ECOSYSTEM SCIENCE is critical to making informed decisions about natural resources that can sustain our Nation’s HUMAN, ECONOMIC, & ECOLOGICAL well-being. The case studies on this site highlight the tangible benefits to the American public through USGS Ecosystem Science with regard to human, economic, and ecological dimensions.
The Collaborative Visitor Transportation Survey (CVTS) is a multi-agency effort to obtain a Federal Land Management Agency (FLMA) generic clearance to streamline data collection, making user feedback a more feasible part of transportation planning. This effort is led by FHWA’s Western Federal Lands Highway Division and is supported by the U.S. Department of Transportation Volpe Center. FLMAs that have played a key role in the development of the CVTS include: the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), National Park Service (NPS), U.S. Forest Service (USFS), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). Archiving the CVTS data in a central repository provides a valuable opportunity...
Serving as the scientific backbone to the Federal Government’s ecosystem services priorities, the Sustaining Environmental Capital (SEC) Initiative builds upon the U.S. Geological Survey's existing programs and expertise related to water, fisheries, modeling, and economic valuation. The goal of the SEC Initiative is to develop, integrate, and enhance natural resource management decision support tools, systems, and information to enable managers with the ability to better account for the benefits people receive from ecosystem services in the decision-making process.