Robert H. Twiss, Ph.D.

Professor of Environmental Planning, Emeritus

The University of California, Berkeley

===== =====
PO Box 422 Ross, CA 94957

[email protected]


Robert H. Twiss is a Professor Emeritus of Environmental Planning at The University of California, Berkeley, and consultant in the field of Environmental Planning.

He has worked at all levels of planning, with research and consultancies for local, regional, state, and federal agencies; and served foreign governments and institutions (China, Mexico, Australia), and served as a Special Representative of the United Nations with three missions to Montenegro.

He served as Faculty Principal Investigator for the Research Program in Environmental Planning and Geographic Information Systems (REGIS) which developed information and tools for open access to geographic information on land use, natural resources, and the environment. REGIS developed the world’s first web-based GIS in 1993 and placed the patent in the public domain.

Public offices and consulting services have included:

  • Napa County Sustainable Groundwater Plan Advisory Committee: facilitation and planning support, with CONCUR, Inc., 2020, on-going
  • California Coastal Commission/Poseidon Inc. facilitation and planning support for an Independent Scientific and Technical Review Panel; Huntington Beach 50 MGD Desalination Plant, 2014-2016
  • Independent Science Panel for the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board; Humboldt County Watersheds; facilitation and planning support with CONCUR, Inc.  (Timber harvest/watershed protection), 2003
  • Consultant to the Office of the California Attorney General (planning and regulation, Lake Tahoe Basin), 1984 – ongoing
  • Member, US EPA Science Advisory Board, 2003-2009
  • Consultant to the Governor’s Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force, 2007-2009
  • Member, Steering Committee: Delta Risk Management Strategy, 2006-2007
  • Consultant to the CA Dept. of Water Resources: Delta Status & Trends Report, 2006-2007
    Member, California Bay-Delta Authority Independent Science Board, 2003- 2007
  • Member, CALFED Water Management Science Board, 2005
  • Co-Chair, CALFED Ecosystem Restoration Program Science Board, 2000-2005
  • Member of the Core Team, CALFED Strategic Plan for Ecosystem Restoration, 1998
  • Chairman of the Governing Board, California/Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (1980-83)
  • Chairman of the California State Mining and Geology Board, 1977-1980

University service involved graduate-level teaching of ecological planning and environmental law, service as Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning, Chair of the Faculty of the College of Environmental Design, and initiation and direction of the Ph.D. program in Environmental Planning.

Publications include:
Jeffrey Mount, Robert Twiss, “Subsidence, sea level rise, & seismicity in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta”, San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science, Vol. 3. Issue 1, March, 2005.

“Planning and Land Regulation at Lake Tahoe: Five Decades of Experience” in: Big Places, Big Plans; Mark B. Lapping & Owen Furuseth, eds.  Ashgate Press, 2004, pp. 83-95.

He holds a Ph.D. and M.S. from the School of Natural Resources, The University of Michigan (1962), and an AB in Conservation, San Jose State University (1955). He also served in the US Air Force as a tactical fighter pilot (1956-58) and in the Michigan Air National Guard (photo reconnaissance, 1960-61).