98T95701

Description:
Healthy watersheds and thriving cities: collaborating for multiple benefits at the landscape scale builds on previously successful WQIF projects and ongoing efforts in the Santa Clara Valley to develop a cross-organization, landscape-scale watershed approach to identifying urban greening solutions that provide multiple benefits to humans and wildlife. The collaborative approach developed in this project will help increase the success rate of funding proposals, expedite the implementation of urban greening, and improve the delivery of associated benefits, all of which will improve habitat and water quality in the Guadalupe and Coyote Creek watersheds and ultimately water quality in San Francisco Bay.

This assistance agreement provides full federal funding in the amount of $3,494,219. Pre-award costs are approved back to 4/1/2024. See terms and conditions.

Activities:
Healthy watersheds and thriving cities has six project components focusing on the urban area in the Santa Clara Valley, largely within the lower portions of the Coyote Creek and Guadalupe River watersheds. Task 1, convene regional working group, will bring together a wide range of entities in the Santa Clara Valley involved in urban greening efforts. Task 2, enhance community connections, includes broad community outreach and education along with the establishment of a community team that will help identify priority benefits and where those benefits are needed. Task 3, assess benefit needs and identify opportunities, will conduct spatial analyses to map gaps in benefits prioritized in tasks 1 and 2, and identify opportunity areas for collaborative urban greening projects.

Task 4, compare scenarios, will use a scenario-based analysis to validate the advantage of taking a landscape approach to multi-benefit urban greening compared to a project-by-project approach. Task 5, visualize opportunities, will add opportunity areas identified in task 3 to layer(s) within EcoAtlas to foster ongoing coordination. Task 6, implement projects, will apply findings from previous tasks to inform the multi-benefit designs for three types of implementation projects. Finally, one pilot project will be identified through the regional working group to serve as proof of concept for the landscape-scale approach to multi-benefit planning and design.

Subrecipient:
There are several subawards. Save the Bay will facilitate and summarize the outcomes of 2-3 additional meetings to engage elected and appointed officials and other decision-makers. Climate Resilient Communities will facilitate the creation of a community team composed of representatives from community-based organizations (CBOs) and tribes in underserved communities in San Jose. Our City Forest will lead outreach meetings with the broader community that focus on a range of urban greening and climate resilience topics. Tamien Nation will conduct a cultural assessment. South Bay Clean Creeks Coalition will perform the restoration of 800 ft of Los Gatos Creek.

Outcomes:
Project deliverables include: approx. 10 meetings with working group and officials, regional collaboration handbook, 2-3 public presentations; 12 community outreach meetings, 36 community meetings, roadmaps for successful engagement; data layer and map creation, opportunity area assessments, presentations on findings; implementation of projects and incorporation into interactive website.

Expected outcomes:
Regional collaboration is facilitated by additional data, tools, and frameworks. Funding for urban greening projects is easier to obtain using the landscape-based approach. 6-8 priority benefits for the Santa Clara Valley are identified and mapped. Increase in biodiversity, access to nature, heat island mitigation, water quality, and habitat quality. Community-based organizations and tribes have increased capacity and expertise to submit successful grant applications for multi-benefit projects in their communities. Intended project benefi

San Francisco Estuary Institute

66.126 - Geographic Programs - San Francisco Bay Water Quality Improvement Fund

EPA Region 9: San Francisco [EPA - RO]

Richmond, California 94804 United States

Single Zip Code

San Francisco Bay Water Quality Improvement Fund, Fiscal Year 2023 (EPA-R9-SFBWQIF-23-02)