Nick Santos

Nick Santos

Emeritus Researcher

  • Center for Watershed Sciences

NOTE: If you are looking to get in touch with Nick about something other than research related to the Center for Watershed Sciences, please use this form or call 650-336-8476. Please do not call this office. Thank you.

Nick joined the Center for Watershed Sciences in January 2011. 

He writes GIS-based software and databases for assessing landscape-scale geospatial information. He is the primary developer of PISCES and has contributed to the Mountain Meadows, Cosumnes Research Group, and Spring Snowmelt Recession projects. He also helps out with the IT staff to keep the Center running smoothly.

Nick Santos is also the founder and Executive Director of Environmental Consumer, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that develops actionable information and resources for consumers looking to take the next step to reduce their impact.

Prior to joining the Center for Watershed Sciences, he worked with the Regional Climate Change Program at the Sierra Nevada Alliance, with the UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (SAREP), as a Policy Fellow at climate campaign 1Sky (now merged with 350.org), and as a private IT consultant. 

Research Interests & Expertise
  • Software
  • Databases
  • Rivers
  • Geospatial
Membership and Service
  • UC Merced

Nick Santos's Recent Projects

Conservation of inland fish biodiversity

Knowledge of species' spatial distributions is crucial to the identification and prioritization of watersheds in need of restoration. Coupled with species' status, the presence and or absence of species can indicate biologically diverse vs. depauperate areas.

Crop Economics Map 1998-2010

This website provides preliminary information on irrigated land areas, water use and crop value over various hydrologic boundaries. Information from the California Department of Water Resources (http://www.water.ca.gov/landwateruse/anlwuest.cfm) on land and water use, and economic information from the SWAP model (swap.ucdavis.edu) for 20 crop groups are employed.

Streamlapse: Time Lapse River Videos and Data

StreamLapse is a software system to build videos from time lapse river photos and data. It allows for rapidly viewing a season of rivers and cross-comparison between sites and years.

PISCES - Fish Distribution Tracking, Modelling, and Analysis

PISCES is software and data describing the best-known ranges for California's native fish. The data is compiled from multiple sources and experts and is stored and exported as rangemaps and summary maps. As of December 2013, it includes data on all of the state's 131 native fish taxa as well as 48 non-native species.

Code Library and Tools

As part of numerous other projects, Center for Watershed Sciences staff and researchers have developed code to run analyses, organize and store data, interface with other systems, automate processing, and more. Some of this code is designed to be reusable as standalone products, or as code in other, larger projects. You can find this code below.