Research
The following are some of the many projects that CISR has created or collaborated on.
University of California Office of the President (UCOP)
The Institutional Research and Academic Planning Department @ UCOP (under Academic Affairs) approached CISR to develop a web mapping application that would demonstrate the breadth and diversity of UC’s impact beyond the borders of its campuses. The application provides data on the physical locations of UC community programs and partnerships throughout the state, as well as, aggregate information on jobs, research funding, etc. at the campus or legislative district. It currently serves as an advocacy tool for stimulating interest and continued investment in the UC at both the state and national level.
Learn more about the project with the University of California Office of the President (UCOP) here.
University of California, Santa Cruz
Since its inception, CISR has been working towards implementing a campus-wide Geographic Information System (GIS) for administrative and academic applications. In 2010, CISR began developing a central spatial database of campus assets and infrastructure by converting CAD and disparate tabular into a spatial format. This effort has resulted in CISR partnering with TAPS to redesign the primary campus map (poster, released Fall 2017) and to create locator maps for display at all campus transit stops. Moving forward, CISR will continue developing the main campus GIS and aims to secure funding to develop state-of-the-art web and mobile mapping applications focused on university assets and related affairs.
Santa Cruz Puma Project – University of California, Santa Cruz
Dr. Chris Wilmers @ UC Santa Cruz (ENVS) partnered with CISR to better leverage spatial technology in order to understand the physiology and behavior of mountain lions including how persistent exposure to humans and products of human activity (e.g. fragmentation, disturbance) impacts mountain lion ecology. Beyond the execution and support of academic research, CISR has also developed an IT system to facilitate the collection, storage, analysis and dissemination of project data on mountain lions. The system is comprised of an enterprise database, automated analysis routines, a mobile field collection system, and public web application for exploring mountain lion movement.
Learn more about Santa Cruz Puma Project – University of California, Santa Cruz
Pacific Rocky Intertidal Monitoring Program – University of California, Santa Cruz
Dr. Pete Raimondi @ UC Santa Cruz (EEB) partnered with CISR to develop a web mapping application for the Pacific Rocky Intertidal Monitoring Program, a cooperation of the Multi-Agency Rocky Intertidal Network (MARINe). The program undertakes research on rocky intertidal habitats to assess impacts due to disturbance events, detect shifts in community make-up, and provide context for experimental work. The application is designed to display physical and community characteristics, species percent cover and density, and species distribution based on biodiversity surveys and will be expanded to include long-term monitoring data to explore temporal trends.
Learn more about Pacific Rocky Intertidal Monitoring Program – University of California, Santa Cruz
Digital Saqqara – University of California, Santa Cruz
Dr. Elaine Sullivan @ UC Santa Cruz (History) is collaborating with CISR to provide mapping and programming services for the 3D Saqqara project, a digital humanities initiative focused on the use of GIS and 3D modeling to create a four-dimensional (space-time) exploration of the ancient Egyptian cemetery complex and surrounding landscape. The project aims to capture the relationship between the built and natural landscape, to aid researchers better understand ancient peoples’ perception of the ritual landscape. CISR provides key technical support in the construction of the 3D models and is now migrating the model into a format to be delivered in a custom web mapping application developed by center staff.
No Place Like Home – University of California, Santa Cruz
Drs. Miriam Greenberg and Steve McKay @ UC Santa Cruz have partnered with CISR to provide mapping and programming services for No Place Like Home, a multi-media research project on the affordable housing crisis in Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz is now one of the top-five least affordable cities for renters in the entire country, and is in the least affordable county for renters in the state of California. The No Place Like Home project focuses how local residents experience the housing crisis, issues facing renters in the community, and social equity around the lack of affordable housing in the area. CISR is currently developing a web application that will allow users to explore results of the project through an interactive mapping infographic.
California Dropout Research Project (CDRP) – University of California, Santa Barbara
Dr. Russ Rumberger @ UC Santa Barbara partnered with CISR to develop a web mapping application for the California Dropout Research Project (CDRP). CDRP undertakes research to inform policymakers, educators and the general public about the nature of the dropout crisis in California and to help the state develop a meaningful policy agenda to address the problem. The web application provides users with interactive tools to display and compare dropout and graduation rates for counties, school districts, and schools for the entire population and for various subgroups across multiple years.
Botanical Garden & Zoological Park Data Model – Arboretum @ University of California, Davis
Botanical gardens and zoological parks have joined together to develop a new standard for implementing GIS as a solution for managing the spatial information associated with living collections. The Alliance for Public Gardens GIS (APGG), a partnership started by the UC Davis Arboretum and grown to a consortium of over 180 botanical gardens and zoos, is working to develop the foundation of a free and open source template for using GIS at botanical gardens and zoos called the ArcGIS Botanical Garden & Zoological Park Data Model. From its inception, CISR has been a significant contributor to the development of the data model, training materials, and related applications.
Learn more about Botanical Garden & Zoological Park Data Model – Arboretum @ University of California, Davis
The Nature Conservancy (TNC)
TNC: Global Marine & California team
CISR has joined with the Global Marine & California team to develop a suite of web based tools that enable decision-makers to assess risk and identify nature-based solutions to reduce socio-economic vulnerability to coastal hazards. The tools allow users to interactively examine storm surge; sea level rise; natural resources; vulnerable communities/assets and to develop risk reduction and restoration solutions. The application is now available for selected areas in the coastal U.S., Latin America and in the Caribbean with companion applications at the national and global scale.
Learn more about TNC: Global Marine & California team
TNC: Human and Social Dimensions team
In partnership with the Human and Social Dimensions team, CISR developed and applied geospatial methods to identify hydrologic service priority areas for erosion control, nutrient retention, and groundwater recharge across the entire country of Gabon. The analysis and resulting maps are being used to inform a new national land use planning effort seeking to proactively identify strategies to balance conservation and development goals. This work expands the scope of current efforts by including natural capital and bringing nature’s benefits to people into the planning context. This project will be the first where such a methodology will be tested and refined to inform actual planning decisions.
TNC: Nevada team
In partnership with the Nevada team, CISR applied spatially-explicit models to evaluate water quality and quantify the impacts of different restoration and land protection scenarios in the Truckee River watershed. Locations on the landscape providing the greatest water quality and supply benefits were identified and quantified across multiple scenarios using the Natural Capital Project’s RIOS and InVEST models further informed by common stakeholder priorities. Results provide evidence for the value of strategically targeted investments in conservation activities using models guided by the priorities of stakeholders. Such work should enable smarter and more effective land management investments.
TNC: Caribbean Science team
In partnership with the Caribbean Science team, CISR applied the Coastal Vulnerability and Coastal Protection modules of the Natural Capital Project’s InVEST tools in order to identify where coastal habitats are most likely to 1) reduce exposure to erosion and flooding from storms and future sea levels and 2) protect vulnerable people and property. This analysis was completed at two scales: 1) the Insular Caribbean; and 2) the Cayman Islands and US Virgin Islands. The results of this work is intended to help governments and conservation planners understand patterns of vulnerability to coastal hazards at both a regional and national scale.
United States Geological Survey (USGS)
The USGS and TNC have teamed with CISR to complete a national-scale study valuating the protective services of coastal habitat from flood risk. The work combined social, economic, ecological, and engineering tools to provide a high-resolution, spatially explicit, quantitative economic valuation of the coastal protection benefits of coral reefs for all US states and territories in which they exist. The results identify how and where coral reefs provide the most flood reduction benefits to people and assets The resulting high-resolution mapping can help to inform coastal resilience and develop innovative financing to support restoration of coral reefs in the US.
Conservation International (CI)
Conservation International partnered with CISR to conduct the first spatially explicit global evaluation of the vulnerability of coastal-dwelling human populations to key climate change exposures that demonstrates the potential for coastal ecosystems to help people adapt to climate change (ecosystem-based adaptation). Results suggest that mangroves and coral reefs have enormous potential for helping people adapt to climate change at the global scale with significant co-benefits for carbon, enhanced fishery health and tourism potential accrued. This framework offers a tool for prioritizing investment in coastal ecosystems to help people adapt to climate change and underscores the key role that habitat can play in increasing coastal resiliency.
Bat Conservation International (BCI)
Bat Conservation International has partnered with CISR to provide a range of GIS, data management, and IT services in order to fill BCI’s gap in geospatial capacity. Services include database design, high-quality cartographic map production, and focused spatial analysis. For instance, CISR recently conducted a continental spatial analysis focused on developing BCI priorities in terms of where their conservation efforts and resources can have the greatest impact on bat conservation. Analysis focused on determining (based on an index model) where the greatest existing and potential stressors overlap with areas of high bat diversity, species endangerment, and mega-populations.
Island Conservation (IC)
Island Conservation teamed with CISR to develop a web mapping application around their global Threatened Island Biodiversity database (TIB). The TIB is the most comprehensive global review of IUCN Threatened Species breeding on islands and at risk from invasive vertebrates. The application provides interactive tools for exploring the database by geography and/or species, reviewing records on a map or in tabular format, and downloading custom maps and data. TIB can also be viewed in English or Spanish. The goal of the TIB is to help guide where conservation intervention can prevent island extinctions.
IC’s Database of Island Invasive Species Eradications (DIISE)
As a companion to TIB, CISR developed a web mapping application around IC’s Database of Island Invasive Species Eradications (DIISE). The DIISE is a resource to help land managers and conservation practitioners learn more about invasive vertebrate eradications. The database provides detailed information on individual eradication projects and also provides opportunities to analyze trends in past eradication projects. Similar to TIB, the DIISE allows for querying, mapping, and reviewing records as well as downloading custom maps and tables. The application can also be viewed in English or Spanish.
IC’s Database of Island Invasive Species Eradications (DIISE)
InspecTools
InspecTools has developed a state-of-the-art system for capturing low altitude ultra-high resolution natural color and infrared imagery using both unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and other platforms. Taking advantage of their connections in the solar and wind energy industry, InspecTools aims to deliver a data-driven product that will enable their clients to realize greater efficiency and reduced costs of performing inspections. However, the data collected by InspecTools does not provide this benefit as is without further processing, analysis, and delivery methods. As such, InspecTools has partnered with CISR to develop a framework for processing, storing, analyzing, hosting, and delivering a spatially enabled web-based asset and inspection management system for the solar and wind energy sectors.
Ventana Wilderness Alliance
The Ventana Wilderness Alliance (VWA) is a grass-roots organization whose mission is to protect, preserve, and restore the wilderness qualities and biodiversity of the public lands within California’s northern Santa Lucia Mountains and Big Sur coast. The VWA looked to CISR to design and implement a complete GIS of their public lands, trails, and campsites within the 240,000-acre wilderness. CISR has designed dozens of publication-quality maps for the VWA to assist with grant proposals in addition to the development of a mobile data collection platform that VWA team members used to inventory every recreational site within the vast wilderness.
Santa Cruz County Sheriff – Search and Rescue Team
CISR worked closely with the Santa Cruz County Sheriff Department’s Search and Rescue Team to design and implement a fully functioning Geographic Information System. The baseamap was designed to address the need for both rural and urban searches and includes roads and trails, topographic contours, rivers, and building footprints, among many other useful layers. Instead of designing a series of static print maps, CISR developed a system to provide search team leaders with the ability to zoom and pan the basemap to a custom scale and extent, and print maps in the field to distribute to search team members and volunteers as needed.
Santa Clara County Fire Department
The Santa Clara County Fire Department commissioned CISR through a series of grants to oversee a major database update, including over 5,000 edits to their GIS, as well as a complete re-design of the nearly 800 maps for every station in the 15-station district. CISR staff was applauded for their efforts of bringing over 5-years of map update requests to life in a series of beautifully updated maps. To facilitate future updates, CISR also established the department’s protocol for verifying, modifying, and creating data in the field using hand-held devices with subsequent integration into the central spatial database.