Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'San luis obispo county (calif.)'

This study is an academic research project completed to satisfy the California Polytechnic Master Thesis Requirement for the Master Degree of City and Regional Planning in the College of Architecture and Environmental Design. The County of San Luis Obispo Planning and Building Department is the client for this professional project. The project was requested by the County of San Luis Obispo to assist in its water conservation efforts and to help achieve a 20 percent per capita reduction of water use by the year 2020. The project consists of two documents: A Handbook of Water Conservation Technologies and Practices (Handbook) and the Background Report for the Water Conservation Handbook (Background Report). The Handbook is intended to provide a quick guide to various water conserving fixtures and appliances that developers and residents throughout the County of San Luis Obispo can reference for personal use. The Handbook includes information on the type of technology, the benefits in terms of water saving potential, and the cost of implementation. The Handbook is organized based on Indoor and Outdoor water uses. The Background Report is a supplemental document for the Handbook which provides more in depth descriptions and examples on each technology. The Background Report also provides history on water conservation issues in California and San Luis Obispo. It looks at two case studies: one, on the water conservation efforts in Phoenix, Arizona, and two, on a plumbing retrofit project on the Cal Poly Campus that was awarded LEED certification for its water savings. Furthermore, the Background Report explores case studies in the use of community participatory planning to produce water conservation plans. The studies focused on a Community Plan development in Arroyo Grande, California, and on an Integrated Regional Water Management Plan in the Greater Los Angeles Region. The Background Report concludes by providing some cautionary advice on water conservation technologies and provides future recommendations for the county of San Luis Obispo to improve its water conservation efforts.

The goal of this research was to analyze the economic impact of the Williamson Act and the agricultural industry in San Luis Obispo County, and to assess the changes in agriculture and the County’s economic structure if a significant proportion of Williamson Act contracts were not renewed. Williamson Act enrollment and agriculture data were analyzed on a zip code level using IMPLAN v. 3.0, an input-output modeling program. The first round of analysis assessed the baseline economic impact of the agriculture industry in San Luis Obispo County. Then, four regions of the county were established based on Williamson Act enrollment and similarities in agricultural production to provide a more accurate reflection of the potential changes to the local economy. The results were reflected in changes to direct sales, total sales, total income, total value added and number of jobs lost. The study concluded that removing the Act’s funding would have very little impact on land use in the county because of the strict agricultural zoning, but may affect the financial strength of agriculture operations depending on their reliance on the tax incentive. Although this study predicts minor decreases in agricultural output if the Williamson Act was removed, the anticipated economic impacts of the lost output are far greater than the costs to maintain the funding for the Act. The direct cost of the Williamson Act to San Luis Obispo County is roughly $3 million per year, yet if the Act is eliminated, it is estimated $14 to $39 million will be lost in county-wide agricultural output.

Efficient passenger flow is a crucial objective at both small and larger airports. One central part of this is the handling of checked luggage which is influenced by necessary security screening. Within this thesis, these processes are studied at San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport. The underlying problem of the airport is its outbound luggage system which was already suffering from delays prior to Covid-19. Delays were never measured and the bottleneck responsible for them was never identified. However, expected growth in passenger and flight volume necessitates to predict when customer dissatisfaction and extensive luggage delays are inevitable, given that the airport does not plan to change the baggage screening system in the near future. In order to understand the dependencies within said system, process flowcharts for baggage-related activities are defined and translated into a simulation model. After model verification and validation, scenarios of expanding the flight schedule during different times of the day are tested while monitoring the number of bags failing to be loaded into the respective aircraft in time. Further scenarios of model adjustments are used to monitor how the number of missed bags changes while maintaining an expanded flight schedule. Model adjustments were made by changing single parameters such as the scan time or single resources each. Simulation experiments have shown that the number of additional flights that can be added to the flight schedule of February 2020 depend on the time of the day. For instance, the current outbound luggage conveyor system’s capacity is sufficient to cover 1 additional early morning flight, and up to 3 afternoon flights. Experiments with model parameter adjustments led to identifying the luggage scanner as the bottleneck of the luggage system, whereas other tested parameter adjustments showed to have minimal impact on the number of missed bags. Since the model’s flight plan can be conveniently adjusted in the connected Excel database, the model could be used as a tactical decision tool for capacity analysis.

The history of San Luis Obispo and its surrounding areas is complex. Agriculture, innovation, and immigration have all contributed to the formation of the region. The Spanish, Mexican, and early American periods established the framework successive waves of immigrants had to live within. Native Americans and immigrants from China, Portugal, Switzerland, Japan, the Philippines, and other regions of the United States have all toiled in the fields and contributed to America’s tables at various points throughout county history. Many contingencies determined the treatment of successive waves of immigrants. Growth and development are taking place at exponential rates on the very land that witnessed the first local agriculture and the conflicts surrounding the burgeoning industry.

ABSTRACT An Analysis Of Human Disturbance To Rocky Intertidal Communities Of San Luis Obispo County Grant Tyler Waltz The number of coastal areas open to public access in California and San Luis Obispo County is increasing due to the acquisition by California State Parks of land previously owned by private entities. For example, California State Parks acquired property from the Hearst Corporation in 2005, which included 18 miles of coastline. California State Parks is responsible for providing public access in these newly acquired areas and also for maintaining the health of the natural systems found on these properties. Part of the California State Parks’ strategic vision maintains that they seek to consider the impacts of every decision they make on the next seven generations of Californians. To balance the competing demand of providing access with long-term sustainability, State Parks managers require sound scientific data to evaluate the impacts of human access to the ecosystems they manage. One ecosystem susceptible to human access in these new State Park areas and in other areas throughout the state is the rocky intertidal (e.g. Beauchamp and Gowing 1982, Ghazanshahi et al. 1983, Hockey and Bosman 1986, Povey and Keough 1991, Addessi 1994, Fletcher and Frid 1996, Brown and Taylor 1999, Murray et al. 1999, Van De Werfhorst and Pearse 2007). This thesis represents a collaborative effort between State Parks Managers scientists at California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo, and scientists at Tenera Environmental Inc. to provide sound scientific data on the impacts of visitors to rocky intertidal biological communities in San Luis Obispo County. A three-pronged approach was used to assess the effect of visitors to rocky intertidal communities: 1) an observational study to quantify visitor densities in publicly accessible rocky intertidal communities, 2) an experimental manipulation of visitor density to rocky intertidal communities based on the visitor densities observed in part 1 and used to identify organisms susceptible to foot traffic (access-indicator taxa), and 3) an observational study of publicly accessible rocky intertidal sites exposed to levels of foot traffic shown to cause declines in access-indicator taxa from part 2. I was involved with all three portions of the study and my thesis is focused on presenting and discussing parts 1 and 3 in detail. Visitor counts and the observational access-indicator taxa study (parts 1 and 3) were conducted in Montaña de Oro State Park (MDO) in San Luis Obispo County from 2007-2009. There was abundant accessible rocky intertidal coastline in the park. Three popular rocky intertidal sites were chosen within the park to conduct visitor counts. Visitors were quantified from fixed locations on the bluff above each of the three observation sites on sixteen occasions during the course of three years. These counts were used to estimate the annual number of visitors to each site. The area of each intertidal observation site was also calculated and with the annual number of visitors, was used to calculate the annual density of visitors to the rocky intertidal at each site. This represents a novel approach to quantifying visitor numbers to rocky intertidal communities. Additionally, I examined whether there was a relationship between the number of cars entering the park and the density of rocky intertidal visitors or between the number of cars parked at each site and the density of rocky intertidal visitors. The annual density of visitors at one of the observation sites in MDO, Hazard Reef, was shown to be approximately equal to the moderate treatment level from the experimental study (part 2). This moderate level of visitor density was shown to significantly reduce the abundance of five rocky intertidal taxa: rockweed (Silvetia compressa, Hesperophycus californicus, and Fucus gardneri), Endocladia muricata, Mastocarpus papillatus, limpets, and chitons. To assess whether long-term exposure to foot traffic could impact the abundance of access-indicator taxa in MDO, the abundance of these taxa was sampled at Hazard Reef and compared to the abundance of the same taxa at two adjacent sites with much lower annual densities of visitors. A stratified random sampling design was used to assess the abundance of the five access-indicator taxa found in the mid-intertidal zone at these three sites in the spring of 2009. My work demonstrated that visitor densities and patterns of use were variable among the three accessed intertidal sites in MDO. Annual visitor numbers to the rocky intertidal for the three observation sites within MDO were between 3,000-5,000 people. There was no relationship between the number of cars entering the park and the annual density of visitors to the rocky intertidal. The number of parked cars was significantly related to visitor density at one study site suggesting that under specific circumstances, controlling parking lot size may be a viable approach to managing impacts to intertidal areas. Significant differences in limpet density (60 per m2) were detected in a moderately accessed intertidal site relative to adjacent and less visited sites. The abundance of combined algae and limpets were lower at the moderate use site when the lower use sites were compared together against it. Patterns of rocky intertidal habitat use and the estimated annual visitor density suggest that some areas in San Luis Obispo County may be exposed to damaging levels of visitors. The current study identified that the abundance of one out of five experimentally identified access-indicator taxa (Rockweed, Mastocarpus papillatus, Endocladia muricata, Limpets, and Chitons) had been significantly reduced at a popular rocky intertidal site, relative to adjacent and less visited sites.

The primary focus of this project is with the interaction between nature and people. How did the Obispeno Chumash affect their surroundings and what was the outcome? Did changes occur in the environment when other people took over the care of the land? Over the last 250 years, the Obispeno Chumash land has evolved from an ecologically green dominion under their stewardship to the present day where the area is noted for its mission, recreational value, wealth of opportunity, and a nuclear power plant located between Morro Bay and Point Buchon along the ocean.

Despite the fact that eight cases of Lyme disease were diagnosed in San Luis Obispo County between 2005-2013, the identity of wildlife hosts serving as sources for tick infection in this region remained unidentified. The primary cause of Lyme disease in the U.S. is the spirochetal bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto, and this agent had not been previously isolated from the region. Borrelia bissettii, a related species that has not been implicated as a common causative agent of Lyme disease, was isolated in small rodents inhabiting coastal scrub and chaparral habitats in a previous San Luis Obispo County study. However, B. burgdorferi was not detected. In northwestern California, B. burgdorferi has been primarily associated with high populations of the tick vector Ixodes pacificus in dense woodlands or hardwood-conifer habitats, particularly in the western gray squirrel reservoir host, Sciurus griseus. My study investigated the role of S. griseus and other associated rodents as potential reservoirs for B. burgdorferi in central coastal California woodland habitats. Rodents were live-trapped at four sites in San Luis Obispo County in oak and mixed woodland. Rodent ear samples were tested for B. burgdorferi genospecies by bacterial culture and PCR. Ticks were collected from captured rodents and surrounding environments and tested by PCR for the presence of Borrelia. Of 119 captured rodents, seven were positive for Borrelia infection (5.9%) and of these, six were positive for B. burgdorferi (5.0%). There were multiple infected rodent species that included two western gray squirrels, three deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus), and one brush mouse (P. boylii). Borrelia spp. were not detected by PCR from the 81 ticks recovered from the environment and rodents. Here, for the first time, we verify the presence of B. burgdorferi sensu stricto in San Luis Obispo county rodents. However, in contrast to previous Northern California studies, the western gray squirrel may not be the primary reservoir host for B. burgdorferi in this region. Multiple rodent species in oak woodlands may be involved in spirochete maintenance in San Luis Obispo County.

The purpose of this project was to develop a grant to obtain funding to train two San Luis Obispo County Behavioral Health Department staff as certified instructors for the Mental Health First Aid program. These instructors will train staff in the San Luis Obispo County school districts with the goal of increasing the staffs knowledge, thus enabling them to respond better to the mental health needs of their students. This mental health training program covers: risk factors, symptoms, and the role of stigma in mental health issues, as well as resources and action plans. A literature review was completed on the prevalence of youth mental health issues, the effects of mental illness on youth, current youth mental health treatment, a school settings' role in dealing with these issues, early intervention services, and stigma. Actual submission and funding of the grant was not required for the successful completion of this project.

The goal of this project is to design a feasible way to develop a protection plan for boron in the surface waters and groundwater of San Luis Obispo County. Boron is a micronutrient needed by all plants and animals but the threshold for toxicity in plants is narrow. As the need for water increases and the production of wastewater and irrigation water infiltrates the soil and waters of the County, an understanding of background soil and water concentrations, as well as anthropogenically produced sources of boron must be quantified and mapped so that intelligent planning decisions can be made. Many parties have interests at stake in understanding the nature of the threat posed by high levels of boron in soil and water. Water quality, as a resource, is essential for human health and a viable economy, especially if agriculture is a major economic resource. Many local, state, and federal agencies work in partnership to study, regulate, and implement change to the best management practices that protect and ensure water quality. This project will help evaluate the potential threat of elevated concentrations of boron in the waters of San Luis Obispo County and provide a usable resource that interested parties can reference with regard to this threat.

Civil rights have long been an important focus of historical scholarship. As the United States continues to grapple with issues of racism and the complicated legacy of the Civil Rights Movement, it is imperative that a variety of perspectives are incorporated into scholarship on the subject. Traditional scholarship on the subject has focused on the large organizations, individuals, marches, and activities that have come to characterize the Civil Rights movement. This study seeks to integrate the perspectives of a case study population, African Americans in San Luis Obispo, California, to assess the ways in which African Americans away from large population centers were able to participate in the Civil Rights movement. This study draws primarily on contemporary newspapers, NAACP records, and government documents to assess the relationship between the local civil rights movement and its national counterpart. Civil rights activities at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo also reveal important instances of discrimination and exclusion on campus. Research has shown that, despite relative isolation and a miniscule population, African Americans in San Luis Obispo experienced similar discrimination, isolation, and economic exclusion as their urban and rural counterparts throughout the nation. They also attempted to bring attention to their plight using nationally established organizations and tactics. Though African Americans in San Luis Obispo met with limited success, their previously undocumented struggle has revealed a population determined to fight for their rights. The continuity between the experiences of African Americans throughout the country renders a more complete understanding of racism in the United States.

The study looks at the applicability of integrating a Bus Only Shoulder (BOS) into the intermittently congested segment of US 101 in southern San Luis Obispo County. Policy, infrastructure and implementing criteria derived from case studies in Minnesota, Florida and California (San Diego) and the 2007 California Decision Document on BOS are applied to conditions in the region. One measure of performance, time savings, is projected to 2025 to determine the value of integrating the program by that horizon year. Given the substantial potential for time savings in that future year, recommendations are made to create the appropriate policy and infrastructure environment for the program.

The intention of this thesis is to create a business plan for the implementation of a Green Gardener Certification Program in San Luis Obispo County. There is a need locally to conserve resources and to reduce pollution. Landscape maintenance professionals need the opportunity to receive further training in their field for licensing purposes as well as to get an edge in a competitive industry. The public of San Luis Obispo County deserves the opportunity to select a landscape maintenance professional that has been certified “green”. In 2000, Santa Barbara City and County Water Agencies implemented a Green Gardener certification program which was initially intended to address urban landscape irrigation efficiency. These agencies realized that landscape maintenance professionals had a huge impact on water efficiency and on non-point source pollution (Jordan & Aston 2001). The California Department of Pesticide Regulation defines a maintenance gardener as a person who provides services such as: lawn mowing, care taking, and general yard cleanup in outdoor ornamental and garden areas (2010). Maintenance gardeners knowledge of landscape care comes from garden center sales staff, previous experience, or information their clients provide them; very few have ever received any formal landscape training (Kleeman 2009; Kreidich et al. 2005; Paine et al. 1997). The Green Gardener Program is an education and certification program that is intended to teach gardeners how to efficiently utilize valuable resources such as water, how to prevent pollution such as excessive use of synthetic fertilizers, and how to protect their client’s health by reducing their use of pesticides. Implementing a Green Gardener Program in San Luis Obispo County could prove to be an integral component in the pursuit to reduce air, soil, and water contamination.

This project examines food systems and hunger in relation to city planning, and results in a draft strategic plan to address the food security and nutritional needs of San Luis Obispo County’s most vulnerable residents. This Draft Plan is submitted to the Food Bank Coalition of San Luis Obispo County as part of the Hunger-Free Community Project. The Food Bank Coalition of San Luis Obispo County was the lead agency of a USDA Hunger-Free Communities planning grant awarded in 2011. With this grant, the Food Bank convened a group of stakeholders to form the San Luis Obispo County Food System Coalition, and worked with community partners to conduct three studies on existing food resources, food security, and nutritional need in San Luis Obispo County. The outcome of this project is a draft of the third component of the grant – the creation of a strategic plan to address hunger and improve nutrition in San Luis Obispo County. San Luis Obispo County is a rural region rich in agricultural production, but hunger is a growing problem in the County indicating deficiencies in the local food system. One in six residents do not know where their next meal will come from. A high cost of living coupled with many low-wage jobs leaves many residents with few financial resources from which to provide food and other basic necessities. This project reviewed current professional and academic literature on food systems, hunger, and planning; conducted a case study analysis on existing hunger plans; compiled a background report on the existing hunger situation and community needs in the County; and worked with the San Luis Obispo County Food System Coalition to create the Draft Hunger-Free Community Plan for San Luis Obispo County. The Draft Plan and Background Report are organized into five themes: Food Access, Nutrition & Hunger, Local Agriculture, Community Resources and the SLO County Food System Coalition. As this plan is only a draft, the next steps that need to be taken before final adoption of the plan are outlined. This plan is a community plan; it will require the work and support of many organizations and agencies to effectively end hunger in the County.

In the United States the trend towards overweight and obesity has been a major health concern as it has been linked to a variety of health problems. A nation-wide initiative, “Let’s Move” created by Michelle Obama was launched in February 2010 with the goal that, in one generation; every child born will be at a healthy weight at the start of adulthood. Healthy People 2020 are national health objectives for the United States to obtain by 2020. In 2009, San Luis Obispo (SLO) County preschool children overweight and obesity rates mirrored national rates of 1 in 5 four-year-old children were obese (Tom, Rivera, Ravalin, and Jankovitz, 2009). The goal of this study was to assess the 2010 prevalence of overweight or ≥ 85th percentile (OW) and obesity or ≥ 95th percentile (OB) among preschool children in SLO County, compare the results to 2006 and to identify if there were associations to demographic, lifestyle and parental factors. A total of 474 preschool children (4.54 ± 0.65 years) from 24 preschools participated in the physical assessments. A questionnaire was given to parents or guardians whose child completed the physical assessment to determine demographic, lifestyle and parental factors related to OW/OB (Head Start preschools did not participate in the questionnaire portion). There was a 50% response rate for the questionnaires. The results concluded that almost 1/3 of the preschool children were OW/OB, and about half of these children were OB. The Hispanic/Latino preschool children were twice as likely to be OW/OB as NW when compared to White children. Children attending a State preschool were 2.11 times more likely to be OW/OB versus NW than children attending a private preschool. Child health insurance plan, child birth weight, milk intake and parental BMI were found to be significant in effecting weight classification. When comparing 2006 to 2009/10, year, type of preschool and year (2006 or 2009/10) by ethnicity interaction were significant in determining weight class. There was greater than a 30% increase in the prevalence of OW/OB in preschool children from 2006 to 2009/2010, suggesting that current programs and funding are not sufficient in reducing the OW/OB prevalence of preschool children in SLO County. Repeating this study every three years will provide information that could be helpful to the community, public health services, and the medical field in SLO County in the prevention of overweight, obesity and health complications that are related.

The endemic eelgrass (Zostera marina) community of Morro Bay Estuary, located on the central coast of California, has experienced an estimated decline of 95% in occupied area (reduction of 344 acres to 20 acres) from 2008 to 2017 for reasons that are not yet definitively clear. One possible driver of degradation that has yet to be investigated is the role of herbicides from agricultural fields in the watershed that feeds into the estuary. Thus, the primary research goal of this project was to better understand temporal and spatial trends of herbicide use within the context of San Luis Obispo (SLO) County and Morro Bay Watershed by analyzing data of application by mass, area, and intensity to identify herbicides with the highest potential for local environmental pollution. California Pesticide Use Annual Summary Reports (PUASR) from the years 2000 to 2017 were used to obtain data for conducting a meta-analysis to estimate total herbicide application by weight within every township, range, and section for each of the eight selected herbicides: oxyfluorfen, glyphosate, diuron, chlorthal-dimethyl, simazine, napropamide, trifluralin, and oryzalin. A second goal was to select an analytical laboratory that would be best suited for herbicide analysis of estuary sediments to determine the presence, or lack thereof, of the eight selected herbicides. Criteria of consideration in laboratory selection included herbicides detection capabilities, detection/reporting limits, testing prices, chain of custody protocols, turnaround times, and laboratory site locations. The meta-analysis yielded results showing high herbicide application rates in SLO County with glyphosate, oxyfluorfen, and chlorthal-dimethyl being identified as three herbicides of elevated risk for local environmental contamination due high rates of use by mass, by area, and/or intensity during the study timeframe. Additionally, Morro Bay Watershed exhibited moderate rates of herbicide application with chlorthal-dimethyl and glyphosate being of highest risk for contamination and accumulation within the estuary because of high application rates by mass, by area, and/or intensity. Finally, Environmental Micro Analysis (EMA) and Primus Group, Inc. (PrimusLabs) were identified as the top candidates for analytical laboratory testing of Morro Bay Estuary sediment samples to be obtained and tested for the selected herbicides. These laboratories provide superior analytical capabilities of the eight herbicides, impressive reporting limits or lower detection limits, competitive testing prices for detecting multiple constituents in multiple samples, robust chain of custody protocols, options for quick turnaround times, and laboratory site locations within California.