# @ucdavis on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DFWKx_3ynLc
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/79275548-ucdavis-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/01fbbf4716.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-01-27T22:49:10.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** UC Davis | California's College Town (@ucdavis) — https://gondola.cc/ucdavis

## Caption

On a hot day in early September 2024, researchers from UC Davis are in the creek, setting up transects to measure its size and shape.

Olive trees, willows, blackberry brambles and dried grasses share space here with scattered bits of trash — soda bottles, plastic bags, broken toys, paper plates, a pizza box. A woman shuffles below the shade of an oak. An empty wheelchair is parked under a tree. A shirtless man on a bike emerges from a trail and quickly apologizes for “being in the way.”

He’s not, Professor Gregory Pasternack assures him: “We’re just researchers from UC Davis measuring the stream.”

As homelessness and climate change increase, urban streams become more susceptible to flash floods, heavy winds and pollution and more dangerous to those sleeping alongside them. The research could yield data to better understand how to make positive changes and inform policies.

They are joined by Costanza Rampini, an associate professor of environmental studies at San José State University. She and her research team are conducting trash surveys and interviewing unhoused people living along this stream.

“It is incredibly important that we think about homelessness as it relates to climate change because people who live and sleep outside are the most climate vulnerable,” Rampini said. “They are our number one front-line community.”

Learn more about how researchers are monitoring data to see if services improved the river’s health or the people’s lives by visiting https://ucdav.is/4g81N00, or by clicking on this post’s thumbnail in our profile link.

#ClimateChange #UrbanEcology

Video descriptions: Researchers survey an urban stream, studying how climate change impacts these waterways and unhoused people living alongside them. As climate change worsens, streams become prone to floods and pollution, increasing risks. The study, spanning two years, follows streams flowing from wooded areas to highways, highlighting the link between urban development, climate, and homelessness.

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## Credits

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## Tags

climatechange, urbanecology

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