GSA owns or leases 9,624 assets, maintains workspace for 1.1 million Federal employees, preserves more than 481 historic properties, and procures more than $60 billion in products and services for the Federal Government. Climate change has the potential to impact the ability of GSA and other Federal agencies to fulfill their missions, operate their facilities, and maintain their services. With its region-by-region breakdown of climate data and projections, the Third National Climate Assessment (see related Highlight 9) and its supporting regional climate
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Highlights
Since 1989, the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) has submitted annual reports to Congress called Our Changing Planet. The reports describe the status of USGCRP research activities, provide progress updates, and document recent accomplishments
In particular, Our Changing Planet highlights progress and accomplishments in interagency activities. These highlights represent the broad spectrum of USGCRP activities that extend from Earth system observations, modeling, and fundamental research through synthesis and assessment, decision support, education, and public engagement.
With more than half the world’s population living in cities, urban areas are at the core of many global environmental change issues and their solutions. Through its funding of the International Human Dimensions Programme (IHDP), USGCRP supports the Urbanization and Global Environmental Change (UGEC) project, an international leader in research on the interactions and feedbacks between environmental change and urbanization at the local, regional, and global scales. UGEC provides a multidisciplinary forum for researchers to share expertise and address knowledge
Coastal zones are central to socioeconomic development and are estimated to provide more than half of all global ecosystem goods and services. These narrow, marginal, often low-lying areas are subject to intense population pressure—with over a billion inhabitants—and are highly vulnerable to extreme weather and natural hazards associated with climate change. USGCRP supports efforts to understand and prepare for climate impacts in coastal zones worldwide through its member agency activities in the United States and its funding for IHDP, IGBP, and
In the Caribbean, the economic importance of agriculture and tourism—combined with rural poverty and widespread vulnerability to climate-related hazards like hurricanes and drought—makes planning for climate impacts an urgent necessity. USAID and NOAA are working together on multiple fronts to connect climate research with risk management, climate-resilient development, and adaptation challenges in this region.
For example, the USAID- and NOAA-supported International Research and Applications Project (IRAP; to learn more, visit: http://goo.gl/
Vision – A Nation,globally engaged and guided by science, meeting the challenges of climate and global change.
Mission – To build a knowledge base that informs human responses to climate and global change through coordinated and integrated Federal pro- grams of research, education, communication, and decision support.
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Goal 1 – Advance Science: Advance scientific knowledge of the integrated natural and human components of the Earth system.
Goal 2 – Inform Decisions: Provide the scientific basis to inform and enable timely decisions on adaptation and mitigation.
Goal 3 – Conduct Sustained Assessments: Build sustained assessment capacity that improves the Nation’s ability to understand, anticipate, and respond to global change impacts and vulnerabilities.
Goal 4 – Communicate and Educate:
Overview
The Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM), also known as Landsat 8, is the latest satellite in the joint NASA-U.S. Geological Survey (USGS; DOI) program that has been continuously tracking Earth surface
Overview
A series of Earth observation missions planned by NASA and partners for FY 2014 will contribute fundamentally to advancing our understanding of global change. Such missions are foundational to USGCRP research and are made possible by a sustained Program emphasis in instrumentation development. The planned FY 2014 missions are described below.
Overview
A number of USGCRP agencies such as NSF, DOE, NOAA, NASA, USGS, and SI are investing in understanding the history of Earth’s climate, known as “paleoclimate.” Paleoclimate data extend records of climate
Overview
The North American Multi-Model Ensemble (NMME)—led by NOAA in partnership with DOE, NSF, NASA, and U.S. and Canadian research institutions—is an experimental climate forecasting system that combines a suite of different models. Using a combined system of models, each with different individual strengths in predicting phenomena, can enhance the overall success of a