clackamas County, OR EM) |
Software Development
In addition to the meetings below, the CDI-Software group held monthly office hours for Software Development-related questions.
| Date | Topic | Presenter |
|---|---|---|
| April 1, 2026 | Building an operational framework for postfire debris-flow hazard assessments | Jonathan King (USGS) |
| April 9, 2026 | Tutorial IDEs with Git Integration | Kirstie Haynie (USGS) |
| June 25, 2026 | Tutorial - Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CICD) Basics | Heather Hunsinger (USGS) |
| July 15, 2026 | ScienceBase Modernization | Madison Langseth (USGS) and Tamar Norkin (USGS) |
Team Science
| Date | Topic | Presenters |
|---|---|---|
| January 21, 2026 | Incentives in Team Science | Michael Meyer (USGS) |
| February 18, 2026 | Harnessing Creativity | Jessica Driscoll (USGS) |
| March 18, 2026 | Learning from Failure | Tim McHale (USGS) |
| April 15, 2026 | Navigating conflict with facilitative listening skills: Practical techniques | Emily Read, Amanda Cravens (USGS) |
| May 20, 2026 | Team science in the USGS: Best practices, challenges, and opportunities | Samantha Oliver, Michael Meyer (USGS) |
| June 17, 2026 | The No-Stats All Star | Amanda Cravens (USGS) |
| July 15, 2026 | Active Followership in Team Science | Eric Kaufman (Virginia Tech) |
| August 19, 2026 | If I had known - late career thoughts from a scientist who would rather be alone in waders | Jason Dunham (USGS) |
| September 16, 2026 | Lessons from Synthesis Centers | Stephanie Hamilton (University of California, Davis) |
Go back to CDI 2026 Activities.