Starting in 2024, I have been collaborating on a large set of studies to examine conditions in urban streams across the San Francisco Bay Area.
These studies involve GIS modeling, remote sensing, and in-field stream surveying, as well as surveys of homeless encampments and interviews with residents. The goal is to improve our understanding of conditions in and around urban streams, improve our ability to categorize streams based on their physical characteristics, enhance our understanding of conditions and needs in stream-side homeless encampments, and provide practical tools to stream managers, public agencies, and community-benefit organizations who engage with urban waterways and/or homelessness.
The studies are funded by Climate Action 2023 Seed Awards of the University of California, Grant Number R02CP6967, and are a collaboration between UC ANR, UC Davis, San Jose State University, Contra Costa Resource Conservation District, Napa Resource Conservation District, North Santa Clara Resource Conservation District, and SafeR3.
Some early results include improved understanding of damaging windy rainstorms (also called "compound wind-rain events") which are fairly common in the Bay Area - occurring at least once per year and becoming slightly more frequent in the past fifty years - and are projected become slightly wetter over the next fifty years. Another result indicates that some areas of the Bay are more likely to include -both- the high socioeconomic vulnerability -and- the exposure to damaging rainstorms, but that these "hotspots" can be categorized into distinct types based on how the two factors (poverty and storms) interact.
For more information, please see the below pdf documents.
Link to the document describing the projected frequency and severity of windy rainstorms: Damaging rainstorms increase in the Bay Area
Link to the document describing the interaction of windy rainstorms and homeless populations: Windy rainstorms and Homeless Populations in the Bay Area
Please contact me for more information. E-mail: ilacan@ucanr.edu