The True Cost of Wildfire
SIG’s scientists conducted an extensive literature review and collaborated with a large working group of wildfire professionals to highlight and document major categories of costs associated with wildfires
Ecosystem Services Valuation for Hawaii’s Largest Private Landowner
SIG collaborated with Hawaii’s largest private landowner to integrate an ecosystem services framework into land management planning. We developed a custom ecosystem service typology, conducted extensive literature reviews, held stakeholder workshops, mapped key landscapes, modeled connections between landscapes and beneficiaries, reviewed strategies for ecosystem markets, identified high-priority management strategies, and created indicators for landscape health and interventions.
Identifying Key Watershed Stewards in the American West
The American Forest Foundation (AFF) approached SIG to support their work on ensuring forests on private lands in the American West continue to provide clean water, even in the face of increasing wildfire activity. In particular, they wanted to find out the role played by family forest owners in ensuring watershed health.
Mapping the Off-Site Benefits from Protected Areas Ecosystem Services
Ecosystem services include natural resources like fresh water and intangible benefits like scenic views and cultural significance. In analyzing Ontario’s provincial parks system, SIG examined two methodologies for quantifying and assessing these services to develop a better framework for evaluation
The Sustainable Orinoco Pact Sponsors Initiatives Fair On Sustainable Development-Villavicencio, Colombia
SIG co-developed software to remotely monitor gold mining activity in Colombia. Illegal mining is a driver of deforestation and this project aims to empower authorities to respond quickly and appropriately. CoMiMo, which is available for desktop in both English and Spanish, uses satellite imagery and artificial intelligence to identify threatened areas.
Connecting Space To Village: Bringing Satellite Data To The Ground To Improve Lives
SERVIR has been set up in many regions of the world, and the Lower Mekong Region is one of them. SERVIR-Mekong focuses on predicting seasonal crop yields, assessing how future climate change will impact the region, monitoring the landscape and the ecosystem services it provides, and developing climate change adaptation tools for agriculture, rangelands, fisheries and aquaculture. Over large landscapes, in complex ecosystems, and in a changing climate, people often do not have the information they need to solve local, national, and regional land use challenges.
SIG Working In Kenya On Biomass Supply Chain
Dr. Thomas Buchholz, Senior Scientist at SIG, will be in Kenya this spring to provide assistance in biomass supply chain management to the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA). He is collaborating with the Strathmore Energy Research Centre based at Strathmore University in Nairobi on this task. KTDA is in need to provide a more secure, cost-effective, and sustainable fuelwood supply over the long-term. To meet those needs, KTDA is looking at various alternatives and monitoring programs for their currently small-scale farmer based fuelwood sourcing strategy. Dr. Buchholz leads the Forest and Agriculture domain at Spatial Informatics Group.
