US budget cuts hit Earth monitoring

摘要

Two kilometres south of the US-Canadian border, in Pembina, North Dakota, a stream gauge measures the height of the water surging down the Red River. The instrument, one of about 8,000 maintained by the US Geological Survey (USGS), is a sentinel for communities along the river that experienced devastating floods in 2009,2010 and 2011. Yet this spring, the USGS announced plans to shut down the Pembina stream gauge — a casualty of the sweeping federal budget cuts known as sequestration.