Active Projects
Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Benefit Monitoring at the Clover Valley Ranch Meadow Restoration Project
The IGISc is working with the Sierra Fund and collaborators in SFSU's Geography & Environment (Drs. Baguskas, Blesius, Davis, Nanus, Oliphant) and Biology (Dr. Simonin) departments on geospatial data storage and documentation supporting greenhouse gas (GHG) benefit monitoring for the Clover Valley Ranch Meadow Restoration Project. This research is multifaceted, with related studies of geomorphic, hydrologic, biologic, micrometeorologic, and biogeochemical changes resulting in the meadows being restored by innovative method incorporating the assistance of beavers. The IGISc is assisting field data collection and leading drone and satellite multispectral imaging, and is organizing the storage of diverse geospatial vector data in shapefiles, geodatabases, and imagery, as well as online feature and image services. Geospatial data will be documented with metadata in accordance with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) Minimum Data Standards and augmented to include FGDC metadata standards. All the data will be uploaded into the UC Davis Clearinghouse, and the data will be used as part of a regional meadows restoration prioritization framework (SM-WRAMP).
Funding to support this research comes from the CDFW's Greenhouse Gas Reduction Program (funded by Cap-and-Trade auction proceeds from the Greenhouse Reduction Fund), a part of the California Climate Investment program. The IGISc would also like to acknowledge other project partners, landowners and funder that have supported or contributed to the ongoing work in Red Clover Valley including the Wildlife Conservation Board, Red Clover LLC, Natural Resource Conservation Service, U.S. FIsh and Wildlife Service, Point Blue Conservation Science, Plumas Corporation, University of Nevada Reno, CSU Chico, Maidu Summit Consortium, and Swift Water Design.
Project Lead: Jerry Davis
Project Staff: Anna Studwell, Quentin Clark
City to Cell (C2C) Project
The IGISc is working in collaboration with Dr. Lara Cushing as a part of her JPB Environmental Health Fellows Program on a project to assign estimates of exposure to greenspace to pregnant women study participants part of a larger research question examining disparities in infant health that disproportionately affect racial/ethnic minorities. Estimates of exposure have been developed from existing secondary spatial datasets including the NLCD land cover classifications as well as MODIS and Sentinel-2 imagery (to derive NDVI) and based on the address of study participants and the dates during which they were pregnant. Summary exposure metrics have been created using several different buffer distances from each participant’s home. Additional geospatial exposure metrics include average nitrogen dioxide concentrations (NO2, a marker of traffic-related air pollution) as well as a static noise metric. The project involves a subset of study participants delivering in San Francisco.
Image above: Schematic of workflow to develop 'green space' metric. *Address points are fictitious. Credit: Ana Pelegrini
Project Lead: Anna Studwell
Graduate Student Researcher(s): Ana Pelegrini Guimares
Measuring the Fast Food Environment of California Schools
The IGISc is working with Dr. Emma Sanchez (SFSU) on a project to map the fast food environment of public schools in California. Using network analysis, service areas were created for each school and fast food locations were tallied. This work will support research examining the link between the rate of change in the fast food environment of a school and socioeconomic characteristics of the surrounding neighborhoods as part of a larger study on population-level childhood obesity disparities over time.
Current Project Lead: Anna Studwell
Current Project Staff: Ana Pelegrini Guimares
Previous Project Leads: Aiko Weverka and Seth Hiatt
Previous Project Staff: Karina Fastovsky, Franklin Dingemans, and Biniam Mengisteab
2D & 3D Mapping with Drones

Project Personnel: Jerry Davis, Leonhard Blesius, Michael Vasey, Quentin Clark, Kevin Physioc, Anna Studwell
Sample image from Sears Point, August 2017. False color with band 3 (red) as red, band 4 (NIR) as green, and band 5 (red-edge) as blue.
Previous Projects
Vegetation Mapping on the Farallon Islands
Project Lead: Quentin Clark
Measures of Residential Segregation

Project Lead: Anna Studwell
Project Staff: Sally Shatford
Two-dimensional discrete Fourier transform analysis of karst and coral reef morphologies

Project Leads: Jerry Davis and Joseph Chojnacki
Migratory Bird Mapping

Project Lead: Aiko Weverka
Project Staff: Seth Hiatt and Biniam Mengisteab
LIIF Geomap

Project Lead: Seth Hiatt
Project Staff: Barry Nickel and Jesse Cohen
Campus Web Map

Project Lead: Seth Hiatt
Project Staff: Anne McTavish
COSMIC Database

Impact of Light Diffusion on Ecosystem Productivity

Project Lead: Andrew Oliphant
Project Staff: William Goedecke