Landsat touches the lives of people around the world every day in many ways, especially as the climate changes. It keeps an eye on our water supply—drinking water, irrigation, and even groundwater. It tells us how the crops are growing to feed livestock and us, clothe us, and help fuel our vehicles. It spots the effects of natural disasters, from droughts and wildfires to hurricanes and flooding.
Earth Observation Case Studies
Explore user case studies that delve into the varied applications of Landsat to shine a light on land resource issues across the globe, from urban jungles to rainforests.
Landsat Benefits, State By State
State-specific examples of how data from the Landsat program has been applied to address questions of local importance, from tracking water use across the dry landscapes of Arizona to monitoring algal blooms in the waters of Michigan.
Landsat reveals where we’re most vulnerable – to sea level rise, to urban heat, to extreme weather. It conveys where and how our valuable wildernesses are at risk, from insects attacking a forest to exotic grass invading shrubland.
Below you'll find just a few examples.
Click here to peruse articles, videos, interactive tools, and more on the myriad ways the Landsat Program benefits society.
Monitoring Water Use
Landsat helps with water management by indicating how much water gets consumed in irrigation. This is especially helpful in areas facing drought, such as the western United States and other countries.
The Brazilian National Water Agency (ANA), for example, finds remote sensing a beneficial tool for identifying irrigated areas in the large country:
- "Nearly 20 percent of all the planet’s rivers flow on Brazilian soil. Brazil uses roughly 72 percent of its available water for its extensive irrigated agricultural needs, including some of the planet’s largest cattle, pig, and poultry operations. But for all its wealth of water, Brazil also faces significant hydrologic challenges. Drought has baked the country’s semi-arid regions ... metropolitan regions like São Paulo face significant water supply problems. And it’s not just a lack of rain: the growth in water use and procrastination in meeting water and sanitation needs are testing areas that have already reached their limit in the balance between water supply and water demand. When ANA officials heard EROS staff presenting about their work on measuring and monitoring water consumption with their Operational Simplified Surface Energy Balance (SSEBop) model at a USGS Water Census conference in Atlanta four to five years ago, the Brazilians’ interest perked right up."
Continue reading "Water Monitoring, Mapping in Brazil Shows Value of Landsat Globally"
Tracking Wildfire Risk
Landsat contributes to mapping the western United States’ vast rangeland and showing where invasive annual grasses are prevalent. This helps with fire fuel projections as wildfire risks increase.
It also helps with grazing management, understanding bird and wildlife habitat, and identifying opportunities to preserve native species:
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The (Landsat-based) maps began to gain traction in the user community even before the most recent release. Matt Reeves of the USDA Forest Service, for example, has folded the information into a tool called 'Fuelcast,' which calculates biomass each month across the West. The Fuelcast calculations, which consider precipitation, temperatures and remotely sensed sources, serve two primary purposes. First, they offer a data point for ranchers seeking federal payouts for reductions in expected forage through the Farm Services Agency. Second, the projections help the firefighting community understand the conditions on the ground. High levels of biomass and dry conditions can be a dangerous combination if a fire is sparked. Before the USGS EROS data emerged, Fuelcast was unable to differentiate between the invasive grasses Reeves calls 'the gasoline' for fuel beds that might not burn as intensely without their influence."
Continue reading "New USGS EROS Maps Reveal Species-by-species Prevalence of Exotic Grasses in the Western U.S."
Tracking Urban Hotspots
Landsat can help identify the warmest areas within cities where residents are most vulnerable to heat-related illnesses and deaths. City planners then can develop long-term strategies to cool these areas down and emergency measures to help residents during heat waves. Landsat can also help define the effectiveness of mitigation strategies, such as the green roofs and green spaces in Chicago:
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Using Landsat’s historical archive, the project looked at trends of heat severity over time across Chicago and the statistical significance of land surface temperature changes at 26 intervention sites, which were mostly parks along with some neighborhoods. "We did a lot of land acquisition over several years to convert some of the industrial space on the far south side of Chicago into open space," said Brad Roback, who works in the Chicago Department of Planning and Development, focused on sustainability. Also involved in the project were Chicago’s Department of Public Health and the Office of Emergency Management Control. “We’re always working with the park district and with nonprofit partners to develop not only park space but community-managed open spaces like community gardens, pocket parks, those sorts of things."
Continue reading "Collaboration's Quest: Examine Effects of Urban Heat Actions in Chicago"
Cataloging the Forests
Landsat can tell us when and where forests have lost or gained ground around the world. It can offer details about the causes, too, such as insect outbreaks too remote or widespread for people to investigate on the ground. Bark beetle infestations in the Rocky Mountains, for example, can offer clues to future outbreak patterns and their effects on the people living near them:
- Sarah Hart, a forest ecologist at Colorado State University, uses data from aerial detection surveys, during which observers fly over and digitally label areas affected by insects and disease. But for consistency, scale, and length of record, Hart turns to Landsat. “Bark beetle outbreaks unfold over several years to a decade in some areas. So the temporal record of Landsat was really critical. It’s the perfect tool, and really the only tool that, in my opinion, would have solved and answered some of the questions that we were interested in,” she said. Hart served as a collaborator on a recent bark beetle study by Kyle Rodman, who did postdoctoral research with Hart and now works as a research scientist at the Ecological Restoration Institute at Northern Arizona University. Rodman grew up in Colorado Springs, and that familiarity has influenced his interest in forest disturbances. “I think you can do a lot of important and useful things if you know an area well, if you have that good understanding of what’s going on on the ground,” Rodman said. “As a remote sensing person, knowing what you’re seeing on the landscape is really valuable.”
Continue reading "Landsat Helps Tell the Story About Bark Beetle Outbreaks in Colorado"
Related Content
Follow the links below to learn more about the societal benefits of the Landsat Program
Colorado River Basin Focus Area Study: Evapotranspiration
Agriculture from 'Landsat Imagery: A Unique Resource'
Technology from 'Landsat Imagery: A Unique Resource'
Land Cover Mapping: Australia
Water from 'Landsat Imagery: A Unique Resource'
Humanitarianism from 'Landsat Imagery: A Unique Resource'
Forestry from 'Landsat Imagery: A Unique Resource'
Environment from 'Landsat Imagery: A Unique Resource'
SilviaTerra: Landsat Use by a Forestry Start-up
Global Food Security-Support Analysis Data at 30 m (GFSAD30)
Check out this rundown of the Landsat Program's value.
What is the Landsat satellite program and why is it important?
The Landsat Program is a series of Earth-observing satellite missions jointly managed by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey. On July 23, 1972, in cooperation with NASA, the Earth Resources Technology Satellite (ERTS-1) was launched. It was later renamed Landsat 1. Additional Landsat satellites have launched to bring the world an archive of remote sensing data. Currently orbiting and active...
Related Content
- Science
Follow the links below to learn more about the societal benefits of the Landsat Program
Colorado River Basin Focus Area Study: Evapotranspiration
New USGS-developed, remote-sensing based approaches were used to quantify agricultural irrigation water consumption on a field-by-field scale. The work produced the first ever Colorado River Basin-wide, 100-m scale actual ET estimate (2010) using Landsat imagery.Agriculture from 'Landsat Imagery: A Unique Resource'
Landsat satellites provide high-quality, multi-spectral imagery of the surface of the Earth. These moderate-resolution, remotely sensed images are not just pictures, but contain many layers of data collected at different points along the visible and invisible light spectrum.Technology from 'Landsat Imagery: A Unique Resource'
Landsat satellites provide high-quality, multi-spectral imagery of the surface of the Earth. These moderate-resolution, remotely sensed images are not just pictures, but contain many layers of data collected at different points along the visible and invisible light spectrum.Land Cover Mapping: Australia
Australia’s agricultural industry has evolved significantly within the last decade. Change in agriculture, whether it is an increase in land used for production or the types of crops being produced, has an impact on land-cover soil properties and water availability. Landsat imagery is used in monitoring irrigation areas and dry land agricultural areas to detect changes in agricultural practices...Water from 'Landsat Imagery: A Unique Resource'
Landsat satellites provide high-quality, multi-spectral imagery of the surface of the Earth. These moderate-resolution, remotely sensed images are not just pictures, but contain many layers of data collected at different points along the visible and invisible light spectrum.Humanitarianism from 'Landsat Imagery: A Unique Resource'
Landsat satellites provide high-quality, multi-spectral imagery of the surface of the Earth. These moderate-resolution, remotely sensed images are not just pictures, but contain many layers of data collected at different points along the visible and invisible light spectrum.Forestry from 'Landsat Imagery: A Unique Resource'
Landsat satellites provide high-quality, multi-spectral imagery of the surface of the Earth. These moderate-resolution, remotely sensed images are not just pictures, but contain many layers of data collected at different points along the visible and invisible light spectrum.Environment from 'Landsat Imagery: A Unique Resource'
Landsat satellites provide high-quality, multi-spectral imagery of the surface of the Earth. These moderate-resolution, remotely sensed images are not just pictures, but contain many layers of data collected at different points along the visible and invisible light spectrum.SilviaTerra: Landsat Use by a Forestry Start-up
SilviaTerra is a four-year-old start-up company with five full-time employees that is contributing to the change in the way forests are managed in the United States. The company provides next-generation, highly accurate forest inventory data to fifteen users of various sizes. The customer base includes national and international timber companies. SilviaTerra is profitable and continues to grow.Global Food Security-Support Analysis Data at 30 m (GFSAD30)
Using remote sensing data, especially Landsat data to map cropland extent, and crop types, to support managing water supplies for both energy and food production to ensure global food security. - Multimedia
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Check out this rundown of the Landsat Program's value.
What is the Landsat satellite program and why is it important?
The Landsat Program is a series of Earth-observing satellite missions jointly managed by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey. On July 23, 1972, in cooperation with NASA, the Earth Resources Technology Satellite (ERTS-1) was launched. It was later renamed Landsat 1. Additional Landsat satellites have launched to bring the world an archive of remote sensing data. Currently orbiting and active...