Carrie Schloss

Spatial Data Scientist
Technology
[email protected]

Carrie is a Spatial Data Scientist in The Nature Conservancy’s California Program. She focuses on multi-benefit conservation planning and climate change adaptation. She uses data analytics and creates decision support tools to encourage the integration of conservation values across sectors.  She explores how natural resource and social science information can be combined to reveal new opportunities to advance the conservation of natural lands in an urbanizing landscape.  She also conducts statewide assessments that identify how the landscape can enhance resilience and adaptation to climate change to support climate-smart conservation decisions.

Before the Conservancy, she contracted with the United States Geological Survey to apply spatial conservation prioritization tools to offset siting for mitigation. She holds a M.S. from the University of Washington where she analyzed the ability for mammals to keep pace with climate change (link to Conservancy's Talk blog) and explored methods for incorporating climate change adaptation and resilience into conservation planning.

What Carrie is working on now:

I’m currently finalizing the development of the conservation module, a tool that evaluates scenarios of future development and density patterns and quantify the impacts to natural resources for each development scenario.  In anticipation of the completion of this module, I am working closely with the developers of urban planning tools that are currently in use by cities, counties, and metropolitan planning organizations throughout California  to integrate the conservation module into the tools that planners are already using to empower them to guide their jurisdictions towards more sustainable growth options.