Overview of MEDS Capstone projects     Overview of MESM Group projects    

Projects
Year
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Economic Analysis of Invasive Giant Reed (Arundo Donax) Control for the Lower Santa Clara River

Economic Analysis of Invasive Giant Reed (Arundo Donax) Control for the Lower Santa Clara River

Faculty Advisors: Derek Booth

Clients: UCSB Riparian Invasion Research Lab

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Not a Drop to Spare: Sustainable Water Management Solutions for the South Coast of Santa Barbara County

Not a Drop to Spare: Sustainable Water Management Solutions for the South Coast of Santa Barbara County

Faculty Advisors: Robert Wilkinson

Clients: Santa Barbara Channelkeeper

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Microfiber Pollution and the Apparel Industry

Microfiber Pollution and the Apparel Industry

Faculty Advisors: Patricia Holden

Clients: Patagonia

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More Housing, Fewer Cars: Reducing Commute-Related Emissions on the South Coast

More Housing, Fewer Cars: Reducing Commute-Related Emissions on the South Coast

Faculty Advisors: Mark Buntaine

Clients: City of Santa Barbara Planning Commission

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Global Spatial Analysis to Identify and Characterize Wood Sourcing Regions

Global Spatial Analysis to Identify and Characterize Wood Sourcing Regions

Faculty Advisors: Lee Hannah

Clients: The Sustainability Consortium

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Biological and Social Tradeoffs of Implementing Fair Trade USA in Small-Scale Fisheries: A Case Study of Costa Rican Snapper

Biological and Social Tradeoffs of Implementing Fair Trade USA in Small-Scale Fisheries: A Case Study of Costa Rican Snapper

Faculty Advisors: Hunter Lenihan

Clients: Conservation International

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Eco-Entrepreneurship: Fruit Forward: Recapturing the Beneficial Properties of Wine Grape Skins and Seeds to Produce an Organic Preservative

Eco-Entrepreneurship: Fruit Forward: Recapturing the Beneficial Properties of Wine Grape Skins and Seeds to Produce an Organic Preservative

Faculty Advisors: Emily Cotter, Bruce Kendall, David Tilman

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EVMatch: Reducing the Barriers to Electric Vehicle Use by Matching EV Owners With Reliable Charging Options in Their Community (Eco-E)

Connecting EV owners in need of reliable charging with nearby owners of residential EV charging infrastructure on a reservation basis.

Faculty Advisors: Emily Cotter, Kyle Meng

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Eco-Entrepreneurship: InGrain: Transforming Brewery Waste Into Sustainable Packaging and Marketing Solutions

Eco-Entrepreneurship: InGrain: Transforming Brewery Waste Into Sustainable Packaging and Marketing Solutions

Faculty Advisors: Emily Cotter, Matt Potoski

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Finding a Place for Conservation: A bio-economic analysis to inform the re-zoning of the Galápagos Marine Reserve

Finding a Place for Conservation: A bio-economic analysis to inform the re-zoning of the Galápagos Marine Reserve

Faculty Advisors: Christopher Costello

Clients: National Geographic Society Pristine Seas

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Gallatin Valley Water Exchange: A market-based approach to sustainable water management in Western Montana

Gallatin Valley Water Exchange: A market-based approach to sustainable water management in Western Montana

Faculty Advisors: Thomas Dunne

Clients: The Nature Conservancy, Trout Unlimited

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A Citizen Science Monitoring Protocol for the Rocky Intertidal Habitat

A Citizen Science Monitoring Protocol for the Rocky Intertidal Habitat

Faculty Advisors: John Melack

Clients: Bureau of Ocean Energy Management

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Assessing the Environmental and Economic Impacts and Benefits of PV-battery Microgrid Systems in Off-Grid Communities

Assessing the Environmental and Economic Impacts and Benefits of PV-battery Microgrid Systems in Off-Grid Communities

Faculty Advisors: Roland Geyer

Clients: First Solar, Inc.

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Assessing the Effectiveness of Fire Mitigation Strategies in the Wildland-Urban Interface

Assessing the Effectiveness of Fire Mitigation Strategies in the Wildland-Urban Interface

Faculty Advisors: Sarah Anderson

Clients: City of Santa Barbara Fire Department

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Factors Influencing the Expansion of Environmental Water Markets

Factors Influencing the Expansion of Environmental Water Markets

Faculty Advisors: Gary Libecap

Clients: Mammoth Trading, Inc., Water for Food Daugherty Global Institute - University of Nebraska

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Motivating Water Conservation in Southern California through Allocation and Market Mechanisms

Our research examines the implications of water conservation on water allocation in Southern California. In this paper we consider two questions: How does the way water is currently allocated in Southern California encourage conservation? How could we develop a new allocation system to promote conservation, and how would the new system compare to the current system?

Faculty Advisors: Gary Libecap

Clients: Long Beach Water

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Agricultural Non-Point Source Pollution: Best Management Practice Impacts on Water Quality & Recommendations to Improve Monitoring Programs in Ventura County, California

This project represents an original attempt to use water quality and BMP implementation data collected under California’s CWP to provide a quantitative assessment of BMP efficacy in Ventura County.

Faculty Advisors: Andrew Plantinga

Clients: Farm Bureau of Ventura County

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Investigating the Feasibility of Greenhouse Gas Mitigation in Santa Barbara County

The objective of this project was to determine the cost-effectiveness and implementation feasibility of GHG mitigation strategies in Santa Barbara County.

Clients: Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District

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University of California, Santa Barbara Operational Effectiveness: Energy Management Initiative

This project created an energy management plan that will provide a frame-work that UCSB Utility and Energy Services can use to reduce UCSB campus energy consumption. 

Faculty Advisors: Sarah Anderson

Clients: UCSB

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Developing a Water Risk Analysis Framework for Suppliers and Applying it to a Pharmaceutical Supply Chain

Developing a water risk analysis framework for suppliers and apply it to Eli Lilly’s supply chain for two insulin products, Humalog and Humulin.

Faculty Advisors: Patricia Holden

Clients: Kaiser Permanente, Eli Lilly and Company