In the Wild: Sam Stromberg with San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission

Sam Stromberg is a second year MS student in Environmental Policy and Management at UC Davis. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Kentucky with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Environmental Studies. His current work focuses on biodiversity policy and habitat conservation through policy analysis, data science, and GIS/remote sensing methods. Sam plans to work on high impact biodiversity issues with a mission driven organization.

Sam recently completed a Practicum project with the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC). In his project, Sam created GIS resources to inform complex jurisdictional determinations made by the state agency. His work provides BCDC staff with practical decision-making support and simplifies a tedious case-by-case research process into a more comprehensive, standardized approach.    

BCDC protects and enhances San Francisco Bay while advancing the Bay’s responsible, productive, and equitable uses (BCDC). To do this, BCDC issues permits for projects which may impact the quality of the Bay. BCDC has several different jurisdiction types which determine the level of authority the agency has over a project. A major determinant of BCDC’s jurisdictional boundaries is the historic shoreline of the San Francisco Bay. As the region has urbanized over the last century, people have added large amounts of ‘fill’ into the Bay waters. This fill material created land for developers to build on, but was also rapidly shrinking the area of open Bay waters (BCDC). In 1965, BCDC was created in part to protect the Bay from over-filling. Today, areas of the Bay which were filled after BCDC’s establishment are still subject to the BCDC’s ‘Bay Jurisdiction’--even though they may appear upland in modern times. 

In order to determine the shape of the San Francisco Bay in 1965, Sam georeferenced over 300 historic aerial photographs on top of modern satellite imagery. He then processed this layer for use in an ArcGIS Online application which estimates BCDC jurisdictional boundaries. He created an additional layer of attributed polygons which identify areas where the bay was filled at some point between 1965 and present day. Sam also revised older data schemas and captured his workflows in methods documents to make his processes easily updatable. His efforts, particularly the addition of the aerial imagery to the ArcGIS Online application, vastly improves BCDC’s ability to quickly and accurately ascertain its relevant level of jurisdictional authority.

Through his Practicum, Sam learned to manage multiple nested GIS projects to meet larger agency objectives. He applied his coursework in GIS and data analysis to a real world issue while learning new tools from practiced professionals. This on-the-job experience at the intersection of technical know-how and direct policy implementation has already opened doors with conservation organizations, where Sam hopes to continue protecting the natural world through data-driven policymaking