NASA and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) welcome the community to a series of Space Economy Workshops intended to coordinate the development of new technologies to detect and assess off-world mineral resources, as well as to discuss the challenges and opportunities for an off-world mineral resource economy.
Tamara Wilson
Leader, Innovator, Strategic Planner, and Research Geographer. Currently with the Southwest Climate Adaptation Science Center (SW CASC), where she uses land change modeling and scenario analysis to explore landscape change impacts on regional environmental processes and resource availability. Her recent work includes examination of the benefits of nature-based solutions as an adaptation strategy.
Land change and water use in California
Land change and water use in California
Water shortages in California are a growing concern amidst ongoing drought, earlier spring snowmelt, projected future climate warming, and currently mandated water-use restrictions. Modeling results show that only if currently mandated 25% reductions in municipal water use are continuously implemented, would water demand in 2062 balance to water use levels in 2012.
Threats to protected areas
Threats to protected areas
Protected areas will likely undergo shifts in ecological composition in coming decades given the coupled threats of land use and climate change. By assessing the land use threats facing species and/or ecosystems we can assist land managers in preserving biodiversity into the future and prioritizing at-risk lands for land acquisition or other nature based solutions.
Ecological Forecasting
Ecological Forecasting
We modeled dynamic scenarios of climate, land use, cropland and wetland habitat change across the Central Valley of California to help optimize water allocations for multiple ecosystem benefits, producing annual mapped forecasts and long-term projections of the spatial and temporal availability of managed wetland habitat in this critical migratory corridor.
Tamara’s broad research interests include how land use change, both historic and projected, influence regional environmental processes and resource availability and how nature-based solutions can address natural hazards. Her scenario research identifies land change impacts and feedbacks on protected areas, water availability, ecosystems, and habitat sustainability.
Her graduate training at the University of Arizona was in the fields of biogeography, climatology, climate change, paleoclimate, and paleoecology. With her experience examining natural archives of paleo-environmental landscape change, she was able to make the leap to utilizing modern remote sensing based records to examine human-derived landscape level changes and their associated impacts on natural resources. Her recent work utilizes historic land change records to inform model scenarios of future land change and their potential impacts on natural resources, including habitat and water availability.
As Deputy Director of the National Innovation Center, Tamara works to expand the reach of the center, helping to forge new and exciting partnerships between USGS scientists and other public, private, academic, and non-profit parties. She is working to develop regional and national communication pipelines as well as coordinating science seminars and workshops to introduce the latest technological advancements in earth science and explore their use in the federal science portfolio.
Science and Products
6th Federal UxS Workshop
6th Federal UxS Workshop September 10-12, 2024 Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute, Albuquerque, NM
National Innovation Center Seminar Series
This bi-weekly seminar series is an opportunity to present innovation successes and prospects across USGS Mission Areas. It is a forum for our scientists and partners to learn about existing and potential innovative technologies to help fill known observation gaps, as well as to present cutting edge research and technology opportunities which could be leveraged to advance USGS science through...
5th Federal UxS Workshop
Welcome Back! The Federal UxS community returns to in-person meetings to explore new opportunities, and plenty of challenges, together. The overarching goal of the workshop is to approach UxS challenges with a whole-of-Government team, leveraging successes within our Agencies to accelerate our national UxS enterprise and focus group resources on shared expertise and new opportunities. Mark your...
Integrating Remote-Sensing and Ecological Forecasting into Decision-Support for Wetland Wildlife Management in the Central Valley of California
In the Central Valley of California, the few remaining wetlands plus cropland that is flooded after harvest provide critical habitat for wetland-dependent species. However future climate conditions and a growing human population will challenge how they are managed. To support coordinated conservation, wetland restoration, and climate adaptation planning, we partnered with Point Blue Conservation...
Pacific Region Colloquium
The Pacific Region Colloquium, founded in February 1996 as the Western Region Colloquium, was a monthly speaker series that spanned the spectrum of earth and environmental science.
Land use and tsunami hazards in the Pacific Northwest
Tsunamis have the potential to cause considerable damage to communities along the U.S. Pacific Northwest coastline. As coastal communities expand over time, the potential societal impact of tsunami inundation changes. To understand how community exposure to tsunami hazards may change in coming decades, we projected future development (i.e. urban, residential, and rural), households, and residents...
California land-change projections
This dataset consists of modeled projections of land use and land cover and population for the State of California for the period 1970-2101. For the 1970-2001 period, we used the USGS's LUCAS model to "backcast" LULC, beginning with the 2001 initial conditions and ending with 1970. For future projections, the model was initialized in 2001 and run forward on an annual time step to 2100. In total 5...
Threats to protected areas
Land-use intensification poses significant threats to biodiversity both directly through the alteration and fragmentation of ecosystems and habitat loss, and indirectly through the disruption of supporting ecological processes. While protected areas offer refugia for species and ecosystems, they do not function in isolation from surrounding natural, working, or human-dominated landscapes...
Land change and water use in California
Water shortages in California are a growing concern amidst ongoing drought, earlier spring snowmelt, projected future climate warming, and currently mandated water-use restrictions. Increases in population and land use in coming decades will place additional pressure on already limited available water supplies. We used a state-and-transition simulation model to project future changes in developed...
Land Use and Climate Change Team
We are a research team focusing on understanding the rates, causes, and consequences of land change across a range of geographic and temporal scales. Our emphasis is on developing alternative future projections and quantifying the impact on environmental systems, in particular, the role of land-use change on ecosystem carbon dynamics. We are interested in how land-use and climate systems will...
Space Economy Workshop Series
NASA and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) welcome the community to a series of Space Economy Workshops intended to coordinate the development of new technologies to detect and assess off-world mineral resources, as well as to discuss the challenges and opportunities for an off-world mineral resource economy.
Upper Feather River Watershed Map
Map of the Upper Feather River Watershed, including the watershed boundary (red), recent fire perimeters (2020 North Complex Fire, 2021 Dixie Fire), high elevation areas (> 2000 meters) and active stream gages (black triangles). More than 40% of the watershed has been burned since 2020.
Map of the Upper Feather River Watershed, including the watershed boundary (red), recent fire perimeters (2020 North Complex Fire, 2021 Dixie Fire), high elevation areas (> 2000 meters) and active stream gages (black triangles). More than 40% of the watershed has been burned since 2020.
Decision support StoryMap tool for wetland and wildlife management for the Central Valley of California.
linkUSGS Scientists published a StoryMap showing projected changes in land use, flooded area, and wildlife habitat in California’s Central Valley for five scenarios of future climate and water management.
Decision support StoryMap tool for wetland and wildlife management for the Central Valley of California.
linkUSGS Scientists published a StoryMap showing projected changes in land use, flooded area, and wildlife habitat in California’s Central Valley for five scenarios of future climate and water management.
Science and Products
6th Federal UxS Workshop
6th Federal UxS Workshop September 10-12, 2024 Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute, Albuquerque, NM
National Innovation Center Seminar Series
This bi-weekly seminar series is an opportunity to present innovation successes and prospects across USGS Mission Areas. It is a forum for our scientists and partners to learn about existing and potential innovative technologies to help fill known observation gaps, as well as to present cutting edge research and technology opportunities which could be leveraged to advance USGS science through...
5th Federal UxS Workshop
Welcome Back! The Federal UxS community returns to in-person meetings to explore new opportunities, and plenty of challenges, together. The overarching goal of the workshop is to approach UxS challenges with a whole-of-Government team, leveraging successes within our Agencies to accelerate our national UxS enterprise and focus group resources on shared expertise and new opportunities. Mark your...
Integrating Remote-Sensing and Ecological Forecasting into Decision-Support for Wetland Wildlife Management in the Central Valley of California
In the Central Valley of California, the few remaining wetlands plus cropland that is flooded after harvest provide critical habitat for wetland-dependent species. However future climate conditions and a growing human population will challenge how they are managed. To support coordinated conservation, wetland restoration, and climate adaptation planning, we partnered with Point Blue Conservation...
Pacific Region Colloquium
The Pacific Region Colloquium, founded in February 1996 as the Western Region Colloquium, was a monthly speaker series that spanned the spectrum of earth and environmental science.
Land use and tsunami hazards in the Pacific Northwest
Tsunamis have the potential to cause considerable damage to communities along the U.S. Pacific Northwest coastline. As coastal communities expand over time, the potential societal impact of tsunami inundation changes. To understand how community exposure to tsunami hazards may change in coming decades, we projected future development (i.e. urban, residential, and rural), households, and residents...
California land-change projections
This dataset consists of modeled projections of land use and land cover and population for the State of California for the period 1970-2101. For the 1970-2001 period, we used the USGS's LUCAS model to "backcast" LULC, beginning with the 2001 initial conditions and ending with 1970. For future projections, the model was initialized in 2001 and run forward on an annual time step to 2100. In total 5...
Threats to protected areas
Land-use intensification poses significant threats to biodiversity both directly through the alteration and fragmentation of ecosystems and habitat loss, and indirectly through the disruption of supporting ecological processes. While protected areas offer refugia for species and ecosystems, they do not function in isolation from surrounding natural, working, or human-dominated landscapes...
Land change and water use in California
Water shortages in California are a growing concern amidst ongoing drought, earlier spring snowmelt, projected future climate warming, and currently mandated water-use restrictions. Increases in population and land use in coming decades will place additional pressure on already limited available water supplies. We used a state-and-transition simulation model to project future changes in developed...
Land Use and Climate Change Team
We are a research team focusing on understanding the rates, causes, and consequences of land change across a range of geographic and temporal scales. Our emphasis is on developing alternative future projections and quantifying the impact on environmental systems, in particular, the role of land-use change on ecosystem carbon dynamics. We are interested in how land-use and climate systems will...
Space Economy Workshop Series
NASA and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) welcome the community to a series of Space Economy Workshops intended to coordinate the development of new technologies to detect and assess off-world mineral resources, as well as to discuss the challenges and opportunities for an off-world mineral resource economy.
NASA and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) welcome the community to a series of Space Economy Workshops intended to coordinate the development of new technologies to detect and assess off-world mineral resources, as well as to discuss the challenges and opportunities for an off-world mineral resource economy.
Upper Feather River Watershed Map
Map of the Upper Feather River Watershed, including the watershed boundary (red), recent fire perimeters (2020 North Complex Fire, 2021 Dixie Fire), high elevation areas (> 2000 meters) and active stream gages (black triangles). More than 40% of the watershed has been burned since 2020.
Map of the Upper Feather River Watershed, including the watershed boundary (red), recent fire perimeters (2020 North Complex Fire, 2021 Dixie Fire), high elevation areas (> 2000 meters) and active stream gages (black triangles). More than 40% of the watershed has been burned since 2020.
Decision support StoryMap tool for wetland and wildlife management for the Central Valley of California.
linkUSGS Scientists published a StoryMap showing projected changes in land use, flooded area, and wildlife habitat in California’s Central Valley for five scenarios of future climate and water management.
Decision support StoryMap tool for wetland and wildlife management for the Central Valley of California.
linkUSGS Scientists published a StoryMap showing projected changes in land use, flooded area, and wildlife habitat in California’s Central Valley for five scenarios of future climate and water management.
*Disclaimer: Listing outside positions with professional scientific organizations on this Staff Profile are for informational purposes only and do not constitute an endorsement of those professional scientific organizations or their activities by the USGS, Department of the Interior, or U.S. Government