The nongovernmental Resources for the Future (RFF) will receive $700,000 annually for the next five years to and evaluate the socioeconomic benefits of NASA’s Earth science activities. “The five-year agreement will enable experts to advance the valuation of the applied benefits linked to information from space-based observations of Earth, catalyze a community of research and practice of Earth scientists and social scientists, and disseminate findings to key stakeholders from academia, government, NGOs, and elsewhere,” an RFF release explains.
Under the agreement, RFF will launch a consortium early next year to study the Valuation of Applications Benefits Linked with Earth Science (VALUABLES). “Countless organizations apply data from Earth-observing environmental satellites daily. This effort will quantify the economic and societal benefits and how the data informs their decisions,” Lawrence Friedl, director of the Applied Sciences Program in NASA’s Earth Science Division, said in an RFF release.
Data NASA’s Earth science program has various on-the-ground uses throughout the nation, according to the release. “Earth observations from space provided by NASA touch all of our lives every single day. They predict extreme storms, help manage transportation networks, monitor the quality of our environment—and so much more. This new consortium made possible by NASA will be dedicated to discovering and disseminating the importance of space-derived information—information that can directly benefit our personal health, the economy, and our environment,” RFF President Richard Newell, said.
The announcement comes as the future of NASA’s Earth science program is a bit hazy. In late November, Donald Trump space policy adviser Bob Walker suggested the new administration would cut funding for the program in an attempt to battle the “politicized science” of climate change. “We see [NASA] in an exploration role, in deep space research,” Walker told The Guardian newspaper. “Earth-centric science is better placed at other agencies where it is their prime mission.”
Representatives from NASA and RFF declined Monday to provide any information on what would happen to the agreement should the incoming administration scrap the agency’s Earth science program.