Core Science Systems
Publications
Here you will find publications, reports and articles produced by Core Science System scientists. For a comprehensive listing of all USGS publications please click the button below.
Elevation-derived hydrography acquisition specifications
Hydrographic features derived from U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) 3D Elevation Program data, and collected for use by the USGS, must meet the specifications described in this document. The specifications described herein pertain to the final product delivered to the USGS, not to methods used to derive the hydrographic features. The specifications...
Terziotti, Silvia; Archuleta, Christy-Ann
Elevation-derived hydrography—Representation, extraction, attribution, and delineation rules
With the increasing availability of 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) quality high resolution elevation data across the United States and the pressing need for better integrated elevation and hydrography data, the U.S. Geological Survey is developing guidance to improve the horizontal and vertical alignment of these datasets. The U.S. Geological Survey...
Archuleta, Christy-Ann; Terziotti, Silvia
Global islands
A new map of global islands at a high spatial resolution (30 m) has been produced from a semi-automated interpretation of 2014 satellite imagery. The data are available in the public domain. The islands were classified by size into continental mainlands (5), big islands > 1 km2 (21,818), and small islands ≤ 1...
Martin, Madeline Thomas; Sayre, Roger; Van Graafeiland, Keith; McDermott-Long, Osgur; Weatherdon, Lauren; Will, David; Spatz, Dena R.; Holmes, Nicholas GeoNat v1.0: A dataset for natural feature mapping with artificial intelligence and supervised learning
Machine learning allows “the machine” to deduce the complex and sometimes unrecognized rules governing spatial systems, particularly topographic mapping, by exposing it to the end product. Often, the obstacle to this approach is the acquisition of many good and labeled training examples of the desired result. Such is the case with most types of...
Arundel, Samantha; Li, Wenwen; Wang, Sizhe Carbon stock losses and recovery observed for a mangrove ecosystem following a major hurricane in Southwest Florida
Studies integrating mangrove in-situ observations and remote sensing analysis for specific sites often lack precise estimates of carbon stocks over time frames that include disturbance events. This study quantifies change in mangrove area from 1985 to 2018 with Landsat time series analysis, estimates above and belowground stored carbon...
Peneva-Reed, Elitsa I.; Krauss, Ken; Bullock, Eric L.; Zhu, Zhiliang; Woltz, Victoria; Drexler, Judith Z.; Conrad, Jeremy R.; Stehman, Stephen V Preserving meander bend geometry through scale
Stream meander geometry is a function of hydrologic, geologic, and anthropogenic forces. Meander morphometrics are used in geomorphic classification, ecological characterization, and tectonic and hydrologic change detection. Thus, detailed measurement and classification of meander geometry is imperative to multiscale representation of hydrographic...
Shavers, Ethan J.; Stanislawski, Larry; Buttenfield, Barbara P.; Kronenfeld, Barry J.
Sediment and chemical contaminant loads in tributaries to the Anacostia River, Washington, District of Columbia, 2016–17
A study was conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the Washington, D.C., Department of Energy & Environment to estimate the loads of suspended-sediment-bound chemical compounds in five gaged tributaries and four ungaged tributaries of the Anacostia River (known locally as “Lower Anacostia River”) in Washington, D.C...
Wilson, Timothy P. OpenCLC: An open-source software tool for similarity assessment of linear hydrographic features
The National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) is a foundational geospatial data source in the United States that enables extensive and diverse environmental research and supports decision-making in numerous contexts. However, the NHD requires regular validation and update given possible inconsistent initial collection and hydrographic changes....
Li, Ting; Stanislawski, Larry; Brockmeyer, Tyler; Wang, Shaowen; Shavers, Ethan J.
A system design for implementing advanced feature descriptions for a map knowledge base
A prototype system to explore Linked Data that semantically integrates geospatial data in various formats from different publication sources with data from The National Map of the U.S. Geological Survey is presented. The focus is on accessing advanced feature descriptions for data from The National Map with data coreferenced from other sources....
Wagner, Matthew; Varanka, Dalia E.; Usery, E. Lynn Scale-specific metrics for adaptive generalization and geomorphic classification of stream features
The Richardson plot has been used to illustrate fractal dimension of naturally occurring landscape features that are sensitive to changes in scale or resolution, such as coastlines and river channels. The Richardson method estimates the length of a path by traversing (i.e., “walking”) the path with a specific stride length. Fractal dimension is...
Stanislawski, Larry; Buttenfield, Barbara P.; Kronenfeld, Barry J.; Shavers, Ethan J. Alignment of surface water ontologies: A comparison of manual and automated approaches
More data are being collected about the world around us than ever before, but effectively using this information requires different data stores to be integrated in such a way that they can be seamlessly queried and analyzed. Automated alignment algorithms exist to facilitate this data integration challenge. In this paper we examine the utility of...
Cheatham, Michelle; Varanka, Dalia E.; Arauz, Fatima; Zhou, Lu Simplification of polylines by segment collapse: Minimizing areal displacement while preserving area
This paper reports on a new Area Preserving Segment Collapse (APSC) algorithm for simplifying polygonal boundaries while preserving polygonal area at simplified target scales and minimizing areal displacement. A general segment collapse algorithm is defined by iteratively collapsing segments to Steiner points in priority order, guided by placement...
Kronenfeld, Barry J.; Stanislawski, Larry; Buttenfield, Barbara P.; Brockmeyer, Tyler