IDENTIFYING SUITABLE AREAS FOR MITIGATION BANKING FOR JURISDICTIONAL WATERS AND CALIFORNIA GNATCATCHER HABITAT IN CITY OF LAKE ELSINORE, RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA

Max Ketabi; max.ketabi@gmail.com;

This project/presentation looks at the biological and hydrological resources in City of Lake Elsinore in Riverside County, California to identify areas suitable for mitigation banking of potential jurisdictional waters and California Gnatcatcher (CAGN) habitats. GIS has been used in this project to analyze publicly available data in order to narrow down candidate areas that are suitable for mitigation banking. The results of this project include a stream network going through riparian vegetation in specific areas which were then mapped as candidate areas for wetland/stream mitigation banking. The other result produced by this project includes multiple locations with high percentage of CAGN friendly land cover/vegetation that also have gentle to moderate slopes suitable for CAGN habitat mitigation banking. These results can help developers and investors in the area to complete their projects by acquiring and investing into these suitable areas and converting them into mitigation banks. It also provides the audience/reader with a step-by-step GIS analysis footprint to identify suitable banking areas in any given study area.

Poster Session  InPerson Presentation