Mission Areas
Land Resources
Understanding a changing world and how it affects our natural resources, livelihoods, and communities. Science plays an essential role in helping communities and resource managers understand the local to global implications of change, anticipate the effects of change, prepare for change, and reduce the risks associated with decisionmaking in a changing environment.
EROS Center
The Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center is responsible for satellite operations, including Landsat, and performs image data collection, archiving, processing, and distribution.
Explore EROSLandCarbon
The biologic carbon sequestration assessment program (LandCarbon) studies ecosystem carbon cycle research topics, investigates carbon management science needs, and develops monitoring methods.
Learn MoreData and Tools
Land Resources supports the science community with its long-term observational networks and extensive databases encompassing the fields of climate history, land-use and land-cover change, and carbon and nutrient cycles.
U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit
News
LCMAP Releases Project Website
The USGS Land Change Monitoring, Assessment, and Projection (LCMAP) initiative now has an online home. The stand-alone LCMAP website is located at www.usgs.gov/lcmap.
First in a Series of Landsat 9 Ground Readiness Tests is Successful
Landsat 9 Ground System development team members executed the first of a series of Ground Readiness Tests (GRTs) this week as they successfully simulated the communication of command and telemetry data between the Ground Network Element (GNE) at EROS and the Landsat Multi-Satellite...
Recent Lidar Awards Shine Light on Work Being Done at EROS
Two award ceremonies in late January 2019 cast spotlights on the good work being done with Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) by current and former staff of the Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center.
Publications
A review of coastal management approaches to support the integration of ecological and human community planning for climate change
The resilience of socio-ecological systems to sea level rise, storms and flooding can be enhanced when coastal habitats are used as natural infrastructure. Grey infrastructure has long been used for coastal flood protection but can lead to unintended negative impacts. Natural infrastructure often provides similar services as well as added benefits...
Powell, Emily J.; Tyrrell, Megan C.; Milliken, Andrew; Tirpak, John M.; Staudinger, Michelle D. Water
Ensuring a reliable supply of clean freshwater to individuals, communities, and ecosystems, together with effective management of floods and droughts, is the foundation of human and ecological health. The water sector is also central to the economy and contributes significantly to the resilience of many other sectors, including agriculture,...
Reidmiller, D. R.; Avery, C. W.; Easterling, D. R.; Kunkel, K. E.; Lewis, K. L. M.; Maycock, T. K.; Stewart, B. C.; Lall, Upmanu; Johnson, Thomas M.; Colohan, Peter; AghaKouchak, Amir; Brown, Casey L.; McCabe, Gregory; Pulwarty, Roger; Arumugam, Sankar Land cover and land use change
Climate can affect and be affected by changes in land cover (the physical features that cover the land such as trees or pavement) and land use (human management and activities on land, such as mining or recreation). A forest, for instance, would likely include tree cover but could also include areas of recent tree removals currently...
Reidmiller, D. R.; Avery, C. W.; Easterling, D. R.; Kunkel, K. E.; Lewis, K. L. M.; Maycock, T. K.; Stewart, B. C.; Sleeter, Benjamin M.; Loveland, Thomas; Domke, Grant; Herold, Nate; Wickham, James; Wood, Nathan J.