Research Summaries
1) The LUPM is a modeling, mapping, and risk communication tool that can assist public agencies and communities
in understanding and reducing their natural-hazards vulnerability.
2) Memphis was chosen as a test site to evaluate the LUPM’s effectiveness in helping local government
agencies evaluate the economic consequences of alternative mitigation strategies.
3) The USGS Land Use Portfolio Model (LUPM) decision support system was used in the District of
Squamish (Washington)for a preliminary demonstration evaluation of risk mitigation alternatives for
multiple flood events.
4) The USGS is helping local and state practitioners and community members by augmenting its
traditional expertise in natural hazards with improved capacity to assess vulnerability, defined here
as the exposure, sensitivity, and resilience of a community.
5) USGS is working with MIT, BLM, USFWS, and the DOI Office of Collaborative Action and Dispute
Resolution through the MIT-USGS Science Impact Collaborative (MUSIC) to develop tools and methods for
more effective use of science in collaborative processes that bring diverse stakeholders together to
solve resource management problems.
6) The USGS worked with Colorado State University to understand why barriers exist and to guide
development of regional natural resource and quality of life indicators to describe the state of the
Colorado Front Range.
7) The federal, state, and local agencies responsible for managing and monitoring aspects of the
Lake Tahoe Basin in California and Nevada (the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, Lahontan Regional Water
Quality Control Board, Nevada Division of Environmental Protection, and Forest Service) have formed the
collaborative Pathway 2007 Planning Process to define the desired future environmental and economic
conditions for the Tahoe Basin and to create a 20-year plan to achieve these conditions.
8) USGS researchers, in collaboration with Stanford University, USEPA Region 9, California Central Valley
Regional Water Quality Control Board staff, and the Sacramento County Regional Sanitation District, have
developed a decision model that incorporates the various uncertainties in this complex water quality decision
problem, allowing decision-makers to consider tradeoffs between the risks of not meeting various environmental
targets and the significant strategy costs.
9) The USGS partnered with NPS, BLM, and USFS to develop a transportable collaborative modeling
approach for adaptive management of ecosystems in Mesa Verde National Park (MEVE).
10) The USGS is working with the Bi-State local working groups of Nevada and California to research the
information exchange process and improve the integration of results from current USGS studies of sage grouse
biology into the local working group implementation process.
11) The USGS is working to develop an ecosystem portfolio model (EPM) for DOI scientists and managers
to use to develop and prioritize strategies to restore and preserve the ecological health of South Florida
parks and refuges in the face of intense population growth and development pressures.
12) This research project documents and analyzes the use of USGS information by the general public in
the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons. The research will be of interest to all public agencies that make
geospatial data available on the Internet with the purpose of reducing vulnerability to natural hazards.
Contact
For more information on the Science Impact Program, please
contact:
Carl D. Shapiro, Ph.D.
U.S. Geological Survey
516 National Center
Reston, VA 20192
(703) 648-4446 (Voice)
cshapiro@usgs.gov
U.S. Department of the Interior 
