Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Pacific Northwest CESU | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

This grant opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number G16AS00046) was released by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) under the Department of the Interior and is administered through the Pacific Northwest Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU). It is a discretionary science and technology research award issued as a cooperative agreement, meaning the recipient should expect substantial involvement and collaboration with USGS staff during the project. The program sits within CFDA 15.808 and was posted on March 16, 2016, with an application closing date of April 1, 2016. USGS anticipated making one award, with total funding available up to an award ceiling of $701,000.

The work supports the USGS Benchmark Glacier program, a long-running effort to track glacier health and change through consistent, long-term measurements. Historically, the benchmark studies have centered on four key glaciers that represent different regions and conditions in the United States: Wolverine and Gulkana Glaciers in Alaska, South Cascade Glacier in Washington, and Sperry Glacier in Montana. In addition to these long-term benchmark sites, the program has expanded in more recent years to include broader glacier inventories and estimates of glacier change across the western United States, reflecting growing scientific and management needs related to climate-driven glacier loss, water resources, and downstream ecosystem impacts.

A central focus of this particular opportunity is leveraging newer improvements in LiDAR availability and cost. LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) has become a practical tool for producing high-accuracy elevation measurements over complex terrain, and glaciers are a prime application because small elevation changes over time translate directly into estimates of ice volume loss or gain. USGS is seeking a project that takes advantage of recent LiDAR collections from the past several years to improve monitoring and analysis of glaciers in the American West, specifically targeting glaciers in the northern Rocky Mountains.

The scope includes acquiring existing LiDAR datasets (along with complete metadata) for roughly 9 to 10 glaciers located within Glacier National Park. The recipient would then process and analyze the LiDAR point clouds to generate Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) for each glacier. These DEMs must be produced with careful quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC). QA/QC is expected to use independent checks from available field survey data and other GIS reference datasets, with the goal of documenting accuracy, correcting issues where possible, and ensuring the outputs are suitable for scientific comparisons and long-term monitoring.

Another major requirement is comparative analysis. The LiDAR-derived DEMs are expected to be compared against existing elevation products, including DEMs derived from stereo satellite imagery and/or the USGS National Elevation Dataset (NED). This comparison is important because it helps quantify what LiDAR adds beyond current operational or commonly used elevation sources. It also helps identify biases, resolution limits, and error characteristics of each approach when applied to glacier surfaces that can be steep, crevassed, seasonally snow-covered, and rapidly changing.

Finally, a key deliverable is an assessment of the value and utility of LiDAR for glacier monitoring relative to other methods. In practical terms, this means evaluating how well LiDAR supports glacier change detection, what kinds of uncertainties can be reduced, what the cost and logistical tradeoffs look like, and when LiDAR provides advantages over satellite stereo DEMs or other elevation datasets. The intent is not just to create new elevation models, but to clearly establish how LiDAR can strengthen USGS glacier monitoring strategies in the northern Rockies and across the western United States more broadly.

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