IGISc Recent Projects

The IGISc is working with Dr. Barbara Holzman (SFSU Professor Emeritus) on developing methods for monitoring and mapping non-native vegetation on the Farallon Islands.

Project Lead: Quentin Clark

 

The IGISc is developing methods for mapping meadows, wetlands, streams and gullies using drone-mounted multispectral cameras.  Wetland mapping is in cooperation with the SF Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve and the San Francisco Estuary Institute.

Project Personnel: Jerry Davis, Leonhard Blesius, Michael Vasey, Quentin Clark, Kevin Physioc, Anna Studwell.

 

The IGISc is working with Dr. David Rebanal (Assistant Professor of Community Health Education) to create an index to measure the ethnic/racial absolute clustering dimension of residential segregation. Dr. Rebanal is studying the effect of racial residential segregation and immigrant political participation on the mental health status of Asian Americans in California.

Project Lead: Anna Studwell
Project Staff: Sally Shatford

 

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 restaurant 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.

Project Leads: Aiko Weverka and Seth Hiatt
Project Staff: Franklin Dingemans and Biniam Mengisteab

 

This research focuses on applications of 2D discrete Fourier transforms for karst and spur & groove coral reefs, using ArcGIS geoprocessing tools extended with numerical methods in the NumPy Python module. Ten-meter digital elevation data from Puerto Rico and Kentucky holokarst landscapes and five-meter bathymetry from more unidirectional spur and groove coral reefs at Midway Atoll were analyzed. The method identifies the dominant contributing waves in frequency space, and analyzed power contributions by 5° and 15° azimuth bins. Simulated karst and spur & groove landscapes were used to evaluate the grain of waveform orientation solutions.

Project Leads: Jerry Davis and Joseph Chojnacki

 

In support of The Nature Conservancy's Migratory Bird Program, the IGISc recently developed R and Python scripts to automate the conversion of the Cornell Bird Lab's Spatio-Temporal Exploratory Model eBird observation data into maps focusing on California's central valley. These maps were then converted into gifs to display observation probability of different species over a calendar year. The example shown here shows the relative probability of observing a ruddy duck (Oxyura jamaicensis). The darker the hue, the lower the probability of observation.

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

 

The Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF) of San Francisco is leveraging webmap 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. An ArcGIS Server-powered website provides LIIF and its partners with 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. Department/Affiliate: Geography, Low Income Investment Fund (CCSF)

Project Lead: Seth Hiatt
Project Staff: Barry Nickel and Jesse Cohen

 

In order to improve campus planning, accessability, safety, and maintenance operations, the IGISc has partnered with campus Facilities and Accesibility Offices to develop an interactive map for use by campus students, employees, and visitors. The interface will allow users to query, for instance, building and room locations, event venues, tree species, entrances, or select the most efficient routes between locations. A demo version is currently available. For more information contact Seth Hiatt.

Project Lead: Seth Hiatt
Project Staff: Anne McTavish

 

COSMIC is a constellation of satellites used to measure climate variables such as temperature and water vapor at different altitudes. In order to make the data easier to access and analyze, the IGISc is using Python and PostGIS to store and deliver the data to users via an internet mapping application. Users will be able to select data sets based on location, time, and altitude, and download the data in a format that is easily read in a GIS or statistical package such as R.

 

Changes in climate impact the frequency and quality of cloud coverage, and in turn the amount and quality of sunlight reaching the surface of the earth. Equations derived from observerd data collected at carbon flux towers are being applied to gridded global datasets derived from MODIS satellite imagery in order to investigate how the global carbon budget might be effected by changes in cloud coverage associated with anthropogenic climate change.
Project Lead: Andrew Oliphant
Project Staff: William Goedecke