Bio

Diana A. Moanga, PhD, is a Lecturer in the Earth Systems Program at Stanford University’s Doerr School of Sustainability. She teaches courses in geographic information science (GIS), remote sensing, spatial analysis, and geospatial data science, including Fundamentals of Geographic Information Science, Advanced Concepts in Geographic Information Science, and Remote Sensing of Land, Biology and Global Change, and mentors undergraduate and graduate students through independent research.

Her teaching emphasizes applied, problem-based learning that connects geospatial methods to real-world environmental and societal questions. She designs GIS coursework around place-based analyses, spatial problem solving, cartographic communication, and independent student projects, with the goal of helping students move beyond learning software to understanding how spatial thinking can be used to investigate complex problems. In 2025, she received the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability’s Excellence in Teaching Award in recognition of her contributions to teaching, curriculum innovation, and student learning. Her approach to GIS education was also featured by Esri in the 2026 article, Making GIS Click: Lessons from a Stanford Classroom.

Dr. Moanga’s research spans coastal resilience, land system science, conservation, and coupled human–environment systems, with particular expertise in GIS, remote sensing, and spatial analysis. Her work examines how environmental and anthropogenic pressures reshape landscapes and coastal systems, including land-use and land-cover change, wildfire, flooding and coastal hazards, ecosystem services, and nature-based approaches to resilience. Across this work, she is particularly interested in developing spatial methods and decision-support frameworks that translate complex environmental data into information that can support conservation, planning, and climate resilience.

She earned her PhD in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management from the University of California, Berkeley in 2020. Her doctoral research used geospatial methods to examine land-use and land-cover change across California, including the effects of conservation management on coastal lands, agricultural transitions in the Central Valley, and wildfire activity under changing climate conditions. She earned her MS in Marine Affairs and Policy and BA in Marine Affairs from the University of Miami, where her research included harmful algal blooms, coastal zone management, and coral conservation.

Before joining the Earth Systems faculty in 2023, Dr. Moanga was a postdoctoral researcher in Stanford’s Department of Earth System Science and at Florida International University’s Sea Level Solutions Center.

Academic Appointments

  • Lecturer, Earth Systems Program

Honors & Awards

  • Excellence in Teaching Award, Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability (May 2025)
  • Community Engaged Teaching Fellowship, Haas Center for Public Service (2024-2025)

Professional Education

  • BA, University of Miami, Marine Affairs (2013)
  • MS, University of Miami, Marine Affairs and Policy (2015)
  • PhD, University of California Berkeley, Environmental Science Policy and Management (2020)

Additional Info

Links

2026-27 Courses

All Publications

  • Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Wildfire on Cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms Proliferation ACS ES&T WATER Coker, A., Moanga, D., Fendorf, S., White Jr, E. 2026

    View details for DOI 10.1021/acsestwater.6c00049

    View details for Web of Science ID 001742543900001

  • Exploring state-level messaging toward US water reuse: a media analysis across time and space ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH: INFRASTRUCTURE AND SUSTAINABILITY Fu, S., Moanga, D., Hacker, M. E., Scruggs, C., Osman, K. K. 2025; 5 (3)

    View details for DOI 10.1088/2634-4505/adf664

    View details for Web of Science ID 001550084800001

  • Evaluating perceptions of green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) through a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS Medina, C. Y., Shrivatsa, S., Stone, M., Moanga, D., White Jr, E., Awais, M., Cardenas, A., Revels, K., Nieto, Y., Osman, K. K. 2025; 20 (5)

    View details for DOI 10.1088/1748-9326/adc9c5

    View details for Web of Science ID 001472569700001

  • Advancing the understanding of coastal disturbances with a network-of-networks approach ECOSPHERE Myers-Pigg, A. N., Moanga, D., Bond-Lamberty, B., Ward, N. D., Megonigal, J., White Jr, E., Bailey, V. L., Kirwan, M. L. 2025; 16 (1)

    View details for DOI 10.1002/ecs2.70156

    View details for Web of Science ID 001391757300001

  • A cloudy forecast for species distribution models: Predictive uncertainties abound for California birds after a century of climate and land-use change. Global change biology Clare, J. D., de Valpine, P., Moanga, D. A., Tingley, M. W., Beissinger, S. R. 2023: e17019

    Abstract

    Correlative species distribution models are widely used to quantify past shifts in ranges or communities, and to predict future outcomes under ongoing global change. Practitioners confront a wide range of potentially plausible models for ecological dynamics, but most specific applications only consider a narrow set. Here, we clarify that certain model structures can embed restrictive assumptions about key sources of forecast uncertainty into an analysis. To evaluate forecast uncertainties and our ability to explain community change, we fit and compared 39 candidate multi- or joint species occupancy models to avian incidence data collected at 320 sites across California during the early 20th century and resurveyed a century later. We found massive (>20,000 LOOIC) differences in within-time information criterion across models. Poorer fitting models omitting multivariate random effects predicted less variation in species richness changes and smaller contemporary communities, with considerable variation in predicted spatial patterns in richness changes across models. The top models suggested avian environmental associations changed across time, contemporary avian occupancy was influenced by previous site-specific occupancy states, and that both latent site variables and species associations with these variables also varied over time. Collectively, our results recapitulate that simplified model assumptions not only impact predictive fit but may mask important sources of forecast uncertainty and mischaracterize the current state of system understanding when seeking to describe or project community responses to global change. We recommend that researchers seeking to make long-term forecasts prioritize characterizing forecast uncertainty over seeking to present a single best guess. To do so reliably, we urge practitioners to employ models capable of characterizing the key sources of forecast uncertainty, where predictors, parameters and random effects may vary over time or further interact with previous occurrence states.

    View details for DOI 10.1111/gcb.17019

    View details for PubMedID 37987241

  • Hyperlocal Observations Reveal Persistent Extreme Urban Heat in Southeast Florida Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology Clement, A., Troxler, T., Keefe, O., Arcordia, M., Cruz, M., Moanga, D., Hernandez, A., Adefris, Z., Jacobson, S. 2023

    View details for DOI 10.1175/JAMC-D-22-0165.1

  • Farm consolidation and turnover dynamics linked to increased crop diversity and higher agricultural input use. Agricultural Systems Olivia, H., Butsic, V., Moanga, D., Wartenberg, A. 2023

    View details for DOI 10.1016/j.agsy.2023.103708

  • The threat of wildfire is unique to cannabis among agricultural sectors in California ECOSPHERE Dillis, C., Van Butsic, Moanga, D., Parker-Shames, P., Wartenberg, A., Grantham, T. E. 2022; 13 (9)

    View details for DOI 10.1002/ecs2.4205

    View details for Web of Science ID 000850311700001

  • Identifying drivers of change and predicting future land-use impacts in established farmlands JOURNAL OF LAND USE SCIENCE Wartenberg, A. C., Moanga, D., Butsic, V. 2022; 17 (1): 161-180

    View details for DOI 10.1080/1747423X.2021.2018061

    View details for Web of Science ID 000733661800001

  • Limited Economic-Ecological Trade-Offs in a Shifting Agricultural Landscape: A Case Study From Kern County, California FRONTIERS IN SUSTAINABLE FOOD SYSTEMS Wartenberg, A. C., Moanga, D., Potts, M. D., Butsic, V. 2021; 5

    View details for DOI 10.3389/fsufs.2021.650727

    View details for Web of Science ID 000641262300001

  • A System for Resilience Learning: Developing a community-driven, multi-sector research approach for greater preparedness and resilience to long-term climate stresses and extreme events in the Miami metropolitan region Journal of Extreme Events. Troxler, T., et al 2021
  • The space-time cube as an approach to quantifying future wildfires in California INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF WILDLAND FIRE Moanga, D., Biging, G., Radke, J., Butsic, V. 2021; 30 (2): 139-153

    View details for DOI 10.1071/WF19062

    View details for Web of Science ID 000588770100001

  • "Sealed in San Jose:" Paving of front yards diminishes urban forest resource and benefits in low-density residential neighborhoods URBAN FORESTRY & URBAN GREENING Lacan, I., Moanga, D., McBride, J. R., Butsic, V. 2020; 54

    View details for DOI 10.1016/j.ufug.2020.126755

    View details for Web of Science ID 000569421200017

  • Avoided land use conversions and carbon loss from conservation purchases in California JOURNAL OF LAND USE SCIENCE Moanga, D., Schroeter, I., Ackerly, D., Butsic, V. 2018; 13 (4): 391-413

    View details for DOI 10.1080/1747423X.2018.1533043

    View details for Web of Science ID 000455153200002

  • Using InVEST to assess ecosystem services on conserved properties in Sonoma County, CAYY CALIFORNIA AGRICULTURE Butsic, V., Shapero, M., Moanga, D., Larson, S. 2017; 71 (2): 81-89

    View details for DOI 10.3733/ca.2017a0008

    View details for Web of Science ID 000400939800009

  • Eastern Pacific Coral Reef Provinces, Coral Community Structure and Composition: An Overview CORAL REEFS OF THE EASTERN TROPICAL PACIFIC: PERSISTENCE AND LOSS IN A DYNAMIC ENVIRONMENT Glynn, P. W., Alvarado, J. J., Banks, S., Cortes, J., Feingold, J. S., Jimenez, C., Maragos, J. E., Martinez, P., Mate, J. L., Moanga, D. A., Navarrete, S., Reyes-Bonilla, H., Riegl, B., Rivera, F., Vargas-Angel, B., Wieters, E. A., Zapata, F. A. edited by Glynn, P. W., Manzello, D. P., Enochs, I. C. 2017; 8: 107-176

    View details for DOI 10.1007/978-94-017-7499-4_5

    View details for Web of Science ID 000400151600007

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7269-8418