Key Personnel
James R. Kulpa
Principal / Hydrographer
Mr. Kulpa has over 20 years’ experience in field data collection including hydrologic instrumentation and surveying with an emphasis on bathymetric surveying and instrumentation. During his 20 years as a professional hydrographer, he has managed extensive field efforts for the United States Geological Survey (branch of Pacific Marine Geology – Palo Alto, CA), Bigelow Laboratories for Ocean Sciences (Boothbay Harbor, Maine), and Philip Williams and Associates (San Francisco, CA).
As a result, Mr. Kulpa has managed federally-funded research projects, academic-based projects, and private-sector projects for the engineering, restoration, hydrologic and modeling communities. Typical work products include hydrologic data time series generation for model calibration and monitoring, conditional and pre and post dredge bathymetric surveying, pre and post restoration construction topographic surveying, water quality monitoring and report generation, and telemetry design and implementation.
His projects include Gulf of Maine Coccolithiphore Monitoring, Coastal Louisiana Barrier Island Migration Monitoring, Central and Northern California State Beaches Monitoring, Sly Park Reservoir Water Quality Monitoring and Bathymetric Surveys, Salton Sea Seabed Classification, Bathymetric Survey and Water Quality Monitoring, Sonoma Baylands Wetlands Restoration Implementation and Monitoring and the Integrated Regional Wetland Monitoring Program (water quality and physical processes).
Darren Gewant
Survey Technician
Mr. Gewant has over 15 years experience in the hydrology, water quality, biology and ecology of estuarine and marine systems. Serving as the field team leader for EDS, he manages numerous hydrographic survey efforts throughout California. He also manages the water quality monitoring division for all field efforts and has recently implemented a biological sampling component to augment EDS capabilities.
Recently, Mr. Gewant completed an intensive 13-week water quality survey on the Snake River, Idaho. His work has also focused on several pre and post-dredge bathymetric surveys, designing a Side Scan Sonar mapping effort and managing an extensive topographic survey effort to support a hydrologic modeling project.
Mr. Gewant’s previous project management role as a research technician focusing on data analysis, synthesis, and reporting of field research results, adds great depth to his experience. Mr. Gewant has several published articles in peer-reviewed professional journals.
Jacob H. Schweitzer
Project Cartographer
Mr. Schweitzer has over 10 years of professional experience in geographic information science, including GIS, cartography, CAD modeling, GPS surveying, and related web-based technologies. Combining high-end graphics with advanced analysis, his project experience includes South Bay Salt Pond Reference atlases, hydrographic analyses of tidal marsh restoration sites, mapping and describing wetland restoration projects throughout the San Francisco Estuary and Delta, preparing wetland restoration construction plans, and numerous bathymetric contour map generation projects.