Digital Commons Network^™

Draft Final Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit (Bpsou) Insufficiently Reclaimed Sites Sister Dump (Bres No. 38) Remedial Action Work Plan (Rawp), Pioneer Technical Services, Inc.

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Unraveling The Intractable Trilemma In Urban Weather And Climate Modeling, Peiyuan Li, Ashish Sharma, Rao Kotamarthi, Alberto Martilli, Subimal Ghosh, Cristina Negri, Scott Collis, Lee Chapman, Fei Chen, Luis M. A. Bettencourt, Winston T. L. Chow

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Urban weather and climate modeling is constrained by the highly heterogeneous and dynamic nature of cities. It exhibits a persistent trilemma between spatial granularity, spatiotemporal coverage, and physical interpretability. We articulate this challenge and propose a hybrid framework that integrates physics -based models, urban observations, and machine learning. Framing urban modeling as an integration problem across methods and scales, we provide a structured guide for next -generation, decision -relevant urban climate capabilities.

The Willow Who Kept The Secrets Of The Heart, Ana Suarez

Speak for the Trees!

This digital museum exhibit features the climate change fairy tale The Willow Who Kept the Secrets of the Heart, presented as a written narrative and recorded reading that explores the symbolic relationship between the Weeping Willow, water, and ecological care in the face of climate change. It also includes an infographic highlighting the Weeping Willow’s habitat, characteristics, and environmental challenges in Texas, along with a curator’s talk and curator’s board. The exhibit features an artifact entry using a half-filled vial of water to represent climate instability and the often-overlooked resources that sustain life, as well as a persuasive essay, …

"Leaf It To The Trees": Assessing The Cooling Effects Of Tree Canopy On Campus Microclimates, Andrea Sophia Realyvasquez

Posters - 2026

Urban heat island (UHI) effects are becoming increasingly common worldwide, with lived experiences and media coverage highlighting the negative consequences of urban development for humans and the environment. Urbanization, like many other aspects of society, should not remain stagnant and outside the scope of innovation. Understanding the interplay between urban morphology and temperature distributions is crucial in informing effective policy development (AbbegCoproski et al. 2024). tion to a political approach to reducing surface temperatures, there is the social aspect of difficulty in evading UHI in microclimates. University campuses are among the many areas that struggle to overcome old infrastructure and …

Conservation Communication In Web 2.0: A Mixed Methods Analysis Of Alveus Sanctuary's Strategies On Twitch.Tv, Hope Denison

Senior Theses

This thesis examines how environmental creators can effectively transmit conservation messages in the evolving Web 2.0 media environment. The case of Alveus Sanctuary, a virtual sanctuary and education center on Twitch.TV, is used to explore the strategies currently used to engage audiences and raise ecological awareness online. Thematic analysis of interviews with the sanctuary’s founder revealed that Alveus combines traditional environmental education with an influencer business model to engage online audiences, leveraging parasocial behavior, interactivity, and collaboration to garner support. A quantitative content analysis of social media posts revealed that these strategies effectively induce parasocial engagement in online spaces. These …

Can Financial Literacy Enhance Esg Disclosures?, Xiaoran Jia, Kiridaran Kanagaretnam, Kiat Bee Jimmy Lee, Chee Yeow Lim

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Using an international sample of firms and two country-level measures of financial literacy, we find robust evidence of a positive relation between financial literacy and firms' Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) disclosures. In cross-sectional analyses, we find that the effect of financial literacy in enhancing ESG disclosures is more prominent in poorer information environments, weaker legal institutions and weaker ESG reporting environments. Lastly, we find that financial literacy also enhances ESG performance. Our study contributes to and extends the literature by providing strong evidence that citizens' financial literacy enhances firms' ESG disclosure and the associated ESG performance.

High-Resolution Monitoring Of Intra-Seasonal Agricultural Drought Using Sentinel-2 And Machine Learning Across Bimodal Growing Seasons In Kenya, S. Mohammad Mirmazloumi, Harison Kipkulei, Rose Waswa, Tobias Landmann, Tom Dienya, Maximilian Schwarz, Fabrizio Ramoino, Clément Albergel, Gohar Ghazaryan

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Drought presents significant challenges to agriculture, threatening food security and livelihoods, across many regions. In Kenya, recurrent droughts across diverse agro-ecological zones emphasize the urgent need for reliable and scalable drought assessment methods. Although drought assessment with various datasets has been carried out for this region, many of them often use course or moderate resolution data. This study uses high-resolution Sentinel-2 observations and machine learning to monitor intra-seasonal crop conditions and assess drought impacts across bimodal growing seasons. Using pixel-based supervised random forest models trained with multiple vegetation indices as input, we classify croplands into drought-affected and unaffected areas. The …

Leveraging Section 208 Water Quality Planning To Mitigate Pfas Contamination In Watersheds Across The Waccamaw Region, Anna Dimatteo

Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation

No abstract provided.

Upgrades To Carvers Bay Water System To Improve Safety And Water Quality, Samantha Stollenmaier

Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation

No abstract provided.

Draft 2025 Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit Residential Metals Abatement Program Construction Completion Report, Abby Peltomaa

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Final Silver Bow Creek Conservation Area (Sbcca) Construction Quality Assurance Plan (Cqap), Pioneer Technical Services, Inc.

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Final Quarterly Operations And Maintenance Report Butte Treatment Lagoon System – First Quarter 2025, Pioneer Technical Services, Inc.

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Final Quarterly Operations And Maintenance Report: Butte Treatment Lagoon System – Third Quarter 2025, Pioneer Technical Services, Inc.

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Draft Final 2025 Bpsou Subdrain Data Summary Report (Dsr), Pioneer Technical Services, Inc.

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Revised Draft Final Quarterly Operations And Maintenance Report: Butte Treatment Lagoon System – Second Quarter 2025, Pioneer Technical Services, Inc.

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Radicals Transforming Organic Matter: Implications For Non-Pyrogenic Black Carbon And Nitrogen Formation, Molecular Dynamics In Tropical Soils, And Lignin Valorization, João Vitor Dos Santos

Chemistry & Biochemistry Theses & Dissertations

Radicals drive the transformation of organic matter in natural and engineered systems, altering its structure, reactivity, and stability. Condensed aromatic carbon (ConAC) and condensed aromatic nitrogen (ConAN) are among the most persistent forms of organic matter in soils and are traditionally interpreted as products of biomass burning. This dissertation challenges the long-standing assumption that these materials are exclusively pyrogenic, showing that iron-mediated radical chemistry can generate condensed aromatic structures under ambient conditions.

Chapters II and III show that Fenton-like radical oxidation of lignin-rich biomass produces condensed aromatic structures compositionally similar to pyrogenic black carbon and black nitrogen when assessed with …

Forest Fires Increase Vulnerability To Midwinter Rain-On-Snow Snowmelt In The Western Oregon Cascades, Sage C. Ebel, Kelly Gleason

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Forest fires and rain-on-snow events in the seasonal snow zone of the Pacific Northwest are increasing in frequency and magnitude, yet the combined impacts of these events on snowpack and water resources remain poorly understood. We show that forest fires doubled midwinter snowmelt proportions in 2023 and 2024 compared to unburned reference sites in the western Oregon Cascades. Data from snow monitoring and micrometeorological stations installed across an elevational gradient revealed increased snowpack vulnerability during midwinter rain-on-snow events, where we observed more snowmelt per rain-on-snow event in the burned forest, indicating higher vulnerability of these snowpacks to rapid melt, increasing …

Recovery Of Bioenergy From Industrial Wastewater Using Microbial Fuel Cell, Syed Wamiq Ali, Ghulam Mujtaba, Manzoor Ahmed Sanjrani, Falak Shad

Journal of Bioresource Management

Water problems and Energy demands are increasing particularly in developing countries. Researchers are looking for sustainable technologies that can address increasing energy and environmental concerns. Major reasons behind those emerging concerns are industrialization and rapid development. There is need of sustainable technology which can solve wastewater issues and fulfill energy demand. One of the emerging technologies that have been studied comprehensively is Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC). It is a bio-electrochemical conversion technology that converts organic substrate into electrical energy. Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) is removed as a result of microbial metabolism of organic substrate. Even through technical and economic aspects …

Changes In Land, Ocean, Atmospheric Parameters Associated With The 2025 Myanmar (Mw 7.7) Earthquake, Feng Jing, Akshansa Chauhan, Ashwani Raju, Ramesh P. Singh

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Multiple parameters associated with the land, atmosphere, and ocean were analyzed to study short-term and immediate pre-earthquake changes associated with the 28 March 2025 Myanmar earthquake (Mw 7.7). Anomalous clear-sky outgoing longwave radiation (ClrOLR) and trace gases (CH₄, CO, and O₃) were detected within two months prior to the mainshock. Vertical changes at different pressure levels suggest a possible underground source. High-temporal-resolution observations of the infrared brightness temperature and surface air pressure revealed short-lived fluctuations shortly before the earthquake, which may reflect localized stress adjustments and surface latent heat flux release during the final stage of earthquake preparation. In the …

Sprinkler Package Runoff Risk Tool For Center Pivot Irrigation Systems, Will Bowers

Spring Runoff Conference

Center pivots in Utah 

• 403,524 acres = 67% of sprinkler irrigated fields in the open in Utah 
• Considered one of the most effective sprinkler systems available with technological advancements over the years

Evaluating Alternative Water Conservation Scenarios For Alfalfa In The Great Salt Lake Basin Using Integrated Climate Model Projections, Saddy Pineda-Castellanos, Masoumeh Hashemi

Spring Runoff Conference

Elevation of Great Salt Lake North and South Arms (1903-2026)

An Estimation Of Crop Evapotranspiration Using Soil Water Balance In Vineyards, Tarique Aziz, Burdette Barker, Michael Caron, Michael Pace

Spring Runoff Conference

Breakout Session presentation given at the 2026 Spring Runoff Conference

Immersive Modeling To Generate Holistic Strategies To Get More Water To Great Salt Lake, Hadia Akbar

Spring Runoff Conference

How to get more water to GSL?

Must Address

• Complex water rights
• Competing water needs
• Historical legacies
• Variable and arid hydrology
• Infrastructure limitations and opportunities
• Lack of trust

What Makes Smart Irrigation Work? Lessons From Producers In The Upper Colorado River Basin, Tejinder Singh, Matt Yost, Elisa Flint, Burdette Barker, Jessica Ulrich-Schad, Silas Ekadu

Spring Runoff Conference

Colorado River Basin Water Crisis

• Water allocations in the Colorado River Basin were set during wetter periods and now exceed current river flows, creating a gap between water supply (12.5 maf yr^-1) and demand (15 maf yr^-1).
• River flow has declined 19% since 2000.

Making Water Visible: Neutral, Verification-First Infrastructure For Basin-Scale Water Accountability, Eric Mcculley

Spring Runoff Conference

Every Tool Tells You What the Lake Level WAS.

None Tell You What It WILL BE.

• Current monitoring is retrospective — USGS gauges and DWR reports show only historical data
• Decision lag: By the time you see the problem, it’s too late to adjust
• 2024–2025 season: GSL dropped to record lows before upstream conservation kicked in
• Agricultural users, municipalities, and GSL all compete for limited supply with imperfect information

Leasing Water For Great Salt Lake: Water Savings And Producer Impacts, Conner Harwood

Spring Runoff Conference

Great Salt Lake Water Leasing

• Utah is working to increase inflows to GSL through voluntary water leasing from agriculture
• But key information is missing:
• How much water can leases save at the field level?
• At what price should farmers be compensated?
• This project:

1. Estimates field-level consumptive water use
2. Estimates the value of water in agricultural production
3. Evaluates water savings and producer impacts across leasing strategies

Meteorological Monitoring With Real-Time Data Processing Using Uas, Htoo Poe Sar, Cal Coopmans, Sierra Young

Spring Runoff Conference

Background and Motivation 

• Agricultural water management requires information about crop water use and water consumption 
• Remote sensing methods are used to model and estimate environmental processes – but they require weather data 

Utah Prototype For Visualizing Vulnerabilities Downstream Of Dams, Courtney Flint, Michael Englert, Nicolas Holden

Spring Runoff Conference

The climate question 

• Overtopping = 1/3^rd of all dam failures (ASDSO) 
• Drought concerns and supply uncertainty motivate keeping reservoirs full 
• Overtopping likelier if extreme storm when reservoir full 
• Over much of the country the probability of the annual daily maximum rainfall > 100-year event and the preceding 30-day rainfall >10-year event are going up (Hwang & Lall 2024) 

The Reform Of Prior Appropriation And The Fate Of Great Salt Lake, Christopher L. Lant, Rocky Seeley, Beth Parker, Andrew Follett

Spring Runoff Conference

Legal Issues Raised by the Decline of Great Salt Lake

• Violations of Clean Air Act from dust threaten federal intervention
• Petition to list Wilson’s Phalarope as an endangered species

Nutrient Inputs, Crop Removal, And Residual Soil Nitrogen Under Automated Surge Irrigation In Northen Utah, Ngoni Mufute

Spring Runoff Conference

Introduction

• Increasing pressure on already water scarce resources due to

• Climate Change and or variability

• Increasing demand and competition for water. E.g. due to -urban expansion

• Environmental concerns (Especially concerning the Great Salt Lake (GSL)-

• the shrinking of water levels in the GSL,

• increasing pollution levels in the GSL and

• the impact of these issues on industry,

• dust from the drying lakebed,

• increasing threat to both aquatic life and land animals