Description

Request for Proposals (RFP) for Socioeconomic Assessment of USGS National Land 
Cover Database (NLCD)  

Please find application instructions and more detail here: WWF CONVEI 

The Collaborative Network for Valuing Earth Information (CONVEI), a collaboration between WWF, 
NASA and USGS, is seeking pre-proposals for research that quantifies, in monetary terms, the 
economic value of NLCD data products to their users and to society.  
CONVEI—together with USGS and the NLCD team—is seeking valuation experts to design and 
execute an economic valuation of NLCD. This work will address persistent gaps between data 
producers who want the value of their products quantified and the specialists equipped to do so. 
We are seeking expertise from both experienced researchers and early career researchers. 
Selected teams will collaborate closely with CONVEI and NLCD partners throughout the work. 

ABOUT NLCD and Motivation 

The National Land Cover Database (NLCD), produced by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) with 
additional support through the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium, is the 
definitive land cover dataset for the United States. Built from the Landsat record at 30-meter 
resolution, NLCD has for more than three decades served as foundational information for 
scientists, land managers, planners, and decision-makers across thousands of applications. With 
the release of the latest Annual NLCD (Collection 1.2), the product suite now provides consistent 
land cover and land change information for the conterminous United States for 1985–2025, a 
substantial increase in both temporal frequency (annual compared to the prior 2–3 year epochs) 
and length of the temporal record. 

Despite this broad use, the economic value that NLCD delivers to society has not been rigorously 
quantified. Prior economic valuation of Earth observation programs — most notably the USGS 
studies estimating that Landsat imagery provided users roughly $3.45 billion in benefits in 2017 — 
has focused on raw satellite imagery. NLCD is distinct: it is a derived information product that 
transforms imagery into an analysis-ready, classified land cover layer. Valuing NLCD therefore 
requires quantifying the value of the classification, integration, and continuity that turn Landsat 
pixels into usable land cover information. Establishing credible, defensible estimates of NLCD’s economic value serves several concrete 
purposes: informing investment prioritization; demonstrating the return on public investment in 
land cover monitoring; guiding decisions about product scope, resolution, and update frequency;  
and strengthening the broader evidence base on the socioeconomic value of Earth science 
information.

Purpose and Objectives 
This Request for Proposals (RFP) seeks research that quantifies the economic value of NLCD data 
products to their users and to society. Pre-proposals should clearly articulate how NLCD improves 
decisions or outcomes and estimates the economic value of that improvement. 

Specific objectives include: 

• Producing credible estimates of the economic benefits that NLCD data products provide to 
  users and downstream applications.
• Advancing and adapting valuation methods for derived Earth science information 
  products, as distinct from raw imagery.
• Generating decision-relevant evidence and communicable case studies that demonstrate 
  NLCD’s value across sectors.
• Contributing methods, data, and findings to the broader community valuing Earth science 
  information. 

Funding

Award amount: $40,000 (flat), paid against agreed deliverables. Note: NLCD partners and USGS 
scientists participate in this process as collaborators and are not compensated through this 
engagement. Only the selected consultant team(s) receive funding under the resulting award. 
Research support: up to an additional $5,000 for direct research needs (e.g., data acquisition, 
survey administration, or travel), itemized and justified in the budget.  

Requirements

Scope 

Pre-proposals may address the NLCD product suite as a whole or focus specifically on land cover 
and impervious surface.  
Pre-proposals may also address cross-cutting attributes of the suite, such as the marginal value of 
the shift to annual temporal frequency, the value of the long (1985–2025) consistent time series, or 
the value contributed through downstream products and models that embed NLCD (for example, 
land cover classification used in the USDA Cropland Data Layer, or impervious-surface inputs to 
hydrologic and stormwater models). 

Eligible Valuation Approaches 
Eligible approaches include, but are not limited to: 

1. Stated- and revealed-preference methods (e.g., contingent valuation, willingness-to-pay). 
   Survey-based estimation of aggregate user benefits, following the model used in prior USGS 
   Landsat valuation work. Well suited to producing a defensible aggregate benefit figure; pre
   proposals should address survey design, sampling frame, and non-response.
2. Value of Information (VOI) case studies. Estimation of improved decision quality attributable 
   to NLCD in a specific decision context, relative to a clearly defined counterfactual (the best 
   decision achievable without NLCD). Well suited to concrete, communicable, decision
   anchored results.
3. Macroeconomic dependency / economic-atlas methods. Top-down estimation linking NLCD 
   usage to economic activity in land-cover-dependent sectors via dependency relationships. 
   Well suited to sector- or national-scale estimates.
4. Avoided-cost / replacement-cost methods. Estimation of the cost users would incur to 
   reproduce similar national land cover information independently. Useful as a defensible lower
   bound anchor.
5. Downstream product and model dependency analysis. Tracing NLCD’s value through the 
   products, models, and decisions that embed it. 

Pre-proposals combining a defensible aggregate estimate with one or more illustrative case studies 
are encouraged. Proposers intending to use methods not listed above should provide additional 
justification detailing why an alternative method is preferred.  

Priority Application Areas 
Pre-proposals addressing sectors with clear, traceable economic linkages are especially encouraged, 
including, but not limited to:  

• Stormwater and impervious surface — e.g., municipal stormwater utility fees, permit 
  compliance, and lifecycle costs informed by impervious surface and land cover data.
• Water quality and quantity — e.g., land cover and impervious surface data used to map and 
  model surface runoff, nonpoint source pollutants, harmful algal bloom risks, groundwater 
  recharge, or sediment budgets.
• Energy development and infrastructure – e.g., pipeline routing, mine site assessment, post
  mining reclamation, energy infrastructure risks, regulatory compliance, and other potential 
  uses of NLCD land cover data.  
• Insurance and Reinsurance – e.g., land cover and impervious surface data used to model and 
  quantify economic risk from natural hazards such as fire, flooding, or landslides.
• Human Health – e.g., land cover data used to model exposure to disease vectors
• Natural hazards and safety — e.g., wildfire risk and exposure, coastal inundation, flood hazards, 
  and/or landslide susceptibility utilizing land cover and impervious surface data
• Conservation and habitat — e.g., habitat and land-use change assessment for conservation 
  planning, ecosystem services valuation, environmental policy making, wildlife management, or 
  other conservation applications utilizing land cover and impervious surface data.
• Recreational Opportunities – e.g., land cover and impervious surface data informing geospatial 
  assessments of recreation opportunities (e.g., biking, hiking, horseback riding, watersports, or 
  other recreational activities) 

Deliverables and Coordination 
Funded projects are expected to produce: 

• A technical report documenting methods, data, assumptions, and estimates. 
• A short, non-technical summary product (e.g., fact sheet, brief, or article) suitable for a policy 
  and general audience.

Contribution of results into CONVEI’s capacity-building and communications activities (which 
may include a webinar, workshop presentation, or comparable engagement). 
Funded teams will be expected to coordinate periodically with program staff and to participate in a 
synthesis or cohort activity with other awardees, where applicable. 

Eligibility 
Proposal teams must be based in the United States; there are no other restrictions on eligibility. 
Interdisciplinary teams pairing economic or social-science expertise with Earth-science knowledge are 
especially encouraged.  

Capacity building is a critical part CONVEI’s mission. We are seeking applications from an experienced, 
senior researcher paired with an early career professional or graduate student; however, other 
qualified teams without a mentor/fellow structure are also welcome to apply.  Institutions are eligible to apply, though we encourage applications directly from candidates for this RFP. If institutions do apply, the total award will be inclusive of overhead costs. We will prioritize 
proposals that allocate the majority of the funding to direct project costs, with low or no overhead.