The USGS Office of International Programs accomplishes the international mission of USGS by supporting activities that may be broadly divided among four main categories:

1. Activities that enable USGS scientists to contribute to efforts to address global scientific, natural resource, and environmental issues;
2. Activities that improve the effectiveness of the U.S. to carry out its fundamental domestic missions;
3. Activities that further U.S. foreign policy and national security interests;
4. Activities that promote the competitiveness of the U.S. private sector in the global economy.

Over the past 40 years, USGS has provided technical assistance to more than 100 countries and hosted thousands of visiting scientists. The nature of the assistance includes short- and long-term assignments both of USGS personnel to scientific projects abroad and of foreign scientists and technicians to USGS activities in the United States.

1. The USGS Office of International Programs supports activities that enable USGS scientists to contribute to efforts to address global scientific, natural resource, and environmental issues by:
   • Developing global reference data sets for use by scientists investigating regional and global environmental trends.
   • Conducting studies of historic climatic and ecological changes in the geologic record to help understand the likely consequences of future climate change in ecosystems at different latitudes.
   • Representing the U.S. Government in organizations such as the World Meteorological Organization and the International Hydrologic Program of UNESCO.
2. The USGS Office of International Programs supports activities that improve the effectiveness of the U.S. to carry out its fundamental domestic missions by:
   • Obtaining scientific knowledge, insights, and data needed by domestic programs, such as knowledge of hydrologic, geologic, and biologic systems as well as mapping, remote sensing, and GIS technologies.
   • Coordinating studies to support increased cooperation in managing migratory species (including migratory birds, fish, Arctic mammals, sea turtles), non-native invasive species, and shared (transborder) ecosystems.
   • Participating in international scientific professional societies
   • Adding to the knowledge and skills base of USGS scientists.
3. The USGS Office of International Programs supports activities that further U.S. foreign policy and national security interests by:
   • Providing information and technical assistance in responding to catastrophic earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, and droughts in foreign countries.
   • Providing technical assistance in the assessment of water, energy, and mineral resources and in the development of data and information standards and regional data-sharing networks
   • Using scientific cooperation to create non-threatening environments to facilitate communication and negotiation among resource managers
   • Conducting studies to control the spread and reduce the impacts of non-native invasive plants, animals, and pathogens that have been introduced into the U.S.
   • Providing technical assistance to international organizations in documenting, managing, and integrating biological data and information
   • Coordinating multilateral sharing projects to ameliorate regional conflicts through the sharing of data and scientific expertise
   • Conducting global assessments of energy and mineral resources.
4. The USGS Office of International Programs supports activities that promote the competitiveness of the U.S. private sector in the global economy by:
   • Introducing and encouraging the use of U.S. equipment and software
   • Building regional and global databases of energy and mineral resources
   • Encouraging the release of data on energy and mineral deposits, geologic maps and topographic maps, and hydrologic data by foreign governments
   • Facilitating contacts between U.S. companies and foreign counterparts
   • Developing and disseminating standards and procedures for data and information processing and distribution, mapping, and hydrologic and geologic data collection and processing.