Rocky Mountain Geographic Science Center
The Rocky Mountain Geographic Science Center (RMGSC) is a leading scientific authority in evaluating, understanding, and predicting the risks, vulnerabilities, causes, and consequences of landscape change on the physical environment and the human condition.
RMGSC scientists observe, describe, and analyze the state and condition of the natural and human environments by mapping, modeling, and monitoring geographic landscape change at regional, national, and global scales.
The RMGSC strives to implement this vision by performing leading edge geographic and land remote sensing science, and applying state-of-the-art information technology to changing geographic landscapes, ecosystems, and environments. Specifically, the RMGSC emphasizes research and investigations in:
This agenda supports the Geography Discipline's primary goal "to improve people's ability to prosper by either affecting how the land will change (positive) or by becoming more adaptive to change (forecasting)." It also allows the RMGSC to provide federal, state, and local decision makers with timely, objective, relevant, and innovative geographic science, tools, models, information and reports that will help to improve and sustain environmental quality and public safety in an ever-changing world.
The USGS UAS Project Office, located at RMGSC, conducted the first small unmanned aerial system (UAS) mission using the Raven RQ-11A UAS from March 19-24, 2011, at Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge near Monte Vista, Colorado. The U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) Unmanned Aircraft Systems Project Office and Fort Collins Science Center collaborated with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to organize and conduct this project. The USGS utilized the Raven RQ-11A UAS in cooperation with the USFWS to determine the feasibility of using an UAS to capture videography of roosting Sandhill Cranes to derive methodology for estimating population abundance. This mission was the first UAS operation conducted by the DOI in National Airspace System (NAS) using the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Certificate of Authorization (COA) process.
USGS UAS Project Office