USGS Hosts Field Trip for Association of American Geographers Meeting


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USGS Hosts Field Trip for Association of American Geographers Meeting

By Chris Polloni and Brian Andrews
August 2008

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Above: Bratton family observing the streets of Boston spread across 15 liquid-crystal-display (LCD) screens in a tiled display navigated by Brian Davis of the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Data Center, Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Photograph by Chris Polloni. [larger version]

The Association of American Geographers (AAG) held its annual meeting in Boston during the week of April 15-19, 2008. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), a corporate sponsor of this event, had an extensive exhibit booth that included a large display featuring the latest Landsat imagery of the continental United States and a special tour of recently processed color orthoimagery of Boston provided by the Massachusetts Geographic Information System (MassGIS) office. USGS scientist John Bratton assisted with booth configuration and setup, and several members of his family were on hand to enjoy the event.

Several papers and oral presentations were given by scientists from the USGS Coastal and Marine Geology Program (CMGP), including Brian Andrews, Matt Arsenault, Ben Gutierrez, Fran Lightsom, Herman Karl, and Elizabeth Pendleton. Many additional CMGP scientists contributed as coauthors.

On Monday, April 16, the USGS sponsored a field trip to its Woods Hole Science Center in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, with a full day of activities for participants. The tour began with a presentation by center chief Bill Schwab, who gave an overview of research programs and facilities at the center. Elizabeth Pendleton and Ben Gutierrez teamed up to lead an interactive discussion of ongoing projects that address sea-level-rise issues, such as coastal vulnerability and shoreline-change hazards. The field trip included lunch in the village of Woods Hole, with a stop at Nobska Light before returning to the Woods Hole Science Center. After lunch, Brian Andrews, the resident geographer, provided an overview of a cooperative mapping program between the USGS Woods Hole Science Center and the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management. Chris Polloni demonstrated the center's GeoWall—a stereo projection system for visualizing Earth features—giving participants virtual tours of Massachusetts Bay, Boston Harbor, and the Puerto Rico Trench. Brian Buczkowski capped off the field-trip activities with a tour of the K.O. Emery core-storage facility, where he explained how samples are used to ground-truth mapping data, then catalogued and stored in this new state-of-the-art facility.

Above left: Matt Arsenault explaining usSeabed to a conference participant during a poster session. [larger version]

Above right: USGS Woods Hole Science Center director Bill Schwab addressing field-trip participants in the center's Tilley Conference Room. [larger version]

Above left: Field-trip participants at Nobska Point. [larger version]

Above right: No tour would be complete without a group photograph—in the background is a ferry passing Naushon Island off Woods Hole. [larger version]