Cooperative Agreement for CESU-affiliated Partner With Rocky Mountains Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit

The US Geological Survey is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for research in development, characterization, and application of topographic-bathymetric digital elevation models (TBDEM).  Integrated high-resolution seamless TBDEMs are used extensively for coastal modeling and hazards assessment to support coastal marine spatial planning.  TBDEMs have variable spatial coverage and resolution and are essential for determining the timing and extent of coastal flooding and inundation, and thus are critical for improving community preparedness, event forecasting, and warning systems.  Because TBDEMs are derived from a wide variety of topographic and bathymetric source data of disparate age, quality, resolution, and accuracy from numerous federal, state, and local government agencies, research is needed on efficient and robust methods for data integration.  USGS is particularly interested in collaborative research into methods for efficient and rapid update of TBDEMs with newly acquired post-storm land topography and water depth information, and research on capturing and representing comprehensive TBDEM uncertainty information.