CA-TPL app: dataset additions for water, fire, finance, and equity portfolios

[boettiger-lab-llm-agent]

Context

The tpl-ca geo-agent app serves the Trust for Public Land California team. Following a planning session with the CA-TPL team (Juan Altamirano & Moises), five research portfolios were identified: water resilience, fire, finance/ballot measures, land protection, and equity/biodiversity. This issue tracks dataset additions that would support those analyses.

Datasets are split into two groups:

• Already in STAC catalog — need app layer config added to tpl-ca/layers-input.json
• Not yet in catalog — need ingestion through the data-workflows pipeline first

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Already in catalog — needs app layer config in tpl-ca

These collections exist in the STAC catalog and have H3 hex parquet. No ingestion work needed; just layers-input.json entries.

CAL FIRE Wildfire Perimeters 2024

Collection: calfire-2024-firep
Historical fire perimeter polygons for all CA fires through 2024, with fire name, year, agency, cause, and GIS acres. H3 spatial join to TPL almanac already shows Woolsey, Tubbs, SCU Lightning Complex, and Glass fires overlapping active TPL sites — the core of the fire-as-insurance-buffer argument.

CAL FIRE Prescribed Burns 2024

Collection: calfire-2024-rxburn
Prescribed burn polygons for CA. Overlay with TPL lands to show proactive fire resilience co-benefits of conservation.

LandVote (Conservation Ballot Measures 1988–2025)

Collection: landvote
Every US conservation ballot measure with outcome, finance mechanism, funds approved, and jurisdiction geometry. CA-specific analysis shows bond pass rates of 96%+ (2000s–2020s) and identifies counties with no ballot measure infrastructure — key for the "create new county/regional authorities" strategy. The 2024 state bond ($1.2B) explicitly includes wildfire, green schoolyards, and equity.

HydroBasins v1c

Collection: hydrobasins-v1c
Global watershed boundaries at multiple Pfafstetter levels. Level 3–4 basins provide the watershed-level framing for the water portfolio — which TPL acquisitions fall within which major watersheds and whether those watersheds are SGMA-designated groundwater basins.

NCP Biodiversity Indicators

Collection: ncp-biodiversity
Nature's Contributions to People biodiversity and natural habitat indicators (Chaplin-Kramer et al. 2019). One of three layers for the team's prioritization framework: biodiversity × tribal engagement × water resilience.

LandMark: Indigenous & Community Land Rights

Collection: landmark-v202509
Global dataset of indigenous and community-held lands. The tribal engagement column in the prioritization framework.

IUCN Species Richness 2025

Collection: iucn-richness-2025
Species richness rasters by taxonomic group. Supports biodiversity prioritization alongside NCP.

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Not yet in catalog — needs data ingestion

CA DWR SGMA Groundwater Basin Boundaries

Why: The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (2014) designates critically overdrafted basins as state priorities. Overlaying TPL acquisitions with SGMA basins directly answers "are our water-portfolio acquisitions aligned with state groundwater goals?" — a key advocacy framing.

Source:

• SGMA data portal: https://water.ca.gov/programs/groundwater-management/data-and-tools
• Direct download (CA Open Data): https://data.cnra.ca.gov/dataset/sgma-data
• Includes: basin boundaries, adjudication status, criticality designation
• Format: Shapefile / GeoJSON, ~500 basins statewide, polygon geometry, no auth required

CA Fire Hazard Severity Zones (FHSZ)

Why: The insurance conversation around parks as WUI buffers needs a risk layer, not just historical burn perimeters. FHSZ is the regulatory layer insurers and state agencies use to define high/very-high/extreme fire risk. Overlaying TPL lands with FHSZ shows which protected areas are in the highest-risk zones.

Source:

• CAL FIRE FHSZ viewer: https://osfm.fire.ca.gov/divisions/community-wildfire-preparedness-and-mitigation/wildland-hazards-building-codes/fire-hazard-severity-zones-maps/
• Direct download (CA Open Data Hub): https://data.ca.gov/dataset/fire-hazard-severity-zones
• Format: Shapefile / GeoJSON, statewide polygon, no auth required

American Rivers — Rivers of Opportunity Assessment

Why: American Rivers is a named TPL partner. Their Rivers of Opportunity framework identifies rivers by conservation priority, equity, and existing partnership activity — directly relevant to the water portfolio and "who are our usual suspects" partnership question. The CA-TPL team wants to show alignment with American Rivers' priorities.

Source:

• Report: https://www.americanrivers.org/2023/12/rivers-of-opportunity-building-momentum-for-more-equitable-river-conservation/
• ArcGIS webmap: https://amrivers.maps.arcgis.com/apps/mapviewer/index.html?webmap=ee5947926bf440bc9aa95d3380a98b7d
• Note: Data availability for bulk download unclear — may require direct contact with American Rivers or use of ArcGIS REST API. Investigate before committing to ingestion.

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Priority

For the immediate CA-TPL work, the highest-value additions in order are:

1. CAL FIRE perimeters (already in catalog — app config only, unlocks fire portfolio entirely)
2. LandVote (already in catalog — unlocks finance portfolio and district advocacy)
3. SGMA basins (ingestion needed — single most important external layer for water portfolio)
4. FHSZ (ingestion needed — insurance conversation enabler)
5. HydroBasins app layer config (already in catalog)

Related: tpl-ca repo | research notes

[cboettig]

Closing pending clarification from CA-TPL team (Juan/Moises) on which layers to prioritize. Status at close: firep, rxburn, landvote already in tpl-ca layers. hydrobasins-v1c, ncp-biodiversity, iucn-richness-2025 in STAC but not yet in app. SGMA and FHSZ still need ingestion. Will reopen or create targeted issues once priorities are confirmed.