Important Links

Environmental Data

weather station Earth and Soil Sciences use a broad range of environmental data to assist in making informed land use and management decisions. We use soil science, climatology, geology, geography, and ecology information for environmental assessment.

San Luis Obispo County is a beautiful place to live, go to school, and work! For information about the natural history of the campus and county, use these links:

Weather and climate are an important part of the environment, locally, nationally, and internationally. Did you know, “weather” data has to be collected for 30 years before it can be considered to be “climate” - ?!

For online weather and climate information, use these links:

By the way, the Earth Sciences major has a concentration in Climate Change Studies.

Soil surveys are detailed inventories of the land resource. They are an essential resource for environmental assessment, protection, and remediation. For interactive soil maps and information in United States (data from National Cooperative Soil Survey), use this link:

http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app/

For other soil science information, use these links:

Official series descriptions give a soil profile description of all the soils in the U.S. Soils are named after a geographical feature where the soils were first discovered or described (try keying in your name, the name of your city, or some feature near where you live) on this website:

http://soils.usda.gov/technical/classification/osd/index.html

Geology has a big effect on the environment in California! For geology information, use these links:

For information on recent earthquakes, use this link:

http://quake.usgs.gov/recent/index.html

Increasingly, resource and environmental assessment are done on the basis of watersheds. A watershed is an area of land that drains into a stream. The area contributes runoff to one specific delivery point. So, you can see that watersheds, and the soils, farms, and communities in them, are closely tied in to water quality as well as the quantity of water available for various land uses. For information on watersheds, use these links:

A few years ago, Cal Poly, the Regional Water Quality Control Board, and the Environmental Protection Agency cooperated on a study relating rangeland management to water quality. Use these links if you would like to read about this study:

http://ari.calstate.edu/research/pdf/00-3-026/ResearchReport-00-3-026.pdf

There are lots of sources of geographical information on line. Try these links:

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has lots of resources relating to the environment and the earth. This is a link to that agency:

http://www.nasa.gov/

Sustainability in environmental stewardship is an increasingly important issue. We are proud of our department’s association with sustainability and with organic farming on campus. For more information on this, try these links:

Cal Poly Weather Station

Welcome to the weather station part of our Environmental page in our website. We installed a Campbell Scientific weather station in the Chumash Creek watershed on campus. You can see the photo of it above. The coordinates (Lat-Long) of the station are N 35.34 degrees, W 120.74 degrees. The weather data are recorded hourly. We call the weather station from our department office, and download the data. We then format the data into Excel, and post it on our website.

Click here to download the most current Cal Poly Weather Station data.

We will be posting the data periodically. Occasionally there is a “glitch” in data collection or download, so please keep that in mind. The weather station purchase and installation was supported by the Oreggia Family Foundation, Dean David Wehner of the CAFES, and the Earth & Soil Sciences CBF Committee.

The data is here for you to use! Have fun! E-mail us at earthsoils@calpoly.edu if you have any questions.