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Land Change Science Program

The Land Change Science (LCS) Program strives to advance the understanding of the rates, causes, and consequences of climate and land use change, and the vulnerability and resilience of the Earth system to such changes.

News

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USGS and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory release database and interactive map of all large-scale solar energy facilities in the U.S.

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Ancient methods of preventing desertification and recovering from drought

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SBSC TRIBAL PARTNERSHIPS

Publications

Calibration and validation for the Surface Biology and Geology (SBG) mission concept: Recommendations for a multi-sensor system for imaging spectroscopy and thermal imagery

The primary objective of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Surface Biology and Geology (SBG) mission is to measure biological, physical, chemical, and mineralogical features of the Earth's surface, realizing a key conceptual component of the envisioned NASA Earth System Observatory (ESO). SBG is planned to launch as a two-platform mission in the late 2020s, the first of the
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Kevin R. Turpie, Kimberly Ann Casey, Christopher J. Crawford, Liane S Guild, Hugh H. Kieffer, Guoqing (Gary) Lin, Raymond F. Kokaly, Alok Shrestha, Cody Anderson, Shankar N. Ramaseri Chandra, Robert O. Green, Simon Hook, Constantine Lukashin, Kurt Thome

The global wildland-urban interface

The wildland–urban interface (WUI) is where buildings and wildland vegetation meet or intermingle. It is where human–environmental conflicts and risks can be concentrated, including the loss of houses and lives to wildfire, habitat loss and fragmentation and the spread of zoonotic diseases. However, a global analysis of the WUI has been lacking. Here, we present a global map of the 2020 WUI at 10 
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F. Schug, Avi Bar-Massada, Amanda Renee Carlson, H. Cox, Todd Hawbaker, D. Helmers, Patrick Hostert, D. Kaim, Neda K. Kasraee, S. Martinuzzi, Miranda H. Mockrin, Kira A. Pfoch, Volker C. Radeloff

Human and infrastructure exposure to large wildfires in the United States

An increasing number of wildfire disasters have occurred in recent years in the United States. Here we demonstrate that cumulative primary human exposure—the population residing within the perimeters of large wildfires—was 594,850 people from 2000 to 2019 across the contiguous United States (CONUS), 82% of which occurred in the western United States. Primary population exposure increased by 125% i
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Arash Modaresi Rad, John T. Abatzoglou, Jason R. Kreitler, Mohammad Reza Alizadeh, Amir AghaKouchak, Nicholas Hudyma, NIcholas Nauslar, Mojtaba Sadegh

Science

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Eyes on Earth Episode 107 – EROS 50th: Land Cover, Part 2

The next step for two strong land cover products at USGS EROS is to combine them to create something even better.
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Eyes on Earth Episode 106 – EROS 50th: Land Cover, Part 1

USGS EROS contributed to a better understanding of the Earth’s surface by leading early land cover mapping efforts.
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Wild horse and livestock influences on vegetation and wildlife in sagebrush ecosystems: Implications for refining and validating Appropriate Management Level (AML)

USGS researchers are conducting a comprehensive study of wild horse and livestock records across the greater sage-grouse range to investigate impacts on vegetation and wildlife (specifically, sage-grouse and songbirds). Researchers will use these results to evaluate Appropriate Management Levels for wild horse and burros, and projections of vegetation productivity under a changing climate.
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Wild horse and livestock influences on vegetation and wildlife in sagebrush ecosystems: Implications for refining and validating Appropriate Management Level (AML)

USGS researchers are conducting a comprehensive study of wild horse and livestock records across the greater sage-grouse range to investigate impacts on vegetation and wildlife (specifically, sage-grouse and songbirds). Researchers will use these results to evaluate Appropriate Management Levels for wild horse and burros, and projections of vegetation productivity under a changing climate.
Learn More