Santa Barbara County Landscape Carbon Accounting

Natural and working lands (including rangeland, forests, wetlands, farmland, and more) cover more than 85% of Santa Barbara County, and are vital not only to the county’s environment, but also to the economy and the well-being of residents. Natural and working lands can serve as major carbon sinks, but can become carbon sources depending on how they are managed. This project assesses the potential of natural and working lands in the county to contribute to the County of Santa Barbara's greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals and the State’s carbon-neutrality goals.

We are a group of Master's Students from the Bren School of Environmental Studies and Management, UCSB. We drew on the approach demonstrated by Resilient Merced. We quantified existing carbon stocks on the county’s natural and working lands and projected future sequestration that could result from implementing climate-smart land management practices. Based on this analysis, we recommend management strategies that the County of Santa Barbara can implement to preserve existing carbon sinks and promote carbon sequestration in the future, while also protecting valuable economic and natural resources.

In this case study, we show the data sources and spatial analysis that fed into our projections. To learn more about our findings and methodology, visit our project website, check out our Final Report or executive summary!