USGS realignment to roll out this week

USGS Director Marcia McNutt is scheduled to start rolling out an internal realignment today at their Reston headquarters, then travel across the country over the next few days to describe the changes to staff in other centers.

The four USGS branches - Geology, Geography, Water, and Biology, are being replaced by a set of cross disciplinary science themes.

In general these are based on the themes described in the 2007 USGS Circular 1309

1. Understanding Ecosystems and Predicting Ecosystem Change: Ensuring the Nation’s Economic and Environmental Future
2. Climate Variability and Change: Clarifying the Record and Assessing Consequences
3. Energy and Minerals for America’s Future: Providing a Scientific Foundation for Resource Security, Environmental Health, Economic Vitality, and Land Management
4. A National Hazards, Risk, and Resilience Assessment Program: Ensuring the Long-Term Health and Wealth of the Nation
5. The Role of Environment and Wildlife in Human Health: A System that Identifies Environmental Risk to Public Health in America
6. A Water Census of the United States: Quantifying, Forecasting, and Securing Freshwater for America’s Future

A 7th theme on Data Integration will serve as underlying infrastructure to facilitate science interoperability.