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 $3 million grant to support harmful algae monitoring in the San Francisco Estuary
Oct 3, 2023
Oct 3, 2023
NOAA recently announced that it is awarding a $3-million grant, through its Monitoring and Event Response Research Program (MERHAB) to support the development of a harmful algal bloom (HAB) monitoring program for the San Francisco Estuary. The project, led by scientists at the San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI), US Geological Survey, and California Department of Water Resources (DWR), will leverage on-going research and monitoring activities in the Bay and Delta to build a robust system-wide HAB monitoring program for the Estuary.
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.