Engineering Commons^™

Climate Change Adaptation Chapter: Marshfield, Massachusetts, Joshua H. Chase, Jonathan G. Cooper, Rory Elizabeth Fitzgerald, Filipe Antunes Lima, Sally R. Miller, Toni Marie Pignatelli

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Studio and Student Research and Creative Activity

Climate change, understood as a statistically significant variation in the mean state of the climate or its variability, is the greatest environmental challenge of this generation (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2001). Marshfield is already being affected by changes in the climate that will have a profound effect on the town’s economy, public health, coastal resources, natural features, water systems, and public and private infrastructure. Adaptation strategies have been widely recognized as playing an important role in improving a community’s ability to respond to climate stressors by resisting damage and recovering quickly.

Based on review of climate projections for the …

Long-Term Integrated Studies Show Complex And Surprising Effects Of Climate Change In The Northern Hardwood Forest, Peter M. Groffman, Charles T. Driscoll, Chris E. Johnson, Lindsey E. Rustad, Pamela H. Templer

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Evaluations of the local effects of global change are often confounded by the interactions of natural and anthropogenic factors that overshadow the effects of climate changes on ecosystems. Long-term watershed and natural elevation gradient studies at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest and in the surrounding region show surprising results demonstrating the effects of climate change on hydrologic variables (e.g., evapotranspiration, streamflow, soil moisture); the importance of changes in phenology on water, carbon, and nitrogen fluxes during critical seasonal transition periods; winter climate change effects on plant and animal community composition and ecosystem services; and the effects of anthropogenic disturbances and …

Agenda: 2012 Energy Justice Conference And Technology Exposition, University Of Colorado Boulder. Center For Energy & Environmental Security, University Of Colorado Boulder. Colorado European Union Center Of Excellence, University Of Colorado Boulder. Presidents Leadership Institute

2012 Energy Justice Conference and Technology Exposition (September 17-18)

Co-sponsored with the Colorado European Union Center of Excellence and the Presidents Leadership Institute at the University of Colorado Boulder.

The ability to harness energy is fundamental to economic and social development. Worldwide, almost 3 billion people have little or no access to beneficial energy resources for cooking, heating, water sanitation, illumination, transportation, or basic mechanical needs. Energy poverty exacerbates ill health and economic hardship, and reduces educational opportunities, particularly for women and children. Specifically, access to efficient and affordable energy services is a prerequisite for achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) relating to poverty eradication.

In response, the UN …

Slides: Appropriate Sustainable Energy Technologies: A Light To The World, Lakshman D. Guruswamy, Jason B. Aamodt, Blake Feamster

2012 Energy Justice Conference and Technology Exposition (September 17-18)

Presenter: Jason Aamodt, Attorney; Adjunct Professor, University of Tulsa

15 slides

Slides: Unido: Partner For Prosperity, Kandeh K. Yumkella

2012 Energy Justice Conference and Technology Exposition (September 17-18)

Presenter: Dr. Kandeh Yumkella, Chairman, UN Energy; Director General, United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)

16 slides

Improving Complementary Methods To Predict Evapotranspiration For Data Deficit Conditions And Global Applications Under Climate Change, Fathi M. A. Anayah

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A reliable estimate of evapotranspiration (ET) in river basins is important for the purpose of water resources planning and management. ET represents a significant portion of rainfall in the water budget; therefore, the uncertainty in estimating ET can lead to the inaccurate prediction of water resources. While remote sensing techniques are available to estimate ET, such methods are expensive and necessary data may not be readily available. Classical methods of estimating ET require detailed land use/cover information that are not readily available in rural river basins. Complementary methods provide simple and reliable approaches to estimate ET using meteorological data only. …

Modeling Potential Hydrochemical Responses To Climate Change And Increasing Co2 At The Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest Using A Dynamic Biogeochemical Model (Pnet-Bgc), Afshin Pourmokhtaria, Charles T. Driscoll, John L. Campbell, Katharine Hayhoe

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Dynamic hydrochemical models are useful tools for understanding and predicting the interactive effects of climate change, atmospheric CO2, and atmospheric deposition on the hydrology and water quality of forested watersheds. We used the biogeochemical model, PnET-BGC, to evaluate the effects of potential future changes in temperature, precipitation, solar radiation, and atmospheric CO2 on pools, concentrations, and fluxes of major elements at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in New Hampshire, United States. Future climate projections used to run PnET-BGC were generated specifically for the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest with a statistical technique that downscales climate output (e.g., air temperature, precipitation, solar …

Anti-Nuclear Activism And The Past, Present And Future Of United States Nuclear Energy Policy, Isabel C. Zellweger

Honors Theses

Nuclear power has had a long and controversial history leading people to have many different views on the topic. Even though nuclear power does provide the nation with a significant portion of its electricity, many still fear its risks, especially after the events at Fukushima last spring. This thesis explores how public opinion, current events, and anti-nuclear activism have shaped nuclear power in America today. After reviewing the literature on nuclear energy in the United States, I discuss the past and current state of United States nuclear energy policy, and then describe changing American attitudes toward nuclear power over time. …

Anticipated Changes In Precipitation Events Over The 21st Century Using Community Climate System Model, Version 4, Scott Tavish Deneale

Masters Theses

Future global daily precipitation data from Community Climate System Model, version 4 (CCSM4) were analyzed to evaluate changes in a variety of precipitation parameters over the 21st century. Multiple ensemble members of 21st century Representative Community Pathways (RCP) radiative scenarios were included in the model to provide an array of potential future climate change results. Multiple ensembles of historic daily precipitation data from CCSM4 were compared with Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) V1DD daily precipitation data and Climate Prediction Center (CPC) Merged Analysis of Precipitation (CMAP) monthly precipitation data. Annual average and 95th percentile precipitation values were averaged from 1997-2005 …

Impacts Of Climate Change On Hydrology And Water Resources In The Boise And Spokane River Basins, Xin Jin, Venkataramana Sridhar

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In the Pacific Northwest, warming climate has resulted in a lengthened growing season, declining snowpack, and earlier timing of spring runoff. This study characterizes the impact of climate change in two basins in Idaho, the Spokane River and the Boise River basins. We simulated the basin-scale hydrology by coupling the downscaled precipitation and temperature outputs from a suite of global climate models and the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), between 2010 and 2060 and assess the impacts of climate change on water resources in the region. For the Boise River basin, changes in precipitation ranged from −3.8 to 36%. …

Fertilization Effects On The Ecohydrology Of A Southern California Annual Grassland, Anthony J. Parolari, Michael L. Goulden, Rafael L. Bras

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Nitrogen limits leaf gas exchange, canopy development, and evapotranspiration in many ecosystems. In dryland ecosystems, it is unclear whether increased anthropogenic nitrogen inputs alter the widely recognized dominance of water and energy constraints on ecohydrology. We use observations from a factorial irrigation and fertilization experiment in a nitrogen-limited southern California annual grassland to explore this hypothesis. Our analysis shows growing season soil moisture and canopy-scale water vapor conductance are equivalent in control and fertilized plots. This consistency arises as fertilization-induced increases in leaf area index (LAI) are offset by reduced leaf area-based stomatal conductance, gs. We interpret this as evidence …

Technical Note: Bias Correcting Climate Model Simulated Daily Temperature Extremes With Quantile Mapping, Bridget Thrasher, Edwin P. Maurer, Philip B. Duffy, Colin Mckellar

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering

When applying a quantile mapping-based bias correction to daily temperature extremes simulated by a global climate model (GCM), the transformed values of maximum and minimum temperatures are changed, and the diuWhen applying a quantile mapping-based bias correction to daily temperature extremes simulated by a global climate model (GCM), the transformed values of maximum and minimum temperatures are changed, and the diurnal temperature range (DTR) can become physically unrealistic. While causes are not thoroughly explored, there is a strong relationship between GCM biases in snow albedo feedback during snowmelt and bias correction resulting in unrealistic DTR values. We propose a technique …

Evaluating Climate Change Effects In Two Contrasting Reservoirs Using Two-Dimensional Water Quality And Hydrodynamic Models, Oliver Obregon

Theses and Dissertations

I analyzed and compared impacts from global climate change (GCC) and land use change to Deer Creek (United States) a temperate reservoir and Aguamilpa (Mexico), a tropical reservoir by using calibrated CE-QUAL-W2 (W2) water quality and hydrodynamic models based on field data over an extended time period. I evaluated and compared the sensitivity to predicted GCC and land use changes. I individually evaluated changes to air temperature (TAIR), inflow rates (Q), and nutrient loads (PO4-P and NO3-NO2-N) followed by analysis of worst case scenarios. I developed analysis methods using indexes to represent the total …

Analysis Of Relative Sea Level Variations And Trends In The Chesapeake Bay: Is There Evidence For Acceleration In Sea Level Rise?, Tal Ezer, William B. Corlett

CCPO Publications

Over the past few decades the pace of relative sea level rise (SLR) in the Chesapeake Bay (CB) has been 2-3 times faster than that of the globally mean absolute sea level. Our study is part of ongoing research that tries to determine if this SLR trend is continuing at the same pace, slowing down (SLR deceleration) or speeding up (SLR acceleration). We introduce a new analysis method for sea level data that is based on Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) and Hilbert-Huang Transform (HHT); the analysis separates the SLR trend from other oscillating modes of different scales. Bootstrap calculations using …

Application Of A K-Nearest Neighbour Weather Generator For Simulation Of Historical And Future Climate Variables In The Upper Thames River Basin, Leanna M. King

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Climate change has the potential to significantly alter the hydrologic cycle, changing the frequency and intensity of precipitation events in an area. It is necessary to quantify these effects to effectively manage water resources in the future. Atmosphere-Ocean coupled Global Circulation Models (AOGCMs), often used in climate change research, have spatial resolutions that are too large to capture the local climate characteristics of a watershed. As a result, several downscaling tools have been developed, including stochastic weather generators. A methodology for the simulation of historical and future climate data using a nonparametric K-Nearest Neighbour block resampling weather generator with perturbation …

Climate Change Impacts On Streamflow, Water Quality, And Best Management Practices For The Shell And Logan Creek Watersheds In Nebraska, M. W. Van Liew, S. Feng, T. B. Pathak

Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

Improvements in the management of water, sediment, and nutrients under future climatic conditions are needed to ensure increased crop and livestock production to meet greater global needs and the future availability of water for competing demands and protection against adverse water quality impairments. This study determined the impacts of future climate change scenarios on streamflow, water quality, and best management practices (BMPs) for two watersheds in Nebraska, USA. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was employed to simulate streamflow, sediment, total nitrogen (N) and total phosphorus (P) from the Shell Creek Watershed near Columbus, Nebraska and the Logan Creek …

Developing The Next Generation Of Women And Minority Scientists For The Nuclear Energy Industry, Darrell Burrell, Andrea Todd, Aikyna Finch, Maurice Dawson

Maurice Dawson

The largest source of carbon dioxide emissions globally is the combustion of fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) in power plants, automobiles, industrial facilities and other sources. Generating electricity is the single largest source of carbon dioxide emissions, representing 41% of all emissions. Since 2007 the United States has been more actively considering nuclear power as an option for developing energy. Three decades after the Three Mile Island accident seemed to doom the nuclear power industry, the idea of a nuclear renaissance has been gaining public acceptance as a way to generate energy without greenhouse gas emissions and meet …