The Western Geographic Science Center conducts research to help communities make decisions about the interaction between people and their environment. We conduct geographic research on the environmental and societal consequences of a changing landscape.

Our projects analyze human / environmental interactions spatially and temporally. Our work is collaborative, involving many partners and linking many different natural science and social science disciplines. Our work is concentrated in the 9 states of the USGS Western Region and is conducted on local and regional scales.

Find out more about our science by following the links on the left.

Ecoregional Mapping:

WGSC hosted two talks in Menlo Park on development of ecological regions (ecoregions) and how they can be used as a framework for solving resource management problems. On January 11, Glenn Griffith (WGSC) presented "Completing a National Ecoregion Framework: Recent Projects, Applications, and Future Needs." His talk described development of Level IV ecoregions in a consistent manner across the conterminous US. The final datasets, for California and Arizona, will be published later this fiscal year.

On January 12, Jim Omernik (USGS EROS) presented "Ecoregions, Watersheds, and Hydrological Units: Uses, Misuses, and Complimentary Aspects." This talk presented several approaches to drafting ecological framework units, including a discussion of the reasons for disagreements over how to delineate ecoregions.