Master's Project Directory

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The Bathtub Ring: Implications of Low Water Levels in Lake Mead on Water Supply, Hydropower, Recreation, and the Environment

This project explores the impacts to each stakeholder group if Lake Mead reaches each key elevation outlined in the Interim Guidelines, as well as 1,000’.

Faculty Advisors: Christina Tague

Clients: Western Water Policy Program - University of Colorado

Evaluating Management Scenarios to Revitalize the California Commercial Swordfish Fishery

The goal of our project was to evaluate different management scenarios composed of the main gear types used to catch swordfish to simulate an increase in domestic swordfish catch while incorporating current and proposed conservation regulations in the California swordfish fishery.

Faculty Advisors: Hunter Lenihan

Clients: NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center, The Nature Conservancy

Eco-Entrepreneurship: Solo Energy: A Social Impact Venture Providing Affordable Electricity to Energy-Impoverished Individuals in Less-Developed Nations Throughout Latin America and the Caribbean

Solo Energy builds standalone renewable energy kits for individuals with energy needs that cannot be satisfied through traditional fuels. The kits are complete and contain a solar panel, battery, and everything else needed to ensure the electricity produced is reliable and available.

Faculty Advisors: Emily Cotter, Jeff Dozier

Incorporating Life Cycle Screening into Alternatives Analysis

A case study exploring the Life Cycle impacts of methylene chloride in paint strippers and alternative paint stripping methods.

Faculty Advisors: Arturo Keller

Clients: California Department of Toxic Substances Control, California Environmental Protection Agency

Addressing Sedimentation of Ecuador's Rio Chone Estuary: A Watershed Perspective

This project's work showed that sheetwash erosion is the dominant geomorphic process generating sediment in the Rio Chone estuary, located on the Pacific Coast of Ecuador.

Faculty Advisors: Steve Gaines

Clients: Global Student Embassy

TURFtools: A Community-Inclusive Management Design Tool for Small-Scale Fisheries

TURFtools is a user-friendly Microsoft Excel tool that incorporates best available science, local ecological knowledge, and social objectives to facilitate community-driven management decisions. The tool was applied in the Philippines as part of the global Fish Forever initiative.

Faculty Advisors: Christopher Costello

Clients: Environmental Defense Fund

Life Cycle Assessment of a Feature Film

Our team set out to complete a life cycle assessment on producing large budget movie. Using detailed information from our partner, Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE), we were able to calculate the environmental impacts from making the movie, going to theaters and watching the movie at home.

Faculty Advisors: Roland Geyer

Clients: Sony Pictures Entertainment

Informing Biodiversity Conservation and Water-Quality Management in the Morro Bay Watershed

Because there is limited funding for conservation and water quality improvement projects, this project sought to identify areas of the Morro Bay estuary and watershed to prioritize for conservation, while also identifying areas where water quality improvements should be focused.

Faculty Advisors: Ben Halpern

Clients: Morro Bay National Estuary Program

Burbank Sustainable Water Master Plan

This project provided Burbank with a portfolio of tools and analytically justified strategies to enhance water sustainability:

Faculty Advisors: Robert Wilkinson

Clients: Burbank Water and Power

Discover TURFs: A Global Assessment of Territorial Use Rights in Fisheries to Determine Variability in Success and Design

Faculty Advisors: Christopher Costello

Clients: Rare Conservation

Fish Scraps to Food: New Markets in Mexican Artisanal Fishing Communities

Group Members: Jessica Couture

Faculty Advisors: Andrew Plantinga, Gary Libecap

Clients: Olazul

A Water Budget Analysis to Support Sustainable Water Management for Human and Ecological Needs in the Black River Basin, New Mexico