Cooperative Agreement for Affiliated Partner with the Gulf Coast Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) | G26AS00118

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is this funding opportunity about?

This opportunity is a USGS request for a single cooperative agreement proposal to test and develop a practical, field-ready way to estimate river discharge remotely using a Skydio Dock for X10 drone system. The project focuses on reducing the cost and risk of traditional stream gaging in locations that are hard to access, hazardous during high flows, or under-instrumented.

Which federal agency is offering this opportunity?

The opportunity is offered by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), within the USGS Water Resources Mission Area.

How many awards does USGS expect to make?

The solicitation anticipates a single award (ExpectedAwards: 1).

What type of funding instrument will be used?

The funding instrument is a cooperative agreement, which indicates substantial involvement from USGS during the project (for example, coordination on methods, validation against USGS gage data, operational requirements, and readiness assessment).

What is the maximum award amount (award ceiling)?

The award ceiling is $120,000.

Who is eligible to apply?

Eligibility is limited to organizations that are already participating partners in the Gulf Coast Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU). The notice indicates USGS is soliciting a single proposal from an affiliated partner of the Gulf Coast CESU.

What program is this opportunity issued under?

This is a discretionary funding opportunity issued by USGS under the CESU Program, which supports research, technical assistance, and education through established federal-academic and partner networks.

What are the key identifiers for this opportunity (opportunity number and CFDA number)?

The opportunity number is G26AS00118 and the CFDA number is 15.808.

When was the opportunity posted?

The posting date (CreationDate) is May 1, 2026.

What is the application deadline?

The original application closing date is May 30, 2026.

What is the main project goal in operational terms?

The project aims to show that a dock-based drone can be scheduled, launched, flown, and used to gather usable hydraulic observations without requiring constant on-site presence and without putting staff in risky situations.

What drone platform is the project centered on?

The project is centered on the Skydio Dock for X10 drone system.

What is meant by estimating river discharge remotely in this project?

The project intends to use drone-collected imagery (video or still imagery) to support image velocimetry (IV) approaches that estimate surface water velocities, and then build an end-to-end workflow that converts that imagery into IV-derived discharge estimates.

What is image velocimetry (IV) in the context of this opportunity?

Image velocimetry (IV) refers to using video or imagery to estimate surface water velocities. Those velocity estimates are then used in a processing workflow to compute discharge estimates.

What connected capabilities must be evaluated as part of the project?

The notice describes four connected capabilities to evaluate in real operational conditions: (1) remote flights beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS), (2) collection of image velocimetry (IV) data, (3) uploading imagery through Skydio Cloud and via satellite communications (SatComms), and (4) building an end-to-end workflow that turns the imagery into IV-derived discharge estimates.

Does the opportunity require BVLOS operations?

Yes. A central element is evaluating whether the Skydio Dock platform can reliably support remote flights beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) in real operational conditions as part of the overall workflow.

What data transfer methods are specifically included?

The project includes uploading imagery through the Skydio Cloud and also via satellite communications (SatComms).

How will results be checked for accuracy or credibility?

A key expectation is that the discharge calculations produced from IV should be comparable to USGS standard discharge measurement methods, at least for discrete checks and validation scenarios. The opportunity also highlights a test location with co-located USGS streamgages that provide trusted reference data for validation and comparison.

Where is a major test location for the project?

A major test location highlighted is the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Green Mountain Reservoir area.

Why is the Green Mountain Reservoir area important for this effort?

The location is selected because two USGS streamgages are co-located within the proposed flight volume for the docked drone. Those existing gages provide trusted reference data to validate and compare discharge estimates produced from different IV algorithms and processing approaches.

Is the goal only to show that IV can estimate discharge, or also to test repeatability?

The notice indicates both: demonstrating that IV can produce reasonable discharge estimates and assessing how consistent and repeatable the approach is when executed through a remote, dock-scheduled operational model rather than a one-off manual field deployment.

How does this project relate to NGWOS?

The effort is tied to the Next Generation Water Observing System (NGWOS), which focuses on modernizing how the nation observes and measures water conditions.

What broader USGS mission area does this fall under?

The project sits within the USGS Water Resources Mission Area.

Does the opportunity encourage the use of artificial intelligence (AI)?

Yes. The opportunity explicitly encourages the use of AI to improve the IV processing chain, particularly for computer vision tasks that commonly cause errors in river imagery workflows.

What kinds of computer vision problems does the notice specifically mention?

The notice specifically mentions improving tasks such as identifying water masks, separating water from vegetation, and handling complex backgrounds or variable lighting.

Why does the notice reference Executive Order 14179?

The notice cites Executive Order 14179 (Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence, January 23, 2025) as authorizing and encouraging NGWOS to conduct structured pilots of AI-enabled sensing systems that improve safety, performance, and mission delivery.

What is meant by a "technical readiness pilot" in this context?

The project is positioned as a technical readiness pilot intended to generate evidence about what it takes to deploy BVLOS, dock-based drone operations with AI-assisted image processing in a way that is dependable enough for real monitoring needs.

What deliverable is implied by the solicitation?

The overall deliverable implied is a demonstrated and documented workflow and operational assessment showing whether a Skydio Dock for X10 can support BVLOS data capture, cloud and satellite data transfer, and robust image-based discharge computation that can be verified against existing USGS streamgage measurements, along with clear lessons learned for scaling to other locations.

What kinds of locations is this approach intended to help with in the future?

The core idea is to reduce cost and risk in places that are hard to access, hazardous during high flows, or under-instrumented (including gage-poor monitoring locations).