Office of the Chief Operating Officer
The Office of the Chief Operating Officer is responsible for leadership of the science and technical operations in the USGS Water Resources Mission Area.
The Office of the Chief Operating Officer (OCOO) is one of five primary offices of the USGS Water Resources Mission Area (WMA).
The OCOO is responsible for all WMA science and technical mission delivery and execution within WMA headquarters and for WMA headquarters projects and operational functions that directly employ USGS Water Science Center personnel as part of project staffing.
The OCOO directs the activities of approximately 350 personnel in five divisions, a Project Management Office, and an Enterprise Technology Office. Together, these divisions and offices comprise the operational core of the WMA.
The OCOO also oversees WMA enterprise services that provide technical and operational support to WMA headquarters programs and projects, as well as approximately 3,600 additional personnel at 28 Water Science Centers. These services support approximately \$300M of appropriated funding and about \$367M of reimbursable funding. The OCOO also oversees cybersecurity compliance of the WMA and 28 Water Science Centers (approximately 6,800 servers across the Nation).
The OCOO is responsible for WMA project management of over 200 projects, most of which have numerous interdependencies and are national in scope. The OCOO makes critical decisions on a broad array of scientific and technical issues and developments to ensure that approaches and methodologies selected to address mission area requirements are appropriate, relevant, maintain business momentum, and mitigate risk.
In summary, the OCOO is responsible for weighing a complex array of interdependent factors such as financial constraints, strategic vision and objectives, degree of desired innovation, and external requirements and priorities to best meet the overall objectives of the WMA.
Because of the large breadth of activities, OCOO divisions and offices are further subdivided into branches.
Learn more about the OCOO divisions and offices on their webpages:
- The Observing Systems Division (OSD) develops and supports innovative and trusted data collection of water quantity and quality for all parts of the hydrologic cycle.
- The Laboratory and Analytical Services Division (LASD) provides timely, high-quality, routine, and customized analytical services, collaborative research, and quality assessment for laboratory and field measurements.
- The Earth System Processes Division (ESPD) improves understanding of processes affecting water availability now and into the future by leading scalable, use-inspired, water resources research and assessments of status and trends.
- The Integrated Modeling and Prediction Division (IMPD) develops enterprise approaches to integrated, interdisciplinary earth system modeling, data, prediction, and forecasting capabilities that involve both natural and human system components.
- The Integrated Information Dissemination Division (IIDD) provides water information to empower decision-making, education, and science.
- The Enterprise Technology Office (ETO) provides information management and technology capabilities for the USGS Water Resources Mission Area to facilitate data gathering, analysis and modeling, scientific collaboration, research, knowledge management, and work processes.
- The Project Management Office (PMO) fosters a project and portfolio management culture by enabling transparency and efficiency to increase the value of USGS Water Resources Mission Area science.