Pete Kauhanen
Pete Kauhanen, MA
Senior GIS Manager
Environmental Informatics Program
Geographic Information Systems
510-746-7370
Pete Kauhanen is an experienced environmental scientist, planner, UAS expert, GIS specialist and manager with well over 15 years experience generating, obtaining, and analyzing GIS data for environmental projects. He has a background in watershed ecology, green infrastructure planning, habitat mapping, fire management, promoting indigenous knowledge to address conservation goals, as well as large and small scale mitigation and conservation projects and initiatives. He earned both his MA and BA from Stanford University where his studies focused on ecology, behavioral ecology and using GIS to study environmental anthropology. For his Masters thesis he created a 10 year fire history for a section of the Western Desert of Australia to highlight the effects of the Australian Aboriginal Martu people on local ecology, habitat types, and predictive capabilities for biodiversity. His findings resulted in changing the prescribed burn policy of Western Australia’s Department for Environmental Conservation and have broad implications for fire management and climate change adaptation. Most recently, Pete has been utilizing UAS (or drones) in order to map and model wetlands and other natural resources in order to address issues such as erosion, wetland health and trash quantification. Pete continues to bring his GIS experience to bear on projects where scientific research intersects policy and management decisions.
Related Projects, News, and Events
![Design by Linda Wanczyk](https://www.sfei.org/sites/default/files/styles/portfolio_sm/public/projects/RipZET_logo.png?itok=fB31s3dd&c=85137275936162996cea8f01c26ae59e)
The Riparian Zone Estimator Tool (RipZET) is a decision support tool developed by the San Francisco Estuary Institute and Aquatic Science Center for the California Riparian Habitat Joint Venture and the California Water Resources Control Board to assist in the visualization and characterization of riparian areas in the watershed context.
![](https://www.sfei.org/sites/default/files/styles/portfolio_sm/public/news/FullBay3.jpg?itok=p3DfrrwQ&c=09cb3d175c639c76a62405aede39b094)
The Baylands Habitat Map 2020 is the first complete map of San Francisco Bay wetland and aquatic habitats produced since 2009. It provides updated maps of tidal habitats and diked baylands, expanding our understanding of the full impact of recent habitat change and restoration.
Created by the Wetland Regional Monitoring Program and San Francisco Estuary Institute, and funded by the US EPA Water Quality Improvement Fund, this effort marks a major advancement in tracking habitat change in the Bay.
![](https://www.sfei.org/sites/default/files/styles/portfolio_sm/public/news/ElevationProfile_CrossSections.png?itok=V-7n4AMu&c=18c0d71723eeb016ccf18a0c182ace79)
Join us in congratulating SFEI's Associate GIS Specialist, Kat Palermo, for successfully attaining her Part 107 Remote Pilot License from the FAA! She joins GIS Manager, Pete Kauhanen, as a second drone pilot at SFEI. This achievement, along with the acquisition of a DJI Mavic 3 Enterprise small Unoccupied Aerial Vehicle (sUAV), significantly enhances SFEI’s monitoring and science communication capabilities. The advanced drone features a high-quality sensor on a stabilizing gimbal and a Real Time Kinetic (RTK) module, enabling centimeter-level accuracy.
Climate change models forecast that California’s fluctuations between dry and wet years will grow more intense as the globe warms. So when Zone 7 Water Agency’s territory sustained severe damage in the storms of 2017 following the drought of 2012-2016, it catalyzed increased preparation for a future of greater climate extremes.
![](https://www.sfei.org/sites/default/files/styles/portfolio_sm/public/projects/cari.jpg?itok=GCu46qf1&c=28d719c601c0a41417f9f9b15977570a)
The California Aquatic Resources Inventory (CARI) is a Geographic Information System (GIS) based map of wetlands, streams, and riparian areas within California that is hosted online through EcoAtlas.
![Photo credit: Pete Kauhanen, SFEI](https://www.sfei.org/sites/default/files/styles/portfolio_sm/public/projects/DSC02354%20%28Cortemadera-%20edge%2C%20tree%29.jpg?itok=r2cfiFBU&c=6fb4907077a2732933434c8bd857daf7)
The Baylands Habitat Map 2020 (BHM 2020) updates the existing map of tidal marsh, tidal flats and diked baylands and incorporates the many changes in baylands distribution and abundance that have occurred over the last two decades. It also includes new information about land use and infrastructure that affects baylands restoration and management constraints and opportunities.
Catalyzed by the extensive damages caused by the Winter 2016-2017 storms and the opportunity to align flood response with major habitat improvement, Preparing for the Storm is an innovative public-private partnership to improve watershed health and resilience in the Alameda Creek watershed.
![](https://www.sfei.org/sites/default/files/styles/portfolio_sm/public/news/image1.png?itok=SdhJ31IU&c=d9feab4f73e252733ad4f7e13d1ecb30)
The most recent meeting of the San Francisco Estuary Geospatial Workgroup featured Pete Kauhanen and Lindsey Sim of SFEI's Environmental program. This meeting focused on emerging technologies for visualizing the changing Bay around us. Presenters discussed new data, tools, and approaches that are helping inform regional natural resource management.
![Images: Pete Kauhanen](https://www.sfei.org/sites/default/files/styles/portfolio_sm/public/news/McCosker.png?itok=-iG2gSbm&c=2f550f48131a8f8d3878f7ce693262eb)
At the McCosker Creek Restoration site, 3,000 linear feet of creek channel that previously had been flowing through underground culverts since the 1950s was daylighted and reconstructed. In addition, invasive and non native plants were removed and replaced with over 5,000 native plants. The restoration was also designed to support erosion control, and provide habitat for wildlife and aquatic species including rainbow trout, California red-legged frog and the Alameda whipsnake. This restoration work began in 2020 and concluded in 2023.
![SFEI’s drone technology is helping track the trash across California.<br />Pictured from left to right: Pete Kauhanen, Shelly Moore, Tony Hale, Sherry Lippiatt. <br />Photo courtesy of Shelly Moore, SCCWRP](https://www.sfei.org/sites/default/files/styles/portfolio_sm/public/projects/IMG_0632.png?itok=SbGI51mY&c=ec2e809c083b932ea69a83ab012a1f39)
The California Ocean Protection Council (OPC), in close partnership with the State Water Board, has recognized the importance of standard methods for trash monitoring and has funded this project. The Southern California Coastal Water Research Project (SCCWRP) and San Francisco Bay Estuary Institute (SFEI) have partnered up to test multiple trash monitoring methods with a goal of developing a library of methods with known levels of precision, accuracy, and cross-comparability of results, and linking these methods to specific management questions.
![Photo credit: Shira Bezalel, 2016](https://www.sfei.org/sites/default/files/styles/portfolio_sm/public/projects/delta.png?itok=4xgtI46K&c=1955a9df86ff042ce0f2b2c9d412c015)
DARI is the Delta Aquatic Resources Inventory of surface waters, wetlands and other aquatic resources in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Delta). The goal of the DARI project is to develop a geospatial inventory of aquatic resources that will be used as a common base map for the Delta. A similar mapping approach used to create the California Aquatic Resource Inventory (CARI) will be applied to provide a map of the aquatic resources and their associated attributes.
![](https://www.sfei.org/sites/default/files/styles/portfolio_sm/public/projects/Next%20Generation%20Urban%20Greening.jpg?itok=W9nFrQYL&c=f8626af029b1c1e624186a80317e700b)
SFEI is working with partners across the Bay Area to design tools to help cities achieve biodiversity, stormwater, and climate benefits through multifunctional green infrastructure.
![Photo by Pete Kauhanen, Shira Bezalel](https://www.sfei.org/sites/default/files/styles/portfolio_sm/public/projects/Blue%20Carbon%20Science%20to%20Support%20Climate%20Action%20web%20graphics_v2_Artboard_Splash%20mock%20up.jpg?itok=hrv9ZU23&c=968e6e26d58541153eba637412965b9b)
Working with other scientists, agency staff, and regional and state-level managers and planners, we are building alignment and capacity for blue carbon quantification through science synthesis, outreach, and mapping.
![](https://www.sfei.org/sites/default/files/styles/portfolio_sm/public/projects/Figure1_Five_EMAF_Watersheds_v3_20190520.jpg?itok=g61G9Xzk&c=6b9f657a9a8852c8d356fc57c0661309)
https://www.valleywater.org/project-updates/2012-d5-ecological-data-collection-and-analysisSFEI and the Santa Clara Valley Water District's (Valley Water) Priority D-5 Project have been conducting baseline ecological condition assessments in Santa Clara County, CA to characterize the distribution and abundance of stream and wetlands in five major watersheds, and to assess the overall ecological conditions of streams in the watersheds based on the California Rapic Assessment Method for streams (CRAM). The surveys employ the state's recommended Wetland and Riparian Area Monitoring Plan's watershed aproach that includes the use of GIS-base maps of aquatice resources (BAARI), and spatially-balanced ambient stream condition surveys using CRAM.
![](https://www.sfei.org/sites/default/files/styles/portfolio_sm/public/projects/Picture1.png?itok=Wva65FSh&c=f97a926d000beac8b8adaea9a342e1c1)
The Tahoe WRAMP Watershed Demonstration Project transferred statewide wetland monitoring and assessment tools to Sierra Nevada environmental agencies and organizations by conducting a pilot study that evaluated the distribution and abundance of wetlands, and the overall ecological condition of streams in two watersheds within the Lake Tahoe Basin.
![Photo Credits: Micha Salomon (L), Dee Shea Himes (R)](https://www.sfei.org/sites/default/files/styles/portfolio_sm/public/projects/HealthyWatershedsResilientBaylands.jpg?itok=3nbBLx57&c=63c841a77d60371fb78dcb9fab0438de)
Through the EPA-funded Healthy Watersheds Resilient Baylands project, SFEI and sixteen partner organizations are developing multi-benefit tools to enhance climate change resilience in San Francisco Bay. Healthy Watersheds Resilient Baylands has two major components: Multi-benefit Urban Greening and Tidal Wetlands Restoration. Through both components, we have developed strategies that inform policy, planning, and design of innovative implementation projects.
![Photo credit: Shira Bezalel](https://www.sfei.org/sites/default/files/styles/portfolio_sm/public/projects/SBezalel-20190504-A7302054.jpg?itok=CUnWVLxc&c=91dad77c0063cab3c1bf111400d043ab)
The Ocean Protection Council (OPC) and SFEI will develop an inventory of the wetlands and other surface waters of all California’s coastal HUC-8 watersheds, including the inland Delta of the San Francisco Estuary, to help implement the OPC’s 2020-2025 Strategic Plan. The inventory will include a dashboard and other online tools that enable the OPC and the public to track progress towards multiple O
![A Portion of the Sears Point Levee. Imagery from December 2021 on the left and from August 2022 on the right. Note the increase in vegetation and material surrounding the placed logs at the base of the levee.](https://www.sfei.org/sites/default/files/styles/portfolio_sm/public/news/Sears%20Point.png?itok=EQmsJ8H_&c=cf6dd80a2ff60bc7c41ee06a8a428727)
SFEI continues to leverage our Unoccupied Aerial Systems (UAS) capabilities to support conservation and monitoring efforts around the Bay. Two recent projects include monitoring for the Sears Point Restoration Project in San Pablo Bay, as well as conducting a number of flights to support the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) filming of existing marshes and marsh restoration projects that help protect both communities and critical infrastructure.
![](https://www.sfei.org/sites/default/files/styles/portfolio_sm/public/projects/BAARI%20New2015600x450.png?itok=FtydmheA&c=85137275936162996cea8f01c26ae59e)
The Bay Area Aquatic Resources Inventory (BAARI) is a GIS base map of the Bay Area's wetlands, open water, streams, ditches, tidal marshes and flats, and riparian areas. BAARI was developed using standardized mapping protocols to ensure that the level of detail and wetland classification system is standardized across the region.
![Photo credit: Elaine Blok, USFWS](https://www.sfei.org/sites/default/files/styles/portfolio_sm/public/projects/Russian_River_EBlok.jpg?itok=tS4uOLcQ&c=8e29e08ac3ec08c7058e49c6c021e16c)
This project will build on existing projects funded by the CA State Water Board, Ocean Protection Council, Sonoma Ecology Center, and Sonoma County to produce a basemap of aquatic resources, using the updated Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) of the California Aquatic Resource Inventory (CARI), including at-risk waters and their riparian areas, to support the Russian River Regional Monitoring Program (R3MP). The main tasks of the project are to:
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