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| San
Francisco Child Care Internet Mapping |
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The Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF) of San Francisco
is leveraging information technology to create more efficient
management practices of child care facilities and encourage
an open and collaborative process. The Child Care Internet
Mapping Project was developed in response to this move
towards the development of effective management strategies
for the hundreds of child care facilities throughout the
City and County of San Francisco. This project initiative
delivers planning information that consists of intelligent
and interactive maps and map layers. The internet mapping
service (IMS) developed serves as a tool to support capacity-building,
planning efforts, and the enhancement of San Francisco
child care facilities. The IMS site currently provides
LIIF and its partners the ability to spatially query,
identify, and generate reports on child care facilities
in relation to specific cultural, demographic, and physical
features of the City and County of San Francisco. |
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| Department/Affiliate:
Geography, Low Income Investment Fund
(CCSF) |
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| Project
Lead: Barry Nickel |
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| Project
Staff: Jesse Cohen |
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| Marine
Mammal Stranding and Rehabilitation |
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Marine mammal stranding networks and rehabilitation centers
across the United States seek to find answers to why marine
mammals die by examining the carcasses that wash ashore.
The Marine Mammal Center (www.marinemammalcenter.org),
a nonprofit rescue and rehabilitation hospital headquartered
in Sausalito, California, has partnered with IGISc to
advance their rehabilitation and research activities through
the use of geospatial technology. Two main projects are
currently underway: post-monitoring of rehabilitated Guadalupe
fur seals using satellite telemetry and spatial analysis
of domoic acid intoxication in California sea lions. GIScience
methods paired with a unique analytical framework is being
applied to these studies, including: GIS habitat modeling,
remote sensing imagery interpretation, and spatial statistics
to characterize individual movement patterns, habitat
use and/or stranding distribution. |
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| Department/Affiliate:
The Marine Mammal Center (TMMC) |
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| Project
Lead: Barry Nickel |
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| Project
Staff: Jesse Cohen |
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| Zoo
Information Management System |
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GIS can leverage an organization's existing resources
in data, staff, and funds by eliminating redundancies
and streamlining processes. The Institute for Geographic
Information Science Center in collaboration with the San
Francisco Zoo has created a partnership
(click for more information) to map and manage the
zoo's horticultural needs. Beyond just the needs of the
SF Zoo, this project seeks to define a common standard
for the horticultural communities in zoos for both collection
and management of spatial and non-spatial data. The result
of these standards will be a horticultural department
that can maintain their collections and share information
and tools with other zoos. GIS tools for managing zoo
infrastructure and collections can be used to efficiently
schedule maintenance activities for buildings, utilities,
hardscape, and landscaping features by evaluating areas
spatially. The shared outcome of this project will be
an established database structure and content standard,
a common method for collecting and maintaining data within
a zoo, and application tools designed to be easy to understand
and implement. To view a larger image of the thumbnail
map please click
here. |
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| Department/Affiliate:
Geography, San Francisco Zoo |
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| Project
Lead: Dr. Jerry Davis |
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| Project
Staff: Barry Nickel, Jesse Cohen |
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| Richard
J. Guggenheim Foundation Grant: Tibet expedition |
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The Richard J. Guggenheim Foundation has sponsored a grant
to rediscover a piece of Tibetan history. Along with the
primary investigator the IGISc is tasked with finding
the grave sites of three individuals (1 Vice Consul, 2
expedition members) killed on a 1950 expedition into the
20,000 foot Chang Tang plateau of Tibet. Bringing a decade
of experience to the technical process of transforming
analog maps to digital geospatial data, the IGISc is providing
custom map scanning and georectification services to aid
in the location of the grave sites. The IGISc will also
assist in establishing a mobile navigation system that
will incorporate the georectified maps and acquired satellite
photography. The system is designed to enhance navigation
to interested archeological site(s) on the expedition
to the Shegar Hunglung region. Future work may involve
locating and tracing the expedition route derived from
historical accounts written by the members of the expedition |
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| Department/Affiliate:
Richard J. Guggenheim Foundation |
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| Project
Lead: Barry Nickel |
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| Project
Staff: Jesse Cohen |
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| Sediment
Source Study |
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SFSU faculty and students are leading a study to identify
sediment sources impacting threatened Steelhead Trout
in San Pedro Creek, San Mateo County, California. Past
and current upland land-use impacts, residential development
on floodplains, and an inherently unstable hillslope system
prone to debris flows and other landslides, are contributors
to the sediment in the creek. Sediments include both gravels
important to spawning and fine sediment that bury these
gravels and degrade water quality. An analysis of background
erosion processes and the effect of land-use changes is
being used to recommend treatments by land managers (city,
county, state and federal) and property owners. A combination
of GIScience and field-based analysis is being applied,
including: GPS and laser range-finding technology field
methods to locate and quantify landslide, gully, road,
trail, and channel sources; remote sensing imagery interpretation;
and GIS slope stability and erosion modeling. Initial
results suggest that both upland sources and channels
continue to contribute significant fine sediments with
landslides being the major source. |
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| Department/Affiliate:
Geography |
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| Project
Lead: Dr. Jerry Davis |
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| Project
Staff: Stefanie Sims |
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| National
Wetlands Inventory (NWI) |
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Geography students at San Francisco
State University, working with Dr. Ellen Hines, have been
contracted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS)
to conduct updating and inventory of wetlands in California.
All wetlands observable from Color Infrared (CIR) aerial
imagery in the project area are identified and classified
using the Cowardin et.al. (1979) wetland classification
system and the newly created Hydrologic/Geomorphic Mapping
(HGM) conventions. Using ArcGIS software, all map products
are produced and edited using the standard protocols and
conventions developed by the FWS for photo-interpretation,
cartography, and digitizing. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service’s National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) is mandated
to catalog the nation’s wetlands and make the wetland
inventory data readily available to the public in both
hard copy and digital formats. Field verification is conducted
with the advice of FWS staff using standard NWI field
procedures. The field sites are broken up into ecosystems
to gain a better understanding of the hydrology of a particular
area. Soil surveys and plant identification are used to
determine the presence of wetlands. At the SFSU Institute
for Geographic Information Science, mapping is performed
in a heads-up mode in ArcGIS. A variety of digital datasets
from USGS and other agencies are employed including, DOQQs,
DRGs, DEMs, digital soil surveys, National Hydrographic
Database layers, hardcopy USGS topographic maps and original
NWI maps. Upon completion, SFSU will submit a seamless
map of the entire project area. |
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| Department/Affiliate:
Geography |
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| Project
Lead: Dr. Ellen Hines |
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| Project
Staff: Carmen Chan, Kristen Larned,
Matt Sagues, Mami Odaya, Katie Daniels, Katie Wallis |
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| SF-Rocks |
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SF-ROCKS (Reaching Out to Communities
and Kids with Science in San Francisco) program exposes
urban high school students to the geosciences through
?eld and research experiences with faculty and graduate
students in the Geosciences Department at SFSU. With the
help of the GIS center, the students were able to print
a number of high quality posters to present at a special
session for high school student researchers at the American
Geophysical Union meeting in December 2003. In addition,
Prof. Oswaldo Garcia and graduate student Jennifer Davis
on the SF-ROCKS rain gauge project, will be able to produce
a number of GIS contour maps of rainfall data in San Francisco
that we plan to develop into meteorology lesson plans
for the high school students. Over the next few years,
the SF-ROCKS program plans to present posters of the high
school student research projects at the AGU fall meeting
in San Francisco, using GIS and other large-format maps
and graphics. In addition, our rain gauge/rainfall measurement
project will expand each year and requires display of
data on hillshade and other base maps of San Francisco.
Teaching high school students some of the important applications
of GIS to the study of the geology and meteorology of
San Francisco remains a key element of the program. |
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| Department/Affiliate:
Geosciences |
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| Project
Lead: Dr. Lisa White |
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| Project
Staff: Jennifer Davis |
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| Invasive
Spartina in two San Francisco Bay Marshes |
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Yukari Matsumoto is leading a study
of the spatial patterns of distribution and growth of
the invasive Atlantic cordgrass, Spartina alterniflora
and its hybrids (S. alterniflora x S. foliosa),
in two San Francisco Bay sites: Elsie Roemer Bird Sanctuary
(Alameda County) and San Bruno Marsh (San Mateo County).
In these and other Bay margin sites, the exotic Spartina
has spread into lower mudflats and altered shorelines.
Variation in the size and distribution of exotic Spartina
patches over time are being investigated, including inter-annual
growth rates, using aerial photographic interpretation,
GIS and statistical modeling. Together with an understanding
of the natural history of Spartina and known
physical differences within and between the marshes, spatiotemporal
geographical analysis of this invasive exotic can be used
to develop site-specific ecological models predicting
its progress in each area. Resource managers hope to use
such models to limit Spartina expansion in San
Francisco Bay. |
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| Department/Affiliate:
Geography |
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| Project
Lead: Dr. Trish Foschi (Graduate Advisor) |
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| Project
Staff: Yukari Matsumoto (Thesis) |
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| NSF
Course, Curriculum, & Laboratory Improvement/Educational
Materials Development |
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Richard LeGates and Ayse Pamuk are working on a National
Science Foundation Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory
Improvement/Educational Materials Development (CCLI-EMD)
Grant to develop instructional modules to teach undergraduate
social science students spatial analysis and data visualization.
The modules will consist of short, visual softback books,
data sets, and a website. The modules are targeted to
upper division undergraduate social science students in
research methods courses (LeGates) and data analysis courses
(Pamuk). This summer LeGates and Pamuk will train "testers"
from seven universities as well a serveral SFSU faculty
members on draft modules. The modules will be tested during
fall, 2004 by faculty in different parts of the country
at universities with different student bodies in courses
in sociology, political science, economics, urban studies,
urban planning, and public administration. The SFSU Public
Research Institute will evaluate students reactions to
the modules. Based on this experience LeGates and Pamuk
will revise the modules for publication and worldwide
distribtution. |
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| Department/Affiliate:
Urban Studies |
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| Project
Lead: Dr. Richard Legates, Dr. Ayse
Pamuk |
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| Project
Staff: Mono Simeone |
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