USGS Newsroom

Revised Kentucky and Tennessee Maps Reveal New Design

OC_Web@usgs.gov (Office of Communications and Publishing) — Wed, 15 May 2013 12:00:00 EDT

Newly designed maps covering Kentucky and Tennessee are now available online for free download

US Topo maps now have a crisper, cleaner design - enhancing readability of maps for online and printed use. Map symbols are easier to read over the digital aerial photograph layer whether the imagery is turned on or off. Improvements to symbol definitions (color, line thickness, line symbols, area fills), layer order, and annotation fonts are additional features of this supplemental release. Users can now adjust the transparency for some features and layers to increase visibility of multiple competing layers.

This new design is launched on new US Topo quadrangles for Kentucky (671 maps) and Tennessee (694 maps), which replace the first edition US Topo maps for those states. The replaced maps will be added to the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection and are also available for free download from The National Map and the USGS Map Store website.

"The new Kentucky and Tennessee US Topo maps demonstrate our commitment to improving the product design to meet our users’ needs", said Mark DeMulder, Director of the USGS National Geospatial Program. "I encourage you to download these maps, compare them against the previous US Topo map and drop us your comments on the US Topo map product. Your input is important to us."

US Topo maps are updated every three years, with the initial round completed last September. Maps for Hawaii are currently in production with Alaska production starting later this year.

Re-design enhancements and new features:

Crisper, cleaner design improves online and printed readability while retaining the look and feel of traditional USGS topographic maps
New functional road classification schema has been applied
A slight screening (transparency) has been applied to some features to enhance visibility of multiple competing layers
Updated free fonts that support diacritics
New PDF Legend attachment
Metadata formatted to support multiple browsers
New shaded relief layer for enhanced view of the terrain
Military installation boundaries, post offices and cemeteries

US Topo maps are created from geographic datasets in The National Map, and deliver visible content such as high-resolution aerial photography, which was not available on older paper-based topographic maps. The new US Topo maps provide modern technical advantages that support wider and faster public distribution and on-screen geographic analysis tools for users.

The new digital electronic topographic maps are delivered in GeoPDF image software format and may be viewed using Adobe Reader, available as a no cost download.

For more information, go to: http://nationalmap.gov/ustopo/

New Water Science Tools Help Communities Prepare for Floods

OC_Web@usgs.gov (Office of Communications and Publishing) — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 16:48:05 EDT

Commemorating the Great Flood of 1913

Editors: A USGS video about the 1913 flood is available online.

The WaterNow allows you to send an email or text message containing a USGS current-conditions streamgaging site number and quickly receive a reply with its most recent observation(s).
(High resolution image)

New flood inundation maps (bottom) are now available for Findlay, Killbuck, and Ottawa, Ohio. These maps show where flooding would occur at various high river levels. They are just one example of U.S. Geological Survey products and services developed in the 100 years since Ohio’s devastating Great Flood of 1913.

The 100-year anniversary of the Great Flood of 1913 falls during the 2013 Flood Safety Awareness Week.

The USGS prepared the new maps to help emergency managers and the public make more informed decisions when flooding is forecast. Flood inundation maps are connected to real-time river levels at USGS streamgages to help communities identify immediate risks during a flood. Since the historic flood of March 23-27, 1913, which caused more than 400 deaths and $300 million in damages throughout the Ohio River Valley, the USGS has developed streamgage networks and tools to better support flood preparedness and provide flood warnings.

“The 1913 statewide flood is Ohio’s ‘Greatest Natural Disaster’. Since then, the number of USGS streamgages increased from one to about 230 currently operating in Ohio,” said Scott Jackson, USGS Ohio Water Science Center Deputy Director. “Today, the USGS and its partners maintain about 8,000 streamgages nationwide.”

This collection of stream data is necessary to flood science because it provides real-time information and a database of field-measurement data, streamflow statistics, and annual peak streamflows that are available online through the USGS National Water Information System.

“The USGS and its partners are currently developing flood warning systems that serve as a foundation for making science-based decisions to better manage flood risks and mitigate flood impacts,” Jackson said.

New USGS flood inundation maps are underway for Marietta, Beverly, McConnellsville, and multiple sites in Licking County, Ohio.

The USGS WaterAlert service allows subscribers to receive daily or hourly updates about current conditions in rivers, lakes, and groundwater.
(High resolution image)

Other USGS flood-related tools include:

WaterWatch, a website that displays maps, graphs, and tables describing real-time, recent, and past streamflow conditions in the U.S.;
WaterNow which relays on-demand current conditions and water data to a user’s mobile phone or e-mail;
WaterAlert which sends an e-mail or text message when streamflow or streamgage measurements exceed user-defined thresholds.

Historical information on the 1913 flood and current-day tips on flood preparedness, mitigation, and more can be found on the Silver Jackets “Flood of 1913” website. The Silver Jackets program assembles teams of local, State, and Federal agencies, including the USGS, to work together to prepare and respond to natural disasters such as floods.

More information about USGS streamgaging in Ohio is available online.

The USGS network of about 8,000 streamgages are used to track rising water in order to minimize or mitigate flood damages. ((High resolution image)

A Big Day for Science: Citizens Have Contributed One Million Observations to Top Nature Database

OC_Web@usgs.gov (Office of Communications and Publishing) — Thu, 3 May 2012 9:00:00 EDT

RESTON, Va. — Thanks to citizen-scientists around the country, the USA National Phenology Network hit a major milestone this week by reaching its one millionth nature observation.

The millionth observation was done by Lucille Tower, a citizen-scientist in Portland, Ore., who entered a record about seeing maple vines flowering. Her data, like all of the entries, came in through USA-NPN’s online observation program, Nature's Notebook, which engages more than 4,000 volunteers across the country to observe and record phenology – the timing of the recurring life events of plants and animals such as when cherry trees or lilacs blossom, when robins build their nests, when salmon swim upstream to spawn or when leaves turn colors in the fall.

Each record not only represents a single data point — the status of a specific life stage of an individual plant or animal on one day – but also benefits both science and society by helping researchers understand how plants and animals are responding to climate change and, in turn, how those responses are affecting people and ecological systems.

"My dream is that through the wonders of modern technology and the National Phenology Network we could turn the more than six billion people on the planet into components of our scientific observing system," said USGS Director Marcia McNutt. "We could make giant leaps in science education, improve the spatial and temporal coverage of the planet, lower the cost of scientific data collection, and all while making ordinary citizens feel a part of the scientific process."

Jake Weltzin, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist and the executive director of USA-NPN, concurs. "Hitting the one millionth observation is exciting because researchers and decision-makers need more information to understand and respond to our rapidly changing planet. More information means better-informed decisions that ensure the continued vitality of our natural areas that we all depend on and enjoy."

For example, said Weltzin, the data in Nature's Notebook are already being used to benefit society, including the development of more accurate indicators of spring, forecasting the onset of allergy seasons or the chances of western wildfires, managing wildlife and invasive plants, and setting goals for habitat restoration. Ultimately, such information can be used for better managing water resources, wildlife and ecosystem management, and even help farmers and ranchers across the nation.

Changes in phenology are among the most sensitive biological indicators of global change. Across the world, many springtime events are occurring earlier — and fall events happening later — than in the past. These changes are happening quickly for some species and more slowly, or not at all, for others, altering relationships and processes that have been dynamically stable for thousands of years. Some wildlife —like caribou and butterflies — are becoming mismatched from their plant food resources, which are responding differently. Migrations for some birds are changing too, as they can now overwinter instead of moving south for the winter, or as they fly north more quickly to keep pace with an advancing front of spring flowering.

Because of this, said Weltzin, scientists need more and better information about the pace and pattern of nature — locally to nationally — to answer important scientific and societal questions, and to build the tools and models needed to help people understand and adapt to the changes.

"So much of our improved understanding about global environmental changes is driven by varied and valuable sources of information that include networks of citizen-scientists," said John Wingfield, National Science Foundation’s assistant director for biological sciences. "The public at large has played an important role collecting observations and data for a hundred years and more. Knowledge and data gained from their work will continue to have a lasting effect on how we understand regularly recurring biological phenomena for hundreds of plant and animal species and contribute to the policy arena."

Gwen Lundburg in Seattle is one citizen-scientist who has contributed hundreds of entries into Nature’s Notebook. "Just noticing small changes like tiny purple lilac buds suddenly turning green has taught me to look more closely at my plants," Lundburg said. "I see things in my garden I never saw before."

With the help of citizen-scientist volunteers, working in concert with professionals, the USA-NPN, which was established in 2007, collects, stores and freely shares phenological data on more than 800 species of plants and animals. The Nature’s Notebook observing program has been in operation since 2009. The coordinating office of the organization is located at 1955 E. 6^th St., Tucson, Ariz., 85721. For more information, visit the USA National Phenology Network, or contact Jake Weltzin at 520-626-3821 or jweltzin@usgs.gov.

Groundwater Storage Losses Substantial Across Eight State Aquifer System

OC_Web@usgs.gov (Office of Communications and Publishing) — Thu, 1 Dec 2011 13:10:46 EDT

More than 280 million acre-feet of groundwater has been withdrawn from the Mississippi embayment aquifer system between 1870-2007, according to a new water modeling tool developed by the U.S. Geological Survey.

This cumulative withdrawal, which is the equivalent of five feet of water over 78,000 square miles, contributes to one of the largest losses of groundwater storage anywhere in the United States.

The new USGS modeling tool was designed to help resource managers find a balance between water supply and demand for future economic and environmental uses. The three-dimensional model provides a holistic picture of how water flows below ground and how it relates to surface-water. The Mississippi embayment aquifer system encompasses approximately 78,000 square miles in Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee. A report documenting past and current groundwater conditions, and tools to forecast regional response to human use, climate variability, and land-use changes are all available online.

"Our groundwater aquifers are nature's own natural method for storing water safely long term where it is less vulnerable to loss through evaporation and surface contamination," explained USGS director Marcia McNutt. "We should be as concerned about loss of groundwater as we are about dropping levels in reservoirs behind dams, because in the depths of the worst drought, when the rivers run dry, it is only the groundwater that will sustain us."

"This model can assist water resource managers faced with increasing management challenges and constraints," said USGS hydrologist, Brian Clark. "This model could be used to evaluate regional issues, such as streamflow declines from groundwater pumping or conservation scenarios to lessen water level declines."

The Mississippi embayment aquifer system includes one of the nation’s most productive agricultural regions, with an annual value of $3 billion per year. Two of the region’s most important aquifers lie beneath the Mississippi embayment. The pumping from the Mississippi River Valley alluvial aquifer accounts for more than 12 percent of all groundwater pumped in the United States.

"This model will help officials find ways to better manage the area's present and future groundwater resources," said USGS Arkansas Water Science Center Director, Dave Freiwald. "This is the most recent large-scale, comprehensive assessment of groundwater resources in the area."

This report is a product of a four-year study being funded by the USGS Groundwater Resources Program. Information derived from this and future studies of more than 30 regional aquifers will provide a collective assessment of America's groundwater availability.

To develop the model, scientists examined more than 2,600 geophysical logs, some dating back to the early 1960’s. Researchers examined groundwater and surface-water data from the early 1900’s to 2007, groundwater withdrawal information, and thousands of miles of surface-water bodies to illustrate how the water system works and how supplies have changed.

A comprehensive report detailing the research, “Groundwater Availability of the Mississippi Embayment,” and a factsheet, “A New Tool to Assess Groundwater Resources in the Mississippi Embayment,” are available online.

Map showing the Mississippi embayment aquifer system area. (Larger image)

USGS Releases New Assessment of Gas Resources in the Marcellus Shale, Appalachian Basin

OC_Web@usgs.gov (Office of Communications and Publishing) — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 11:30:00 EDT

The Marcellus Shale contains about 84 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered, technically recoverable natural gas and 3.4 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable natural gas liquids according to a new assessment by the U. S. Geological Survey (USGS).

These gas estimates are significantly more than the last USGS assessment of the Marcellus Shale in the Appalachian Basin in 2002, which estimated a mean of about 2 trillion cubic feet of gas (TCF) and 0.01 billion barrels of natural gas liquids.

The increase in undiscovered, technically recoverable resource is due to new geologic information and engineering data, as technological developments in producing unconventional resources have been significant in the last decade. This Marcellus Shale estimate is of unconventional (or continuous-type) gas resources.

Since the 1930's, almost every well drilled through the Marcellus found noticeable quantities of natural gas. However, in late 2004, the Marcellus was recognized as a potential reservoir rock, instead of just a regional source rock, meaning that the gas could be produced from it instead of just being a source for the gas. Technological improvements resulted in commercially viable gas production and the rapid development of a major, new continuous natural gas and natural gas liquids play in the Appalachian Basin, the oldest producing petroleum province in the United States.

This USGS assessment is an estimate of continuous gas and natural gas liquid accumulations in the Middle Devonian Marcellus Shale of the Appalachian Basin. The estimate of undiscovered natural gas ranges from 43.0 to 144.1 TCF (95 percent to 5 percent probability, respectively), and the estimate of natural gas liquids ranges from 1.6 to 6.2 billion barrels (95 percent to 5 percent probability, respectively). There are no conventional petroleum resources assessed in the Marcellus Shale of the Appalachian Basin.

These new estimates are for technically recoverable oil and gas resources, which are those quantities of oil and gas producible using currently available technology and industry practices, regardless of economic or accessibility considerations. As such, these estimates include resources beneath both onshore and offshore areas (such as Lake Erie) and beneath areas where accessibility may be limited by policy and regulations imposed by land managers and regulatory agencies.

The Marcellus Shale assessment covered areas in Kentucky, Maryland, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.

USGS is the only provider of publicly available estimates of undiscovered technically recoverable oil and gas resources of onshore lands and offshore state waters. The USGS worked with the Pennsylvania Geological Survey, the West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey, the Ohio Geological Survey, and representatives from the oil and gas industry and academia to develop an improved geologic understanding of the Marcellus Shale. The USGS Marcellus Shale assessment was undertaken as part of a nationwide project assessing domestic petroleum basins using standardized methodology and protocol.

The new assessment of the Marcellus Shale may be found online. The previous Marcellus Shale assessment can be found online. To find out more about USGS energy assessments and other energy research, please visit the USGS Energy Resources Program website

Satellite Images Display Extreme Mississippi River Flooding from Space

OC_Web@usgs.gov (Office of Communications and Publishing) — Fri, 13 May 2011 15:24:56 EDT

Recent Landsat satellite data captured by the U.S. Geological Survey and NASA on May 10 show the major flooding of the Mississippi River around Memphis, Tenn. and along the state borders of Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, and Arkansas as seen from 438 miles above the Earth.

The flood crest of 47.87 feet on May 10 is the second highest rise in recent history; the highest being 48.7 feet in 1937. Five counties surrounding Memphis have been declared disaster areas, and the costs of the flooding are expected to approach $1 billion. The Mississippi River crest continues to move south and is expected to occur in the Greenville, Miss. area around May 16 to finally crest in New Orleans around May 23.

When natural hazards like flooding occur, the USGS provides the most recent Landsat data to local emergency managers.

“Landsat imagery is crucial in helping to monitor the flood rate and effects of the flooding in the region, and to aid in the decision making process regarding flood control. Such decisions include closing portions of the Mississippi River to shipping and opening flood gates outside of low-lying New Orleans in preparation for the flood wave as it makes its way slowly down the river to the Gulf of Mexico,” said Mark Anderson, Acting Director of the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science Center.

Remotely sensed data are not the only science endeavors occurring due to floods. The USGS collects river data through its network of about 7,700 stream gages around the Nation. You can receive instant, customized updates about water conditions, including flooding, by subscribing to USGS WaterAlert.

General flood information is available at USGS Science Features and USGS Flood Information

Note to Editors: The associated image pairs show the Mississippi River in the Memphis, Tenn. area and along the state borders of Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, and Arkansas. The May 12, 2006 images (left) show the river in a more normal state, while the 2011 images (right) show the massive flooding. In the images, the dark blue tones represent water or flooded areas, the light green is cleared fields, and light tones are clouds.

[Access images for this release at: &amp;lt;a href="http://gallery.usgs.gov/tags/NR2011_05_13" _mce_href="http://gallery.usgs.gov/tags/NR2011_05_13"&amp;gt;http://gallery.usgs.gov/tags/NR2011_05_13&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;]

Tattered Wings: Bats Grounded by White-Nose Syndrome's Lethal Effects on Life-Support Functions of Wings

OC_Web@usgs.gov (Office of Communications and Publishing) — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 11:47:54 EDT

Madison, Wisconsin—Damage to bat wings from the fungus associated with white-nose syndrome (WNS) may cause catastrophic imbalance in life-support processes, according to newly published research.

This imbalance may be to blame for the more than 1 million deaths of bats due to WNS thus far, proposes Carol Meteyer, a pathologist with the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center and a lead author of the research published in BMC Biology.

Physiological problems caused by the novel fungus, may, in fact, represent a completely new disease paradigm for mammals, Meteyer and her colleagues wrote. Other skin infections in mammals due to fungi (ringworm, athlete’s foot) remain superficial and do not invade living tissue—typically they only affect the surface of skin, hair and nails.

Not so for the aptly named Geomyces destructans.

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“This fungus is amazingly destructive — it digests, erodes, and invades the skin — particularly the wings — of hibernating bats,” said Meteyer. “The ability of this fungus to invade bats’ wing skin is unlike that of any known skin fungal pathogen in land mammals.”

The authors examined nearly 200 bats that had died from WNS, and also reviewed the critical function and physiology of bat wings during hibernation. As a result, they propose that G. destructans may cause unsustainable dehydration in hibernating bats, triggering thirst-associated arousals. In addition to the direct damage to the wings that would alter flight control, the erosion and invasion of skin may also cause significant changes in circulation, body-temperature regulation and respiratory function.

Since signs of the disease were first observed in New York during the winter of 2006-07, the fungus has spread through 11 states and 2 Canadian provinces, resulting in the first sustained high-mortality disease affecting bats in recorded history. Biologists assume that as the disease spreads to new areas, cave-hibernating bats in those areas will also be at risk, including some that are endangered.

“The high number of bat deaths and range of species being affected far exceeds the rate and magnitude of any previously known natural or human-caused mortality event in bats, and possibly in any other mammals,” said Paul Cryan, a lead author of the paper and a USGS bat ecologist at the Fort Collins Science Center.

Although the powdery white muzzles of affected bats gave the disease its name, the authors believe that the skin of bat wings is the most significant, though often less obvious, target of the fungus.

The order of bats is called Chiroptera, Greek for “hand-wing,” appropriately named since bat wings are essentially modified arms. Imagine, for a moment, your human hand with its fingers spread apart. Then imagine your fingers are 6 feet long, and the whole skeletal affair is covered with two layers of thin, somewhat transparent membranes attached to the sides of your torso and legs. Sandwiched between the membranes are blood and lymphatic vessels, delicate nerves, muscles and special connective tissues that help you fly and help keep you physiologically healthy.

“The disproportionately large areas of exposed skin that make up bat wings play critical roles in maintaining safe internal body conditions during hibernation,” noted Cryan. “Healthy wings are essential for day-to-day survival, even during winter when bats are mostly just hanging around. Wings damaged by the fungus may not always look so bad to the naked eye, but under the microscope things get ugly fast.”

When Meteyer examined wings of diseased bats microscopically, she discovered wing damage was often so severe that it led her and her colleagues to suggest multiple life-threatening effects on hibernating bats.

“A bat’s wings,” said Meteyer, “are obviously critical for flying, but they also play a vital part in essential functions such as body temperature, blood pressure, water balance and blood and gas circulation and exchange.”

Healthy bats occasionally rouse themselves from hibernation, probably to change roosts, drink, mate and even overcome sleep deprivation, biologists think. But bats afflicted with WNS arouse much more often. In fact, a characteristic of hibernation sites with WNS is daytime flights of affected bats outside caves.

“The prevailing hypothesis is that daytime winter flight is a last-ditch effort for starving bats to find insect prey,” Cryan said. “What we propose is that thirst, and maybe not always hunger, is driving these arousals. Unusual thirst during hibernation may result from water essentially leaking out of wings damaged by the fungus.”

Anecdotally, bats at hibernacula affected by WNS are sometimes seen flying over and drinking from water surfaces or eating snow, highlighting the plausibility of this hypothesis, the authors noted.

Hibernation itself is one reason this emerging disease is so successful. During hibernation, a bat’s immune function and metabolism are dramatically reduced, and body temperature drops significantly. Also, some of the worst-affected bat species roost in humid areas in dense clusters to conserve energy and decrease moisture loss.

“These ideal environmental conditions, combined with the hibernating bat’s suppressed immune system, likely allow the fungus to invade body tissues for nutrients without resistance, making the hibernating bat a most accommodating host for this new disease,” Meteyer said.

The researchers compare the ability of this novel bat fungus to destabilize internal functions with the electrolyte imbalance that occurs in frogs infected by chytrid fungus, which, like G. destructans, is a novel disease of vertebrates. Chytrid infection impairs the ability of frog skin to regulate hydration and internal equilibrium, causing electrolyte imbalance and ultimately cardiac arrest.

“The skin plays a critical role in the physiology of both amphibians and bats,” Meteyer said. “We suggest that a similar, but less subtle, disturbance could be occurring in the wing membranes of bats with WNS.”

The journal article can be accessed online.

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Atmospheric Deposition is a Significant Source of Total Nitrogen Delivered Annually to Nutrient Sensitive Estuaries along the South Atlantic and Gulf Coasts

OC_Web@usgs.gov (Office of Communications and Publishing) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:49:24 EDT

Atmospheric deposition is the largest source of nitrogen delivered annually to many estuaries and bays along the South Atlantic and Gulf Coast.

A regional model by the USGS shows that sources of nitrogen delivered to estuaries and bays, such as Albemarle Sound and Mobile and Apalachicola Bays, include atmospheric deposition (47%), fertilizer applied to agricultural land (21%), manure from livestock operations (12%), municipal wastewater (11%), and urban land (9%).

This model also suggests that the wide range in nitrogen levels observed in 8,028 stream reaches across the southeastern U.S. is related to a combination of watershed inputs of nitrogen and watershed and instream processes that immobilize or remove nitrogen. The fraction of nitrogen in fertilizers and manure that is transported to streams is smaller for watersheds in the southeast region than in other areas of the Nation, possibly due to higher rates of plant uptake and/or microbial activity in southeast region watersheds. Instream processes appear to remove about 25 percent of that nitrogen mass (on average for South Atlantic and Gulf Coast drainages) as it is transported downstream to estuaries.

These are among the new findings in a USGS report, Spatial analysis of instream nitrogen loads and factors controlling nitrogen delivery to streams in the southeastern United States using spatially referenced regression on watershed attributes (SPARROW) and regional classification framework, published in the journal Hydrological Processes.

Results from the southeast regional model can be used to assess:

transport of nitrogen to streams from watersheds,
removal of nitrogen by processes within streams,
contributions of nitrogen from different sources in watersheds,
transport and delivery of nitrogen to receiving water bodies, including the 30 major estuaries along the South Atlantic and Gulf Coasts,
conditions and transport in unmonitored streams,
priorities for future monitoring and assessment, and
response of nitrogen levels to proposed management actions.

The USGS National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) program is assessing stream water quality in eight major river basins that cover the conterminous U.S. http://water.usgs.gov/nawqa/studies/mrb/ These studies integrate monitoring data with USGS watershed modeling techniques, such as SPARROW (Spatially Referenced Regression On Watershed Attributes). Regional SPARROW models are presently being developed for six of these major river basins. The southeast regional SPARROW model integrates Federal, State, and local agency monitoring data at 321 stations with geospatial data describing 2002 nitrogen sources (fertilizer, animal waste, and urban inputs, atmospheric deposition, and wastewater discharges) and watershed properties (soil characteristics, precipitation, and land cover). The combination of more calibration sites and refined geospatial data provides significant improvement over previous SPARROW models in prediction accuracy and the identification of regional nutrient sources and transport factors.

Presidential Rank Award -- Top Federal Honor -- Given to USGS Deputy Director Robert Doyle

OC_Web@usgs.gov (Office of Communications and Publishing) — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 12:45:32 EDT

U.S. Geological Survey Deputy Director Robert Doyle has been selected as a Distinguished recipient of the Presidential Rank Award, a prestigious award that commends outstanding leadership and long-term accomplishments.

The President annually recognizes a small group of career senior executives and senior career employees with the Presidential Rank Award. Recipients are strong leaders, professionals and scientists who achieve results and who consistently demonstrate strength, integrity and commitment to excellence in public service. There are two categories of rank awards: Distinguished and Meritorious. Only one percent of the 7,000 career senior executives may earn the award in the Distinguished category.

After beginning his federal career at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in 1974, Mr. Doyle has, as noted in the award citation, consistently demonstrated superb business skills and excelled as an effective change agent, risk taker, and problem solver.

"Not only has Bob been a critical asset to the Survey, he is frequently called upon by senior officials throughout the Department of the Interior for his leadership, strategic thinking, and management expertise," said USGS Director Mark Myers. "Again and again, he displays sharp, experienced judgment in analyzing situations. Equally important, he has exercised a strong and unusually versatile ability to get things done."

Mr. Doyle serves as the chief operating officer and deputy director for the USGS, a science agency within the DOI. The USGS is a $1.4 billion dollar enterprise with more than $400 million reimbursed from customers - a significant indication of the scientific relevancy, value and importance of its work. The highly decentralized agency employs about 8,500 employees deployed across three national regions in more than 400 locations with offices in every state. For almost five years, he has provided steady leadership while overseeing significant scientific accomplishments during transitions between bureau directors.

Mr. Doyle played a key role designing the reorganization plans for the USGS regional structure designed to strengthen and improve science integration across all science disciplines - a critical step for implementing the newly adopted USGS 10-year science strategy. Under his leadership, the USGS has established and maintained an outstanding record of organizational performance as measured by DOI and Office of Management and Budget standards.

Mr. Doyle initiated and implemented a plan to open the vast USGS archives of satellite (Landsat) imagery and aerial photography for broader use by the general public and commercial interests. This information has proven invaluable to land planners, resource managers and emergency responders as well as policy makers for attempting to understand the impacts of land uses and climate variability and for developing meaningful adaptive and mitigation strategies.