College of Science

What does your internship entail?

My position with CAL Fire supports all forms of GIS for both Monterey and San Benito Counties. Most notably, the position allowed me to provided GIS support during the Dolan Fire in Big Sur, where I created several poster-sized mapping products that were used to plan and build fuel breaks to help protect threatened communities around Arroyo Seco, King City, and Jolon Valley. Further, my role consisted of directing a group of seven GIS technicians who ground-truthed several datasets crucial for wildland fire pre-planning and suppression. Additionally, I conducted analyses to support multi-tiered resource dispatching to ignition events, examined fuel loads for fuel reduction proposals, and learned to model wildland fire behavior across a landscape.

How is your project contributing to your professional goals?

This project contributes to my professional goals by providing practical experience in implementing geospatial technology in the context of resource management. One of my primary professional goals is to have a tangible positive impact on society and participating in this internship with CAL Fire has allowed me to do exactly that.

What does your internship entail?

I assist Water Resource Control Engineers, Sanitary Engineers, and Environmental Scientists in regulating public drinking water systems within the tri-county area (Monterey, Santa Cruz, and San Benito Counties). Before the local wildfires I helped develop inspection reports, analyzed water quality data, and gathered spatial information for our emergency response map. During the wildfires I utilized our emergency maps, CAL Fire Perimeter Maps, and NASA FIRMS data to track the wildfires and create lists of threatened water systems for our staff to contact. Recently I have been utilizing GIS Resources from the USGS and Watershed Emergency Response Team (WERT) Reports to identify the risk of debris flow impacts to local public drinking water systems.

How is your project contributing to your professional goals?

I think working on my PSM through the Waterboard has given me a unique opportunity to learn more about the various state water laws and regulations. I am passionate about any topic involving water, so I think working at the Division of Drinking Water has been a great fit. I am really grateful that I have a variety of projects I can work on, one day I could be gathering information for an inspection report, and the next day I could be using GIS to create maps for the office.