Who We Are

San Francisco State University is an Esri Development Center (ED-C). The ED-C's Esri Innovation Program provides recognition and special status to university departments and centers that have exemplary programs focused on educating students to design and develop GIS applications using Esri's ArcGIS for Desktop, Server, and Mobile technologies.

Our ED-C is housed in San Francisco State University's (SFSU's) Institute for Geographic Information Science GIS research lab (HSS 272) and supports GIS research, learning, and development for numerous students, faculty, and staff at SFSU. It is most strongly affiliated with the M.S. GIS program in the Department of Geography & Environment, although students in other degree programs can be fully involved with our ED-C. To get involved, the primary requirement is that you are a student, at any level, who is doing GIS development work, broadly defined, using Esri technologies.

For more information about our ED-C program, contact Anna Studwell at astudwel@sfsu.edu or Jerry Davis at jerry@sfsu.edu

The IGISc is currently partnering with the Sierra Fund on an interdisciplinary research and monitoring project in Sierra Nevada meadows. The overarching goal of this project is to improve climate resilience at the ecosystem and community level in Red Clover Valley through a collaborative effort. Meadows are hotspots for biodiversity and provide significant services including flood attenuation, sediment filtration, water storage, water quality improvement, carbon sequestration, and livestock forage. In the face of climate change, the many functions performed by healthy meadows make them durable investments for safeguarding a resilient future for California Ecosystems and Communities. Our estimated start date is June 1, 2019. This research is made possible through a grant from the California Department of Fish & Wildlife.

The IGISc is partnering with Point Blue Conservation Science's Applied California Current Ecosystem Studies (ACCESS) team on seabird habitat modeling, habitat risk assessment analysis, and conservation prioritization strategies in the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary and Codell Bank National Marine Sanctuary.