California Groups Papers 1

(ECP and CTSP grantees, reports, and other sites of interest for conservation geography, mapping and GIS. Grantees are coded by program and year of grant at the end of their name/state, i.e. e91 means ECP grant in 1991. c=cstp, cm=ctsp-mac, cs=ctsp-software)

Scholarly papers and ESRI Conference Proceedings

(Legend: ESRI User Conference Papers list the title, then in parentheses "paper" or "abstract" plus the year. Other web-located papers list title, author if known, and excerpt.).

The California Biodiversity Project: Linking a GIS Model with the Planning Process (1996 ESRI Conf. Paper, Bruce Goldstein)...The California Biodiversity Project (CBP) is an effort to help participants in county land-use planning understand the implications of changing land-use and development trends on regional biological diversity....At the center of our project is a GIS-based model, combining the results of a socioeconomic sub-model that allocates population growth within a county (at 1-year time steps up to a forty year duration) with another sub-model that calculates the relative value of biodiversity on a given grid cell by combining vegetative classification, landscape location, special status (i.e. endangered or threatened), and the habitat requirements of a select number of representative species...

The California Biodiversity Project: Selection and Use of Biodiversity Indicators (1996 ESRI Conf. Paper, Christopher B. Cogan)...In the search for methods to better understand ecosystem phenomena and dynamics, several researchers have sought to identify a series of indicators which can be used to measure ecosystem health...This paper discusses an approach which combines several of the above measures, and presents a model designed to predict future biodiversity conflicts, enabling this information to become part of the process of land planning and management. These methods are intended to represent biodiversity at the ecoregional scale, while functionally operating at the county level where many planning decisions take place.

Conservation and Recovery Planning in the San Joaquin Valley (1995 Absract, Patrick A. Kelly, Nancy Norvell) ...That cooperation has come about through the establishment of the San Joaquin Valley Endangered Species Recovery Planning Program which is administered by California State University, Stanislaus Foundation. This paper will present an overview of the program and how GIS is enabling us to reach our goals.

Hydrologic and Hydrographic Database Design in Support of Anadromous Fisheries Restoration Planning (in the Klamath River Basin) (ESRI 96 conf Paper by Robert E. Beachler) "The purpose of this paper is to describe existing and potential applications of GIS in support of anadromous fisheries restoration planning. This paper discusses the issues associated with the compilation and development of regional watershed data sets, data availability and integration. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA River Reach Files, version 3 (RF3) data sets are serving as the baseline hydrology layer and have been used to reference past fishery restoration projects and proposed projects seeking funding. A variety of planning areas and scales requires different levels of evaluation for hydrologic sub-basin planning units and watershed boundary delineation. To help prioritize fishery restoration planning efforts it is important to assess what types of projects have been funded in the past, their locations and to document the success or failure of these projects. Identifying the locations of the different types of restoration projects assists decision makers in evaluating the potential of effectiveness of future projects."

Virtual GIS and Ecosystem Assessment in the Klamath Province, California-Oregon by Steven A. Carlson, Lawrence Fox, III, Ronald L. Garrett, 1994 GIS/LIS Proceedings 1994 (Steven A. Carlson, Department of Natural Resources Planning and Interpretation, Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA 95521-8299 carlsons@axe.humboldt.edu) "The Klamath Basin Virtual GI S Data Facility ("GIS Facility") has been established at Humboldt State University in support of the Klamath Basin Ecosystem Restoration Office's (ERO) mission of holistic resource management for the Klamath hydrobasin proper (FEMAT's "Klamath Province"). The ERO mission requires integrated, co-registered, and seamless GIS data layers covering political and administrative boundaries; lithospheric, hydrographic and atmospheric elements; plant and animal community characteristics, socioeconomic components, and descriptive landscape statistics including temporal dimensions."

Sites with public conservation and GIS data for downloading

California Environmental Resources Evaluation System Maps and Spatial Data. Online basemaps and environmental map sources, most free, are collected here from around the state.

California State Lands Commission Online GIS Data. CSLC has jurisdiction over all submerged lands underlying the state's navigable and tidal waterways, from the mean high tide line to three nautical miles offshore. These lands are equal in size to Connecticut and Delaware combined, and are managed for public purposes consistent with provisions of the Public Trust Doctorine such as fishing, water dependent commerce and navigation, ecological preservation and scientific study.

KLAMATH GIS PROJECT. The Klamath Meta Data Dictionary (KMDD): This online catalogue provides information about GIS data sets that exist in the Klamath area. The catalogue was designed in a series of development workshops held around the Province with the input of over 150 Klamath based GIS users from agencies, businesses and non-governmental organizations.

USGS San Francisco Bay Area Regional Database (BARD). (Program Manager: Len Gaydos (lgaydos@usgs.gov)) "BARD's goal is to make it convenient for you to acquire USGS Digital Data for the San Francisco Bay Area. Enter our Digital Map Libary to obtain data. Learn about the four different data types we have available by clicking on the sample images. Also included are technical descriptions of DEM, DOQ, DLG and DRG files."

USGS San Francisco Bay Area Regional Database (BARD) 30m DEM. The DEMs listed here are in standard USGS format, 30 meter DEMs at a scale of 1:24,000. You are free to download this data. Each DEM is just over 1 megabyte in size.