USGS Law and Legal Definition
USGS is the abbreviation for United States Geological Survey. The USGS is a federal agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior. It is a scientific agency that provides impartial information on the health of the U.S. ecosystems and environment, the natural hazards that threaten the U.S., the natural resources that the U.S. people and wildlife rely on, the impacts of climate and land-use change, and the core science systems that help in providing timely, relevant, and useable information.
The USGS is a fact finding research organization, and it does not have regulatory responsibility. Scientists within the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, and the natural hazards that threaten it. The organization has four major science disciplines, concerning biology, geography, geology, and hydrology.
The USGS is America’s largest water, earth, and biological science and civilian mapping agency. This agency collects, monitors, analyzes, and provides scientific understanding about natural resource conditions, issues, and problems. The scientists within the USGS are experts in various disciplines. The scientific expertise of these scientists helps in carrying out large-scale, multi-disciplinary investigations and providing impartial scientific information to resource managers, planners, and other customers.
