Appendix C - Response to Science
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Original Draft CWPP
DRAFT CITY OF SANTA BARBARA May 2020 Printed on 30% post-consumer recycled material. Table of Contents SECTIONS Acronyms and Abbreviations ..........................................................................................................................................................v Executive Summary ....................................................................................................................................................................... vii 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Purpose and Need ........................................................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Development Team ......................................................................................................................................................... 2 1.3 Community Involvement ................................................................................................................................................. 3 1.3.1 Stakeholders ................................................................................................................................................... 3 1.3.2 Public Outreach and Engagement Plan ........................................................................................................ 4 1.3.3 Public Outreach Meetings ............................................................................................................................. -
The 2007 Southern California Wildfires: Lessons in Complexity
fire The 2007 Southern California Wildfires: Lessons in Complexity s is evidenced year after year, the na- ture of the “fire problem” in south- Jon E. Keeley, Hugh Safford, C.J. Fotheringham, A ern California differs from most of Janet Franklin, and Max Moritz the rest of the United States, both by nature and degree. Nationally, the highest losses in ϳ The 2007 wildfire season in southern California burned over 1,000,000 ac ( 400,000 ha) and property and life caused by wildfire occur in included several megafires. We use the 2007 fires as a case study to draw three major lessons about southern California, but, at the same time, wildfires and wildfire complexity in southern California. First, the great majority of large fires in expansion of housing into these fire-prone southern California occur in the autumn under the influence of Santa Ana windstorms. These fires also wildlands continues at an enormous pace cost the most to contain and cause the most damage to life and property, and the October 2007 fires (Safford 2007). Although modest areas of were no exception because thousands of homes were lost and seven people were killed. Being pushed conifer forest in the southern California by wind gusts over 100 kph, young fuels presented little barrier to their spread as the 2007 fires mountains experience the same negative ef- reburned considerable portions of the area burned in the historic 2003 fire season. Adding to the size fects of long-term fire suppression that are of these fires was the historic 2006–2007 drought that contributed to high dead fuel loads and long evident in other western forests (e.g., high distance spotting. -
Full Agenda Packet
NOTICE AND AGENDA FOR REGULAR MEETING DATE/TIME: Wednesday, February 13, 2019, 1:30 PM PLACE: Board of Supervisors Chambers 651 Pine Street, Martinez, CA 94553 NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Commission will hear and consider oral or written testimony presented by any affected agency or any interested person who wishes to appear. Proponents and opponents, or their representatives, are expected to attend the hearings. From time to time, the Chair may announce time limits and direct the focus of public comment for any given proposal. Any disclosable public records related to an open session item on a regular meeting agenda and distributed by LAFCO to a majority of the members of the Commission less than 72 hours prior to that meeting will be available for public inspection in the office at 651 Pine Street, Six Floor, Martinez, CA, during normal business hours as well as at the LAFCO meeting. All matters listed under CONSENT ITEMS are considered by the Commission to be routine and will be enacted by one motion. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless requested by a member of the Commission or a member of the public prior to the time the Commission votes on the motion to adopt. For agenda items not requiring a formal public hearing, the Chair will ask for public comments. For formal public hearings the Chair will announce the opening and closing of the public hearing. If you wish to speak, please complete a speaker’s card and approach the podium; speak clearly into the microphone, start by stating your name and address for the record. -
Water Supply Management Report 2018-2019 Water Year
FINAL January 28, 2020 City of Santa Barbara Water Supply Management Report 2018-2019 Water Year Prepared by Water Resources Division, Public Works Department City of Santa Barbara Water Supply Management Report 2019 Water Year (October 1, 2018 – September 30, 2019) Water Resources Division, Public Works Department January 28, 2020 INTRODUCTION The City of Santa Barbara operates the water utility to provide water for its citizens, certain out-of-City areas, and visitors. Santa Barbara is an arid area, so providing an adequate water supply requires careful management of water resources. The City has a diverse water supply including local reservoirs (Lake Cachuma and Gibraltar Reservoir), groundwater, State Water, desalination, and recycled water. The City also considers water conservation an important tool for balancing water supply and demand. The City's current Long-Term Water Supply Plan (LTWSP) was adopted by City Council on June 14, 2011. This annual report summarizes the following information: The status of water supplies at the end of the water year (September 30, 2019) Drought outlook Water conservation and demand Major capital projects that affect the City’s ability to provide safe clean water Significant issues that affect the security and reliability of the City’s water supplies Appendix A provides supplemental detail. Additional information about the City's water supply can be found on-line at: www.SantaBarbaraCA.gov/Water. WATER SUPPLIES The City has developed five different water supplies: local surface water; local groundwater (which includes water that seeps into Mission Tunnel); State Water; desalinated seawater; and recycled water. Typically, most of the City’s demand is met by local surface water reservoirs and recycled water and augmented as necessary by local groundwater, State Water, and desalination. -
Earth Lab Post-Doctoral Research and Teaching Scholars at the University of Colorado-Boulder
Earth Lab Post-Doctoral Research and Teaching Scholars at the University of Colorado-Boulder The Earth Lab initiative, part of the University of Colorado Boulder’s “Grand Challenge: Our Space, Our Future,” seeks post-doctoral researchers to join a dynamic team pushing the frontiers of coupled earth and social system science (http://www.colorado.edu/grandchallenges/ ). Earth Lab’s mission is to harness the wave of Earth observations from aerospace platforms and other sources to better understand the pace and pattern of environmental change. Earth Lab will: Capitalize on the Data Deluge from Space to accelerate science; Reduce Environmental Risk and Surprise by using this wealth of data to understand and predict both slow and abrupt Earth System change to help society manage and adapt; Train a New Generation of Data Scientists in Earth Analytics. Earth Lab’s developing Analytics Hub will be a state-of-the-art computing facility that leverages existing cyberinfrastructure investments at the University of Colorado-Boulder and houses scientific support staff and specialists who assist researchers and students with all data management, analysis and visualization needs. Earth Lab seeks 8 Post-Doctoral Research and Teaching Scholars in the areas described below: Fire, Forest Health, Decision and Risk Analysis, Erosion, Permafrost in a Warming Climate, Data Harmonization, Extremes and Threshold Behaviors in Coupled Natural and Social Systems and the Earth Analytics Education Initiative. Candidates are responsible for carrying out Earth Lab’s research and teaching program. Successful candidates must have content knowledge and data analytics skills relevant to each theme, as well as eagerness to bridge among the themes, and interact with specialists in data analytics, visualization, and informatics in a High Performance Computing environment. -
UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara Multi-Temporal Remote
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara Multi-temporal Remote Sensing of Vegetation Regrowth After a Large Wildfire A Thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in Geography by Christopher Linscott Kibler Committee in charge: Professor Dar A. Roberts, Chair Professor Stuart H. Sweeney Professor Carla M. D’Antonio June 2019 The thesis of Christopher Linscott Kibler is approved. _____________________________________________ Stuart H. Sweeney _____________________________________________ Carla M. D’Antonio _____________________________________________ Dar A. Roberts, Committee Chair June 2019 Multi-temporal Remote Sensing of Vegetation Regrowth After a Large Wildfire Copyright © 2019 by Christopher Linscott Kibler iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the people whose guidance and support made this thesis possible. I would like to thank my advisor, Professor Dar Roberts, for his valuable mentorship and guidance over the last three years. Professors Stuart Sweeney and Carla D’Antonio also provided valuable advice about how to design and implement this study. In addition to my committee members, several other people made substantial contributions to this research. Anne-Marie Parkinson worked tirelessly to organize the fieldwork trips and analyze the field survey data. She was assisted by field technicians Monica Goodwin and Payton Thomas, whose diligence and perseverance enabled us to collect excellent data. Seth Peterson provided valuable advice about how to design and implement the remote sensing analyses. Members of the VIPER laboratory also provided useful guidance on many occasions. Finally, I would like to thank my girlfriend, Claire, for her encouragement and enthusiasm as I completed this project. I would also like to thank my parents for their unwavering love and support during all of my endeavors. -
The 2007 Southern California Wildfires: Lessons in Complexity
Western Ecological Research Center Publication Brief for Resource Managers Release: Contact: Phone: Email and web page: September 2009 Dr. Jon E. Keeley 559-565-3170 [email protected] http://www.werc.usgs.gov/products/personinfo.asp?PerPK=33 Sequoia and Kings Canyon Field Station, USGS Western Ecological Research Center, 47050 Generals Highway #4, Three Rivers, CA 93271 The 2007 Southern California Wildfires: Lessons in Complexity As is evidenced year after year, the nature of the “fire Management Implications: problem” in southern California differs from most of • Essentially all destructive fires in southern Cali- the rest of the U.S., both by nature and degree and fornia are ignited by people and thus potentially this is well illustrated by the 2007 wildfire season that preventable through: better restrictions on use of burned over a million acres and included several mega- machinery in wildland areas during severe fire fires. Lessons to be drawn from these fires illustrate weather (cause of the 2007 Zaca Fire), placement some of the complexity of fires in this region and are of power lines underground in corridors of known discussed in a recent paper published in Journal of For- Santa Ana winds (cause of the 2007 Witch Fire), estry by USGS scientists Jon E. Keeley and C.J. Foth- more conspicuous arson patrols during Santa Ana eringham, USFS scientist Hugh Safford, Janet Franklin wind events (cause of the 2007 Santiago Fire), or from San Diego State University, and Max Moritz from barriers along roadsides (ignition site for many of the University of California, Berkeley. the 2007 fires). -
Recognizing Women Leaders in Fire Science: Revisited
fire Editorial Recognizing Women Leaders in Fire Science: Revisited Alistair M.S. Smith * and Eva K. Strand College of Natural Resources, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID 83844, USA; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] Received: 13 November 2018; Accepted: 14 November 2018; Published: 21 November 2018 Abstract: In August, 2018, an editorial in Fire entitled Recognizing Women Leaders in Fire Science was published. This was intended to ignite a conversation into diversity in fire science by highlighting several women leaders in fire research and development. This editorial was released alongside a new Topical Collection in Fire called Diversity Leaders in Fire Science. The response on social media was fantastic, leading to numerous recommendations of women leaders in fire science that had been inadvertently missed in the first editorial. In this editorial, we acknowledge 145 women leaders in fire science to promote diversity across our disciplines. Fire is continually committed to improving diversity and inclusion in all aspects of the journal and welcomes perspectives, viewpoints, and constructive criticisms to help advance that mission. Keywords: leadership; women in science 1. Introduction Following the release of the initial editorial, Recognizing Women Leaders in Fire Science [1], we received over 100 recommendations from Twitter and other forms of social media of potential other women leaders in fire science. As such, this follow-up editorial seeks to acknowledge these women leaders in fire science to promote diversity across our disciplines. 2. Approach The approach differed from the first editorial, whereby the absence of a women in fire science database or search heuristic (e.g., being able to search “women” AND “fire science”) resulted in recommendations being predominately derived through the co-authors’ own knowledge of the discipline and conversations across an extended network of international collaborators. -
SMS01S040? 40-E.Indd
GRASSY BURN: SLO County Cal Fire allowed a fire that started near the Camp SLO gun range to char 250 acres before putting it out this past summer. The area was scheduled for a prescribed burn the following day. 8 Pent up fuel PHOTO COURTESY OF CAL FIRE n estimated 129 million trees in “Our landscape is covered, particularly on California are dead. It sounds State and federal agencies focus on increasing federal land, continuously with large fires over apocalyptic, but it’s true. the years,” Fire Battalion Chief Rob Hazard About one-fifth of those, or 27 million, prescribed burns for wildfire prevention, told the board. “The extensive fire history in died between November 2016 and this county goes back decades and decades. ADecember 2017. More than 60 million died the but environmental groups say that’s not the answer We know that large wildfires are a permanent previous year. BY CAMILLIA LANHAM fixture in our county.” Most of the die-off has occurred in the Sierra The fuels, mostly chaparral and grass; shape Nevada, but forests on the Central Coast have in that time, the Chimney Fire, which burned state agencies are focused on increased fuel of the land, steep canyons that face the way the lost their own share of oak, pine, and fir stands. 46,000 acres and 49 homes. management techniques such as prescribed wind blows; and weather, hot, dry sundowner The U.S. Forest Service surveyed 4.2 million While the Thomas Fire held the record as the burns, environmental groups say the winds with low precipitation, give the Santa acres of national forest land between Monterey state’s largest fire since record keeping began, the government should be looking at where and Barbara front country a propensity for ignition. -
Future Megafires and Smoke Impacts
FUTURE MEGAFIRES AND SMOKE IMPACTS Final Report to the Joint Fire Science Program Project #11-1-7-4 September 30, 2015 Lead Investigators: Narasimhan K. Larkin, U.S. Forest Service John T. Abatzoglou, University of Idaho Renaud Barbero, University of Idaho Crystal Kolden, University of Idaho Donald McKenzie, U.S. Forest Service Brian Potter, U.S. Forest Service E. Natasha Stavros, University of Washington E. Ashley Steel, U.S. Forest Service Brian J. Stocks, B.J. Stocks Wildfire Investigations Contributing Authors: Kenneth Craig, Sonoma Technology Stacy Drury, Sonoma Technology Shih-Ming Huang, Sonoma Technology Harry Podschwit, University of Washington Sean Raffuse, Sonoma Technology Tara Strand, Scion Research Corresponding Author Contacts: Dr. Narasimhan K. (‘Sim’) Larkin Pacific Wildland Fire Sciences Laboratory U.S. Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station [email protected]; 206-732-7849 Prof. John T. Abatzoglou Department of Geography University of Idaho [email protected] Dr. Donald McKenzie Pacific Wildland Fire Sciences Laboratory U.S. Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station [email protected] ABSTRACT “Megafire” events, in which large high-intensity fires propagate over extended periods, can cause both immense damage to the local environment and catastrophic air quality impacts on cities and towns downwind. Increases in extreme events associated with climate change (e.g., droughts, heat waves) are projected to result in more frequent and extensive very large fires exhibiting extreme fire behavior (IPCC, 2007; Flannigan et al., 2009), especially when combined with fuel accumulation resulting from past fire suppression practices and an expanding wildland-urban interface. Maintaining current levels of fire suppression effectiveness is already proving challenging under these conditions, making more megafires a strong future possibility. -
Effects of Wildfire on Drinking Water Utilities and Effective Practices for Wildfire Risk Reduction and Mitigation
Report on the Effects of Wildfire on Drinking Water Utilities and Effective Practices for Wildfire Risk Reduction and Mitigation Report on the Effects of Wildfire on Drinking Water Utilities and Effective Practices for Wildfire Risk Reduction and Mitigation August 2013 Prepared by: Chi Ho Sham, Mary Ellen Tuccillo, and Jaime Rooke The Cadmus Group, Inc. 100 5th Ave., Suite 100 Waltham, MA 02451 Jointly Sponsored by: Water Research Foundation 6666 West Quincy Avenue, Denver, CO 80235-3098 and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Washington, D.C. Published by: [Insert WaterRF logo] DISCLAIMER This study was jointly funded by the Water Research Foundation (Foundation) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). The Foundation and USEPA assume no responsibility for the content of the research study reported in this publication or for the opinions or statements of fact expressed in the report. The mention of trade names for commercial products does not represent or imply the approval or endorsement of either the Foundation or USEPA. This report is presented solely for informational purposes Copyright © 2013 by Water Research Foundation ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced or otherwise utilized without permission. ISBN [inserted by the Foundation] Printed in the U.S.A. CONTENTS DISCLAIMER.............................................................................................................................. iv CONTENTS.................................................................................................................................. -
Chapter 8–Fire Hazards
CHAPTER 8–FIRE HAZARDS CHAPTER 8 – FIRE HAZARDS: RISKS AND MITIGATION CHAPTER CONTENT 8.1 Wildfire Hazards, Vulnerability, and Risk Assessment 8.1.1 Identifying Wildfire Hazards 8.1.2 Profiling Wildfire Hazards 8.1.3 Assessment of State Wildfire Vulnerability and Potential Losses 8.1.4 Assessment of Local Wildfire Vulnerability and Potential Losses 8.1.5 Current Wildfire Hazard Mitigation Efforts 8.1.6 Additional Wildfire Hazard Mitigation Opportunities 8.2 Urban Structural Fire Hazards, Vulnerability, and Risk Assessment About Chapter 8 Among California’s three primary hazards, wildfire, and particularly wildland-urban interface (WUI) fire, has represented the third greatest source of hazard to California, both in terms of recent state history as well as the probability of future destruction of greater magnitudes than previously recorded. More recently, with the catastrophic wildfire events of 2017 and 2018, fire has emerged as an annual threat roughly comparable to floods. Fire and flood fire hazards are surpassed only by high magnitude earthquake hazards, which typically occur less frequently but can result in extreme disaster events. For the 2018 State Hazard Mitigation Plan (SHMP), the fire hazards risk assessment has been expanded to include separate discussions on wildfire hazards and structural fire hazards. Structural fire hazards can occur as a cascading hazard emerging from wildfires or earthquakes, or as an independent hazard event. In either case, fire hazard mitigation actions are crucial in minimizing potential risk. Preparation and implementation of Local Hazard Mitigation Plans (LHMPs) with linkage to a jurisdiction’s general plan, play an important role in the fire mitigation process.