Master's Project Directory

Overview of MEDS Capstone projects Overview of MESM Group projects

Creating a Region-wide Green Infrastructure Strategic Plan for Maunalua Bay

This project developed a model using the Environmental Protection Agency’s Storm Water Management Model 5.1 to facilitate identification of "hotspot" areas that contribute higher stormwater pollution relative to surrounding areas in the Maunalua Bay Region, O'ahu, Hawai'i.

Faculty Advisors: Kelly Caylor, Samantha Stevenson

Clients: Mālama Maunalua

Whales, Vessels, and Fish: Economic Valuation of Whale Watching and Marine Spatial Planning Surrounding Dominica

To reduce the risk of vessel strikes on the Caribbean community of sperm whales off the coast of Dominica, this project created a dynamic marine spatial plan for the coast waters of Dominica and proposed shipping lanes that will avoid high suitable habitat of sperm whales.

Faculty Advisors: James Frew

Clients: Dominica Sperm Whale Project

Five students and faculty mentors posing for a photo

Managing the Impacts of Environmental Education in Protected Areas: A Case Study at the Jack and Laura Dangermond Preserve

The project analyzed the potential ecological impacts of environmental education and other activities on the Jack and Laura Dangermond Preserve in Lompoc, California as a case study, and to develop a long term monitoring program that can be used by preserve management agencies.

Faculty Advisors: Sarah Anderson

Clients: The Nature Conservancy

Group of five students in courtyard smiling

Using Food Waste to Reduce Food Waste: Evaluating the Impacts of Sourcing Food Waste as a Raw Material for Production

This project worked with Apeel Sciences, a small biotechnology startup interested in sourcing food waste as an input to their product, to evaluate the environmental impacts of sourcing waste using two different Life Cycle Assessment methodologies, economic allocation and substitution.

Clients: Apeel Sciences

Air Quality & Diabetes Risk in California

This project assessed the relationships between air pollution particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) and diabetes prevalence throughout the state of California using a cross sectional and panel data approach for the Sansum Diabetes Research Institute.

Faculty Advisors: Ashley Larsen

Clients: Sansum Diabetes Research Institute

Group of five students with faculty mentor on outdoor terrace

Implementing Vessel Monitoring Devices in Small Scale Fisheries: Analysis of Social and Economic Enabling Conditions to Maximize Adoption

This project analyzed the willingness of small-scale fisheries to participate in a vessel tracking program that is incentive-compatible to their preferences. The team conducted a dual response choice experiment to evaluate fisheries' preference data from surveys conducted in Indonesia and Mexico, then utilized a contingent valuation to gauge both fishers’ willingness to pay for a tracking program and the effects of fishers’ characteristics on their willingness to pay.

Faculty Advisors: Christopher Costello

Clients: Global Fishing Watch

Five students stand with professor in group

Functional Forests: The Role of California Forests in Achieving Statewide Carbon Neutrality

In conjunction with the Joint Institute for Wood Products Innovation (through the California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection), the project team aims to assess how California’s forests may support statewide carbon neutrality. The project focuses on determining the costs and carbon consequences of a host of forest management treatments across all forests in California, and how these treatments can contribute to the State’s climate goals.

Faculty Advisors: Andrew Plantinga

Clients: Joint Institute for Wood Products Innovation, California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection

Assessing Brazil’s Marine Aquaculture Potential

This study explored the spatial feasibility of mariculture development and create an interactive web-based tool to predict potential locations, yields, and profitability for offshore mariculture of cobia (Rachycentron canadum) in Brazil’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

Faculty Advisors: Hunter Lenihan

Clients: World Wildlife Fund Brazil

Eco-Entrepreneuship: Bad Grass

Arundo donax, or giant reed, is an invasive plant species that thrives around rivers and streams. Bad Grass creates consumer products thus promoting demand for Arundo biomass. By introducing a line of cannabis pipes that are strategically positioned between joints and pipes, we can attract customers interested in smoking out of disposable pipes.

Faculty Advisors: Bruce Kendall, Mark Buntaine

Eco-Entrepreneurship: Powered by Moxie

Powered by Moxie is an Eco-Entrepreneurship Project that analyzes the environmental impacts of different types of grocery and snack packaging and offers a solution to reduce packaging waste by using reusable packaging. Powered by Moxie delivers farmer’s market produce and snacks to corporate offices as a supplemental employee benefit program.

Faculty Advisors: Matt Potoski

Five men in warm outdoor coats standing by sea shore

Driving Sustainability in the Gulf of California: Fishery Management and Offshore Cultivation for Totoaba Macdonaldi

This project modeled market interactions for different scenarios of offshore cultivation to elucidate what effects these new markets would have on both consumers and suppliers of totoaba products, as well as the illegal market for poached buche.

Faculty Advisors: Steve Gaines

Clients: Cygnus Ocean Farms

Developing a 100% Renewable Energy Strategic Plan for CBS Corporation

This project aimed to estimate the greenhouse gas emission reductions which would result from powering CBS facilities nationwide with 100% renewable energy, and actions to implement this strategy.

Faculty Advisors: Matt Potoski

Clients: CBS Corporation

A student group poses with faculty and PhD advisors with an ocean backdrop

Improving Citizen Science Data Management for Resource Protection

This project team analyzed the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary's current citizen science data management system and identified improvements that will maximize the usability of this rich dataset.

Faculty Advisors: James Frew

Clients: Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary

A group of five students pose after their presentation

Cumulative Impacts Assessment for Timber Harvest: How Best to Incorporate Wildfire Risk and Hazard

The CITE Plan Project investigated the relationship between timber management, fire regimes and fire severity and their future regulatory incorporation by the California Board of Forestry and Fire Prevention (CalFire) into the Timber Harvest Plan (THP) permit process.

Faculty Advisors: Christina Tague

Clients: California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection

Seven people, students and professor posing for photo

Managing the Risks of Emerging Contaminants in the Denver Water Supply

This project team and their client, Denver Water, sought to understand the threat contaminants of emerging concern may pose to drinking water quality in their collection system.

Faculty Advisors: Arturo Keller

Clients: Denver Water

Five female students standing together for a photo

Economic Quantification of Delaying Management in the Midriff Islands, Mexico

Trade-offs associated with marine reserves are believed to have played a key role in the network’s delayed implementation; potential long-term gains in sustainable fishing and the conservation of biodiversity likely generate short-term losses in fishery revenue due to fishery closures. The trade-offs between conservation and livelihood led our team to ask: What are the consequences of delaying the implementation of a reserve network, and how much area should be protected to enhance both fish biomass and catch?