James A Falcone
Biography
Education
- Ph.D., Geography and GeoInformation Science, 2010, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA.
- MS, Remote Sensing, 2002, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
- MS, Geographic and Cartographic Sciences, 1999, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA.
- BA, Environmental Sciences, 1979, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA.
Work History
- 2013 – present: Physical Scientist. USGS, National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program, Surface Water Trends team. Location: Reston, Virginia.
- 2002 – 2013: Physical Scientist. USGS, NAWQA Program, Ecological National Synthesis team. Location: Reston, Virginia.
- 1999 – 2001: Remote Sensing Specialist. Orkand Corporation contracting to USGS Human Health Initiative Program. Location: Reston, Virginia.
- 1979 – 1998: Programmer/Analyst/Image Specialist. Several software companies contracting to the Department of Defense: PRC Inc., Sterling Software Inc., Inco Inc., Analytic Services, Inc. Locations: Washington, DC; Heidelberg, Augsburg, Ramstein, Stuttgart, Germany; Molesworth, England.
Selected publications
Falcone, J.A., Murphy, J.C., and Sprague, L.A. 2019. Regional patterns of anthropogenic influences on streams and rivers in the conterminous United States, from the early 1970s to 2012, Journal of Land Use Science, https://doi.org/10.1080/1747423X.2019.1590473.
Falcone, J.A., 2018, Changes in anthropogenic influences on streams and rivers in the conterminous U.S. over the last 40 years, derived for 16 data themes: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/F7XW4J1J.
Falcone, J.A., 2018, Changes in imperviousness for U.S. urban areas, 1974-2012: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P975GGZQ.
Falcone, J.A., 2017, U.S. Geological Survey GAGES-II time series data from consistent sources of land use, water use, agriculture, timber activities, dam removals, and other historical anthropogenic influences: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/F7HQ3XS4.
Falcone, J.A., 2017, Coefficient-based consistent mapping of imperviousness in the conterminous U.S. at 60-m resolution for 1974, 1982, 1992, 2002, and 2012: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/F72F7KMG.
Falcone, J.A., 2017, Old vs. new urban: U.S. national mapping of the year of “first development” for urban areas, from 1940-2010: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/F7FQ9TSJ.
Falcone, J.A., 2017, Conterminous U.S. mapping of household income at the block group scale adjusted for cost-of-living for the period 2013-2014: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/F7668BB6.
Falcone, J.A., 2016, U.S. national categorical mapping of building heights by block group from Shuttle Radar Topography Mission data: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/F7W09416.
Falcone, J.A., 2016, Mapping enhanced grazing potential based on the NAWQA Wall-to-wall Anthropogenic Land-use Trends (NWALT) product, 1974-2012: U.S. Geological Survey data release, http://dx.doi.org/10.5066/F7CR5RFF.
Falcone, J.A., and LaMotte, A.E., 2016, National 1-kilometer rasters of selected Census of Agriculture statistics allocated to land use for the time period 1950 to 2012: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/F70R9MHS.
Falcone, J.A., 2015, U.S. conterminous wall-to-wall anthropogenic land use trends (NWALT), 1974–2012: U.S. Geological Survey Data Series 948, 33 p. plus appendixes 3–6 as separate files, http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/ds948.
Falcone, J.A. and Homer, C.G., 2012. Generation of a U.S. national urban land-use product, Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing, 78(10), pp 1057-1068.
Falcone, J.A. and Wong, D.W., 2012. Mapping urban land uses in the United States by census zone using nationally available data, Journal of Land Use Science. DOI:10.1080/1747423X.2012.679749. Online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1747423X.2012.679749.
Falcone, J.A., 2011. GAGES-II: Geospatial Attributes of Gages for Evaluating Streamflow. Digital spatial data set. URL: http://water.usgs.gov/GIS/metadata/usgswrd/XML/gagesII_Sept2011.xml.
Falcone, J.A., 2010. A zone-based approach to automated mapping of urban land uses using nationally-available data, Ph.D. dissertation, George Mason University. Online at: http://digilib.gmu.edu:8080/dspace/handle/1920/5870.
Falcone, J.A., Carlisle, D.M., Wolock, D.M., and Meador, M.R., 2010. GAGES: A stream gage database for evaluating natural and altered flow conditions in the conterminous United States, Ecology, 91 (2), p 621; Data Paper in Ecological Archives E091-045-D1. Online at: http://esapubs.org/Archive/ecol/E091/045/metadata.htm.
Falcone, J.A., Carlisle, D.M., and Weber, L.C., 2010. Quantifying human disturbance in watersheds: variable selection and performance of a GIS-based disturbance index for predicting the biological condition of perennial streams. Ecological Indicators, 10(2), pp 264-273.
Falcone, J.A., Stewart, J.S., Sobieszczyk, S., Dupree, J.A., McMahon, G., and Buell, G.R., 2007. A Comparison of Natural and Urban Characteristics and the Development of Urban Intensity Indices across Six Geographic Settings: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2007-5123. Online at: http://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2007/5123/.
Falcone, J.A. and Pearson, D.K., 2006. Land-cover and imperviousness data for regional areas near Denver, Colorado; Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas; and Milwaukee-Green Bay, Wisconsin—2001: U.S. Geological Survey Data Series 221, 17 p. Online at: http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/2006/221/.
Falcone, J.A. and Gomez, R.B., 2005. Mapping Impervious Surface Type and Sub-Pixel Abundance Using Hyperion Hyperspectral Imagery, Geocarto International, 20(4), pp 3-10.
Other:
Bock, A.R., Falcone, J.A., and Oelsner, G.P., 2018, Estimates of road salt application across the conterminous United States (1992-2015): U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P96IX385.
Oelsner, G.P., Sprague, L.A., Murphy, J.C., Zuellig, R.E., Johnson, H.M., Ryberg, K.R., Falcone, J.A., Stets, E.G., Vecchia, A.V., Riskin, M.L., De Cicco, L.A., Mills, T.J., and Farmer, W.H., 2017, Water-quality trends in the Nation’s rivers and streams, 1972–2012—Data preparation, statistical methods, and trend results: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2017–5006, 136 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20175006.
Carlisle, D.M., Meador, M.R., Short, T.M., Tate, C.M., Gurtz, M.E., Bryant, W.L., Falcone, J.A., and Woodside, M.D., 2013, The quality of our Nation’s waters—Ecological health in the Nation’s streams, 1993–2005: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1391, 120 p., https://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/1391/.
Carlisle, D.M., Falcone, J., and Meador, M.R., 2009. Predicting the biological condition of streams: use of geospatial indicators of natural and anthropogenic characteristics of watersheds, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 151, pp 143-160.
Carlisle, D.M., Falcone, J., Wolock, D.M., Meador, M.R., and Norris, R.H., 2009. Predicting the natural flow regime: models for assessing hydrological alteration in streams, River Research and Applications (2009, in press), http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/rra/1247.
Carlisle, D.M., Hawkins, C.P., Meador, M.R., Potapova, M., and Falcone, J., 2008. Biological assessments of Appalachian streams based on predictive models for fish, macroinvertebrate, and diatom assemblages, Journal of the North American Benthological Society, 27(1), pp 16-37.
Science and Products
Regional patterns of anthropogenic influences on streams and rivers in the conterminous United States, from the early 1970s to 2012
This paper introduces a dataset containing consistent time-series measurements of anthropogenic activities potentially affecting stream quality across the conterminous United States and summarizes the most noteworthy trends from 61 variables in 16 categories. Data include measures of atmospheric deposition, agricultural production, livestock,...
Falcone, James A.; Murphy, Jennifer C.; Sprague, Lori A. Assessing water-quality changes in U.S. rivers at multiple geographic scales using results from probabilistic and targeted monitoring
Two commonly used approaches for water quality monitoring are probabilistic and targeted. In a probabilistic approach like the US Environmental Protection Agency’s National Rivers and Streams Assessment, monitoring sites are selected using a statistically representative approach. In a targeted approach like that used by many monitoring...
Sprague, Lori A.; Mitchell, Richard M; Pollard, Amina I.; Falcone, James A.
Water-quality trends in the nation’s rivers and streams, 1972–2012—Data preparation, statistical methods, and trend results
Since passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972, Federal, State, and local governments have invested billions of dollars to reduce pollution entering rivers and streams. To understand the return on these investments and to effectively manage and protect the Nation’s water resources in the future, we need to know how and why water quality has been...
Oelsner, Gretchen P.; Sprague, Lori A.; Murphy, Jennifer C.; Zuellig, Robert E.; Johnson, Henry M.; Ryberg, Karen R.; Falcone, James A.; Stets, Edward G.; Vecchia, Aldo V.; Riskin, Melissa L.; De Cicco, Laura A.; Mills, Taylor J.; Farmer, William H. Generation of a U.S. national urban land use product
Characterization of urban land uses is essential for many applications. However, differentiating among thematically-detailed urban land uses (residential, commercial, industrial, institutional, recreational, etc.) over broad areas is challenging, in part because image-based solutions are not ideal for establishing the contextual basis for...
Falcone, James A.; Homer, Collin G. GAGES: A stream gage database for evaluating natural and alteredflow conditions in the conterminous United States
Stream flow is a controlling element in the ecology of rivers and streams. Knowledge of the natural flow regime facilitates the assessment of whether specific hydrologic attributes have been altered by humans in a particular stream and the establishment of specific goals for stream-flow restoration. Because most streams are ungaged or have been...
Falcone, James A.; Carlisle, Daren M.; Wolock, David M.; Meador, Michael R. Quantifying human disturbance in watersheds: Variable selection and performance of a GIS-based disturbance index for predicting the biological condition of perennial streams
Characterizing the relative severity of human disturbance in watersheds is often part of stream assessments and is frequently done with the aid of Geographic Information System (GIS)-derived data. However, the choice of variables and how they are used to quantify disturbance are often subjective. In this study, we developed a number of disturbance...
Falcone, James A.; Carlisle, Daren M.; Weber, Lisa C.
Estimates of areal extent of U.S. parking lots now available
Parking lots may be a significant source of pollution, but up until now there has been no quantitative estimate of the areal extent of parking lots in the U.S.
Massive changes over last 50 years in human influences that affect water quality
Some of the major human influences on water quality, in particular the ways we use land, water, and chemicals, have undergone dramatic changes over the last five decades, according to a new study by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water Quality Program. Patterns of urbanization, chemical use, and...