Digital Commons Network^™

A Multidecadal Analysis Of Groundwater Level And Streamflow Decline In Southern Forest Catchments, Western Australia, Richard J. George, Rose-Anne Bell, W. Lachlan Mccaw, Gregory Paul Raper

Natural Resources Research Articles

Previous analysis of hydrological data in the eucalypt dominated forests of Western Australia’s Darling Ranges show that reduced winter rainfall over the last 50 years has lowered groundwater levels and diminished streamflow by up to 70%. Consequently, climate-independent reverse osmosis seawater desalination and groundwater resources now supply Perth and nearby regional areas, as runoff from forested catchments is no longer sufficient or reliable. In the high rainfall (~1200 mm/yr) mixed forest areas dominated by Eucalyptus diversicolor (karri) and Eucalyptus marginata (jarrah) 200 km to the south of Perth (the ‘Southern Forest’), similar analysis of climate impacts on watertables has not …

Phosphate Removal And Recovery From Aqueous Solutions Using Iron-Coated Steel Slag, Siavash Ebrahimzadeh, Guanghui Hua, Christopher Schmit

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty and Student Publications

Phosphate pollution from human activities significantly contributes to the eutrophication of aquatic ecosystems. Additionally, phosphorus is a finite, irreplaceable resource, making its management and recovery critical. This study explores the use of iron-coated steel slag (ICS) as a cost-effective material for phosphate removal and recovery from water. Ferric chloride was used to coat electric arc furnace slag via oven drying under various conditions. Batch adsorption tests evaluated phosphate adsorption, and the optimum coating conditions were identified as 0.5–1 mm slag, 0.5 M FeCl₃, and coating pH 1. The effect of solution pH and coexisting ions on phosphate removal were also …

Fisheries Research Report No. 354: Recreational Fishing For Abalone In Western Australia In 2024/2025 - Estimates Of Participation, Effort And Catch, Claire B. Smallwood, Karina L. Ryan, Lachlan W. Strain

Fisheries Research Reports

The Western Australian Recreational Abalone Fishery (RAF) operates in shallow coastal waters as a hand collection fishery while wading or diving. Three species of abalone are allowed to be caught. Roe’s abalone (Haliotis roei) are generally collected while wading from the shore in accessible nearshore reef complexes along the West and South Coast Bioregions. Greenlip abalone (H. laevigata) and Brownlip abalone (H. conicopora) are collected while wading (including snorkelling and freediving) and diving (using compressed air) predominantly along the South Coast Bioregion.

Recreational fishing for the three abalone species is licensed and highly regulated, especially in the Western Zone (which …

Review Of How To Win Environmental Victories, By Richard S. Groover, Phd, Shalini Upadhyaya

Virginia Journal of Science

Book Review:

Groover, Richard S. 2025. How to Win Environmental Victories. Nighthawk Publication, 116 pp.

Frameworks And Life Cycle Assessment For Reinforced Concrete Bridges For Sustainability In Transportation, Yu-Fu Ko, Jessica Gonzalez

Mineta Transportation Institute

Bridge structures are critical components of California’s transportation network, with reinforced concrete (RC) bridges being among the most widely used. Extending the lifespan of these structures can lead to significant reductions in environmental impacts. However, California’s frequent seismic activity has repeatedly exposed the vulnerability of existing RC bridges, highlighting the urgent need for seismic retrofitting and maintenance to improve infrastructure resilience against earthquakes and to increase sustainability. This research used detailed computer simulations known as nonlinear finite element models, which are highly detailed computer models, incorporating section damage indices to predict damage and assess structural deficiencies in RC bridges during …

Nebraska's Hidden Goldmine: Wind Power On Farms, Adelaide Witte

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

Nebraska’s been hesitant to go all in on wind energy. People often worry about things like noise, how turbines look, or even potential impacts on human health. Community concerns are valid and should always be acknowledged. However, addressing them doesn’t require putting all development on hold.

The Myth Of Clean Manufacturing, Andrea Phan

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

We must act now and reform renewable energy credits to reflect real progress. This means tightening Scope 2 rules so that renewable claims are tied to additional, time and location matched, clean power. It means rewarding measurable integration, so that real emissions are avoided, not waived by retroactive certificates. RECs can still play a role, but only in a system that demands we use the tools we already have.

Carbon Footprint Of Carrots In Western Australia, Christophe D'Abbadie, Saloomeh Akbari, Sang Ravindran

Horticulture research reports

This report presents the findings of a comprehensive carbon accounting study conducted on carrot production in the Myalup area of Western Australia.

The study reveals that carrot emissions are approximately 81 kg CO2e per tonne of carrot sold from the April harvest and 76 kg CO2e per tonne from the October harvest, when using rejected carrots for other economic uses. These figures represent competitive emissions intensities compared to international benchmarks.

Key findings include:

• Yield improvement is the primary driver for emissions reduction: Increasing productivity, without proportional input increases, offers the most effective pathway to lower emissions’ intensity while improving economic …

Closing The Loop On Textile Waste: Policy, Technology, And Consumer Behavior In Sustainable Fashion, Anthony Amotoe-Bondzie

Collected Student Papers

Textile waste has become one of the most visible consequences of the fashion industry’s linear production and consumption model, where materials are rapidly extracted, transformed, consumed, and discarded. This paper critically examines how sustainable fashion can move beyond isolated recycling efforts toward a more integrated circular economy framework. Rather than treating textile waste as only an end-of-life problem, the study analyzes it as a systems issue shaped by overproduction, weak product design, limited recovery infrastructure, fragmented regulation, and consumer habits that normalize short garment lifespans. The paper argues that closing the loop on textile waste requires coordinated interventions across policy, …

Montebello Islands Marine Sediment Retains Nuclear Weapons-Derived Radionuclide Contamination 70 Years After Detonations, Madison Williams-Hoffman, Mathew P. Johansen, Piers Larcombe, David P. Child, Michael A.C. Hotchkis, Oscar Serrano, Paul S. Lavery, Sangeeth Thiruvoth, Pere Masqué

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Three nuclear weapons tests were conducted in the 1950s at the Montebello Islands, an Indian Ocean archipelago in NW Australia. Anthropogenic radionuclides were introduced into the surrounding waters, where little quantification of the marine environment has occurred since. Here, we assess the distribution of anthropogenic radionuclides and plutonium (Pu) atom ratios in marine sediment throughout the Montebello Islands and the Western Australian (WA) coastline. Surface sediment was analysed for ⁹⁰Sr, ¹³⁷Cs, ^{238,239,240,241}Pu and ²⁴¹Am, alongside ²⁴⁰Pu/²³⁹Pu and ²⁴¹Pu/²³⁹Pu atom ratios. The highest activity concentrations in sediment were from ^239,240Pu, …

Assessing The Effectiveness Of Bridge Grate And Pipe Cattle Guard Designed To Mitigate Ocelot Road Mortality On Texas State Highway, Rupesh Maharjan, John H. Young Jr., Kevin W. Ryer, Md. Saydur Rahman, Richard J. Kline

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

The mitigated and fenced section of State Highway 100, extending from Laguna Vista to Los Fresnos, includes five wildlife crossing structures and 16 modified cattle guards (also called wildlife guards) installed to mitigate ocelot road mortality. Bridge grate and pipe wildlife guards were deployed at vehicle entries, and we evaluated their effectiveness in preventing meso-carnivores and ungulates from entering the roadway through the fence gaps from April 2020 to 2024. Wildlife guards collectively were >82% effective in repelling ungulate attempts to enter the roadway, while only 16.64% of meso-carnivore attempts were repelled. The pipe wildlife guard (PWG) design repelled 86.79% …

Early Signs The Eu Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism Is Reshaping Eu-India Steel Trade, Gian Luca Vriz, Theodor Florian Cojoianu, Carolyn Fischer, Luca Taschini

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This study examines early signals of the EU CBAM's impact on iron and steel exporters from India by integrating firm-level export data with third-party estimates of manufacturers' emissions and production. Changes in trade flows and pricing during the CBAM reporting phase indicate that high-emission-intensity firms have decreased both their average unit prices and shipment sizes to the EU, while low-emission-intensity firms have not changed shipment behavior and may have benefited from increasing prices. Such supply chain adjustments are in line with EU policy intentions, creating opportunities for low-emission producers while reducing reliance on high-emission suppliers to the EU.

Detection And Prevention Of Water Inrush From Seam Floor During Coal Mining Above Confined Aquifer, Weidong Pan, Yupei Deng, Houlin Du, Shiqi Liu, Mingtao Xu, Xingjie Liu

Journal of Sustainable Mining

With the increasing intensity of coal resource exploitation in China, the geological conditions of the working face are becoming more and more complex, and the bottom plate breakage (bottom bulge) and water inrush disasters caused by pressurized water mining are becoming more prominent. This article is based on the 21605 working face of Xin’an Coal Mine in Zaozhuang Mining Group. Through theoretical analysis and numerical calculations, the characteristics and scope of coal seam floor failure in the working face are obtained. Especially, the electrode cable direct current detection system designed through self-optimization was used for actual testing. Research shows that …

The Suitability Of Advanced Geospatial Technologies In Monitoring Mine Surface Displacement, Long Quoc Nguyen, Tuyet Minh Dang, Lipecki Tomasz

Journal of Sustainable Mining

This study conducts a thorough review of the current scientific literature on the application of geospatial methods in the assessment of mining-induced displacement. The scope of research included technologies for determining deformation, subsidence, and landslide in mining areas. Global Navigation Satellite Systems, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Terrestrial Laser Scanners, Remote Sensing, and fusion methods are approaches used to solve the research objectives. Additionally, the paper also mentions some advantages, disadvantages, and scope of application of these methods. The investigation revealed that the displacement detection method most commonly used at the moment is satellite radar interferometry.

Towards Sustainable Mining: Ghg Considerate Open Pit Long-Term Planning Using Adaptive Large Neighborhood Search Algorithm, Bahar Amirmoeini, Martin Grenon, Ali Moradi Afrapoli

Journal of Sustainable Mining

Mine planning involves the systematic design and coordination of mineral extraction from the earth’s crust, integrating exploration, production, and various engineering considerations. With increasing emphasis on environmental responsibility, the mining industry is under pressure to incorporate environmental considerations into mine planning. This paper addresses the precedence-constrained production scheduling problem (PCPSP) within the context of green long-term mining planning, aiming to optimize extraction processes while restricting carbon emission. Given the NP-hard nature of the PCPSP, this study introduces an adaptive large neighborhood search (ALNS) algorithm tailored specifically for long-term mine planning. A range of computational experiments have been carried out, including …

Economic Viability And Environmental Sustainability: A Cost-Benefit Analysis Of Green Technologies In Mineral Extraction, Tshinkobo Bukasa Orphea, Agyingi Babaca Agyingib, Xiangrui Meng

Journal of Sustainable Mining

This research offers a novel approach to comparing green technologies’ economic profitability and environmental sustainability of their mineral extraction based upon econometric and life cycle assessment methodologies. Quantitative results show attractive results with an NPV of $2,014,001 and an IRR of 17%. In the third year, the project nets at $300,000, or 63%, at a 7% discount rate. However, soil protection remains challenging, but pollution coefficients are improved, as evidenced by environmental impact assessments (EIAs). The findings in the study further underscore how regulatory frameworks and market drivers dictate the use of green technology. The economic, environmental and regulatory costs …

A Case Study Comparing The Results Of A Copper Open-Pit Mine Scheduling Considering Two Different Approaches For Spatial Interpolation Of Comminution Geometallurgical Variables, Sílvia Martins, Pedro Campos, Douglas Mazzinghy

Journal of Sustainable Mining

The use of geometallurgical variables to improve the accuracy obtained in mine planning is an increasingly present reality in mining. However, the way these variables are interpolated to construct the block model is still a major challenge since they are non-additive variables. In this case study, a database from a copper mine located in Brazil was used to compare mining planning by Direct Block Scheduling using two spatial interpolation approaches. In the first approach, the geometallurgy block model was produced interpolating the comminution indexes Axb and BWI from the drill holes, and the specific energy was calculated at each block. …

Impact Of Multiple Mining Subsidence On Large Diameter Steel Pipelines: The Upper Silesian Coal Basin Case Study, Piotr Kalisz, Magdalena Zięba, Marcin Grygierek

Journal of Sustainable Mining

The article concerns the impact of multiple mining subsidence on pipeline expansion capacity based on the analysis of the field research results. The article presents a case study related to a water mains system that supplies drinking water to approximately 3.5 million consumers. These pipelines are made of steel with diameters of 1600 mm and 1400 mm. The water mains partly run through mining and post-mining areas in the Upper Silesian Coal Basin in Poland. These pipelines are equipped with expansion joints to protect them against the impact of ground deformations. The field research concerned the assessment of the position …

Recovery Of Magnesium Sulfate And Calcium Sulfate From Zinc Flotation Tailing, Raquel Húngaro Costa, Jonathan Tenório Vinhal, Tatiana Scarazzato, Denise Crocce Romano Espinosa

Journal of Sustainable Mining

Resource recovery is a process that has been used to obtain products from industrial waste. Mining tailings can be used as an alternative through ore beneficiation to create by-products for this type of waste. The work herein investigated the recovery of two products from a real tailing generated in the Zn beneficiation route in the flotation step. A non-magnetic fraction was submitted to a hydrometallurgical route to produce MgSO₄ and CaSO_4. Thermodynamic simulations using FactSage software were performed to evaluate the optimal leaching conditions varying the S:L ratio, the sulfuric acid concentration, and temperature. The best modeled conditions …

The Saltpond Oilfield’S Second Life: Ghana’S Bioenergy With Carbon Capture And Storage (Beccs) Opportunity, Justice Appiah Nuamah

COP30

As the achievement of net-zero emissions requires the unavoidable deployment of Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) technologies, this paper presents a technical and policy case for Ghana to implement Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) through the repurposing of the decommissioned Saltpond offshore oilfield for permanent CO2 sequestration. The proposal addresses two of Ghana’s developmental challenges in a single intervention: the conversion of millions of tonnes of agricultural and forestry residues into a sustainable feedstock solves a national waste management issue, while the resultant bioenergy generation supports rural electrification. This approach offers a more cost-effective CDR pathway than direct air …

A Feature Engineering Technique For Enhancing The Generalization Of Machine Learning Models In Estimating Crop Evapotranspiration, Gaku Yokoyama, Sohta Harigai, Shigehiro Kubota, Koichi Nomura, Gregory R. Goldsmith, Daisuke Yasutake, Tomoyoshi Hirota, Masaharu Kitano

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Accurate and precise estimation of evapotranspiration (ET) is crucial for understanding the terrestrial carbon, water, and energy cycles. While process-based models of ET, such as the Penman–Monteith model offer robust generalization capabilities, they are limited by the need for detailed parameters (e.g., stomatal conductance,) that are challenging to measure continuously. On the other hand, machine learning models can estimate ET by capturing relationships between ET and environmental variables without experimentally measuring model parameters. However, machine learning models face the challenge of limited generalizability. This issue is particularly significant given the uncertainty introduced by changing climatic …

Near Real-Time Monitoring Reveals Extensive Recent Forest Disturbance In Ghana’S Protected Areas, Luofan Dong, Xiaojing Tang, Foster Mensah, Bashara Ahmed Abubakari, Kelsee H. Bratley, Pontus Olofsson, Curtis E. Woodcock

Faculty Scholarship

The Protected Areas (PAs) in Ghana play a critical role in preserving the abundant biodiversity of the West Africa Green Belt. But recent changes in policies and regulations have facilitated logging and mining activities, which have accelerated forest disturbances. While there is a consensus that PAs are undergoing destructive change, the extent, rate, and locations of forest disturbances are undocumented. In this study, we applied the fusion near real-time (FNRT) algorithm that utilizes Landsat, Sentinel-1, and Sentinel-2 data and sampling to monitor forests in the PAs of Ghana. The results reveal that 704.74 (±177.24) km2 of forest in the PAs …

Western Australian And South Australian Grain Enterprise Emission Intensities And Gross Margins: A Review, Christophe D'Abbadie, Ross Kingwell

Farm Systems and Economics research articles

Drawing on various datasets, crop enterprise emission intensities and gross margins are reported for the main broadacre crops grown in Western Australia and South Australia. Values are reported for various rainfall regions and across time, and for different farm performance groupings. As a generalisation, in each region, wheat and canola production display marked increases in emissions intensity across the study period whilst legume crops’ emission intensities increase far less. Wheat crops display upward emission intensity trajectories across time whilst displaying different rates of increase in emissions intensity according to regional rainfall. Canola demonstrates higher emissions intensities per tonne compared to …

Early-Life Exposure To Organic Chemical Pollutants As Assessed In Primary Teeth And Cardiometabolic Risk In Mexican American Children: A Pilot Study, Vidya S. Farook, Feroz Akhtar, Rector Arya, Alice Yau, Srinivas Mummidi, Juan Lopez Alvarenga, Alvaro Diaz-Badillo, Roy G. Resendez, John Blangero

Human Genetics Publications

Early-life exposure to organic chemicals (OCs) may influence childhood obesity and associated cardiometabolic risk. These conditions have been shown to disproportionately affect minority populations such as Mexican Americans (MAs). However, information on the impact of organic chemicals on cardiometabolic risk in MA children is limited. Therefore, we conducted a pilot study to assess the extent to which exposure to organic chemicals influences cardiometabolic traits (CMTs) in MA children. We recalled 25 children from a previous study and collected 25 primary teeth from them. Chemical analyses of the teeth were performed using established protocols. Target analytes included acetaminophen (APAP); 3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridinol (TCPy), …

Unraveling Crop Nitrogen-Water Dynamics With Hyperspectral-Thermal Sensing In Northern Central Valley, California, Shahryar Fazli, Surendra Maharjan, Wenzhao Li, Joshua B. Fisher, Rejoice Thomas, Fernando Romero Galvan, Gabriela Shirkey, Hesham El-Askary

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Ensuring global food security in the face of climate change requires optimizing crop water use and nutrient management. This study investigates the relationship between canopy nitrogen (N) and evapotranspiration (ET) across sunflower, rice, walnut, alfalfa, and plum crops using advanced remote sensing technologies. High-resolution hyperspectral data from NASAs Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) and thermal multispectral data from the Landsat-based OpenET system were analyzed over 1,135 km² in California. Regression analysis revealed strong spatial association between canopy N and ET for sunflower (R² = 0.82), rice (R² = 0.71), and walnut (R² = 0.68), …

Creating Wildfire-Resilient Communities In Utah: Fuel Treatments In The Wildland-Urban Interface, Luke Dutson, Kendall Becker, Katlyn Stemmler, J. Bradley Washa, Larissa L. Yocom Kent, Aish Chandrasekaran, Joseph D. Birch, Scott Hotaling

All Current Publications

In the western United States, decades of wildfire suppression and grazing have led to changes in the amount and type of wildland fuels. In many lower montane forests, fuels such as logs, dead trees, and fallen leaves have accumulated. In many sagebrush-dominated rangelands, annual grasses have invaded, and pinyon pine and juniper woodlands have encroached. These areas now threaten to burn at uncharacteristically high fire severity, a metric based on how much vegetation is killed. Climate change and rapid population growth have exacerbated this issue in Utah, increasing the threat wildfire poses to the state’s communities, infrastructure, and ecosystems. Fuel …

Enrichment Factors And Play Fairway Mapping Of Helium In Typical Zones Of The Ordos Basin, Gao Jianrong, Tao Shizhen, Liu Xiangbai, Yang Wei, Zhao Zhenyu, Chen Xiuyan, Xu Wanglin, Zhang Chunlin, Song Wei, Chen Yue, Huang Junping, Ma Zhanrong

Coal Geology & Exploration

Background The Ordos Basin enjoys abundant natural gas resources, which generally bear helium, making this basin hold great helium resource potential. In this case, detailed exploration is essential for the future transition from natural gas-helium joint exploration to special helium exploration in the basin.Objective and Method To systematically investigate the distribution and potential of helium resources in the Ordos Basin, natural gas samples were taken from different areas of the basin for analysis and tests. To examine the primary factors controlling helium accumulation and enrichment, this study conducted a systematic analysis of the basement, sedimentary rock layers, fault systems, …

Carbon Metabolism And Multidrug Resistance In Bacillus Mobilis And Cupriavidus Campinensis Isolated From Cadmium-Spiked Soils, Philips O. Akinwole, Emma E.C. Jacobs '25, Nina G. Shaffer '25

Biology Faculty publications

Heavy metal contamination and antibiotic resistance are critical environmental and public health challenges, often exacerbated by co-selection pressures in polluted environments. This study identifies and characterizes Bacillus mobilis and Cupriavidus campinensis, two cadmium-tolerant bacterial species isolated from cadmium-amended soils with cadmium (Cd²⁺) concentrations exceeding those typically found in highly contaminated soils. Both species exhibited multidrug resistance and the ability to metabolize specific carbon substrates, including pyruvic acid methyl ester, itaconic acid, D-galactonic acid-γ-lactone, Tween-40, and Tween-80. These substrates enhance microbial activity and heavy metal bioavailability, supporting their potential roles in bioremediation, especially through the targeted introduction of …

Process And Mechanism Of Defluorination Using Magnesium Chloride-Modified Coal Gangue, Zhao Li, Zhou Wangxu, Zhang Qing, Xing Mingfei, Xu Feng, Kong Weifang, Liu Yifei, Qin Guangyu

Coal Geology & Exploration

Background The rapid development of industry has resulted in a yearly increase in wastewater discharge, which induces a gradually rising fluorine concentration in water. In this context, removing fluoride using natural materials and industrial waste has emerged as a popular research topic. Coal gangue, one of the largest contributors to industrial waste in China, contains substantial clay minerals, and its pore structure can be effectively improved through modification. This helps significantly enhance its adsorption performance and thus achieve efficient fluoride removal from water. Methods This study investigated coal gangue from a typical mining area of the Henan Energy and Chemical …

A Modular Casing While Drilling Rig For Large-Diameter Horizontal Boreholes For Underground Rescue, Fan Dong, Ni Xiaoyang, Mu Shuyuan, Zou Zujie, Wen Guojun, Li Yingping, Lu Feifei

Coal Geology & Exploration

Objective Operations in a narrow space pose a challenge to rescue in the case of the collapse of mine roadways or tunnels. To address this challenge, this study developed a modular rescue casing while drilling (CwD) rig system for horizontal boreholes. With the capacity for quick responses, this CwD rig was designed to enhance the rescue efficiency and safety under complex geological conditions. Methods Following the modular design concept and compact layout principle, this study optimized core components such as the power heads, feed devices, and power system. The auxiliary operation vehicle was checked against overturning through multibody dynamics (MBD) …