Cooperative Agreement for CESU-affiliated Partner with Colorado Plateau Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Fort Collins Science Center (FORT) in collaboration with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for enhancing the representation of marginalized, underrepresented, and/or Tribal populations in the public lands planning process using Public Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS). The USGS Social and Economic Analysis (SEA) branch has developed an open-source, online PPGIS application for Values Mapping for Planning in Regional Ecosystems (VaMPIRE). Spatial data about values for public lands and waters can be collected online using VaMPIRE, or off-line through workshops or focus groups. Many federal agencies, including the BLM, are required to consider public input when drafting and revising Resource Management Plans. Having spatially-explicit data on public uses and values for public lands, and how uses of public lands may change under different land use change scenarios, can help inform the planning and decision-making process. Additionally, understanding uses and values of diverse groups of visitors can help make the planning process more equitable. This cooperative project will expand USGS knowledge and use of PPGIS methods to include the perspectives of diverse and underrepresented populations; methods will be piloted in Southeastern Utah and adapted to be used in other locations and scientific contexts. The new methods for including diverse public values into the planning process will lead to our science being more societally relevant and included in more planning and management decisions.