Creating your own climate map: A new website aims to help Southern Californians use data for climate action

A new website launched Thursday that aims to make the best available mapping data accessible to everyone.

Called SoCalEarth.org, the online mapping tool was developed by Pitzer College’s Robert Redford Conservancy in partnership with Redlands-based GIS leader Esri.

Susan Phillips, a Pitzer College professor and the director of the Robert Redford Conservancy, said it’s a “one stop shop” for all kinds of data — from climate risk to air pollution to housing, biodiversity, and more.

“It's an invitation to explore, and to empower yourself through that exploration,” Phillips told LAist. “Our target audience is everyone from a very bright fifth grader up to a community planner and everything in between and beyond that,” Phillips, who led the project, said.

The website allows anyone from curious individuals to teachers, community advocates, researchers, urban planners, developers and more to learn how the climate crisis intersects with other issues, build actionable plans with accurate information, and create custom maps with the most reliable and up-to-date datasets.

“SoCal Earth provides a holistic perspective,” said Nathan Lu, a Pitzer College student who helped develop the website over the last two years. “We want to tackle as many community issues as we can. ‘Community first, climate first’ is our core value in designing this.”

Data to empower education and action

Phillips said the goal is to help Southern Californians engage with climate, environmental and civic issues in their own backyards and beyond, as well as directly connect the climate crisis with too-often siloed conversations around land use planning, housing, poverty, food access, wildlife and more.

“We brought together the best data that we could from a variety of sources so that everybody could at least have a common place to start a conversation,” Phillips said at a press event announcing the website's launch.

A map on the SoCal Earth site showing conserved lands in LA County.

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Courtesy SoCal Earth

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Phillips told LAist she recently used data from the website to help submit comments around a recently-approved housing development near the world’s oldest known living oak tree in the city of Jurupa Valley in Riverside County.

Website users can build their own custom maps on the website to visualize local climate-related issues, and there’s a tool to help residents and city officials alike examine if a local project takes a “community-first, climate-first” approach.

Ollie the burrowing owl is the mascot of the SoCal Earth website.

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Courtesy SoCal Earth

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Already, urban planners and community advocates are using the website. For example, city planner Jonathan Pacheco Bell will use the website’s data and mapping tools to help develop a plan for a new linear park in the Florence-Firestone neighborhood of L.A., in partnership with L.A. County Parks and Recreation.

Making data accessible

If the word “data” intimidates you or puts you to sleep, don’t worry, SoCal Earth is meant for you. The website is designed to be colorful, playful, and easy to navigate. There’s even an adorable mascot to guide you through it: a burrowing owl named Ollie.

Why Ollie? Burrowing owl habitat and populations have declined significantly in California, largely due to development.

In fact, the California Fish and Game Commission voted Thursday to consider them for protections under the Endangered Species Act. That means the owls will be protected statewide until the commission votes on whether to permanently protect them after a scientific review, which could take more than a year. It’s a win for those who have fought to protect the quirky owls' populations from dwindling further.

Ollie is named in honor of a recently lost battle against a warehouse project in Ontario, where environmental advocates argued that burrowing owls would be detrimentally impacted.

“For us, the burrowing owl is a symbol of resilience,” Phillips said. “It's a tremendously adaptable bird. Even with that strength, it's struggling. If you prioritize the most vulnerable people, species, and places, you will benefit everyone. And that's the story of the burrowing owl, Ollie, our mascot.”