Computer Science Seminar- Dam Big Data

Scientific Computing for Environmental Impact: Computational Analysis of Beaver Dams

Dr. Emily Fairfax, CSUC

Beavers are native to California – from the high Sierras all the way down to the coast. Beaver dams play a key role in protecting ecosystems during drought and in regulating the spread of wildfire. Unfortunately, the European fur trade decimated their population and by the early 1900’s very few beavers remained in California. Today, beaver populations are on the rebound – just in time to help us deal with increasingly intense wildfire seasons. But now there are so many beaver dams out there that figuring out where they are and the scale of their impacts is no trivial matter. In response, beaver-scientists around the world are looking toward bigger and bigger data sets as we move beyond single-pond case studies and into landscape-scale modeling. But with big data comes big responsibilities. So what exactly do beavers do, how do they protect us from droughts and wildfires, and how can we embrace big data, machine learning, and scientific modeling to answer questions in traditionally fieldfocused disciplines? Come to this talk and find out – it’ll be a dam good time!