Environmental Policy Commons^™

Environmental Racism: A Look At Flint, Michigan, Alexis Lewis

Petersheim Academic Exposition

No abstract provided.

Which Side Are You On?, Gina Mamone

Exhibit Panels

Which Side Are You On? is a new work by Gina Mamone, co-founder of the West Virginia-based art collective Queer Appalachia. Which Side Are You On? invokes the spirit of Zoe Leonard’s 1992 poem I Want a President, but speaks with the voice of 2018 rural America.

"I want a survivor for Governor. I want a Governor whose home has been raided by ICE. I want the child of a public school teacher for Governor, and I want someone who knows what days to hit what food pantries. I want a Governor who has had experience heating a home …

Diurnal Habitat Selection Of Migrating Whooping Crane In The Great Plains, David M. Baasch, Patrick D. Farrell, Aaron T. Pearse, David A. Brandt, Andrew J. Caven, Mary J. Harner, Greg D. Wright, Kristine L. Metzger

USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

Available stopover habitats with quality foraging opportunities are essential for migrating waterbirds, including Whooping Crane (Grus americana). Several studies have evaluated habitats used by Whooping Crane for roosting throughout its migration corridor; however, habitats associated with foraging and other diurnal activities have received less attention. We used data collected from 42 Whooping Crane individuals that included 2169 diurnal use locations within 395 stopover sites evaluated during spring 2013 to fall 2015 to assess diurnal habitat selection throughout the U.S. portion of the migration corridor. We found that Whooping Crane selected wetland land-cover types (i.e., open water, riverine, and semipermanent wetlands) …

Mortality In Aransas-Wood Buffalo Whooping Cranes: Timing, Location, And Causes, Aaron T. Pearse, David A. Brandt, Barry K. Hartup, Mark T. Bidwell

USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

The Aransas-Wood Buffalo Population (AWBP) of Whooping Cranes (Grus americana) has experienced a population growth rate of approximately 4% for multiple decades (Butler et al., 2014a; Miller et al., 1974). Population growth for long-lived species of birds is generally highly sensitive to variation in adult mortality rates (Sæther and Bakke, 2000). A population model for endangered Red-crowned Cranes (Grus japonensis) in Japan conforms to this pattern, where growth rate is most sensitive to adult mortality (Masatomi et al., 2007). Earlier analyses observed that the AWBP growth rate increased in the mid-1950s and that this increase was likely caused by reduced …

Measuring Incremental Sb743 Progress: Accounting For Project Contributions Towards Reducing Vmt Under California's Senate Bill 743, Christopher E. Ferrell

Mineta Transportation Institute

On September 27, 2013, California’s governor signed Senate Bill (SB) 743 into law, in part mandating the transition from a level-of-service-based (LOS) measure of transportation environmental impacts to a vehicle-miles-traveled-based (VMT) one in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Several California jurisdictions, including San Jose, Pasadena, and San Francisco, have moved quickly to comply with SB 743, so it is no surprise that several of these early-adopter cities have been working hard to develop powerful VMT estimation methods and tools using the most recent research available.

This perspective uses the experiences of an early-adopter city, San Jose, to …

Nature-Based Designs To Mitigate Urban Heat: The Efficacy Of Green Infrastructure Treatments In Portland, Oregon, Yasuyo Makido, Dana E. Hellman, Vivek Shandas

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Urban heat is a growing environmental concern in cities around the world. The urban heat island effect, combined with warming effects of climate change, is likely to cause an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme heat events. Alterations to the physical, built environment are a viable option for mitigating urban heat, yet few studies provide systematic guidance to practitioners for adapting diverse land uses. In this study, we examine the use of green infrastructure treatments to evaluate changes in ambient temperatures across diverse land uses in the city of Portland, Oregon. We apply ENVI-met® microclimate modeling at the …

Mid-Atlantic Oil Spill Workshop: Are We Ready? A Regional Workshop As Part Of The National Academies And Sea Grant Collaborative Workshop Series, G. Walker, M. Covi

OES Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) In 2017, the Gulf Research Program (GRP) and the Health and Medical Division of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine hosted a workshop to prepare for and respond to major marine oil spills. To address gaps identified at the workshop, GRP reached out to the Sea Grant Oil Spill Science Outreach Program to host a series of regional workshops. The Sea Grant Oil Spill team, based in the Gulf, partnered with state Sea Grant programs across the country to plan and deliver regional workshops in 2018-2019. The goals of the workshops were to raise awareness of …

Monitoring Annoyance And Stress Effects Of Wind Turbines On Nearby Residents: A Comparison Of U.S. And European Samples, Gundula Hübner, Johannes Pohl, Ben Hoen, Jeremy Firestone, Joseph Rand, Brian Elliott, Ryan Haac

Regional Research Institute for Human Services

As wind turbines and the number of wind projects scale throughout the world, a growing number of individuals might be affected by these structures. For some people, wind turbine sounds and their effects on the landscape can be annoying and could even prompt stress reactions. This comparative study analyzed a combined sample of survey respondents from the U.S., Germany and Switzerland. It utilized a newly developed assessment scale (ASScale) to reliably characterize these stress-impacted individuals living within populations near turbines. Findings indicate low prevalence of annoyance, stress symptoms and coping strategies. Noise annoyance stress (NASScale) was negatively correlated with the …

Bare Mountaintops And Thirsty Cities: On California And Its Snowpack, Sayd Randle

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Figuring how to represent the oncoming effects of climate change is a common challenge faced by whistleblowers and policymakers attempting to alert populations. Sayd Randle shows how the state of California is trying to mobilize the monitoring of snow in the Sierra Nevada as a harbinger of a durable state of drought in the coastal cities.

A Green New Deal For Social Work, Rupaleem Bhuyan, Stéphanie Wahab, Yoosun Park

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this editorial, we consider what climate action would mean for the social work profession. The urgency to address climate change compels social work practitioners, educators, and researchers to embrace a vision of social work that is committed to restoring human well-being and the natural world.

Pawnee Dam Inflow Design Flood (Idf) Update And Stage-Frequency Curve Development Using Rmcrfa, Jennifer P. Christensen, Joshua J. Melliger

United States Geological Survey: Water Reports and Publications

Pawnee Dam is one of the ten Salt Creek Dams designed and built in the 1960s to mitigate flooding in Lincoln, Nebraska. This short paper illustrates the update of the Pawnee Dam inflow design flood (IDF) through calibration to recent high flow events and the development of its stage-frequency or hydrologic loading curve with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Risk Management Center Reservoir Frequency Analysis (RMC-RFA) model. The IDF update follows Engineering Regulation 1110-8-2, Inflow Design Flood for Dams and Reservoirs, including unit hydrograph peaking and two antecedent pool elevations. Background information on the original design of the dam …

Climate Change: A Call To Action, Kathy K. Dhanda

WCBT Faculty Publications

On Dec 15, 2018, in the town of Katowice, Poland, diplomats from 200 countries adopted a detailed set of rules to uphold and implement the Paris Agreement, the international treaty drafted by United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This deal will require every country to track its emissions and climate policies by following a uniform set of standards. Furthermore, countries are to cut their emissions ahead of the next round of talks in 2020. Climate change is a complicated problem, one that will not be solved by national governments alone. A lot of …