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Publications

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Using terrestrial light detection and ranging (lidar) technology for land-surface analysis in the Southwest

Emerging technologies provide scientists with methods to measure Earth processes in new ways. One of these technologies--ultra-high-resolution, ground-based light detection and ranging (lidar)--is being used by USGS Western Geographic Science Center scientists to characterize the role of wind and fire processes in shaping desert landscapes of the Southwest United States.
Authors
Christopher E. Soulard, Rian Bogle

Population and business exposure to twenty scenario earthquakes in the State of Washington

This report documents the results of an initial analysis of population and business exposure to scenario earthquakes in Washington. This analysis was conducted to support the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Pacific Northwest Multi-Hazards Demonstration Project (MHDP) and an ongoing collaboration between the State of Washington Emergency Management Division (WEMD) and the USGS on earthquake hazards a
Authors
Nathan Wood, Jamie Ratliff

Understanding risk and resilience to natural hazards

Natural hazards threaten the safety and economic wellbeing of communities. These hazards include sudden-onset hazards, such as earthquakes, and slowly emerging, chronic hazards, such as those associated with climate change. To help public officials, emergency and other managers, the business community, and at-risk individuals reduce the risks posed by such hazards, the USGS Western Geographic Scie
Authors
Nathan Wood

Hyperspectral remote sensing of vegetation

Hyperspectral narrow-band (or imaging spectroscopy) spectral data are fast emerging as practical solutions in modeling and mapping vegetation. Recent research has demonstrated the advances in and merit of hyperspectral data in a range of applications including quantifying agricultural crops, modeling forest canopy biochemical properties, detecting crop stress and disease, mapping leaf chlorophyll
Authors
Prasad S. Thenkabail, John G. Lyon, Alfredo Huete

Recovering from the ShakeOut earthquake

Recovery from an earthquake like the M7.8 ShakeOut Scenario will be a major endeavor taking many years to complete. Hundreds of Southern California municipalities will be affected; most lack recovery plans or previous disaster experience. To support recovery planning this paper 1) extends the regional ShakeOut Scenario analysis into the recovery period using a recovery model, 2) localizes analyses
Authors
Anne Wein, Laurie Johnson, Richard Bernknopf

Hyperspectral remote sensing of vegetation and agricultural crops: Knowledge gain and knowledge gap after 40 years of research

The focus of this chapter was to summarize the advances made over last 40+ years, as reported in various chapters of this book, in understanding, modeling, and mapping terrestrial vegetation using hyperspectral remote sensing (or imaging spectroscopy) using sensors that are ground-based, truck-mounted, airborne, and spaceborne. As we have seen in various chapters of this book and synthesized in th
Authors
Prasad S. Thenkabail, John G. Lyon, Alfredo Huete

Advances in hyperspectral remote sensing of vegetation and agricultural croplands

Recent advances in hyperspectral remote sensing (or imaging spectroscopy) demonstrate a great utility for a variety of land monitoring applications. It is now possible to be diagnostic in sensing species and plant communities using remotely sensed data and to do so in a direct and informed manner using modern tools and analyses. Hyperspectral data analyses are superior to traditional broadband ana
Authors
Prasad S. Thenkabail, John G. Lyon, Alfredo Huete

A synthesis: Informing collaborative conservation and management of Colorado Plateau resources

No abstract available.
Authors
Miguel L. Villarreal, Charles van Riper, Carena J. van Riper, Matthew J. Johnson, S. Shane Selleck

Nogales flood detention study

Flooding in Ambos Nogales often exceeds the capacity of the channel and adjacent land areas, endangering many people. The Nogales Wash is being studied to prevent future flood disasters and detention features are being installed in tributaries of the wash. This paper describes the application of the KINEROS2 model and efforts to understand the capacity of these detention features under various flo
Authors
Laura M. Norman, Lainie Levick, D. Phillip Guertin, James Callegary, Jesus Quintanar Guadarrama, Claudia Zulema Gil Anaya, Andrea Prichard, Floyd Gray, Edgar Castellanos, Edgar Tepezano, Hans Huth, Prescott Vandervoet, Saul Rodriguez, Jose Nunez, Donald Atwood, Gilberto Patricio Olivero Granillo, Francisco Octavio Gastellum Ceballos

The Border Environmental Health Initiative: Investigating the transboundary Santa Cruz watershed

In 2004 the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) launched the Border Environmental Health Initiative (BEHI), a major project encompassing the entire U.S.-Mexico border region. In 2009, a study of the Santa Cruz River Watershed (SCW), located in the border region of Arizona and Sonora, Mexico, was initiated as part of the BEHI. In this borderland region of the desert Southwest, human health and the ecosys
Authors
Laura M. Norman, James Callegary, Charles van Riper, Floyd Gray

Integrated simulation of consumptive use and land subsidence in the Central Valley, California, for the past and for a future subject to urbanization and climate change

Competition for water resources is growing throughout California, particularly in the Central Valley where about 20% of all groundwater used in the United States is consumed for agriculture and urban water supply. Continued agricultural use coupled with urban growth and potential climate change would result in continued depletion of groundwater storage and associated land subsidence throughout the
Authors
Randall T. Hanson, Alan L. Flint, Claudia C. Faunt, Daniel R. Cayan, Lorraine E. Flint, Stanley A. Leake, Wolfgang Schmid

A high-resolution land-use map; Nogales, Sonora, Mexico

The cities of Nogales, Sonora, and Nogales, Arizona, are located in the Ambos Nogales Watershed, a topographically irregular bowl-shaped area with a northward gradient. Throughout history, residents in both cities have been affected by flooding. Currently, the primary method for regulating this runoff is to build a series of detention basins in Nogales, Sonora. Additionally, the municipality also
Authors
Laura M. Norman, Miguel L. Villarreal, Cynthia S.A. Wallace, Claudia Z. Gil Anaya, Israel Diaz Arcos, Floyd Gray