Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Strategic Planning For Exchanging Treated Urban Wastewater For Agricultural Water With The Approach Of Supplying Sustainable Urban Water: A Case Study Of Mashhad, Iran, Sasan Esfandiari, Arash Dourandish, Ali Firoozzare, Saleh Taghvaeian

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Considering the increasing demand for urban water and the low water-use efficiency in the agricultural sector, an exchange of treated urban wastewater for agricultural water could be a fundamental solution for administering sustainable management of water resources. However, implementing the intersectoral water exchange project is influenced by the economic, social, and environmental conditions of each region, especially in developing countries. Therefore, this study sought to identify the best possible strategies for exchanging treated urban wastewater for agricultural water in Mashhad city, located in Iran, a country that suffers from decreased urban water resources. Based on the interviews conducted with the …

Interaction Networks Are Driven By Community-Responsive Phenotypes In A Chitin-Degrading Consortium Of Soil Microbes, Ryan Mcclure, Yuuliya Farris, Robert Danczak, William Nelson, Hyun-Seob Song, Aimee Kessell, Joon-Yong Lee, Sneha Couvillion, Christopher Henry, Janet K. Jansson, Kristen S. Hofmockel

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Soil microorganisms provide key ecological functions that often rely on metabolic interactions between individual populations of the soil microbiome. To better understand these interactions and community processes, we used chitin, a major carbon and nitrogen source in soil, as a test substrate to investigate microbial interactions during its decomposition. Chitin was applied to a model soil consortium that we developed, “model soil consortium-2” (MSC-2), consisting of eight members of diverse phyla and including both chitin degraders and nondegraders. A multiomics approach revealed how MSC-2 community-level processes during chitin decomposition differ from monocultures of the constituent species. Emergent properties of both …

Interaction Networks Are Driven By Community-Responsive Phenotypes In A Chitin-Degrading Consortium Of Soil Microbes, Ryan Mcclure, Yuliya Farris, Robert Danczak, William Nelson, Hyun-Seob Song, Aimee Kessell, Sneha Couvillion, Christopher Henry, Janet K. Jansson, Kristen S. Hofmockel

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Soil microorganisms provide key ecological functions that often rely on metabolic interactions between individual populations of the soil microbiome. To better understand these interactions and community processes, we used chitin, a major carbon and nitrogen source in soil, as a test substrate to investigate microbial interactions during its decomposition. Chitin was applied to a model soil consortium that we developed, “model soil consortium-2” (MSC-2), consisting of eight members of diverse phyla and including both chitin degraders and nondegraders. A multiomics approach revealed how MSC-2 community-level processes during chitin decomposition differ from monocultures of the constituent species. Emergent properties of both …

Electrochemical Biosensing And Deep Learning-Based Approaches In The Diagnosis Of Covid-19: A Review, Omer Sadak, Ferhat Sadak, Ozal Yildirim, Nicole M. Iverson, Rizwan Qureshi, Muhammed Talo, Chui Ping Ooi, U. Rajendra Acharya, Sundaram Gunasekaran, Tanvir Alam

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

COVID-19 caused by the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 virus taking a huge toll on global health and caused life-threatening medical complications and elevated mortality rates, especially among older adults and people with existing morbidity. Current evidence suggests that the virus spreads primarily through respiratory droplets emitted by infected persons when breathing, coughing, sneezing, or speaking. These droplets can reach another person through their mouth, nose, or eyes, resulting in infection. The "gold standard'' for clinical diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 is the laboratory-based nucleic acid amplification test, which includes the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test on nasopharyngeal swab samples. The main concerns …

Crop Response To Thermal Stress Without Yield Loss In Irrigated Maize And Soybean In Nebraska, Sandeep Bhatti, Derek M. Heeren, Steven R. Evett, Susan A. O'Shaughnessy, Daran Rudnick, Trenton E. Franz, Yufeng Ge, Christopher M.U. Neale

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Thermal sensing provides rapid and accurate estimation of crop water stress through canopy temperature data. Canopy temperature is highly dependent on the transpiration rate of the leaves. It is usually assumed that any reduction in crop evapotranspiration (ET) leads to crop yield loss. As a result, an increase in canopy temperature due to a decrease in crop ET would indicate crop yield loss. This research evaluated the hypothesis that crop water stress could be detected using canopy temperature measurements (increased leaf temperature) from infrared thermometers (IRTs) before incurring crop yield loss. This would be possible in a narrow range when …

Real-Time Irrigation Scheduling Of Maize Using Degrees Above Non-Stressed (Dans) Index In Semi-Arid Environment, Hope Njuki Nakabuye, Daran Rudnick, Kendall C. Dejonge, Tsz Him Lo, Derek M. Heeren, Xin Qiao, Trenton E. Franz, Abia Katimbo, Jiaming Duan

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Irrigation scheduling methods have been used to determine the timing and amount of water applied to crops. Scheduling techniques can include measurement of soil water content, quantification of crop water use, and monitoring of crop physiological response to water stress. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of a simplified crop canopy temperature measurement (CTM) method as Irrigation Principles. Soil and Water Conservation Engineera technique to schedule irrigation for maize. Specifically, the Degrees Above Non-Stressed (DANS) index, which suggests water stress when canopy temperature exceeds the non-stressed canopy temperature (T_cns), was determined by estimating T …

Modeling Actual Evapotranspiration With Msi-Sentinel Images And Machine Learning Algorithms, Robson Argolo Dos Santos, Everardo Chartuni Mantovani, Elpídio Inácio Fernandes-Filho, Roberto Filgueiras, Rodrigo Dal Sasso Lourenço, Vinícius Bof Bufon, Christopher M. U. Neale

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The modernization of computational resources and application of artificial intelligence algorithms have led to advancements in studies regarding the evapotranspiration of crops by remote sensing. Therefore, this research proposed the application of machine learning algorithms to estimate the ET_rF (Evapotranspiration Fraction) of sugar can crop using the METRIC (Mapping Evapotranspiration at High Resolution with Internalized Calibration) model with data from the Sentinel-2 satellites constellation. In order to achieve this goal, images from the MSI sensor (MultiSpectral Instrument) from the Sentinel-2 and the OLI (Operational Land Imager) and TIRS (Thermal Infrared Sensor) sensors from the Landsat-8 were acquired nearly …

Minimizing Surface Run-Off, Improving Underground Water Recharging, And On-Site Rain Harvesting In The Kathmandu Valley, Ambika P. Adhikari, Keshav Bhattarai

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

Nepal's political institutions and administrative units were thoroughly restructured in 2015 with the promulgation of the new Constitution. Several rural areas were combined to meet the definition of urban threshold criteria to classify rural areas into urban categories. Accordingly, over 3,900 local political and administrative units were amalgamated into 753 units, of which, 293 units are classified as urban. Within these newly defined urban areas, many natural environments have been converted into impervious surfaces such as paved roads, sidewalks, and building roofs. These impervious surfaces have drastically increased the amount of surface run-offs-often termed as "urban floods"--under increasing precipitation caused …

Ag-Iot For Crop And Environment Monitoring: Past, Present, And Future, Nipuna Chamara, Md Didarul Islam, Geng Bai, Yeyin Shi, Yufeng Ge

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

CONTEXT: Automated monitoring of the soil-plant-atmospheric continuum at a high spatiotemporal resolution is a key to transform the labor-intensive, experience-based decision making to an automatic, data-driven approach in agricultural production. Growers could make better management decisions by leveraging the real-time field data while researchers could utilize these data to answer key scientific questions. Traditionally, data collection in agricultural fields, which largely relies on human labor, can only generate limited numbers of data points with low resolution and accuracy. During the last two decades, crop monitoring has drastically evolved with the advancement of modern sensing technologies. Most importantly, the introduction …

Climate And Genetic Data Enhancement Using Deep Learning Analytics To Improve Maize Yield Predictability, Parisa Sarzaeim, Francisco Muñoz-Arriola, Diego Jarquin

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Despite efforts to collect genomics and phenomics (“omics”) and environmental data, spatiotemporal availability and access to digital resources still limit our ability to predict plants’ response to changes in climate. Our goal is to quantify the improvement in the predictability of maize yields by enhancing climate data. Large-scale experiments such as the Genomes to Fields (G2F) are an opportunity to provide access to “omics” and climate data. Here, the objectives are to: (i) improve the G2F “omics” and environmental database by reducing the gaps of climate data using deep neural networks; (ii) estimate the contribution of climate and genetic database …

Neonicotinoid Pesticide And Nitrate Mixture Removal And Persistence In Floating Treatment Wetlands, Julia K. Lindgren, Tiffany L. Messer, Daniel N. Miller, Daniel D. Snow, Thomas G. Franti

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Mesocosm and microcosm experiments were conducted to explore the applicability of floating treatment wetlands (FTWs), an ecologically based management technology, to remove neonicotinoid insecticides and nitrate from surface water. The mesocosm experiment evaluated three treatments in triplicate over a 21-d period. Floating treatment wetland mesocosms completely removed nitrate-N over the course of the experiment even when neonicotinoid insecticides were present. At the completion of the experiment, 79.6% of imidacloprid and degradation byproducts and 68.3% of thiamethoxam and degradation byproducts were accounted for in the water column. Approximately 3% of imidacloprid and degradation byproducts and 5.0% of thiamethoxam and degradation byproducts …

Optimising Existing Digital Workflow For Structural Engineering Organisations Through The Partnering Of Bim And Lean Processes, John Mclaughlin, Barry Mcauley

Conference Papers

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is now seen as one of the leading transformative processes within the Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) sector and has the potential to assist in streamlining the structural design process. However, its practical implementation can often add another layer to the existing workflow and can result, to its detriment, in the primary objective of optimising structural workflows being hindered. This can lead to structural organisations producing 3D models in tandem with traditional drawings, a lack of human intervention regarding software interoperability, and a reluctance to move away from conventional work methods. This paper will explore how …

Using 2d Hec-Ras Modeling With Vertical Feature Extraction To Inform Ecological Design In The Lower Atchafalaya River Basin, Louisiana, Colin Anderson

LSU Master's Theses

A 2D HEC-RAS model was created to demonstrate applications of hydraulic modeling for informing ecological design. This was done by comparing the hydrologic conditions of a baseline year (2010) to that of the environmental flow prescription from Kozak et al. (2016). The inundation results are relevant to hydraulic connectivity and cypress regeneration.

The hydraulic model was created by assimilating numerous data sources, refining the model with vertical feature (VF) extraction, and calibrating/validating the model. Several topo-bathymetric sources were combined to create the digital elevation model (DEM). Most importantly, this included bathymetry of the backswamp. Polylines of significant VFs in the …

Permafrost Landscape History Shapes Fluvial Chemistry, Ecosystem Carbon Balance, And Potential Trajectories Of Future Change, Scott Zolkos, Suzanne E. Tank, Steven V. Kokelj, Robert G. Striegl, Sarah Shakil, Carolina Voigt, Oliver Sonnentag, William L. Quinton, Edward A. G. Schuur, Donatella Zona, Peter M. Lafleur, Ryan C. Sullivan, Masahito Ueyama, David P. Billesbach, David Cook, Elyn R. Humphreys, Philip Marsh

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Intensifying permafrost thaw alters carbon cycling by mobilizing large amounts of terrestrial substrate into aquatic ecosystems. Yet, few studies have measured aquatic carbon fluxes and constrained drivers of ecosystem carbon balance across heterogeneous Arctic landscapes. Here, we characterized hydrochemical and landscape controls on fluvial carbon cycling, quantified fluvial carbon fluxes, and estimated fluvial contributions to ecosystem carbon balance across 33 watersheds in four ecoregions in the continuous permafrost zone of the western Canadian Arctic: unglaciated uplands, ice-rich moraine, and organic-rich lowlands and till plains. Major ions, stable isotopes, and carbon speciation and fluxes revealed patterns in carbon cycling across ecoregions …

Evaluation Of Flood Damage On Cross Laminated Timber Wall Configurations, Mustafa Nezih Kaya

Theses and Dissertations

Greenhouse gas emissions are one of the critical factors that affect climate change, increasing flooding risk and threatening human life. The use of traditional construction materials is responsible for a higher percentage of global greenhouse gas emissions when compared to the use of sustainable materials in the construction industry. The substitution of current building materials with sustainable materials is essential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and positively influence climate change when the current construction demand in the world is considered. Wood is one of the primary environmentally friendly construction materials in regard to high carbon storage and low carbon emissions. …

Use Of A Trial Function Method To Semi-Analytically Simulate Matrix Diffusion In Heterogeneous And Fractured Media, Kien Trung Pham

All Dissertations

A semi-analytic trial function model is applied to simulate matrix diffusion in systems of parallel fractures, 2-D/3-D discrete fracture networks, and in 3-D heterogeneous media. The trial function model gives low normalized root mean square error (NRMSE) when compared to the parallel fracture analytical solution over a range of fracture spacing, with considerations for retardation and decay. The semi-analytic trial function model is efficient in time and maintains less than 6% NRMSE when it simulates matrix diffusive transport in 2-D/3-D discrete fracture networks (DFN). The model can predict DFN plume within a few meters of accuracy compared to fine-grid DFN …

Efficiency Of Bank Filtration In The Removal Of Cyanotoxins Under Different Levels Of Nutrients, Luke Walkenhorst

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) are an increasing concern not only in Nebraska, but across the world. Increasing global temperatures in conjunction with overuse of synthetic fertilizers are leading causes to the increasing frequency and concern of HABs. In the present work, the effectiveness of simulated bank filtration (BF), as an economical water treatment option, to remove cyanotoxins under different levels of nutrients (nitrates and phosphates) was investigated. Vertical flow-through columns pre-acclimated with two levels of nutrients (e.g., nitrate and phosphate—10 vs. 50 mg/L) were exposed to two different levels of cyanotoxins (10 vs. 75 μg/L). Results from the study confirmed …

Development An Edge-Computing Sensing Unit For Continuous Measurement Of Canopy Cover Percentage Of Dry Edible Beans, Wei-Zhen Liang, Joseph Oboamah, Xin Qiao, Yufeng Ge, Robert M. Harveson, Daran R. Rudnick, Jun Wang, Haishun Yang, Angie Gradiz

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Canopy cover (CC) is an important indicator for crop development. Currently, CC can be estimated indirectly by measuring leaf area index (LAI), using commercially available hand-held meters. However, it does not capture the dynamics of CC. Continuous CC monitoring is essential for dry edible beans production since it can affect crop water use, weed, and disease control. It also helps growers to closely monitor “yellowness”, or senescence of dry beans to decide proper irrigation cutoff to allow the crop to dry down for harvest. The goal of this study was to develop a device – CanopyCAM, containing software and hardware …

Wetland Soil Development Along Salinity And Hydrogeomorphic Gradients In Active And Inactive Deltaic Basins Of Coastal Louisiana, Amanda Fontenot

LSU Master's Theses

Coastal wetlands provide an abundance of ecosystem services that benefit society, such as essential habitat for commercial species, storm protection, nutrient cycling, and carbon storage. Louisiana faces rapid rates of relative sea level rise (natural subsidence and eustatic sea levels) that threaten wetland survival, which are amplified by a reduction of riverine sediment input. An important determining factor of marsh survival is the formation of wetland platform elevation, known as vertical accretion, which is determined by several processes including sediment deposition & erosion, below ground biomass (BGB) productivity, decomposition of organic matter, shallow & deep subsidence, and soil compaction. Feldspar …

Effect Of Bromoform And Linseed Oil On Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Stored Beef Manure, Andrew Ortiz Balsero, Mara Zelt, Amy Millmier Schmidt, Miguel Fudolig, Daniel N. Miller

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide – potent greenhouse gases - from stored beef feedlot manure are a significant concern relative to climate change. Research on methane reduction strategies for enteric emissions has identified the application of organic additives, such as bromoform and linseed oil, to ruminant diets as potential solutions for reducing enteric emissions and pathogenic bacteria in excreted manure. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of bromoform and linseed oil on greenhouse gas emissions from beef feedlot manure, and on E. coli concentration in beef cattle manure, during a 5-week storage period. …

Mechanical And Durability Properties Of Geopolymer Concrete – A Review, Lelian Elkhatib, Fadi Al Aridi, Adel Elkordi, Jamal Khatib

BAU Journal - Science and Technology

Owing to the ongoing increase in human population, there is a need for more construction projects including residential buildings and other amenities. Concrete is by far the dominant material used in construction and cement is a main ingredient. Cement manufacture is an energy intensive process and emit large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. A reduction in the amount of cement used in construction is greatly beneficial. The use of geopolymer or alkali activated materials can serve this purpose as it attempts to totally replace cement in concrete. Geopolymers are materials that consist mainly of silica and alumina materials …

Axial Hypersensitivity Is Associated With Aberrant Nerve Sprouting In A Novel Model Of Disc Degeneration In Female Sprague Dawley Rats, David J. Lillyman, Fei San Lee, Evie C. Barnett, Tyler J. Miller, Moreno Lozano Alvaro, Henry C. Drvol, Rebecca A. Wachs

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Chronic low back pain is a global socioeconomic crisis and treatments are lacking in part due to inadequate models. Etiological research suggests that the predominant pathology associated with chronic low back pain is intervertebral disc degeneration. Various research teams have created rat models of disc degeneration, but the clinical translatability of these models has been limited by an absence of robust chronic painlike behavior. To address this deficit, disc degeneration was induced via an artificial annular tear in female Sprague Dawley rats. The subsequent degeneration, which was allowed to progress for 18-weeks, caused a drastic reduction in disc volume. Furthermore, …

A Segmentation-Guided Deep Learning Framework For Leaf Counting, Xijian Fan, Rui Zhou, Tardi Tjahjadi, Sruti Das Choudhury, Qiaolin Ye

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Deep learning-based methods have recently provided a means to rapidly and effectively extract various plant traits due to their powerful ability to depict a plant image across a variety of species and growth conditions. In this study, we focus on dealing with two fundamental tasks in plant phenotyping, i.e., plant segmentation and leaf counting, and propose a two-steam deep learning framework for segmenting plants and counting leaves with various size and shape from two-dimensional plant images. In the first stream, a multi-scale segmentation model using spatial pyramid is developed to extract leaves with different size and shape, where the fine-grained …

Towards A Cybersecurity Testbed For Agricultural Vehicles And Environments, Mark Freyhof, George Grispos, Santosh Pitla, Cody Stolle

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

In today’s modern farm, an increasing number of agricultural systems and vehicles are connected to the Internet. While the benefits of networked agricultural machinery are attractive, this technological shift is also creating an environment that is conducive to cyberattacks. While previous research has focused on general cybersecurity concerns in the farming and agricultural industries, minimal research has focused on techniques for identifying security vulnerabilities within actual agricultural systems that could be exploited by cybercriminals. Hence, this paper presents STAVE – a Security Testbed for Agricultural Vehicles and Environments – as a potential solution to assist with the identification of cybersecurity …

Surface Urban Energy And Water Balance Scheme (V2020a) In Vegetated Areas: Parameter Derivation And Performance Evaluation Using Fluxnet2015 Dataset, Hamidreza Omidvar, Ting Sun, Sue Grimmond, Dave Bilesbach, Andrew Black, Jiquan Chen, Zexia Duan, Zhiqiu Gao, Hiroki Iwata, Joseph P. Mcfadden

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

To compare the impact of surface–atmosphere exchanges from rural and urban areas, fully vegetated areas (e.g. deciduous trees, evergreen trees and grass) commonly found adjacent to cities need to be modelled. Here we provide a general workflow to derive parameters for SUEWS (Surface Urban Energy and Water Balance Scheme), including those associated with vegetation phenology (via leaf area index, LAI), heat storage and surface conductance. As expected, attribution analysis of bias in SUEWS-modelled QE finds that surface conductance (g_s) plays the dominant role; hence there is a need for more estimates of surface conductance parameters. The workflow …

Reflection Types And Students’ Viewing Of Feedback In A First-Year Engineering Course Using Standards-Based Grading, Heidi A. Diefes-Dux, Laura M. Cruz Castro

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Background: Feedback is one of the most powerful and essential tools for learning and assessment, particularly when it provides the information necessary to close an existing gap between actual and reference levels of performance. The literature on feedback has primarily focused on addressing strategies for providing effective feedback rather than aspects of students’ readiness to engage with feedback. Purpose/Hypothesis: This study investigated whether reflection, as a routine pedagogical intervention grounded in self-regulated learning theory, promotes the frequency with which students view feedback. Design/Method: A quasi-experimental design was employed to examine the relationship between the use of four different reflection types, …

Biogeosciences Perspectives On Integrated, Coordinated, Open, Networked (Icon) Science, D. Dwivedi, A. L.D. Santos, M. A. Barnard, T. M. Crimmins, A. Malhotra, K. A. Rod, K. S. Aho, S. M. Bell, B. Bomfim, F. Q. Brearley, H. Cadillo-Quiroz, J. Chen, C. M. Gough, E. B. Graham, C. R. Hakkenberg, L. Haygood, G. Koren, E. A. Lilleskov, L. K. Meredith, S. Naeher, Z. L. Nickerson, O. Pourret, H. S. Song, M. Stahl, N. Taş, R. Vargas, S. Weintraub-Leff

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

This article is composed of three independent commentaries about the state of Integrated, Coordinated, Open, Networked (ICON) principles in the American Geophysical Union Biogeosciences section, and discussion on the opportunities and challenges of adopting them. Each commentary focuses on a different topic: (a) Global collaboration, technology transfer, and application (Section 2), (b) Community engagement, community science, education, and stakeholder involvement (Section 3), and (c) Field, experimental, remote sensing, and real-time data research and application (Section 4). We discuss needs and strategies for implementing ICON and outline short- and long-term goals. The inclusion of global data and international community engagement are …

Land Use Influences The Composition And Antimicrobial Effects Of Propolis, Amara J. Orth, Emma H. Curran, Eric J. Haas, Andrew C. Kraemer, Audrey M. Anderson, Nicholas J. Mason, Carol A. Fassbinder-Orth

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Honey bee propolis is a complex, resinous mixture created by bees using plant sources such as leaves, flowers, and bud exudates. This study characterized how cropland surrounding apiaries affects the chemical composition and antimicrobial effects of propolis. The chemical composition and compound abundance of the propolis samples were analyzed using Gas Chromatography- Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) and the antimicrobial effects were analyzed using the 50% minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC₅₀) assay against four relevant bee pathogens, Serratia marcescens, Paenibacillus larvae, Lysinibacillus sphaericus, and Klebsiella pneumoniae. Propolis composition varied significantly with apiary, and cropland coverage predicted mean sum abundance of …

Precipitation And Temperature Extremes And Association With Large-Scale Climate Indices: An Observational Evidence Over India, S Rehana, Pranathi Yeleswarapu, Ghouse Basha, Francisco Munoz-Arriola

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Climate change exposes more frequent natural hazards and physical vulnerabilities to the built and natural environments. Extreme precipitation and temperature events will have a significant impact on both the natural environment and human society. However, it is unclear whether precipitation and temperature extremes increase physical vulnerabilities across scales and their links with large-scale climate indices. This study investigates the relationship between precipitation and temperature extremes, as recommended by the Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices (ETCCDI), and large scale climatological phenomenon indices (Indian Summer Monsoon Index (ISMI), Arctic Oscillation (AO), and North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO)), using India as …

Conceptual Framework To Integrate Economic Drivers Of Decision Making For Technology Adoption In Agriculture, Thiago L. Romanelli, Francisco Muñoz-Arriola, Andre F. Colaço

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

This study evaluates how much technology adoption could cost in a variety of crop-production scenarios. Cost-reduction simulations consider scenarios of higher input use efficiency such as reducing the usage of diesel, labor, irrigation, fertilizer, herbicide, and seed, among others. The scenarios aim to increase yields by integrating the effect of each input-reduction on the total operating costs. Agricultural production estimates for Nebraska in the US indicates that a technology that saves 1% of diesel is cost-effective, costing between USD 0.15/ha and USD 0.32/ha (for corn). Improvements on input use efficiency should be prioritized to incentivize technology development and adoption. This …