Cooperative Agreement for CESU-affiliated University with Rocky Mountain Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit | G23AS00315

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is this grant opportunity?

This is a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) discretionary research and development opportunity offered as a cooperative agreement. The project is centered on urban environmental health and equity, with a focus on understanding real, human-scale exposure to urban hazards such as extreme heat and poor air quality.

What is the opportunity number and CFDA listing?

The opportunity number is G23AS00315, and it is listed under CFDA 15.808.

What type of funding mechanism is being used?

The award is a cooperative agreement. This typically means USGS expects to be substantively involved during the project period, rather than serving only as a pass-through funder.

Who is eligible to apply?

Eligibility is limited to universities or other institutions that are already partners in the Rocky Mountains Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU). While the listing labels eligible applicants as "Others," the narrative indicates Rocky Mountains CESU membership is required.

Is this opportunity open to organizations outside the Rocky Mountains CESU network?

Based on the information provided, no. The opportunity is specifically aimed at an institution that is already a partner in the Rocky Mountains CESU network.

What is the maximum award amount?

The award ceiling is listed as $100,000.

What is the main research focus of the project?

The core focus is reducing uncertainty in how different types of urban land cover (for example, tree canopy, impervious surfaces, parks, and built form) relate to people’s real exposure to hazards like extreme heat and poor air quality at the scale where people live, move, and interact with their surroundings.

Why is USGS funding this type of work?

The motivation is practical and societal: exposure to heat and air pollution is linked to higher illness and death rates and to economic impacts such as lost wages. The opportunity also reflects a concern that these burdens are not shared evenly, with lower-income communities and racial minorities potentially facing higher exposure or fewer protections.

What problem is this grant trying to address in existing research?

The opportunity highlights that many studies rely on data that are too coarse to represent what individuals actually experience. For example, temperature and land cover are often inferred from satellite products that average conditions over large pixels, and demographic patterns are often represented using infrequent datasets like the decennial Census. These limitations can blur relationships between hazards, where people spend time, and how people behaviorally respond to hazards.

What kinds of urban hazards are emphasized?

The opportunity specifically emphasizes extreme heat and poor air quality as key urban hazards tied to health and equity outcomes.

What types of land cover features are mentioned?

Examples provided include tree canopy, impervious surfaces, parks, and built form. The intent is to connect these land cover types to microclimate conditions and human exposure.

What does "human-scale exposure" mean in this context?

In this opportunity, "human-scale exposure" refers to conditions at the scale where people actually live and move, such as street-level heat, shade effects, and localized air quality patterns, rather than averages over large areas.

What are the three linked uncertainty areas the project is expected to address?

The opportunity describes three connected areas where research should reduce uncertainty:

1. How land cover patterns shape microclimate and hazard intensity.
2. How microclimate conditions influence human behaviors that determine exposure (such as route choice, time outdoors, recreation, work patterns, or avoidance behavior).
3. Whether these land cover-to-microclimate-to-behavior relationships differ systematically across demographic groups, which directly relates to environmental justice and unequal health burdens.

What kinds of human behaviors are mentioned as affecting exposure?

The opportunity gives examples including route choice, time spent outdoors, recreation patterns, work patterns, and avoidance behavior.

How does the opportunity connect to environmental justice and equity?

It explicitly calls for examining whether exposure pathways and protections differ across demographic groups, with specific concern that lower-income communities and racial minorities may experience higher exposure or fewer protections from heat and air pollution hazards.

What kinds of data or technology does the opportunity encourage applicants to use?

USGS encourages projects that leverage two recent shifts: (1) growing availability of high-resolution urban land cover mapping, and (2) low-cost sensor technologies that can measure microclimate conditions closer to lived experience (for example, street-level heat, shade effects, and localized air quality variability).

Why are high-resolution land cover maps and low-cost sensors important for this work?

The opportunity argues that coarse datasets can miss neighborhood-scale variation and can obscure the causal pathways linking land cover to microclimate to human exposure and behavior. High-resolution mapping and sensor observations can capture fine-scale variability that better matches how people experience urban environments.

Does the opportunity indicate a shortage of existing datasets?

Yes. It states there are very few datasets that simultaneously capture detailed land cover, urban microclimate conditions, and direct effects on human behavior, and that this gap limits understanding of the causal pathways from land cover to microclimate to exposure and behavior.

What is the expected practical outcome of the research?

Based on the description, the practical outcome is improved understanding (and reduced uncertainty) about how urban form and land cover influence microclimate hazards and real exposure, including how these relationships may differ across communities and demographic groups.

What are the key dates listed for this opportunity?

The opportunity was created on 2023-03-21, and the original closing date was 2023-04-21.

Is this a competitive, discretionary award?

Yes. The opportunity is described as a discretionary research and development award.

What geographic or organizational network is this opportunity tied to?

It is tied to the Rocky Mountains Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) network, and eligibility is limited to partner institutions within that network.

Does the opportunity specify particular cities or study sites?

No specific cities or study sites are named in the information provided. The emphasis is on urban environments and human-scale exposure, but no locations are explicitly listed.

Does the description require looking at both heat and air quality, or can a project focus on one?

The opportunity highlights both extreme heat and poor air quality as central hazards, but it does not explicitly state whether projects must address both. It does emphasize reducing uncertainty in exposure to urban hazards like heat and air quality.

What makes this opportunity "applied research" rather than purely theoretical work?

The description emphasizes practical, societal motivations (health outcomes, lost wages, and equity concerns) and encourages measurement approaches (high-resolution mapping and sensor observations) that connect urban land cover to real-world exposure and behavior.