February 5

Presenter: Diana Stralberg, Landscape Ecologist, PRBO Conservation Science

Topic: "Projecting effects of climate change on California's terrestrial bird communities: a distribution modeling approach"

Location: 111 Mulford Hall Conference Room

February 12

Presenter: Ben Golder, 2009-2010 Haas Scholar, Architecture

Topic: "Using GIS to Design Urban Wildlife Habitat"

Location: 111 Mulford Hall Conference Room

February 19

Presenter:Mike Hamilton, Director, Blue Oak Reserve

Topic: "The Very Large Ecological Array"

Location: MUSEUM OF VERTEBRATE ZOOLOGY LIBRARY
             3101 Valley Life Sciences Building

February 26

Presenter: Will Cornwell, Jepson Herbarium/IB

Topic: "From leaf to globe: mapping carbon isotopic discrimination in C3 plants worldwide"

Location: 111 Mulford Hall Conference Room

March 5

No GeoLunch

*WEDNESDAY* - March 10, 1-2pm

Presenter: Ben Burford, ISTS America

Topic: "Demo: UAV camera and software system that can quickly process imagery into mosaics and orthorectified data"

ISTS has developed a revolutionary set of software that, through an internationally patented "Soft Gyro" process, has eliminated the need for IMU data. Only digital images and GPS data are needed to produce a full orthorectified geolocated data set, including a digital elevation model (DEM) data set. A brief overview of data capture and data processing will be presented, along with sample data sets of topics including: biomass, vegetation, marsh plants, rivers and river beds, debris avalanche, etc. As time allows, plans for integrating this system into a Sensor Web technology will be presented.

Location: 111 Mulford Hall Conference Room

March 12

Presenter: Herb Hammond, Forest Ecologist and Forester, Silva Ecosystem Consultants Ltd.

Topic: "Ecosystem-Based Conservation Planning with Canadian Indigenous People: Using GIS to Facilitate Ecologically and Culturally Sustainable Land Use"

* Co-sponsored with the Indigenous Mapping Network

Location: 103 Mulford Hall

March 19

Presenter: Ben Sleeter, Geographer, U.S. Geological Survey

Topic: "Developing future land cover scenarios to provide projections of carbon flux for the nation"

Location: 111 Mulford Hall Conference Room

March 26

Spring Break - No GeoLunch

April 2

Presenter: Jason MacKenzie - Climate Change Adaptation Analyst, The Nature Conservancy

Location: 111 Mulford Hall Conference Room

April 9

Presenter: Kevin Koy, Manager, Geospatial Innovation Facility

Topic: "Developing a Climate Change Spatial Database for Ethiopia." Some observations from a recent trip followed by discussion.

Location: 111 Mulford Hall Conference Room

April 16

Presenter: Brian Fulfrost, Associate Principal, Design, Community & Environment

Topic: "Evaluating the “walkability” and “bikability” of communities using GIS: Tools for informing Sustainable Planning and Public Health Assessments"

Abstract: The growth and availability of GIS and other geospatial tools (e.g. Google Earth, Bing Maps) have recently expanded the analysis capabilities of planners and urban designers. These tools are rapidly becoming invaluable tools to map and model the built environment as a component of the local and regional landscapes in an effort to develop “smarter” and more environmentally and socially sustainable communities. GIS and other geospatial tools are currently being used to evaluate and improve the “walkability”(and bikable) of communities, to map the relationship between the built environment (e.g. access to food, services and open space) and public health outcomes (e.g. obesity levels), to model land use and transportation impacts on GHG emissions and to help promote infill development. Planners have recently begun to use GIS based network analyses to better evaluate both the “walkability” of communities and various pedestrian and bike routes in an overall effort to promote smart growth and improve bike and pedestrian planning. Brian will present and discuss methods, process and outcomes of using network based GIS techniques for evaluating the “walkability” and bikability of communities on general plans, bike and pedestrian plans and Transit Oriented Development projects in a variety of communities in California.

Bio: Brian has extensive experience in utilizing GIS and Remote Sensing to assist in environmental decision making and resource management. His past work includes the use of geospatial technologies in vegetation mapping, predictive modeling, reserve design and food systems studies. He currently oversees the use of GIS and related tools in sustainable planning and design including network based walkability studies, suitability models and habitat mapping.

Location: 111 Mulford Hall Conference Room

April 23

Presenters:

Josh Harmsen - PhD Student, ESPM, UC Berkeley
Kyle Holland - PhD Student, ESPM, UC Berkeley

Topic: "Geospatial Supercomputing"

Location: 111 Mulford Hall Conference Room

April 30

Presenter:Danielle Svehla Christianson, PhD Student, Energy and Resources Group (ERG), UC Berkeley

Topic: "Ground-based LiDAR: Exploring applications in spatial ecology and education"

Location: 111 Mulford Hall Conference Room