Digital Commons Network^™

Coastal Lagoons And Climate Change: Ecological And Social Ramifications In The U.S. Atlantic And Gulf Coast Ecosystems, Abigail Anthony, Joshua Atwood, Peter V. August, Carrie Byron, Stanley Cobb, Cheryl Foster, Crystal Fry, Arthur Gold, Kifle Hagos, Leanna Heffner, D. Q. Kellogg, Kimberly Lellis-Dibble, James J. Opaluch, Candace A. Oviatt, Anna Pfeiffer-Herbert, Nicole Rohr, Leslie Smith, Tiffany Smythe, Judith Swift, Nathan Vinhateiro

Arthur Gold

Lagoons are highly productive coastal features that provide a range of natural services that society values. Their setting within the coastal landscape leaves them especially vulnerable to profound physical, ecological, and associated societal disturbance from global climate change. Expected shifts in physical and ecological characteristics range from changes in flushing regime, freshwater inputs, and water chemistry to complete inundation and loss and the concomitant loss of natural and human communities. Therefore, managing coastal lagoons in the context of global climate change is critical. Although management approaches will vary depending on local conditions and cultural norms, all management scenarios will need …

Survival Of Eastern Oysters Crassostrea Virginica From Three Lines Following Experimental Challenge With Bacterial Pathogens, Javier Gomez-Leon, Luisa Villamil, Scott A. Salger, Rachel Sallum, Antonio Remacha-Trivino, Dale F. Leavitt, Marta Gomez-Chiarri

Marta Gomez-Chiarri

Shellfish production is often affected by bacterial pathogens that cause high losses in hatcheries and nurseries. We evaluated the relative survival of larvae and juveniles of 3 Crassostrea virginica oyster lines: (1) GHP, a Rhode Island line; (2) NEHY, a line resistant to dermo and multinucleated sphere X diseases; and (3) FLOWERS, a line resistant to Roseovarius oyster disease, experimental challenge with Vibrio spp. isolates RE22 and RE101, causative agents of bacillary necrosis in Pacific oyster larvae, and the type strain of Roseovarius crassostreae, causative agent of Roseovarius oyster disease. All of the isolates were able to induce significant mortalities …

Prevalence And Economic Value Of Feral Swine Damage To Native Habitat In Three Florida State Parks, Richard M. Engeman, Henry T. Smith, Stephanie A. Shwiff, Bernice Constantin, John Woolard, Mark Nelson, Daniel Griffin

Associate Professor Mark Nelson

Feral swine (Sus scrofa) adversely affect the environment in many of the places where they have been introduced. Such is the case in Florida, but quantification and economic evaluation of the damage can provide objective bases for developing strategies to protect habitats. Swine damage to native wet pine-flatwoods at three state parks in Florida was monitored from winter 2002 to winter 2003. Economic valuations of damage were based on the US dollar amounts that wetland regulators have allowed permit applicants to spend in attempts to replace lost resources. The parks had different swine management histories and the damage …

Crocodylia--Alligator Mississippiensis (American Alligator). Homing And Site Fidelity., John W. Woolard, Richard M. Engeman, Henry T. Smith, Mark Nelson

Associate Professor Mark Nelson

No abstract provided.

Bioeconomic Analysis Of Herpetofauna Road-Kills In A Florida State Park, Stephanie A. Shwiff, Henry T. Smith, Richard M. Engeman, Robert M. Barry, Robin J. Rossmanith, Mark Nelson

Associate Professor Mark Nelson

Road-kills are a major cause of mortality for a wide variety of herpetofauna, but management decisions on remediation procedures for reducing losses are based in economic realities. Because funding is finite for species conservation, bioeconomic analysis can assist in justifying, evaluating, and maximizing returns on conservation expenditures, especially for low-profile species such as herpetofauna. Here, we present a bioeconomic analysis of road-killed herpetofauna in Jonathan Dickinson State Park, Florida. Road surveys were conducted daily for four years to identify and enumerate the numbers of each reptile and amphibian species killed by vehicles. Conservative individual valuations applied to the losses formed …

Monitoring Changes In Feral Swine Abundance And Spatial Distribution, Richard M. Engeman, Bernice Constantine, Mark Nelson, John Woolard, Jean Bourassa

Associate Professor Mark Nelson

Swine (Sus scrofa) have been introduced in many places throughout the world, and in many places they adversely affect the environment, economically impact agriculture, and/or harbor diseases transmittable to domestic livestock or humans. An easily applied method to assess their abundance is an important need for their management. To monitor efficacy of a swine control program in Florida, data from passive tracking plots provide an index of feral swine abundance. The same track data coupled with plot locations to numerically describe the spatial pattern of swine activity gave an index of pervasiveness, and a simple rate of interception of damage …

An Evaluative Framework For Assessing Information Management In Watershed Management: The Case Of The Grand River Conservation Authority (Ontario), Robert Scott Brown

Dr Robert Brown

Watershed management has been rapidly evolving over the last 50 years. The current focus has been adaptive and ecosystem-based approaches to watershed management, redefining roles, responsibilities, and relationships of watershed organizations. While entire management models need to be heavily scrutinized, the practices and policies surrounding information are fundamentally important. Information forms the understanding and knowledge for watershed decision-making. Watershed organizations need to be critical of the policies and practices affecting their collection, storage, processing, analysis, monitoring, and reporting of data and information. Among the Conservation Authorities, the GRCA has developed a proficiency at information management, doing it as well as …

Rodent Control Problems In Developing Countries, Robert Z. Brown

Dr Robert Brown

None of the so-called developing countries has an adequate rodent control program at present. In only a few of these countries is any rodent control research occurring despite the fact that rodent problems are actually quite serious in many regions and potentially so in others. Expertise, techniques and materials from the developed countries are of limited usefulness because of major differences in rodent species involved, standards for food handling and sanitation, and in the cultural contexts in which rodent control must occur. Trained personnel, both for control work and the basic research needed, are in very short supply. In addition, …

Maternal Mortality: The Need To Work With Traditional Birth Attendants To Offset The Problem, Nat Quansah

Nat Quansah

The Reninjaza (Traditional Birth Attendant) is recognized as the professional of Traditional Medicine specializing in the provision of maternal and infant health care services just as the Midwife is recognized as the professional of Allopathic Medicine who specializes in the provision of maternal and infant health care services. Having these professionals of the two medical systems work in a complimentary manner, it is argued, will not only result in improving the gathering of information on maternal deaths, the accuracy of reporting and monitoring of maternal deaths but more importantly, will result in the reduction of maternal deaths. This is because …

Towards A Resilient Sydney: Research Into The Role Of Emergency Management In Climate Change Adaptation (Research Summary), Neil Dufty, Tim Morrison

Neil Dufty

No abstract provided.

Community Flood Education And Awareness In Fairfield City (Report), Neil Dufty

Neil Dufty

No abstract provided.

Sea No Evil, Hear No Evil - Community Engagement On Adaptation To Sea Level Change, Neil Dufty, Heather Stevens, Stuart Waters, Greg Giles

Neil Dufty

No abstract provided.

Building Capability For Disaster Resilience, Lynn Crawford, Craig Langston, Bhishna Bajracharya

Lynn Crawford

All levels of government recognise the widespread devastation of communities by natural or other disasters. They have responded with emergency management arrangements and policies to enhance government and community capacity to anticipate, withstand and recover from disastrous events. Although the construction industry has a significant role to play, particularly in recovery and reconstruction, it has not generally been considered as a key stakeholder in building capability for disaster resilience. One barrier to more active involvement of the construction industry in disaster response and management is that traditional methods of construction project management have been criticised as too time consuming and …

Building Capability For Disaster Resilience, Lynn Crawford, Craig Langston, Bhishna Bajracharya

Craig Langston

All levels of government recognise the widespread devastation of communities by natural or other disasters. They have responded with emergency management arrangements and policies to enhance government and community capacity to anticipate, withstand and recover from disastrous events. Although the construction industry has a significant role to play, particularly in recovery and reconstruction, it has not generally been considered as a key stakeholder in building capability for disaster resilience. One barrier to more active involvement of the construction industry in disaster response and management is that traditional methods of construction project management have been criticised as too time consuming and …

Transforming The Tourist City Into A Knowledge And Healthy City: Reinventing Australia's Gold Coast, Daniel O'Hare, Bhishna Bajracharya, Isara Khanjanasthiti

Bhishna Bajracharya

Purpose – With rapid growth of Australia’s Gold Coast into a tourist consumption city (Mullins 2008) of half a million people, Gold Coast City Council (GCCC) seeks to diversify the city’s economy, lifestyle and culture. This paper investigates this transformation by reviewing policies, projects and programs arising from GCCC visions of a healthy city benefiting from knowledge based urban development (KBUD) (Yigitcanlar et al., 2008). Secondly, the paper aims to identify opportunities and challenges in developing the emerging cosmopolitan city as a knowledge and healthy city. The paper focuses not only on larger knowledge and health nodes along major highways …

Transforming The Tourist City Into A Knowledge And Healthy City: Reinventing Australia's Gold Coast, Daniel O'Hare, Bhishna Bajracharya, Isara Khanjanasthiti

Daniel O'Hare

Purpose – With rapid growth of Australia’s Gold Coast into a tourist consumption city (Mullins 2008) of half a million people, Gold Coast City Council (GCCC) seeks to diversify the city’s economy, lifestyle and culture. This paper investigates this transformation by reviewing policies, projects and programs arising from GCCC visions of a healthy city benefiting from knowledge based urban development (KBUD) (Yigitcanlar et al., 2008). Secondly, the paper aims to identify opportunities and challenges in developing the emerging cosmopolitan city as a knowledge and healthy city. The paper focuses not only on larger knowledge and health nodes along major highways …

Public-Private Partnership In Disaster Management: A Case Study Of The Gold Coast, Bhishna Bajracharya, Peter Hastings, Iraphne Childs, Peter Mcnamee

Bhishna Bajracharya

Public-private partnership has important roles to play in disaster management, including building business and community resilience, developing community risk awareness and providing essential services. This paper reports on two recent initiatives in public-private partnerships on Queensland’s Gold Coast. The first is an initiative by a local community group ‘Varsity Lakes Community Limited’ to prepare a disaster management guide for the masterplanned community of Varsity Lakes with support from NRMA insurance company and the local council. The second is the ‘Community Watch’ program initiated by the Gold Coast City Council to involve local community groups in various parts of the City …

Water. World Water, A Crisis Of Global Governance?, Robert Weiner

Robert Weiner

In a global world, how can water, a necessary and increasingly scarce resource, be managed? We understand that water is a basic need. Do we also share the belief that water is a basic right? Does the international community share beliefs about water that may be the foundation of an international regime or system of global governance for the equitable implementation of global water policy? And finally, what international body or bodies might handle the disputes that arise as our population and need for water increase? The author tackles these questions and looks at models to guide us.

Appropriate Climate Change Solutions: Towards Sustainable Bioenergy Agro-Production In Africa For Energy Equality And Poverty Alleviation, Ian Duvenage, Ros Taplin, Lindsay C. Stringer

Roslyn Taplin

Limited energy access within developing nations particularly in Africa is a primary reason for poverty. Biofuel production has been advocated by many experts as a solution to meeting the energy needs of African countries while reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Others argue that biofuel production will compete with land needed for food production. However it appears many African countries have available land beyond food needs, hence biofuel production may be an option for poor farmers to gain skills, create economic diversification and provide affordable energy without environmental degradation. This paper reviews the situation in Africa with regard to biofuels and …

Does Self Management In Fisheries Enhance Profitability? Examination Of Korea’S Coastal Fisheries, Hirotsugu Uchida, Emi Uchida, Jung-Sam Lee, Jeong-Gon Ryu, Dae-Young Kim

Emi Uchida

Self management of natural resources has started to gain increasing attention as an alternative tool to command-and-control and market-based tools, but the fundamental question remains: is self management economically beneficial such that it should be promoted in the first place? This article uses a unique set of survey data from South Korea and applies an empirical strategy to provide some of the first quantitative evidence that self management is benefiting the fishermen. We find that positive benefits of fishery self management—an increase in fishery revenue and reduction in cost—are perceived by member fishermen, which is a good start considering the …

Water Law In The United States And Brazil - Climate Change And Two Approaches To Emerging Water Poverty, David N. Cassuto, Rômulo S. R. Sampaio

David N Cassuto

This article examines two of the major water legal regimes in theAmericas—that of Brazil and the United States. Both countries haveextensive wet and dry regions and both hydro-regimes face a significantthreat from global warming. Brazil, for instance, is home to betweeneight and fifteen percent of the world’s fresh water, and its fast-growingeconomy and population present major challenges in management andallocation. The U.S. also faces major water allocation problems resultingfrom past settlement policies; unsustainable reclamation projects; andalso fast-growing domestic, industrial and agricultural demand. In the United States, water has traditionally been perceived as arenewable and limitless resource, a cultural legacy that …

Acoustic Identification Of Nine Delphinid Species In The Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean, Julie N. Oswald, Jay Barlow, Thomas F. Norris

Julie Nicola Oswald

Acoustic methods may improve the ability to identify cetacean species during shipboard surveys. Whistles were recorded from nine odontocete species in the eastern tropical Pacific to determine how reliably these vocalizations can be classified to species based on simple spectrographic measurements. Twelve variables were measured from each whistle (n = 908). Parametric multivariate discriminant function analysis (DFA) correctly classified 41 .l% of whistles to species. Non-parametric classification and regression tree (CART) analysis resulted in 5 1.4% correct classification. Striped dolphin whistles were most difficult to classify. Whistles of bottlenose dolphins, false killer whales, and pilot whales were most distinctive. …

Report Of The 2012 North East Flood Review (Report), Neil Dufty

Neil Dufty

No abstract provided.

Geography Of Waste As A New Approach In Waste Management Study,, Florin C. Mihai

Florin C MIHAI

Municipal waste management in the last two decades has become a global environmental priority in the context of increasing amounts of waste generated due to the development of a mass consumer society. Various issues of waste management , territorial and temporal variability, spatial analysis of treatment or disposal facilities, systemic implications on the environment, the harmonization of international policy at national, regional and local level are solid arguments for studying this field by geography. Mostly technical or economic studies, lacking a vision of territory are supplemented in the conceptual and methodological level by geographers. This paper performed on the one …

Estimation Of Land Surface Evapotranspiration With A Satellite Remote Sensing Procedure, Ayse Irmak, Ian Ratcliffe, Pariskhit Ranade, Kenneth Hubbard, Ramesh K. Singh, Babuarao Kamble, Jeppe Kjaersgaard

Baburao Kamble

There are various methods available for estimating magnitude and trends of evapotranspiration. Bowen ratio energy balance system and eddy correlation techniques offer powerful alternatives for measuring land surface evapotranspiration. In spite of the elegance, high accuracy, and theoretical attractions of these techniques for measuring evapotranspiration, their practical use over large areas can be limited due to the number of sites needed and the related expense. Application of evapotranspiration mapping from satellite measurements can overcome the limitations. The objective of this study was to utilize the METRICTM (Mapping Evapotranspiration at High Resolution using Internalized Calibration) model in Great Plains environmental settings …

Planning Framework Options For The Massachusetts Ocean Plan (Draft), Jack Wiggin, Kristin Uiterwyk, Steve Bliven, Dan Hellin, John Duff, David Terkla, Robert E. Bowen, Andrew A. Rosenberg, Jennie Harrington, Jill H. Swasey, Suzanne Iudicello, Robert O’Boyle, Porter Hoagland, Hauke L. Kite-Powell, Di Jin, Fara Courtney, Rich Delaney, Pat Hughes, Tracey Morin Dalton, Suzanne Goulet Orenstein, Charles N. Ehler, Fannie Douvere, Les Kaufman, Charles T. Mccaffrey Jr., Nicholas Napoli, Stephanie Moura, Kim Starbuck

John Duff

The Massachusetts Ocean Partnership (MOP) Planning Frameworks Team, in consultation with the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA), and based on collective experience and a review of ocean, coastal and resource management programs from the US and other countries, suggests that nine elements are essential components of the framework for the Massachusetts Ocean Plan and its implementation. While management plans and programs generally have these elements in common, there are a range of options for carrying out each program component. These options were presented to structure and inform the development of the Massachusetts Ocean Plan. For the …

Wildlife As Natural Enemies Of Crop Pests, Ron J. Johnson, James R. Brandle, Natalie Sunderman, Rebecca Fitzmaurice, Nancy A. Beecher, Ronald M. Case, Mary Dix, Linda Young, Mark O. Harrell, Robert J. Wright, Laurie Hodges

Laurie Hodges

One asset of wildlife to landowners is the potential but understudied role of birds and other species as endemic natural enemies of crop pests. Enhancing such natural enemies as part of sustainable agricultural systems offers promise for maintaining agricultural competitiveness while providing wildlife habitat in intensively farmed areas. The University of Nebraska has established an agroforestry research team to address interdisciplinary questions and outreach associated with this topic. Included are studies of bird, mammal, and insect use of woody and herbaceous corridors and adjacent cropfields in east-central Nebraska. Uncultivated areas needed to sustain natural enemies of crop pests also provide …

First-Order Catchment Mass Balance During The Wet Season In The Panama Canal Watershed, Fred Ogden

Fred L. Ogden

Tropical hydrology is poorly understood for a number of reasons. Intense biological activity in the tropics introduces complexities to the hydrologic process. Bioturbation, rapid rates of decay, and intensive insect activity all tend to promote rapid flow paths in the upper soil. Aggressive weathering leads to clays depleted of light cations and deep soil profiles. Processes in the seasonal tropics are further complicated by seasonal transitions, and very large changes in catchment storage between seasons. Beginning in 2005, we installed a suite of hydrologic sensors in a 16.7 ha first-order catchment in the Panama Canal Watershed to observe hydrologic variables …

Range Liverstock Nutrition And Its Importance In The Intermountain Region, C. Wayne Cook

Christopher Cook

It has been estimated that about 728 million acres or about 76 percent of the entire land area in the West is used for grazing (Stoddard and Smith 1956). In Utah about 93 percent of the land area or 48,900,000 acres is considered range land (Reuss and Blanch 1951). Although some of this range land is forested, a large area of it can be used only for grazing. Therefore, range livestock production is an important segment of western agriculture.

Before 19'00 most of the animals in the West grazed on the range all year. However, irrigation crop production has expanded …

Walk The Talk With Portfolio Management, Aileen Koh

Aileen Koh

The increasing use of project and programs by organizations to achieve business strategy and goals have led to the need to understand project portfolio management. If project management answers the question “Are we managing the project correctly?“ then project portfolio management answer the questions “Do we have the right project?“ This study is to investigate the governance structures and the practices, roles, responsibilities of portfolio management in service and manufacturing organisations in Australia. This paper presents the result of the six case studies and discuss the challenges and the journey of portfolio management implementation.