The Center for Regional Change has received funding through the Agricultural Experiment Station Hatch Act, the California Endowment, and the California Council for the Humanities in order to create the California Community and Regional Mapping Laboratory.  The Mapping Laboratory will provide unique and currently unavailable spatial analysis capacity to enhance projects focused on landscape change in Central California.

The landscapes of California’s Central Valley, Sierra Nevada, and Central Coast regions are undergoing drastic changes associated with shifts in human populations, markets, governance systems, and climate. On the one hand, we have fragmentation of the landscape (e.g., the break up of extensive ranches and farms into sub-divisions).  On the other, we see compression of different land uses into closer proximity with each other (e.g., the agricultural-urban/suburban interface). These changes can have significant social, ecological, and economic implications including increased land-use conflicts, habitat and natural systems degradation, economic decline, and sense of place dislocation. These impacts can be especially severe on the more vulnerable human populations (e.g., youth, immigrants, seniors) and in fragile habitats (e.g., wetlands, prime agricultural soils).

In order to more fully understand the changes that are occurring throughout our region, we are creating the California Community and Regional Mapping Laboratory.   We are purchasing GIS and related equipment and upgrading facilities in the future offices of the Center for Regional Change in Hunt Hall to house and administer this equipment. In addition, we are creating a new mobile GIS lab dedicated to youth education and community outreach in Central California.

In particular, this project will allow these projects to

• collect spatial data through hand-held GPS devices coupled with digital video and audio.

• produce state-of-the-art GIS maps to generate and illustrate key analyses and develop visually-compelling policy briefs.

• provide world-class technology instruction for youth affiliated with 4-H and other programs in Central California.