Abstract

This is a time of great change in the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), as it is in every corner of the earth sciences. Throughout its history, this federal agency has responded to the changing needs of the nation and changing directions from the U.S. Congress. Most recently, the biological research activities formerly distributed throughout the U.S. Department of the Interior management bureaus have been integrated with the USGS This integration is being done in a way that complements the agency’s time-honored role of providing objective, credible, scientific information about the resources of the Earth to decision makers and the public.

In preparation for the opportunities and challenges of the future, the USGS has developed a strategic plan designed to assure the relevancy of its work and research. Activities of the Survey are designed to improve the quality of life of each citizen of the United States, which, in turn, is affected by the driving forces of political, economic, societal, and global concerns. The success of our work will depend on the agency’s strengths of impartiality, credibility, and scientific excellence, which are founded on a multidisciplinary scientific workforce with a national presence, long-term, broad-scale, interdisciplinary, interpretive studies, long-term national data bases, and relations and partnerships with others. To meet the nation’s needs in the next decade, the Geological Survey will focus on eight critical scientific business activities—water availability and quality, natural hazards, geographic and cartographic information, contaminated environments, land and water use, nonrenewable resources, environmental effects on human health, and biological resources. Examples of how these business activities may be brought to bear on specific issues are represented by two initiatives: Abandoned Mine Lands and Infrastructure Resources.

New technologies are being used to disseminate the findings of USGS studies and to keep the public informed of agency activities, for example, a home page on the World Wide Web (URL http://www.usgs.gov) that includes real-time data on water and hazards, and publication of reports and data in CD-ROM format. Partnerships with the earth science community and other governmental entities are also essential to meet the opportunities presented by the future. The challenges of both the present and the future require a flexibility that has always been an integral feature of the USGS, combined with a continued commitment to scientific excellence.