Dashboards & Data
Explore to Empower. Empower to Explore.
Guide to the Page
To protect the precious environmental resources we have in Southern California, we need to plan for species other than ourselves.
OPEN DATA: Visit our GIS Data Hub
Open data curated for Southern California. Spend less time finding data, and more time analyzing it.
Biodiversity
Biodiversity refers to all life on Earth. Biodiversity describes the variety of animals, plants, insects, fungi, and microorganisms you will find in an area, a region, or the planet as a whole. California is home to more species of plants and animals than any other state in the nation and is considered a global biodiversity “hotspot.”
Fire
The feasibility of climate and societal planning must be examined before it can be achieved. What are our dreams, and are they realistic? Artist and writer David Goldblatt imagines a fossil fuel free future. Frederick Jameson is famous for saying that it is easier to imagine the end of the world than it is to imagine the end of capitalism.
Water
Climate
Climate
Indigenous Land
Equity
Across the globe, there is an inequitable distribution of environmental benefits (e.g. access to green spaces) and environmental burdens (e.g. proximity to polluting industries), where burdens are more likely to be located in predominantly minority areas, contributing to health disparities, and benefits are more heavily concentrated in privileged communities (Sze, 2020). Environmental justice is a movement and framework formed in response to this inequity that focuses on the abolishment of environmental harms and increased access to environmental benefits for all, regardless of demographic characteristics (Bullard, 1960). A glance into an area's air quality, access to parks and recreation, urban canopy coverage, and community index are partial indications of how environmentally just/equitable it is. Many of these components of environmental justice can be measured in various ways. For instance, the U.S government’s federal toxic release inventory (TRI) database, which contains quantitative data on emissions generated from industrial facilities that pose a threat to human health, provides useful information about the air quality of surrounding areas. Together, these components quite comprehensively measure environmental justice, equity, and inclusion.
Food
Where our food comes from matters now more than ever. Section by Scott Sawyer ‘97.
Built Environment
Built Environment
Southern California at a Glance
Biodiversity and Conservation Dashboard
Southern California is one of the most biodiverse places on earth and the most biodiverse place in the United States. Our special responsibility to places and species can be realized through conservation, healthy waters and habitats, and plenty of interconnection in actions as simple as planting native plants at home to advocating for broader land protections.
Click through the tabs, zoom in and out, and click on statistics in each map. The last tab allows users to turn data layers on and off. We have over 65 data layers related to biodiversity and conservation clipped to Southern California available on our open data portal.
Data Layer StoryMaps
Below are StoryMaps that show users SoCal Earth data layers by category to help familiarize you with what you can search for, compare, and analyze. Browse layers by topic in each StoryMap to aid your mapping project or question.
StoryMaps for Coastal Health, Energy, and Indigenous Lands layers are coming soon!
Soil Carbon Index: What Plants Do for the Planet
Plants store carbon--above ground, below ground, and even through dead wood and leaves.
This soil carbon index demonstrates that Southern California landscapes don't hold much terrestrial carbon. Terrestrial carbon is carbon in the soil that plants breathe in and humans breathe out. Increasing carbon storage through healthy soils and plant materials must work in tandem with decreased emissions. When land cover changes due to fire, farming, or development, so does the capacity for soil-based and plant-driven carbon capture.
