Science for a Healthy Bay Area
The San Francisco Estuary Institute
The solutions we need now to meet the climate crisis
SFEI is acting now to make the Bay Area and our communities more resilient to the impacts of rising waters, rising temperatures, and increasingly severe storms. Our region has the resources and creativity to withstand the push for single-minded “concrete” solutions to complex threats such as sea level rise.
SFEI’s reliable science, networks built on trust, and creative collaboration help heal ecosystems. Our work also guides infrastructure investments to safeguard our shared home.
Science at Work
Our science helps guide the work of policy-makers, Tribal leaders, natural resource managers, city officials, researchers, journalists, and community organizers.

Clean Water
Our cutting-edge pollutant studies and 30-year administration of the Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality have led to a cleaner Bay.

Resilient Landscapes
Our nature-based strategies are helping the Bay Area adapt to climate change, sequester carbon, improve human health and wellbeing, support native wildlife, and increase equity.

Environmental Informatics
Our dynamic, science-based tools are accessible to all to support decision making for a healthier environment.
Our Donors are Essential
While SFEI’s work is largely government-funded, independent donors leverage that investment and are essential.
With your support, we can meet the demand for transparent, accessible, and usable science.
News You Can Use
New Ecology for Heath report forges tighter connections between human and ecological health
Nov 17, 2023
Nov 17, 2023
The same features in urban parks that support biodiversity can also benefit human health. Even biodiversity itself may help us — and the San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) wants to see more of it. To that end, the nonprofit released an innovative report in September called Ecology for Health. It’s a practical guide for planners and designers to aid both biodiversity and human health in urban settings.
Our Team
SFEI’s sixty+ scientists, technologists, and designers work with our partners to define environmental problems, advance public policy, and develop science-based strategies to meet the climate crisis and protect our shared home.