Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Chesapeake Watershed CESU | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Chesapeake Watershed CESU grant opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number G12AS20007) was a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) award offered through the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center. It was structured as a cooperative agreement, meaning the work was expected to involve substantial collaboration between USGS and the selected recipient rather than operating like a simple pass-through grant. The program focus sits in the Science and Technology and other Research and Development category under CFDA 15.808 (U.S. Geological Survey Research and Data Collection). USGS anticipated making a single award, with an estimated total funding level of $1,000,000, and no cost sharing or matching requirement was listed. While the posting date was December 8, 2011, the application window was short, with the closing date set for December 19, 2011, and the opportunity later archived on March 8, 2012.

Eligibility was limited to organizations that were already formal partners in the Chesapeake Watershed Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) Program. CESUs are established partnership networks used by federal agencies to access qualified research institutions for applied science, technical assistance, and education. In practical terms, this meant only entities within that specific CESU partnership were eligible to apply, rather than the wider public or all universities. The opportunity was labeled under the “Others” category on eligibility, but the controlling requirement was membership in the Chesapeake Watershed CESU.

The technical purpose of the project centered on advancing global and regional land cover characterization using Landsat-type satellite imagery, with an emphasis on producing and updating “continuous field” datasets. Continuous field products differ from traditional categorical land cover maps (where each pixel is assigned a single class like forest or water). Instead, they estimate fractional cover per pixel, such as percent tree cover, percent barren, percent water, and percent other vegetation. USGS sought research support to produce prototype and operational versions of these layers, initially emphasizing South America for the years 2000 and 2011, and then scaling up to global products for those same benchmark years.

Beyond creating those baseline snapshots, the opportunity also targeted ongoing monitoring and change detection. This included annual updates of global continuous field datasets after 2011 and an annual land cover and land cover change characterization effort spanning 2011 through 2016. In other words, the work was not just about generating static maps, but about building repeatable methods and workflows that could be run year after year to capture land dynamics over time, ideally in an operational setting compatible with Landsat-style imagery.

A major component was validation and quality assurance. USGS specifically called for validating results using very high resolution satellite imagery in the 1 to 4 meter range, which is much finer than Landsat’s typical 30-meter resolution. This kind of validation is important because it provides a more detailed reference for assessing how accurate the fractional cover estimates and change products are, and it helps identify systematic errors that might arise from sensor limitations, atmospheric effects, seasonal differences, or confusion among land cover types.

The opportunity also emphasized synthesis work, meaning bringing multiple land cover and land cover change products together into coherent, usable outputs. Synthesis can include harmonizing datasets across regions and years, documenting uncertainty, creating consistent legends or fractional cover definitions, and producing integrated deliverables that are ready for scientific analysis or decision support. Finally, USGS highlighted the need for methodologies that support operational land cover monitoring using Landsat-type satellite data, signaling that the agency valued approaches that are scalable, repeatable, and suitable for long-term production rather than one-off research demonstrations.

For applicants needing assistance accessing the full announcement, USGS provided a point of contact: Faith Graves (703-648-7356, fgraves@usgs.gov). The general additional information link referenced Grants.gov, where the full posting and instructions would have been hosted during the open period.

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