University of Redlands
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Ancient Lake Cahuilla Shoreline
During the mid-Pleistocene, eroded sediments from the Colorado Plateau were deposited into the Colorado River Delta to form a natural sediment dam across the Salton Trough.
Over time, the same actions that formed the dam also altered the course of the Colorado River to flow north, creating periodic stands of water in the Salton Basin.
Using LANDSAT-TM images, digital orthophotography, and GPS, two of our undergraduate students confirmed the elevation of shoreline evidence from Lake Cahuilla at approximately 40 feet above sea level.
Poster used in the 2000 Science Symposium. (JPEG), (PDF)
Presentation: "A Lake in the Dessert." (PowerPoint)
BLM Routes Inventory
In support of the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) effort to update their West Mojave Management Plan, the University of Redlands digitized routes that the BLM had maintained on paper topographic maps.
The BLM will use this data to compare open and closed roads from 1985-87 to current data to assess the impact of road closures to the desert tortoise population.
Poster created for the project. (JPEG), (PDF)
California's Everglades Booklet
In response to the Planning and Conservation League's request for information to present at the State Water Board hearings in the spring of 2002, the Salton Sea Database Program (SSDP) produced this booklet as an overview of the history of the sea and the issues facing decision makers in their effort to develop restoration alternatives.
Among the facts highlighted is that more than two-thirds of all species of birds in the continental U.S. have been recorded at the sea which supports one of the most productive sport fisheries in the world. The Salton Sea offers many recreational opportunities including fishing, bird watching, boating, skiing, camping, hiking and photography.
These resources are imminently threatened by rising salinity, excessive nutrient run-off from agriculture, and proposed water transfers. Economic solutions exist for controlling salinity and nutrient loading, but these alternatives will not work if inflows to the sea are greatly reduced.
In the context of massive habitat loss elsewhere, and the continuing escalation in demand for water resources, the future of the Salton Sea is of vital importance for both wildlife and growing human populations.
Salton Sea–California's Everglades booklet (PDF)
Presentation: "Salton Sea, California's Everglades" (PowerPoint)
Imperial Irrigation District Water Transfer Assessment
The Salton Sea Database Program (SSDP) was asked by the Salton Sea Authority and the Science Office to graphically display what impacts the Colorado River Quantification Settlement Facilitation Act would have on the sea and surrounding areas using bathymetric and hydrologic models for the sea.
The act calls for a 300,000 acre-foot transfer of Colorado River water from the Imperial Irrigation District to the Coachella Valley Water District and the San Diego County Water Authority as well as a mitigation program involving on-farm fallowing, together with construction of diked impoundments to maintain wetlands.
K9 Project
The objective of this research is to quantify the reliability and efficacy of dogs trained to locate and correctly identify desert tortoise under natural working conditions.
To accomplish this objective, a series of experimental trials have been designed to measure and statistically determine how reliable and effective dogs are in the context of natural environmental conditions in the Mojave Desert. Environmental parameters that may co-vary with the dogs’ abilities are wind speed, direction, humidity, and temperature.
Other parameters expected to affect dog performance during the trials and during actual surveys are handler familiarity with dog, size of area surveyed, time spent surveying, and number of tortoises per unit area or tortoise density.
Dog drive and training background is not considered an issue for these trials as dogs that do not demonstrate the capability and willingness to work will not be included in these proposed trials.
Project poster (JPEG), (PDF)
Technical report (PDF)
Presentation: "Using K9s to Survey for Desert Tortoise" (PowerPoint)
Videos: dogs in the field (WMV); tracking analyst application (AVI)
North American Bird Banding Analysis
The Salton Sea Database Program (SSDP) mapped more than 20,000 bird banding records obtained from the U.S. Geological Survey Bird Banding Laboratory.
The resulting display was eye-opening: the data not only showed a migratory bird corridor along the Pacific Flyway as expected, but also showed distribution spanning the continent and beyond.
This research illustrates the sea as a North American resource for migratory birds rather than simply a Pacific Flyway resource as once thought.
On Water Fish Recovery Program
The Salton Sea Database Program (SSDP) has taken the initiative to coordinate the interagency effort to implement on-water clean-up of fish kills and other wildlife health events at the sea.
SSDP has worked very closely with Environmental Recovery Solutions (ERS), a Salton Sea Authority-contracted firm, to maximize efficiency of patrol and clean-up efforts. This includes the use of Global Positioning System (GPS) technology and Environmental Systems Research Institute's (ESRI) ArcPad software for on-sea navigation and data capture
This data is then transmitted to the SSDP via File Transfer Protocol (FTP) for analysis and for integration into a hydrodynamic circulation model to track the fish mass. Future versions of this project hope to incorporate enhanced water quality data and aerial reconnaissance.
Palm Springs Museum Animation
The Palm Springs Desert Museum designed an educational program for fourth grade level students entitled: "Blow Out! Meet the Science Power Standards" to teach them about particulate matter, its role in Coachella Valley air quality and related health effects.
This educational program funded through South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) consists of a large-scale model of the Coachella Valley which will be used to demonstrate the generation and transport of particulate matter (particularly PM10) throughout the region.
The Redlands Institute produced a 3D animation to demonstrate the Venturi effect using local landforms--specifically, Mt. San Gorgornio and Mt. San Jacinto's effect on wind speed.
The animation tracks the movement and patterns of windblown sand traveling through the Banning Pass, the resultant formation of sand dunes, and the contribution to the standing volume of PM10 particles in the air of the North Palms Springs area and northern Coachella Valley.
Project Duration: January--February 2004
Salton Sea Atlas
Based upon a stakeholder needs assessment, a hard copy atlas was determined to be an effective means of public and decision-maker outreach to promote a better understanding of the environment and of the alternatives proposed to restore the Salton Sea.
The hard-copy atlas provides a graphic, non-technical medium to describe the physical and cultural geography of the Salton Sea. Produced as a hardbound large-format book, the Salton Sea Atlas (University of Redlands, 2002) is now available to the public through booksellers worldwide. Available online from ESRI's GIS Bookstore.
Salton Sea Atlas pages: the bird's ecology page (JPEG) and a geology page (JPEG)
Salton Sea Digital Atlas
This newest version of the Salton Sea Digital Atlas v2.0 contains new and updated material, particularly on the latest alternatives and ongoing research efforts.
Over 300 GIS data sets, along with GIS software tools for viewing and manipulating this information are included.
New is an interactive Macromedia Flash™ presentation, "The Salton Sea Story," which integrates much of the material previously published in our hardcopy "Salton Sea Atlas." Also included are a Salton Sea Image Catalog, PowerPoint® presentations, 3-D videos, and the programs to view these files.
Bibliographic citations, some of which have been supplied as readable files that the user can bring up in a separate window with a single click, allow the user to verify selected references when first exploring the Atlas.
Three editions are available:
- Conceptual Atlas Edition (Salton Sea Story, documents, images and presentations only)
- 4 CD (Conceptual Atlas Edition plus 3 CD' of maps, data and ESRI' GIS programs)
- DVD Edition (DVD version of 4 CD set)
Order the Salton Sea Digital Atlas
Screenshots from the digital atlas: the limnology section (JPEG) and a ArcReader map (JPEG)
Salton Sea Restoration Alternatives Analyses
Pumping Alternatives
Pumping alternatives would require substantial resources and energy to exchange water from the sea to the ocean or other closed basin, and return ocean water to the sea. Because the import water is also delivering large volumes of salt back into the basin, the net reduction of salinity in the sea is relatively small per acre-foot of water exchanged. Essentially, a pumping alternative would have to exchange about six million of the seven million acre-feet in storage to achieve a stabilization of salinity at or near its present levels. Thus, pumping alternatives have been deemed infeasible. Other serious environmental impacts may result from exportation of saltwater-tolerant nonnative tilapia to the ocean, representing an introduction of an entirely new exotic species to the coastal Pacific waters.
Solar Evaporation Ponds
Although this idea is certainly feasible and effectively removes salts, it does not resolve nutrient loading issues. Furthermore, solar ponds do not work if inflows are reduced substantially because the rising salinity of the sea would quickly overwhelm the capability of the solar ponds to remove salts by the slow process of evaporation by itself. In-basin solar ponds could help displace water in the sea as a whole, enabling maintenance of higher water levels in the face of low-level transfers. However, one could end up with solar ponds "high and dry" above a receding shoreline if significant water transfers were implemented. Solar pond dikes would have to withstand potential ground motion caused by earthquakes in the region.
Enhanced Evaporation System (EES)
The Salton Sea Database Program (SSDP) has undertaken siting analyses for the solar evaporation ponds and the EES alternatives. Tetra Tech, Inc., the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)/Environmental Impact Report (EIR) consultant, coordinated a siting constraints analysis for these two restoration alternatives. SSDP staff, in consultation with engineers for the two alternatives, identified siting criteria such as slope, elevation, distance from the sea, distance from roads and populated areas, etc. These criteria were plotted and weighted with respect to their degree of constraint on site suitability. The siting analyses will help the lead agencies in their evaluation of suitable locations for these primary restoration alternatives.
Pacific Institute Diked Impoundment Proposal Evaluation
As requested by the Science Office, SSDP mapped footprints and the sea's resultant drawdown elevations that resulted from the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security's proposal to construct diked impoundments across the mouths of the tributary rivers. The maps illustrated a north impoundment built along the -240 elevation contour, and two versions of a south impoundment built at the -240 or -245 elevation contours. The maps were then used as a basis for analysis by scientists to review the Pacific Institute proposal.
U.S. Filter Desalination Proposal
Technical review of this proposal identified several potential adverse impacts. The inflow river (Salton River) delivering flows from the New and Alamo Rivers to the desalination plant at the north end would 
essentially be a long, linear diked wetland, and would have similar issues to that of the Pacific Institute proposal. The exportation of as much as 500,000 acre-feet of water from the basin would result in large exposures of lake bottom sediments ranging from 130 to 210 square miles, resulting in serious potential air quality problems. Perhaps the most difficult hurdle for the U.S. Filter proposal would be the enormous cost of the Salton River dike itself--95 miles long and containing the river to a depth of ten feet in the impoundment, the estimated cost of dike construction alone would be $1.6 billion.
Regional Water Quality Control Board Alternatives
These two alternatives combine desalination, similar to the U.S. Filter proposal, but would use the brinedischarge to create a marine lake ecosystem similar to the existing Salton Sea. For both plans, the volume of water reclaimed is perhaps too ambitious; avian resources are not adequately maintained, especially Mullet Island; and the dust emissive surface is not controlled. In the original proposal, the seven-feet deep north lake is not viable to sustain a fishery.
Salton Sea Integrated Water Management Plan
In response to the limitations in supply now being imposed following a court-ordered reduction in the use of water taken from the Colorado River by the State of California, the Salton Sea Database Program (SSDP) has evaluated a number of transfer alternatives. Transferring water from the Imperial Valley to the California coast will temporarily satisfy the urban demand, but would adversely affect the habitat in and around the Salton Sea unless adequate mitigation measures could be prescribed. Several agencies and private corporations have begun construction of a new proposal to take advantage of the strengths and avoid the weaknesses of previous proposals, yielding a new design that will not only preserve but enhance wildlife habitat in the Salton basin, allow the exploitation of the considerable geothermal resources available in the region, and restore the recreational usage and economic values in the area.
Presentation: "Restoration Alternatives for the Salton Sea" (PowerPoint)
Salton Sea Wetlands Vegetation
The Salton Sea Database Program (SSDP) undertook a program to identify and map the vegetation in the Salton Sea Restoration Project area. The objectives were to produce accurate maps of the dominant plant communities in order to facilitate Salton Sea restoration project planning efforts, to display vegetation types of all areas within the specified region, and delineate various types of wetlands based on this vegetation and obvious hydrology factors for use in analyzing loss of sensitive habitat with regard to the various restoration alternatives.
San Bernardino Sun Maps
In October 2003, a series of wildfires in five southern California counties devastated many homes and lives were lost.
The San Bernardino Sun requested two maps from The Redlands Institute for a series of articles covering the history of fires and floods history in the San Bernardino Mountains, and the future potential of the same as it relates to urban expansion in the forest.
Project Duration: April--May 2004
Map produced for the San Bernardino Sun (JPEG)
Santa Rosa Documentary 3-D Animations
After completing a printed piece, Frank Jones, of Desert Publications, requested three animations for a documentary on the Santa Rosa National Monument. A long version will be produced for public television while a shorter version will be displayed at both the visitors center at the top of the Palm Springs Tram and the National Park Visitors Center.
The Redlands Institute produced three 3-D animations visualizing the filling and drying cycle of Ancient Lake Cahuilla, the formation of the Martinez Rockslide found southeast of Martinez Mountain, and a fly through of Southern California focusing on the Santa Rosa National Monument.
Project Duration: February--May 2005
