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Christopher Soulard

Chris Soulard started with the U.S. Geological Survey in 2002 and has been with the Western Geographic Science Center since 2005.

Early in his career, Chris applied his knowledge of remote sensing into projects focusing on multi-temporal change analyses using Landsat imagery and aerial photography, most notably the Land Cover Trends Project. Chris has since expanded his research scope to include community vulnerability assessments of tsunami and volcanic lahar hazards in the Pacific Northwest, terrestrial laser scanning to monitor soil and vegetation changes in the Mojave Desert and elsewhere, land-use/land-cover forecasting for the Western United States, and vegetation change analyses using Google Earth Engine. Chris Soulard serves as the Principal Investigator of the PLACE Project (Patterns in the Landscape – Analyses of Cause and Effect).

Science and Products

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Volcano Evacuation Route Sign

Volcanoes

As the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption showed, volcanoes pose significant threats to U.S. communities. Potential hazards posed by U.S. volcanoes include tephra falls, pyroclastic flows and surges, VOG, ballistic projectiles, lahar and lava flows. In collaboration with researchers from the USGS Volcano Hazards Program, the Hazards Vulnerability Team worked on better understanding and communicating...
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Western Geographic Science Center
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Volcanoes

As the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption showed, volcanoes pose significant threats to U.S. communities. Potential hazards posed by U.S. volcanoes include tephra falls, pyroclastic flows and surges, VOG, ballistic projectiles, lahar and lava flows. In collaboration with researchers from the USGS Volcano Hazards Program, the Hazards Vulnerability Team worked on better understanding and communicating...
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USGS Logo

Identifying Historical Drivers of Vegetation Change to Inform Future Management of Federal Lands in the Northern Great Basin

The sagebrush rangelands of the Great Basin provide crucial habitat for a diversity of wildlife, including the pronghorn and the greater sage-grouse. These water-limited, highly-managed ecosystems have already been degraded by wildfires, the expansion of invasive grasses, and livestock grazing, and are expected to experience additional stress as climate and land use conditions change. Effective ma
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Climate Adaptation Science Centers, Climate Adaptation Science Center
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Identifying Historical Drivers of Vegetation Change to Inform Future Management of Federal Lands in the Northern Great Basin

The sagebrush rangelands of the Great Basin provide crucial habitat for a diversity of wildlife, including the pronghorn and the greater sage-grouse. These water-limited, highly-managed ecosystems have already been degraded by wildfires, the expansion of invasive grasses, and livestock grazing, and are expected to experience additional stress as climate and land use conditions change. Effective ma
Learn More
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USGS Logo

Identifying Historical Drivers of Vegetation Change to Inform Future Management of Federal Lands in the Northern Great Basin

The sagebrush rangelands of the Great Basin provide crucial habitat for a diversity of wildlife, including the pronghorn and the greater sage-grouse. These water-limited, highly-managed ecosystems have already been degraded by wildfires, the expansion of invasive grasses, and livestock grazing, and are expected to experience additional stress as climate and land use conditions change. Effective ma
By
Climate Adaptation Science Centers, Climate Adaptation Science Center
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Identifying Historical Drivers of Vegetation Change to Inform Future Management of Federal Lands in the Northern Great Basin

The sagebrush rangelands of the Great Basin provide crucial habitat for a diversity of wildlife, including the pronghorn and the greater sage-grouse. These water-limited, highly-managed ecosystems have already been degraded by wildfires, the expansion of invasive grasses, and livestock grazing, and are expected to experience additional stress as climate and land use conditions change. Effective ma
Learn More
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USGS science for a changing world logo

Web Mapping Application for a Historical Geologic Field Photo Collection

Geotagged photographs have become a useful medium for recording, analyzing, and communicating Earth science phenomena. Despite their utility, many field photographs are not published or preserved in a spatial or accessible format—oftentimes because of confusion about photograph metadata, a lack of stability, or user customization in free photo sharing platforms. After receiving a request to releas...
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Community for Data Integration (CDI)
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Web Mapping Application for a Historical Geologic Field Photo Collection

Geotagged photographs have become a useful medium for recording, analyzing, and communicating Earth science phenomena. Despite their utility, many field photographs are not published or preserved in a spatial or accessible format—oftentimes because of confusion about photograph metadata, a lack of stability, or user customization in free photo sharing platforms. After receiving a request to releas...
Learn More
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Views from Siuslaw National Forest

Patterns in the Landscape – Analyses of Cause and Effect

For two decades, USGS scientists with the Land Cover Trends team have used satellite data to study landscape change across the United States. Increasingly, research is focused on understanding why change occurs. Insights into the underlying causes of shifts in land use and land cover (LULC) will allow managers and stakeholders to make more informed decisions about how to respond to future...
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Climate Research and Development Program, Western Geographic Science Center
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Patterns in the Landscape – Analyses of Cause and Effect

For two decades, USGS scientists with the Land Cover Trends team have used satellite data to study landscape change across the United States. Increasingly, research is focused on understanding why change occurs. Insights into the underlying causes of shifts in land use and land cover (LULC) will allow managers and stakeholders to make more informed decisions about how to respond to future...
Learn More
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National Land Cover Database

Land Cover Trends

Land Cover Trends was a research project focused on understanding the rates, trends, causes, and consequences of contemporary U.S. land use and land cover change. The project spanned from 1999 to 2011. The research was supported by the Climate and Land Use Change Research and Development Program of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and was a collaborative effort with the U.S. Environmental...
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Western Geographic Science Center
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Land Cover Trends

Land Cover Trends was a research project focused on understanding the rates, trends, causes, and consequences of contemporary U.S. land use and land cover change. The project spanned from 1999 to 2011. The research was supported by the Climate and Land Use Change Research and Development Program of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and was a collaborative effort with the U.S. Environmental...
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USGS science for a changing world logo

Integration of Land Cover Trends Field Photography with an Online Map Service

The USGS National Land Cover Trends Project has the largest repository of field photos at the USGS (over 33,000 photos). Prior to CDI funding, Land Cover Trends had limited funding to make the national collection of photos available online for researchers, land managers, and citizens. The goal of this CDI project was to add geotags and keywords to the digital copies of each field photo and make th
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Community for Data Integration (CDI)
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Integration of Land Cover Trends Field Photography with an Online Map Service

The USGS National Land Cover Trends Project has the largest repository of field photos at the USGS (over 33,000 photos). Prior to CDI funding, Land Cover Trends had limited funding to make the national collection of photos available online for researchers, land managers, and citizens. The goal of this CDI project was to add geotags and keywords to the digital copies of each field photo and make th
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The Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge support native and nonnative grasses, including nonnative African lovegrasses.

Assessing the Vulnerability of Dryland Ecosystems to Drought in the Western U.S.

In the western U.S., rising temperatures and pronounced drought conditions pose significant challenges to public land managers. Widespread declines of multiple plant species have already been observed, providing insight into what the future could look like for vegetation in the region as conditions are projected to become warmer and drier. To understand how vulnerable western ecosystems are to dro
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Climate Adaptation Science Centers, Climate Adaptation Science Center
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Assessing the Vulnerability of Dryland Ecosystems to Drought in the Western U.S.

In the western U.S., rising temperatures and pronounced drought conditions pose significant challenges to public land managers. Widespread declines of multiple plant species have already been observed, providing insight into what the future could look like for vegetation in the region as conditions are projected to become warmer and drier. To understand how vulnerable western ecosystems are to dro
Learn More
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The Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge support native and nonnative grasses, including nonnative African lovegrasses.

Assessing the Vulnerability of Dryland Ecosystems to Drought in the Western U.S.

In the western U.S., rising temperatures and pronounced drought conditions pose significant challenges to public land managers. Widespread declines of multiple plant species have already been observed, providing insight into what the future could look like for vegetation in the region as conditions are projected to become warmer and drier. To understand how vulnerable western ecosystems are to dro
By
Climate Adaptation Science Centers, Climate Adaptation Science Center
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Assessing the Vulnerability of Dryland Ecosystems to Drought in the Western U.S.

In the western U.S., rising temperatures and pronounced drought conditions pose significant challenges to public land managers. Widespread declines of multiple plant species have already been observed, providing insight into what the future could look like for vegetation in the region as conditions are projected to become warmer and drier. To understand how vulnerable western ecosystems are to dro
Learn More
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Meadow in the Sierra Nevada

Linking Extreme Storms to Changes in Precipitation, Ecosystems, and Wildfire Patterns in the Sierra Nevada

The majority of the West Coast’s most extreme storms have been linked to atmospheric rivers, a meteorological phenomenon in which large amounts of moisture are carried in narrow bands from over the Pacific Ocean to western North America. While weak atmospheric rivers are critical providers of winter rain and snow, stronger events can cause extreme flooding, mudslides, and avalanches – leading to p...
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Climate Adaptation Science Centers, Climate Adaptation Science Center
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Linking Extreme Storms to Changes in Precipitation, Ecosystems, and Wildfire Patterns in the Sierra Nevada

The majority of the West Coast’s most extreme storms have been linked to atmospheric rivers, a meteorological phenomenon in which large amounts of moisture are carried in narrow bands from over the Pacific Ocean to western North America. While weak atmospheric rivers are critical providers of winter rain and snow, stronger events can cause extreme flooding, mudslides, and avalanches – leading to p...
Learn More
link
Meadow in the Sierra Nevada

Linking Extreme Storms to Changes in Precipitation, Ecosystems, and Wildfire Patterns in the Sierra Nevada

The majority of the West Coast’s most extreme storms have been linked to atmospheric rivers, a meteorological phenomenon in which large amounts of moisture are carried in narrow bands from over the Pacific Ocean to western North America. While weak atmospheric rivers are critical providers of winter rain and snow, stronger events can cause extreme flooding, mudslides, and avalanches – leading to p...
By
Climate Adaptation Science Centers, Climate Adaptation Science Center
link

Linking Extreme Storms to Changes in Precipitation, Ecosystems, and Wildfire Patterns in the Sierra Nevada

The majority of the West Coast’s most extreme storms have been linked to atmospheric rivers, a meteorological phenomenon in which large amounts of moisture are carried in narrow bands from over the Pacific Ocean to western North America. While weak atmospheric rivers are critical providers of winter rain and snow, stronger events can cause extreme flooding, mudslides, and avalanches – leading to p...
Learn More

National Surface Water Maps using Daily MODIS Satellite Data for the Conterminous United States, 2003?2019

Members from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Patterns in the Landscape - Analyses of Cause and Effect (PLACE) team are releasing monthly surface water maps for the conterminous United States (U.S.) from 2003 through 2019 as 250-meter resolution geoTIFF files. The maps were produced using the Dynamic Surface Water Extent (DSWE) algorithm applied to daily Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiome
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Climate Research and Development Program, Western Geographic Science Center

DSWEmod surface water map composites generated from daily MODIS images - California

USGS researchers with the Patterns in the Landscape ? Analyses of Cause and Effect (PLACE) project are releasing a collection of high-frequency surface water map composites derived from daily Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) imagery. Using Google Earth Engine, the team developed customized image processing steps and adapted the Dynamic Surface Water Extent (DSWE) to generate s
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Climate Research and Development Program, Western Geographic Science Center

Spatially-explicit land-cover scenarios of federal lands in the northern Great Basin, 2018-2050

As part of a 2018 Northwest Climate Adaptation and Science Center project, USGS researchers are releasing a series of spatially-explicit land-cover projections for the period 2018-2050 covering part of the northern Great Basin (Beaty Butte Herd Management Area, Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge, and Sheldon National Refuge). The dataset contains an empirically-based business-as-usual (BAU) an
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Climate Research and Development Program, Western Geographic Science Center

Phenology pattern data indicating recovery trajectories of ponderosa pine forests after high-severity fires

This tabular, machine-readable CSV file contains annual phenometrics at locations in ponderosa pine ecosystems across Arizona and New Mexico that experienced stand-clearing, high-severity fire. The locations represent areas of vegetative recovery towards pre-fire (coniferous/pine) vegetation communities or towards novel grassland, shrubland, or deciduous replacements. Each sampled area is associat
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Climate Research and Development Program, Western Geographic Science Center

Datasets for analyzing stream gage discharge and Landsat imagery integration in the greater Central Valley, California from 1984 to 2015

This data release comprises the data files and code necessary to perform all analyses presented in the associated publication. The *.csv data files are aggregations of water extent on the basis of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) Monthly Water History database (v1.0) and the Dynamic Surface Water Extent (DSWE) algorithm. The shapefile dataset contains the study area 8-digit
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Western Geographic Science Center

Data - Forest harvest patterns on private lands in the Cascade Mountains, Washington, USA

Forests in Washington State generate substantial economic revenue from commercial timber harvesting on private lands. To investigate the rates, causes, and spatial and temporal patterns of forest harvest on private tracts throughout the central Cascade Mountain area, we relied on a new generation of annual land-use/land-cover (LULC) products created from the application of the Continuous Change De
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Western Geographic Science Center

Data on influence of atmospheric rivers on vegetation productivity and fire patterns in the southwestern US

In the southwestern US, the meteorological phenomenon known as atmospheric rivers (ARs) has gained increasing attention due to its strong connections to floods, snowpacks and water supplies in the West Coast states. Relatively less is known about the ecological implications of ARs, particularly in the interior Southwest, where AR storms are less common. To address this gap, we compared a chronolog
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Climate Adaptation Science Centers, Climate Adaptation Science Center
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Solar and sensor geometry, not vegetation response, drive satellite NDVI phenology in widespread ecosystems of the western United States

Satellite-derived phenology metrics are valuable tools for understanding broad-scale patterns and changes in vegetated landscapes over time. However, the extraction and interpretation of phenology in ecosystems with subtle growth dynamics can be challenging. US National Park Service monitoring of evergreen pinyon-juniper ecosystems in the western US revealed an unexpected winter-peaking phenologic
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Climate Research and Development Program, Land Change Science Program, Western Geographic Science Center

Application of empirical land-cover changes to construct climate change scenarios in federally managed lands

Sagebrush-dominant ecosystems in the western United States are highly vulnerable to climatic variability. To understand how these ecosystems will respond under potential future conditions, we correlated changes in National Land Cover Dataset “Back-in-Time” fractional cover maps from 1985-2018 with Daymet climate data in three federally managed preserves in the sagebrush steppe ecosystem: Beaty But
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Climate Research and Development Program, Earth Resources Observation and Science Center, Land Change Science Program, Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center , Western Geographic Science Center

Implementation of a surface water extent model in Cambodia using cloud-based remote sensing

Mapping surface water over time provides the spatially explicit information essential for hydroclimatic research focused on droughts and flooding. Hazard risk assessments and water management planning also rely on accurate, long-term measurements describing hydrologic fluctuations. Stream gages are a common measurement tool used to better understand flow and inundation dynamics, but gage networks
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Climate Research and Development Program, Land Change Science Program, Western Geographic Science Center

Phenology patterns indicate recovery trajectories of ponderosa pine forests after high-severity fires

Post-fire recovery trajectories in ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Laws.) forests of the US Southwest are increasingly shifting away from pre-burn vegetation communities. This study investigated whether phenological metrics derived from a multi-decade remotely sensed imagery time-series could differentiate among grass, evergreen shrub, deciduous, or conifer-dominated replacement pathways. We foc
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Climate Research and Development Program, Western Geographic Science Center

Landsat time series assessment of invasive annual grasses following energy development

Invasive annual grasses are of concern in many areas of the Western United States because they tolerate resource variability and have high reproductive capacity, with propagules that are readily dispersed in disturbed areas like those created and maintained for energy development. Early-season invasive grasses “green up” earlier than the most native plants, producing a distinct pulse of greenness
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Climate Research and Development Program, Land Change Science Program, Western Geographic Science Center

Integrating stream gage data and Landsat imagery to complete time-series of surface water extents in Central Valley, California

Accurate monitoring of surface water location and extent is critical for the management of diverse water resource phenomena. The multi-decadal archive of Landsat satellite imagery is punctuated by missing data due to cloud cover during acquisition times, hindering the assembly of a continuous time series of inundation dynamics. This study investigated whether streamflow volume measurements could b
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Climate Research and Development Program, Land Change Science Program, Western Geographic Science Center

Removing rural roads from the National Land Cover Database to create improved urban maps for the United States, 1992-2011

Quantifying change in urban land provides important information to create empirical models examining the effects of human land use. Maps of developed land from the National Land Cover Database (NLCD) of the conterminous United States include rural roads in the developed land class and therefore overestimate the amount of urban land. To better map the urban class and understand how urban lands chan
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Western Geographic Science Center

Forest harvest patterns on private lands in the Cascade Mountains, Washington, USA

Forests in Washington State generate substantial economic revenue from commercial timber harvesting on private lands. To investigate the rates, causes, and spatial and temporal patterns of forest harvest on private tracts throughout the Cascade Mountains, we relied on a new generation of annual land-use/land-cover (LULC) products created from the application of the Continuous Change Detection and
By
Western Geographic Science Center

Projecting community changes in hazard exposure to support long-term risk reduction: A case study of tsunami hazards in the U.S. Pacific Northwest

Tsunamis have the potential to cause considerable damage to communities along the U.S. Pacific Northwest coastline. As coastal communities expand over time, the potential societal impact of tsunami inundation changes. To understand how community exposure to tsunami hazards may change in coming decades, we projected future development (i.e. urban, residential, and rural), households, and residents
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Climate Research and Development Program, Land Change Science Program, Western Geographic Science Center

Harmonization of forest disturbance datasets of the conterminous USA from 1986 to 2011

Several spatial forest disturbance datasets exist for the conterminous USA. The major problem with forest disturbance mapping is that variability between map products leads to uncertainty regarding the actual rate of disturbance. In this article, harmonized maps were produced from multiple data sources (i.e., Global Forest Change, LANDFIRE Vegetation Disturbance, National Land Cover Database, Vege
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Climate Research and Development Program, Land Change Science Program, Western Geographic Science Center

Influence of atmospheric rivers on vegetation productivity and fire patterns in the southwestern U.S.

In the southwestern U.S., the meteorological phenomenon known as atmospheric rivers (ARs) has gained increasing attention due to its strong connections to floods, snowpacks, and water supplies in the West Coast states. Relatively less is known about the ecological implications of ARs, particularly in the interior Southwest, where AR storms are less common. To address this gap, we compared a chrono
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Water Resources

Community for Data Integration 2015 annual report

The Community for Data Integration (CDI) continued to experience success in fiscal year 2015. The CDI community members have been sharing, learning, and collaborating through monthly forums, workshops, working groups, and funded projects. In fiscal year 2015, CDI coordinated 10 monthly forums with 16 different speakers from the U.S. Geological Survey and external partners; funded 11 collaborative
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Earth Resources Observation and Science Center, Science Analytics and Synthesis (SAS), Community for Data Integration (CDI), Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center
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Empirically-Driven Land Cover Change Scenarios in Federal Lands

This article is part of the Fall 2020 issue of the Earth Science Matters Newsletter.

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Integrating stream gage data and Landsat imagery to complete surface water records

This article is part of the Spring 2020 issue of the Earth Science Matters Newsletter. 

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Improved Urban Maps for the United States

This article is a part of the Fall 2019 issue of the Earth Science Matters Newsletter.

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Newly Released Photo Catalog Puts US Landscapes On Exhibit

The U.S. Geological Survey announced today that it has made part of a huge national repository of geographically referenced USGS field photographs...

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