Data Assimilation

 Kier Associates has a history of providing innovative solutions for capturing and organizing data, particularly that used to support Pacific salmon recovery, including the development of analytical tools to support adaptive management. The Kier Associates team includes former Stanford Research Institute scientist Jan Derksen, who taught database management at Humboldt State University for more than 15 years. Dr Derksen's computer programming skill has led to the development of environmental data management and analysis tools useful for those with only modest computer skills.

Kier Associates created the Klamath Resource Information System (KRIS) to support large-scale watershed restoration programs in the Klamath and Trinity River basins.  KRIS organizes information concerning water quality, water supply and fisheries so that it can be shared quickly and easily among agencies, Tribes, private landowners and interested citizens. KRIS provides a “one stop shop” for data and reports that busy resource managers and their public partners would otherwise have to seek among scattered sources.

The KRIS custom program can be adapted to any environmental restoration program. KRIS coverage now extends to 70% of northwestern California’s historic salmon watersheds, the large Koontenai River of Montana and Idaho, and even the Sheepscot River, to support Atlantic salmon restoration in the Gulf of Maine. The KRIS programs for any geographic area are free of copyright, remain the property of the client agency,  and can be updated easily by program cooperators.

Kier Associates has organized data concerning regional aquatic and watershed conditions to support Pacific salmon recovery planning by National Marine Fisheries Service for steelhead in South Coast California and South Central Coast California, and for coho salmon in southern Oregon and northern California. Click the image below to see an example of a custom Access database and the related tools that Kier Associates scientists developed to enable rapid recovery plan analysis of aquatic habitat and the factors impacting coastal salmon and steelhead populations. Aquatic condition and upland stressor scores can be reviewed individually as box plots or in regional summaries.

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Kier Associates worked collaboratively with National Marine Fisheries Service to develop reference documents that make clear the scientific basis for ranking aquatic habitat and upland conditions, so that large datasets may be used for analysis in Recovery Plans.