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THEMES

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To support sustainable natural resource management, satellite data products must address key agency monitoring and assessment needs. A primary objective of the collaboration between NASA and the land management community is to identify decision-support needs, existing gaps in knowledge and data, and relevant NASA products and tools to support those needs and close those gaps.  We’re also looking to encourage the development of communities of practice—groups of people that have a goal of working together to solve issues of common interest.

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The following are some key priority areas that we are actively discussing through our workshops and other events:

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Soil moisture and hydrology – soil moisture dynamics, soil productivity and erosion, inventory and condition of wetlands, riparian areas, and groundwater dependent ecosystems, aquatic habitat suitability, land cover and hydrological change and vulnerability

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Vegetation condition – forest and non-forest vegetation structure, composition, and function, forest health and productivity, seedling survival, biomass and carbon, invasive species, fuel loading and post-fire recovery, vegetation shifts due to climate change

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Emissions and flux – air and aerosols including GHG, carbon flux detecting, assessing and monitoring ecosystem vulnerabilities due to changing environmental conditions (climate change and other abiotic stressors).

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Knowledge Discovery & Synthesis – development of integrated decision support tools, supported data formats, cloud computing (big data handling), integration (mission, tools), technology transfer.

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