Cooperative Agreement for CESU-affiliated Partner with Piedmont-South Atlantic Coast Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit

The USGS is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for research in mapping and characterizing built structures (buildings) and infrastructure (roads, bridges, railroad, etc.) for use in modeling and assessment of coastal hazards.  Built structures and infrastructure elements, such as shoreline features like piers, seawalls, and jetties, affect storm surge propagation onto the land surface, thus a detailed inventory of such features is critical for coastal storm hazard modeling.  These features are also impacted greatly by storm effects (wind, waves, water levels), so post-event damage assessment mapping and description is a critical need.  Because highly detailed information on coastal structures and infrastructure is needed for broad areas in the U.S. subject to coastal storms, research is needed on efficient and robust methods for feature extraction from high-resolution remote sensing data and other geospatial map databases.  USGS is particularly interested in collaborative research into methods for efficient, accurate, and rapid mapping of built structures and infrastructure both before coastal storm events and post-storm (for damage assessment), with an emphasis on artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) approaches.

Research Objectives:
(1)  Conduct research on mapping, inventory, and characterization of built structures and infrastructure in U.S. coastal areas subject to effects of coastal storms, and on readying the extracted features for use in hazard modeling and prediction.
(2)  Develop, test, and implement AI/ML methods for extraction and characterization of built structures and infrastructure from remote sensing data and geospatial mapping databases.
(3)  Conduct research on and develop methods for identifying damaged structures/infrastructure and assessing damage susceptibility, including adding attributes to the identified features such as structure type and primary construction material.