Sustainability Commons^™

Call For Abstracts - Resrb 2019, July 8-9, Wrocław, Poland, Wojciech M. Budzianowski

Wojciech Budzianowski

No abstract provided.

Challenges Towards Sustainable Port Development In India: The Adverse Effects Of Port Development On Coastal Ecology And Community In Ennore : A Case Study, Balaji Balasubramanian

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Community-Based Organisations As An Approach To Effective Sustainable Artisan Fishing, Mary Mindi Wabit Epse Ngawana

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Assessing Soil Redox Conditions Using Iris Tubes In A Central Georgia Wetland, Cameron Skinner

Georgia Undergraduate Research Conference (GURC)

The process of documenting soil redox potential has become increasingly important to environmental professionals for use in wetland delineation studies. Wetlands are characterized by hydric soils, which are formed in saturated conditions, and are typically home to an anaerobic, reducing redox environment. Most established wetland delineation studies document soil redox conditions through Eh measurements via platinum electrodes and/or alpha-alpha-dipyridyl dye. However, these methods are costly, time-intensive, and complex. An alternative method of assessing reduction potential in situ is through the use of Iron Reduction in Soils (IRIS) tubes, which are fabricated from PVC pipes that have been sanded and ...

Conservation Decision Support System Design For West Indian Manatee Habitat Suitability And Protection, Ashleigh Nicole Wilson, Jeffery Lee Robertson

Georgia Undergraduate Research Conference (GURC)

Title: Conservation Decision Support System Design for West Indian Manatee Habitat Suitability and Protection.

Authors: Ashleigh Wilson, Jeffery Robertson, Sudhanshu Panda

Abstract

Manatees along Florida’s western coastline are being severely affected by major hazards such as watercraft collisions, red tide events, seagrass depletion, and cold stress. Conservation effort by public and government authorities is necessary to safeguard its population from the consequence of latest climate change impact and other human-induced hazards. Thus, the objective of this study is to develop an automated geospatial model analyzing all relevant features responsible for the West Indian Manatee habitat and to suggest proper ...

Selective Glucose Isomerization To Fructose Via Nitrogen-Doped Solid Base Catalyst Derived From Spent Coffee Grounds, Season S. Chen, Iris K.M. Yu, Dong-Wan Cho, Hocheol Song, Daniel C.W. Tsang, Jean-Philippe Tessonnier, Yong Sik Ok, Chi Sun Poon

Chemical and Biological Engineering Publications

In this work, glucose isomerization to fructose was conducted via a solid base biochar catalyst derived from spent coffee grounds and melamine. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) spectra identified the majority of pyridinic nitrogen on the biochar surface, which imparted the strong base character of the catalyst. Activity of the catalyst was evidenced by fast conversion of glucose (12%) and high selectivity to fructose (84%) in 20 min at a moderate temperature (120 °C) compared to recently reported immobilized tertiary amines at comparable N concentrations (10-15 mol% relative to glucose). By increasing the reaction temperature to 160 °C, fructose yield ...

Book Review: Teaching Climate Change To Adolescents: Reading, Writing, And Making A Difference, Antonio Lopez

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Teaching Climate Change to Adolescents: Reading, Writing, and Making a Difference, is a book for English language arts and media literacy teachers that provides abundant resources for educators wanting to incorporate climate change instruction into their classrooms. This review explores the usefulness of the book and discusses more broadly the barriers and opportunities for incorporating environmental issues into media literacy education.

Land-Use/Land-Cover Changes And Their Influence On The Ecosystem In Chengdu City, China During The Period Of 1992–2018, Xiaojuan Lin, Min Xu, Chunxiang Cao, Ramesh P. Singh, Wei Chen, Hongrun Ju

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Due to urban expansion, economic development, and rapid population growth, land use/land cover (LULC) is changing in major cities around the globe. Quantitative analysis of LULC change is important for studying the corresponding impact on the ecosystem service value (ESV) that helps in decision-making and ecosystem conservation. Based on LULC data retrieved from remote-sensing interpretation, we computed the changes of ESV associated with the LULC dynamics using the benefits transfer method and geographic information system (GIS) technologies during the period of 1992–2018 following self-modified coefficients which were corrected by net primary productivity (NPP). This improved approach aimed to ...

Sea Squad, Liam Geary Baulch

The Goose

The Sea Squad is a band of cheerleaders against climate change. Taking action as a team in formation, they gather momentum, inviting all people to cheer with them, mimicking the infinitely expandable nature of the seas' molecular structure. The work was developed and performed as a bilingual project at Est-Nord-Est in Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, Quebec, Canada, and has since been performed and exhibited internationally. The following poems are some of the chants that Sea Squad use to get a crowd cheering together against climate change.

Making Sustainability Disclosure Sustainable, Jill E. Fisch

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law

Sustainability is receiving increasing attention from issuers, investors and regulators. The desire to understand issuer sustainability practices and their relationship to economic performance has resulted in a proliferation of sustainability disclosure regimes and standards. The range of approaches to disclosure, however, limit the comparability and reliability of the information disclosed. The Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) has solicited comment on whether to require expanded sustainability disclosures in issuer’s periodic financial reporting, and investors have communicated broad-based support for such expanded disclosures, but, to date, the SEC has not required general sustainability disclosure.

This Article argues that claims about the relationship ...

Achieving The Promise Of Integration In Social-Ecological Research: A Review And Prospectus, Neil Carter

Human-Environment Systems Research Center Faculty Publications and Presentations

An integrated understanding of both social and ecological aspects of environmental issues is essential to address pressing sustainability challenges. An integrated social-ecological systems perspective is purported to provide a better understanding of the complex relationships between humans and nature. Despite a threefold increase in the amount of social-ecological research published between 2010 and 2015, it is unclear whether these approaches have been truly integrative. We conducted a systematic literature review to investigate the conceptual, methodological, disciplinary, and functional aspects of social-ecological integration. In general, we found that overall integration is still lacking in social-ecological research. Some social variables deemed important ...

Energy Use And Weatherization Practices: Applications For Agent-Based Modeling To Support Vulnerable Populations, Jacklin Stonewall, Wanyu Huang, Michael C. Dorneich, Caroline Krejci, Linda Shenk, Ulrike Passe

Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering Conference Proceedings and Posters

This work surveyed residents of an economically disadvantaged community on their attitudes toward weatherization and their energy use behaviors. To support urban leaders making decisions to mitigate the effects of large-scale climate change, data-driven simulation models are being developed. To ensure that these models are equitable, the needs of all citizens must be included, especially those most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The results of this survey indicate that residents are taking steps to weatherize and conserve energy, but they are hindered by a lack of resources and knowledge of available assistance programs. These results are being applied ...

Analysis Of Temperature And Salinity Effects On Growth And Mortality Of Oysters (Crassostrea Virginica) In Louisiana, Troy Sehlinger

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Salinity (S) and temperature (T) control every facet of the eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) life cycle, principally reproduction, development, growth, and mortality. Previous studies conducted in in the Breton Sound (BR) and Barataria (BA) estuaries have reported differences in growth and mortality rates between the basins. In the present study, environmental conditions were synchronized to compare growth and mortality rates between basins at similar combinations of T and S. Results indicate that when T and S are the same (synchronized), seasonal oyster growth and mortality rates differ between BR and BA. Seasonal analyses revealed that as salinities increased in both ...

Estimating Watershed Residence Times In Artificially-Drained Landscapes And Relation To Nutrient Concentrations, Emma Beck, Lisa Welp, Alexandra L. Meyer

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Nutrient runoff from agricultural lands feeds harmful algae blooms that create a variety of problems in freshwater ecosystems. In order to reduce the effects of this nutrient runoff, Best Management Practices (BMPs) are being put in place in agricultural lands. Most of these BMPs focus on slowing down the flow of water through the watershed to give nutrient concentrations time to deplete before the water flows to the stream or river. However, the effectiveness of these BMPs are highly unknown and the process of monitoring nutrient runoff is often complex and costly. The data in this study consists of 7 ...

Benchmarking Index 2018: Carbon, Energy, And Water, Eric Ricaurte

Center for Hospitality Research Publications

The fifth annual Cornell Hotel Sustainability Benchmarking study includes data from substantially more hotels than in all previous years. While the bulk of the data come from hotels in the United States, the study also recorded a greater international participation, with fifty-one nations and thirteen international brands represented. More than 10,400 hotels contributed information regarding their energy and water use, as well as greenhouse gas emissions. Complete as of 2016, the data show that the participating hotels generally have continued to reduce their energy and water usage, although the energy intensity recorded by luxury hotels continues to be relatively ...

Short-Term Organic Carbon Release And Chlorine Disinfectant Decay For Cross-Linked Polyethylene (Pex) Plumbing Pipes, Miriam Tariq, Christian J. Ley, Maryam Salehi, Andrew J. Whelton

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

The use of cross-linked polyethylene (PEX) plumbing pipes has grown in popularity for residential applications. However, PEX pipes can leach organic materials into water that can enable biofilm growth, cause off-tastes and -odors, and may react with disinfectants to form disinfection by-products (DBP). Varied manufacturing processes that are applied to create PEX pipes add to the complexity of understanding organic materials released. In this study, organic carbon release from three PEX pipe brands was monitored for up to five days using a series of stagnation periods. Seven stagnation periods of 1, 2, 4, 8, 24, 72, and 120 hours were ...

Growing A Sustainable City?: The Question Of Urban Agriculture By Christina D. Rosan And Hamil Pearsall, Matthew Zantingh

The Goose

Review of Christina D. Rosan and Hamil Pearsall's Growing a Sustainable City?: The Question of Urban Agriculture.

Sustainability Of Utilizing Renewable And Nuclear Energy In Saudi Arabia Using Different Types Of Life Cycle Assessment, Kamel Almutairi

Theses and Dissertations

Evaluating the global environmental impacts of the current and future energy policies in Saudi Arabia using Life cycle assessment (LCA) method was the main objective of this dissertation. First, the attributional life cycle assessment (ALCA) framework was used to evaluate the Saudi’s air conditioning systems, as they are responsible for about 70% of the total Saudi residential electricity consumption. The ALCA’s results showed that the AC use phase produces the largest share of the environmental impact and the magnitude of the environmental impacts is influenced by the type of primary fuel used for electricity generation.

Emerging non-fossil sources ...

Waste Stream And Green Purchasing Analysis At Bonneville Lock And Dam, Alexander Bienko

Master of Environmental Management Project Reports

The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Portland District, has jurisdiction on three locks and four dams in the Columbia River basin. These sites “contribute to a water resource management system that provides flood risk management, power generation, water quality improvement, fish and wildlife habitat and recreation on the Columbia River and some of its tributaries”. The Bonneville Lock and Dam (Bonneville Project) site lies on the Columbia River approximately 40 miles east from Portland, Oregon. Portions of the site have been declared a National Historic Landmark, from its origins in President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal program ...

Opto-Thermal Characterization Of Plasmon And Coupled Lattice Resonances In 2-D Metamaterial Arrays, Vinith Bejugam

Theses and Dissertations

Growing population and climate change inevitably requires longstanding dependency on sustainable sources of energy that are conducive to ecological balance, economies of scale and reduction of waste heat. Plasmonic-photonic systems are at the forefront of offering a promising path towards efficient light harvesting for enhanced optoelectronics, sensing, and chemical separations. Two-dimensional (2-D) metamaterial arrays of plasmonic nanoparticles arranged in polymer lattices developed herein support thermoplasmonic heating at off-resonances (near infrared, NIR) in addition to regular plasmonic resonances (visible), which extends their applicability compared to random dispersions. Especially, thermal responses of 2-D arrays at coupled lattice resonance (CLR) wavelengths were comparable ...