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.
Filter Total Items: 272
Improving the positional and vertical accuracy of named summits above 13,000 ft in the United States
The National Map (TNM) portal provides public access to U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) high-resolution topographic datasets, and maps from the Historical Topographic Map Collection (HTMC). Elevation values shown on HTMC maps were obtained from ground spot elevation measurements, as compared to today’s elevation measurements derived from more efficient methods, such as lidar, radar, or sonar. These
Authors
Samantha Arundel, Gaurav Sinha, Arthur Chan
Creating annotations for web ontology language ontology generated from relational databases
Many approaches that have been proposed that allow users to create a Web Ontology Language (OWL) ontology from a relational database fail to include metadata that are inherent to the database tables. Without metadata, the resulting ontology lacks annotation properties. These properties are key when performing ontology alignment. This paper proposes a method to include relevant metadata through ann
Authors
Matthew Edward Wagner, Tanner Edward Fry, Jacques Jules Bourquin, Dalia E. Varanka
The geography of islands
Islands come in all shapes, sizes and types, from tiny rocky outcrops, to enormous continental landmasses. The true number of islands distributed in the planet’s seas and oceans is still elusive. Recent efforts bolstered by an abundance of detailed satellite imagery and the sophistication of geographic information systems (GIS) are bringing real answers to those questions closer than ever.
Authors
Roger Sayre, Madeline Thomas Martin, Jill Janene Cress, Nick Holmes, Osgur McDermott-Long, Lauren Weatherdon, Dena Spatz, Keith VanGraafeiland, David Will
2020 Joint Agency Commercial Imagery Evaluation—Remote sensing satellite compendium
The Joint Agency Commercial Imagery Evaluation (JACIE) is a collaboration between five Federal agencies that are major users and producers of satellite land remote sensing data. In recent years, the JACIE group has observed ever-increasing numbers of remote sensing satellites being launched. This rapidly growing wave of new systems creates a need for a single reference for land remote sensing sate
Authors
Shankar N. Ramaseri Chandra, Jon Christopherson, Kimberly A. Casey
Channel cross-section analysis for automated stream head identification
Headwater streams account for more than half of the streams in the United States by length. The substantial occurrence and susceptibility to change of headwater streams makes regular updating of related maps vital to the accuracy of associated analysis and display. Here we present work testing new methods of completely automated remote headwater stream identification using metrics derived from cha
Authors
Ethan J. Shavers, Larry Stanislawski
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 describe the collection area, spatial reference syst
Authors
Silvia Terziotti, Christy-Ann Archuleta
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 is providing the Elevation-Derived Hydrography—Acqu
Authors
Christy-Ann Archuleta, Silvia Terziotti
Automated extraction of areal extents for GNIS Summit features using the eminence core method
An important objective of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is to enhance the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) by automatically associating boundaries with terrain features that are currently spatially represented as two-dimensional points. In this paper, the discussion focuses on experiments for mapping GNIS Summit features using the eminence core region-growing method, which maps the a
Authors
Gaurav Sinha, Samantha Arundel
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 km2 (318,868). The new high-resolution islands data are intended to support coastal ecosy
Authors
Madeline Thomas Martin, Roger Sayre, Keith Van Graafeiland, Osgur McDermott-Long, Lauren Weatherdon, David Will, Dena R. Spatz, Nicholas Holmes
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 natural features. To address such limitations, this r
Authors
Samantha Arundel, Wenwen Li, Sizhe Wang
Automated location correction and spot height generation for named summits in the coterminous United States
Spot elevations published on historical U.S. Geological Survey topographic maps were established as needed to enhance information imparted by the quadrangle’s contours. In addition to other features, labels were routinely placed on mountain summits. While some elevations were established through field survey triangulation, many were computed during photogrammetric stereo-compilation. Today, Global
Authors
Samantha Arundel, Gaurav Sinha
Land change monitoring, assessment, and projection
There is a pressing need to monitor and understand the rapid land change happening around the world. The U.S. Geological Survey is developing a new capability, called Land Change Monitoring, Assessment, and Projection (LCMAP), to innovate the understanding of land change. This capability is the Earth Resources Observation and Science Center's foundation for an integrated U.S. Geological Survey-wid
Authors
Jennifer Rover, Jesslyn F. Brown, Roger F. Auch, Kristi Sayler, Terry L. Sohl, Heather J. Tollerud, George Z. Xian