USGS Science

U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

Addressing Our Nation’s Challenges

General Information Product 93
 ith 6.6 billion people already living on Earth, and that number increasing 

every day, human influence on our planet is ever more apparent. Changes 

to the natural world combined with increasing human demands threaten our 

health and safety, our national security, our economy, and our quality of life. 

As a planet and a Nation, we face unprecedented challenges: loss of critical 

and unique ecosystems, the effects of climate change, increasing demand 

for limited energy and mineral resources, increasing vulnerability to natural 

hazards, the effects of emerging diseases on wildlife and human health, and 

growing needs for clean water. The time to respond to these challenges 

is now, but policymakers and decisionmakers face difficult choices. With 

competing priorities to balance, and potentially serious—perhaps irreversible—

consequences at stake, our leaders need reliable scientific information to guide 

their decisions. As the Nation’s earth and natural science agency, the USGS 

monitors and conducts scientific research on natural hazards and resources 

and how these elements and human activities influence our environment. 

Because the challenges we face are complex, the science needed to better 

understand and deal with these challenges must reflect the complex interplay 

among natural and human systems. With world-class expertise in biology, 

geology, geography, hydrology, geospatial information, and remote sensing, the 

USGS is uniquely capable of conducting the comprehensive scientific research 

needed to better understand the interdependent interactions of Earth’s 

systems. Given the complexity of Earth’s systems and competing demands 

and values of society, decisionmakers need information they can trust. 

Because the USGS has no management or regulatory responsibilities, 

it can be relied on to provide unbiased and policy-neutral information. 

Because the USGS has established a high set of standards for conducting 

science and requires a rigorous peer review of its results, it can be relied on 

to provide accurate and dependable scientific information. In order to address 

the challenges we face, decisionmakers need more than comprehensive 

and reliable data—they need information they can use. The USGS brings the 

results of its many research programs together to create knowledge that is 

understandable, useable, and accessible in many forms—including statistics, 

reports, analyses, maps, models, and tools that forecast the consequences 

of various choices. These products, often created in partnership with other 

governmental, academic, and private organizations, provide the basis for 

evaluating the effectiveness of specific policies and management actions, and 

they are essential to the success of policymakers and decisionmakers at local, 

State, Federal, tribal, and international levels. 

Every day, the USGS helps decisionmakers to minimize loss of life and 

property, manage our natural resources, and protect and enhance our 

quality of life. Here are just a few examples.
Protecting Our Water Supply

In Montana, USGS water-quality studies revealed that for decades, billions 

of barrels of a brine byproduct seven times saltier than ocean water had 

been seeping from an oil field into the ground—contaminating the Poplar 

River, nearby aquifers, and privately owned wells. Decisionmakers turned 

to the USGS for the information they needed to understand the potential 

extent and sources of the contamination. USGS scientists measured the 

groundwater’s salinity, identified its direction and rate of movement, and 

determined that the contamination—found within 3 miles of the city of 

Poplar’s wells—threatened the area’s public water supply. With technical 

support from a multiagency remediation team (including USGS scientists), an 

oil producer plugged an abandoned oil well that the USGS had identified as 

a major source of contamination and built a remediation system that pumps 

the contaminated groundwater to a deep disposal well. Guided by science, 

these remediation efforts have improved the water 

quality of the aquifer and reduced the threat 

to human health.

Water contamination, water shortages, 

and conflicts over how to use limited water 

resources have become more common 

in the United States. With water science 

offices in every State, the USGS has a unique 

ability to conduct comprehensive studies of 

both the quality and quantity of our Nation’s 

water resources, giving decisionmakers the 

information they need to address water issues 

at not only the local but also the regional and 

national level.
One of the hottest topics in the United States and the world today is energy. 

Decisionmakers and citizens have debated where we will get the resources 

we need, whether we should develop resources in the Arctic or allow 

drilling offshore, whether developing a particular resource is economically 

worthwhile, and whether the environmental costs of extraction would be too 

great. As the Nation decides where to turn for its energy (and makes related 

decisions about protecting endangered species, native communities, and 

the health of our planet) it needs reliable information about the resources 

that are available—from both traditional and alternative sources. In 2008, 

the USGS released estimates of the oil and gas resources in the Arctic 

(the first publicly available petroleum resource estimate of the entire area 

north of the Arctic Circle), the oil in the North Dakota and Montana area 

known as the Bakken Formation (showing a significant increase from the 

previous estimate, thanks to new geologic models and new drilling and 

production techniques), the gas hydrates on Alaska’s North Slope (the firstever resource estimate of technically recoverable natural gas 

hydrates), and the potential power production from 

geothermal resources across the Nation. 

The USGS provides estimates not only of where 

resources exist, but of the quantities of those 

resources that could be produced using current 

technology. These estimates are crucial to the 

decisionmakers and resource managers who work to 

meet the challenge of balancing America’s needs for 

nonrenewable and renewable resources and a clean and 

healthy environment.

Managing Our Energy Portfolio
Assessing America’s Cropland

Every year, during the growing season, the U.S. Department of Agriculture 

(USDA) builds a model of the agricultural landscape called the Cropland 

Data Layer. This model helps set the official acreage estimates for major 

agricultural commodities at State and county levels. To help identify 

types of land and land use, the USDA uses the USGS National Land Cover 

Database—a massive, detailed database derived from satellite imagery that 

classifies the land cover across the United States. This census of U.S. lands 

is so precise (describing sections 98 feet long and wide) that an area the size 

of a football field would contain nearly six separately classified sections. 

By integrating USGS methods and data into their model, the USDA has not 

only comprehensively improved their overall product accuracy and customer 

satisfaction, they have also made the process more efficient, allowing 

them to expand into additional States and deliver crop-specific land-cover 

information and acreage estimates to even more stakeholders. Stakeholders, 

in turn, use this information to monitor watersheds and water quality; analyze 

crop-rotation patterns; monitor wildlife habitat; identify resources, such 

as catfish ponds; and plan for agribusiness needs such as seed, fertilizer, 

pesticide, fungicide, crop insurance, and the transportation and storage of 

grain. 

By providing both the big picture and specific local information, USGS earth 

observations and geographic information meet an astounding array of needs 

for knowledge about our landscape: from tracking changes in land use and 

human development to documenting the devastation caused by storms and 

wildfires. 
Listing Endangered Species

When the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began the process of determining 

whether the polar bear should be listed as a threatened species under the 

Endangered Species Act, the Secretary of the Interior turned to the USGS to 

ensure that the best available science informed the deliberations. The USGS 

formed a team to interpret existing information and conduct new analyses. 

USGS scientists improved our understanding of polar bear populations, 

projected numbers of polar bears in relation to sea-ice habitat, and predicted 

how polar bear numbers are likely to respond to projections of climate 

change. Observations of sea-ice decline over the past 20 years and scientific 

projections of additional sea-ice declines in future decades demonstrated 

that two-thirds of the world’s polar bear population is likely to be lost by the 

middle of the 21st century. Armed with scientific evidence that the survival 

of the polar bear could be in jeopardy, the Department of the Interior had the 

information it needed to list the polar bear as a threatened species. 

USGS scientists are currently conducting research on other species 

petitioned for listing, including the greater sage grouse and walrus. The 

USGS is also studying the impacts of climate change across the United 

States, helping resource managers to understand how global warming is 

affecting our Nation’s ecosystems and wildlife and helping them to prepare 

for the changes we will see in the future.
In 2008, the Nation watched as California residents fled their communities 

and lost their homes. As these fires moved across the land, decisionmakers 

needed to know the location of the fires, their sizes, their perimeters, 

and the resources that were in the fires’ paths. The USGS provided this 

information in real time over the Internet, helping firefighters and incident 

commanders to do their jobs. It also allowed residents, media, tourists, and 

other decisionmakers to monitor where the fires were and where they were 

headed. After the fires, scientists determined which areas were at risk for 

debris flows and identified locations where either invasive species or soil 

erosion would be likely to cause problems in the future. The USGS supports 

residents and decisionmakers not only during and after a fire but before 

the fire starts. USGS satellite imagery can show us not only the locations of 

current wildfires, but also trends in wildfires through time. By studying the 

cover of vegetation across the Nation and identifying particular fuel types, 

such as chaparral plants, that are particularly prone to fire, USGS scientists 

help to predict fire risks to communities. 

Wildland fires are a natural process, but climate change has significantly 

altered the fire regime, making wildland fires more severe, more widespread, 

and more frequent. USGS science is continuing to improve our understanding 

of this natural hazard and to help our communities to identify and reduce 

their risks.

Living with Wildland Fires
After a particularly wet spring in central and southern Indiana, on June 

6–7, 2008, heavy rainfall of 2 to more than 10 inches fell on ground that 

was already saturated, adding significantly to the streamflow of rivers that 

were already running at or near flood levels. This heavy rainfall resulted in 

severe flooding on many streams within the White River Basin. As the rain 

fell and waters rose, USGS streamgages transmitted real-time data about 

the speed of the currents and height of the rivers to the National Weather 

Service and other agencies, helping them to monitor, predict, and plan for the 

approaching floods. The flood forecasts and warnings allowed responders 

to evacuate thousands of residents, prepare for disaster aid, and protect 

and save lives. The floods caused three deaths and hundreds of millions of 

dollars of damage to residences, businesses, infrastructure, and agricultural 

lands. In all, 39 Indiana counties were declared Federal disaster areas. The 

USGS used data collected before, during, and after the event to put these 

floods in a historical context, to map the areas that were inundated at the 

peak of the flooding, and to create profiles of how floodwaters flow through 

selected streams. 

By combining the historical record, data from ongoing streamgage 

monitoring, and data on new events, the USGS is able to develop the 

expertise and tools that help Federal, State, and local community leaders 

not only to enhance short-term preparation, aid, and recovery efforts, but to 

better understand how their flood risk may be changing over time and how 

they can reduce their risk in future events.

Forecasting Floods
Preparing for the Big One

It’s not a matter of if another large earthquake will hit Southern California; it’s 

a matter of when it does, will we be prepared for it? To help California’s home 

and business owners, city planners, government agencies, emergency and 

medical facilities, first responders, and residents understand and prepare for 

the inevitable large earthquake, the USGS joined with numerous partners to 

hold the Great Southern California ShakeOut—the largest earthquake drill 

in U.S. history. When emergency responders needed a scenario to practice 

for the large earthquake they know will come, they didn’t want just any 

scenario—they wanted one that was robust and realistic, one that would 

help them best prepare for the actual impacts that Southern California will 

face when a big earthquake strikes. To develop this detailed picture, they 

turned to the USGS. Using its extensive earthquake data and expertise, 

the USGS helped them develop a detailed scenario of a magnitude-7.8 

earthquake on the San Andreas Fault, modeling and predicting what would 

happen both during and after the quake. Scientific analysis of the shaking 

showed that with current structures, this earthquake would kill 1,800 people, 

injure 53,000, and cause $213 billion in damage. On November 13, 2008, nearly 

5.5 million people came together to participate in the ShakeOut drill and 

work to reduce their risk. By helping Southern Californians to understand 

the earthquake risks they face and to plan and prepare for the inevitable, the 

USGS and its partners are working to keep this natural hazard from turning 

into a national catastrophe.

USGS scientists monitor and study earthquakes not just in California, but all 

over the world, monitoring faults and gathering data that help them to better 

understand these geological phenomena and the risks they pose to our lives 

and communities.
During the 2008 hurricane season, as Hurricanes Gustav and Ike approached, 

the communities in the potential paths of the storms needed to understand 

the impacts that these storms might have on their area. As the hurricanes 

bore down on the Gulf Coast, the USGS helped residents and decisionmakers 

to prepare for the storms by creating and posting targeted maps showing the 

likelihood that an area would be submerged or would suffer extreme coastal 

change. After the storms, they needed to understand not only the extent of 

the damage, but their vulnerability to the next storm. After each hurricane, 

scientists quickly mobilized to document the coastal changes. Just 3 days 

after Gustav, the USGS created new vulnerability maps, helping residents to 

prepare for Hurricane Ike, which threatened the same region 2 weeks later. 

Immediately after Ike, scientists collected aerial video and still photography 

of post-storm beach conditions and gathered airborne surveys of poststorm topography. With these data, scientists determined the actual storm 

surge heights and which parts of the barrier islands remained. They worked 

quickly to make the information available online to government agencies and 

others that needed the information to support their disaster-recovery efforts. 

Residents used the information to plan their return home. USGS Web sites 

allowed them to look at conditions of bridges, roads, and their properties. 

From homeowners desperate to know if their homes still stand to 

decisionmakers working to improve the safety of their citizens and 

neighborhoods—our Nation’s coastal communities turn to the USGS. 

Reliable, timely information helps them prepare for the impacts of storms 

on coastal residents, plan future development, and protect treasured 

landscapes and habitats.

Standing Up to the Storms
In Boulder Creek, Colorado, male fish are developing female characteristics, 

and the ratio of male to female fish is going down—changes that could 

be precursors of more severe impacts, including the ultimate elimination 

of the local population of the fish species. To help local and national 

decisionmakers to better understand these changes, their causes, and 

their implications for the future, USGS scientists conducted a study that 

demonstrated that exposure to endocrine disruptors (specifically, chemicals 

that behave like the hormone estrogen) found in wastewater is causing 

the feminization of local fish. These results are guiding future research on 

endocrine disruption, industry decisions on waste handling and treatment, 

and evaluations of appropriate actions to respond to endocrine disruption.

Studies on endocrine disruption are part of a larger USGS research 

focus on emerging contaminants—chemicals ranging from detergents to 

disinfectants, fragrances to fire retardants, and plastics to prescription drugs 

that are entering our environment. In recent years, the USGS has published 

more than 160 reports on emerging contaminants, helping the Nation to 

better understand the mixtures and levels of these chemicals, where they 

are originating, and the impacts that they are having on communities, 

ecosystems, and human 

health.

Understanding Emerging 

Contaminants
By Tania M. Larson

Graphic Design by Vitmary Rodriguez 

For additional information, contact

U.S. Geological Survey

1-888-ASK-USGS

www.usgs.gov

•	 more than 130 years of data and experience

•	 nearly 9,000 science and science-support staff

•	 more than 400 science centers across the United States

•	 locally, regionally, and nationally scaled studies

•	 hundreds of research projects

•	 tens of thousands of sampling and monitoring sites

These unique attributes and capabilities allow the USGS to 

provide tools for understanding and forecasting Earth processes 

that no other organization can provide.

The USGS has