University of Redlands

City of Encinitas

Cities derive many benefits from utilizing Geographic Information Systems (GIS) including enhancing the ability to provide recommendations on policy, service improvements, and future community developments. 

The city of Encinitas is implementing some technology initiatives such as enterprise GIS (the initiative to integrate GIS data and applications into the core business processes and systems in the city), and a GIS-centric asset management system. 

The Redlands Institute assisted with the city’s Database Standardization and Centralization initiative. A GeoDatabase object model was produced and implemented for ArcSDE in a Microsoft SQL Server database.

Project Duration: August 2003 – January 2004

City of Redlands Natural Resource Management

The City of Redlands seeks to build a system to facilitate natural resource planning and management. This may include the design and development of fundamental technology infrastructure (geographic information system components such as databases, software tools) and an overarching protocol/procedure to support the city’s operational needs for processing development projects.

The goal of implementing such a system of technology infrastructure and procedures is to ensure that developments meet the city’s natural resource management requirements in a manner that is legally, environmentally, technically and economically sound.

The Redlands Institute (RI) will manage the project scope of work and lead planning, analysis, design and development tasks. The RI team will include a research analyst as the project lead/point of contact, senior advisors, GIS analysts, GIS technicians, and systems engineering and administration support. The Center for Environmental Studies faculty will provide specialized domain support for meetings, planning, and design.

Undergraduate and masters-level students will act as research assistants (analytical and technical) to support RI staff and CES faculty.

Project Duration: January 2005 – January 2006

City of Vista

The city of Vista and the Redlands Institute worked together to prepare a high-level Geographic Information System (GIS) program needs assessment. Selected city departments were interviewed to capture their GIS-related business processing needs including data, applications, and hardware.

The city of Vista GIS Program Needs Assessment Report (GIS Report) presents: an inventory and assessment of the information and material collected at the departmental interviews and a summary of Redlands Institute's findings and recommendations for fundamental initiatives necessary to further the development of an integrated, citywide GIS Program.

Project Duration: October 2003 - February 2004

Desert Tortoise Recovery Plan Assessment Committee (DRTPAC)

The original desert tortoise recovery team recognized the importance of including new data and analyses for tortoise recovery efforts as they become available. Indeed, the recovery team called for the recovery plan to be reassessed every three to five years to ensure that recommendations to management were made with the best available scientific information (FWS 1994, p. 37).

Since the recovery plan's publication in 1994, there have been no overt efforts to revise the plan in light of new information pertinent to desert tortoise recovery and despite the fact that there has been new research on many aspects of desert tortoise ecology, threats, conservation biology, and monitoring, as well as public challenges to the validity of the plan.

The Desert Tortoise Recovery Planning Assessment Committee (DTRPAC) has reviewed the recovery plan, assembled contemporary reports with new knowledge, and assessed the efficacy of the recovery plan in light of the new knowledge.

The comparison we present in this document is meant to be a scientific evaluation of the Recovery Plan in relation to contemporary knowledge of (a) the biology of desert tortoise, and (b) the extent to which the recovery plan was implemented.

Report on the University of Nevada, Reno's, Biological Resources Research Center Web site.  (PDF)

First Five Children and Families Commission

In 1998, the California Children and Families Act was passed to provide all children prenatal to five years of age with a comprehensive, integrated system of early childhood development services in areas such as child health, child development, family functioning, and school readiness.

The Redlands Institute acted as an information management/analysis advisor to the San Bernardino County Children and Families Commission for its First 5 program. The Institute coordinated with First 5 staff to:

• Identify areas of need through spatial analysis of previously collected indicator data
• Develop standards and information management strategies for storage, access, and integration of diverse multi-source datasets
• Assist First 5 San Bernardino in prioritizing additional data collection efforts based on areas of topical and geographic importance
• Assist First 5 San Bernardino in developing strategies for effectiveness monitoring and program quality assessment.

Project Duration: December 2002 – December 2005

Map created for the San Bernardino County Children and Families Commission. (JPEG)

Desert Tortoise Population LDS/TCS

Currently two separate efforts are being employed to monitor the status and trends of desert tortoise populations and habitat. A series of long-term Permanent Study Plots (PSP) were established in the 1970s in various locations throughout the desert.

Since that time, information related to desert tortoise mortality, habitat condition, disease, and numbers have been collected periodically at the PSP’s. This information provides the basis for most of the current estimates of population status and trends.

Beginning in 2001, Line Distance Sampling (LDS) was implemented to provide statistically supportable population density estimates that will be used to assess progress toward meeting recovery goals established for each Recovery Unit. The Desert Tortoise (Mojave Population) Recovery Plan (1994) recommends both population trend monitoring (i.e., LDS) and maintenance of long term study plots.

Technical report about line distance sampling. (PDF)

Santa Ana River Watershed Bibliography

The Redlands Institute was contracted by the California State University San Bernardino Water Resources Institute (CSUSB WRI) to assist with the initial research phase of a comprehensive, interdisciplinary bibliography on the Santa Ana River Watershed.

The Redlands Institute collected over 2,000 citations from electronic indexes, scholarly databases, and online library catalogs. The citations were compiled in bibliographic management software that can be easily maintained and updated by CSUSB WRI. 

The resulting 300-page bibliography covered topics including  climate, geography, geology, hydrology, topography, biodiversity, ecology, hazards/disasters, environmental resource management, health and safety, water quality, history, settlement, agriculture, creative expressions, and water rights from 1800 – 2004.

Project Duration: February--June 2004