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

Opportunity Information: Apply for G23AS00315

This opportunity is a US Geological Survey (USGS) cooperative agreement aimed at a university or other institution that is already a partner in the Rocky Mountains Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU). The project focus is urban environmental health and equity, specifically 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 urban hazards like extreme heat and poor air quality at the scale where people actually live, move, and interact with their surroundings. The motivation is practical and societal: exposure to heat and air pollution is associated with higher illness and death rates as well as economic impacts such as lost wages, and there is a strong concern that these burdens are not shared evenly, with lower income communities and racial minorities potentially facing higher exposure or fewer protections.

A central problem the grant is trying to address is that many existing studies connect land cover, temperature, air quality, and demographics using data that are too coarse to capture what individuals experience. Land cover and heat are often inferred from satellite products that average conditions over large pixels, while demographic patterns are frequently represented using infrequent datasets like the decennial Census. Those approaches can miss neighborhood scale variation and can blur the relationship between where hazards occur, where people spend time, and how people respond behaviorally to those hazards. The opportunity emphasizes that there are very few datasets that simultaneously capture detailed land cover, urban microclimate conditions, and direct effects on human behavior, which leaves major gaps in understanding causal pathways from land cover to microclimate to exposure and behavior.

The USGS is encouraging projects that take advantage of two recent shifts: the growing availability of high resolution urban land cover mapping and the rise of low cost sensor technologies that can measure microclimate conditions closer to the human experience (street level heat, shade effects, localized air quality patterns, and other fine scale variability). In practical terms, the research is expected to be designed to reduce uncertainty in three linked areas: first, how land cover patterns shape microclimate and hazard intensity; second, how those microclimate conditions influence human behaviors that determine exposure (such as route choice, time outdoors, recreation patterns, work patterns, or avoidance behavior); and third, whether the land cover to microclimate to behavior relationships differ systematically across demographic groups, which speaks directly to environmental justice and inequitable health burdens.

From an administrative and funding standpoint, this is a discretionary research and development award under a cooperative agreement mechanism, meaning USGS is likely to be substantively involved during the project rather than acting only as a funder. The opportunity number is G23AS00315 and it falls under CFDA 15.808. The award ceiling is listed as 100,000, and eligibility is limited to partners in the Rocky Mountains CESU network (the listing labels eligible applicants as Others, but the narrative makes clear the CESU membership requirement). The original closing date was 2023 04 21, and the opportunity was created on 2023 03 21. Overall, the grant is essentially soliciting CESU affiliated applied research that connects urban form and land cover to real human scale exposure to heat and air quality hazards, using modern high resolution mapping and sensor based observations, with a clear interest in understanding and documenting potential inequities by income and race.

• The Geological Survey in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Cooperative Agreement for CESU-affiliated University with Rocky Mountain Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.808.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2023-03-21.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2023-04-21. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $100,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for G23AS00315

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