Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Causes And Effects Of Shisper Glacial Lake Outburst Flood Event In Karakoram In 2022, Sandeep Kumar Mondal, Vatsal D. Patel, Rishikesh Bharti, Ramesh P. Singh

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Karakoram Himalayas are vulnerable to glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), which cause catastrophic floods in the surrounding areas. The increasing natural and anthropogenic activities, especially in the Indo-Gangetic Plains at the southern flank of the towering Himalayas, could be the cause of climate change affecting the frequency of the natural hazards in the Himalayas. In the present study, a detailed analysis of the Shisper Lake breach of 7 May 2022 is carried out using satellite remote sensing. A decreasing trend in the glacial mass balance is observed between 2017 and 2021; in this period, frequent GLOF episodes occurred. A pronounced …

Evapotranspiration And Energy Balance Of Irrigated Urban Turfgrass, Matthew D. Miksch

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Water usage for irrigation is a big consumer of water resources in urban areas in Utah and other parts of the Intermountain Region of the Western United States. As populations continue to increase in these states, it is important to understand how much water is being used by urban landscapes in order to plan and manage future water resources. Evapotranspiration (ET), or the amount of water leaving a surface over a certain timeframe due to both transpiration from plants and evaporation from the soil, is a key variable in understanding how much water urban landscapes are really using to grow …

The Impact Of Climate Change On Environmental Sustainability And Human Mortality, Xingzhi Mara Chen, Andrew Sharma, Hua Liu

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

Climate dictates the critical aspects of human environmental conditions. The frequency and intensity of extreme weather conditions due to human-induced climate change have alarmingly increased. Consequently, climate change directly affects environmental sustainability and human mortality in the short term and creates prolonged and complicated long-term indirect grave risks. This paper examines three-level environmental impact risks associated with climate change on human mortality. It proposes a conceptual framework for developing an empirical event-based human mortality database related to climate change and communication strategies to enhance global environmental adaptation, resilience, and sustainability.

Linkages Between Atmospheric Circulation, Weather, Climate, Land Cover And Social Dynamics Of The Tibetan Plateau, Shobha Kumari Yadav

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The Tibetan Plateau (TP) is an important landmass that plays a significant role in both regional and global climates. In recent decades, the TP has undergone significant changes due to climate and human activities. Since the 1980s anthropogenic activities, such as the stocking of livestock, land cover change, permafrost degradation, urbanization, highway construction, deforestation and desertification, and unsustainable land management practices, have greatly increased over the TP. As a result, grasslands have undergone rapid degradation and have altered the land surface which in turn has altered the exchange of heat and moisture properties between land and the atmosphere. But gaps …

Remote Sensing Of Georgia Tidal Marsh Habitats Using Aerial Photography And Planetscope Satellite Imagery, Harrison M. Currin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Globally, tidal marshes cover about 90,800 km. Within the state of Georgia tidal marshes are primarily located behind the barrier islands and total 1,619 km². The combination of high salinity environments and daily inundation, and being dependent on river output, make these dynamic systems. Tidal marshes provide numerous ecosystem services such as carbon and nitrogen sequestration, flood control, coastal protection, and numerous biogeochemical processes. Due to their unique position, tidal marshes are under threat from sea level rise, drought, coastal development, and large-scale disturbance events. Tidal freshwater marshes are especially susceptible to these threats due to their geographic …

A Workshop On Using Nasa Airs Data To Monitor Drought For The U.S. Drought Monitor, Alireza Farahmand,, Sharon Ray, Heidar Thrastarson, Stephen Licata, Stephanie Granger, Brian Fuchs

Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Recent studies indicate that drought indicators based on near-surface air relative humidity (RH), air temperature (T), and air vapor pressure deficit (VPD), derived from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite can detect the onset of drought earlier than other drought indicators, specifically standardized precipitation index (SPI), which is widely used for drought onset detection. A recent study showed that standardized relative humidity index (SRHI) can detect drought signals earlier than SPI (Farahmand et al. 2015). Relative humidity is a climate variable defined as the ratio of air vapor pressure to saturated vapor pressure. Precipitation and relative …

Using Remote Sensing Technologies In Relocating Lubrak Village And Visualizing Flood Damages, Ronan Wallace

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

As weather patterns change across the world, there are communities impacted by climate change that are left unnoticed. In the Himalayan mountain range, communities have suffered, experiencing an increase in flash flooding and droughts. For Lubrak Village in Lower Mustang, the community faces the threats of flash flooding. Over the last ten years, the amount of flash flooding has increased, occurring more than once each monsoon season. After every flood, concrete-like sediment is left behind, hardening across the riverbed and increasing its elevation. As the riverbed elevation increases, this sediment encroaches on Lu-brak Village’s agricultural fields and ancient mud buildings, …

Changes In Lake Drainage In The Western Canadian Arctic, Dilshan Kariyawasam, Philip Marsh Dr

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Nearly half of all Pan-Arctic lakes are situated in the Canadian Arctic, with many of these lakes being of thermokarst origin. Thermokarst lakes are sensitive to changes in the surrounding environment, making them useful indicators to examine the condition of hydrological systems in response to rapid climate warming, a trend which has been well observed in the Canadian Western Arctic. In this study, we use aerial photography to quantify lake area and count changes for lakes in the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk region, between 1950 and 2004. A combination of aerial photography and Landsat imagery were used in identifying drained thermokarst lake basins …

Examining Melt Pond Dynamics And Light Availability In The Arctic Ocean Via High Resolution Satellite Imagery, Austin Wesley Abbott

OES Theses and Dissertations

As the Arctic experiences consequences of climate change, a shift from thicker, multi-year ice to thinner, first-year ice has been observed. First-year ice is prone to extensive pools of meltwater (“melt ponds”) forming on its surface, which enhance light transmission to the ocean. Changes in the timing and distribution of melt pond formation and associated increases in under-ice light availability are the primary drivers for seasonal progression of water column primary production and warming. Observations of melt pond development and distribution require meter scale resolution and have traditionally been limited to airborne images. However, recent advances in high spatial resolution …

An Assessment Of Regional Icesat-2 Sea-Level Trends, Brett Buzzanga, Eduard Heijkoop, Benjamin D. Hamlington, R. Steven Nerem, Alex Gardner

OES Faculty Publications

Sea-level rise is an important indicator of ongoing climate change and well observed by satellite altimetry. However, observations from conventional altimetry degrade at the coast where regional sea-level changes can deviate from the open-ocean and impact local communities. With the 2018 launch of the laser altimeter onboard ICESat-2, new high-resolution observations of ice, land, and ocean elevations are available. Here we assess the potential benefits of sea level measured by ICESat-2 by comparing to data from Jason-3 and tide gauges. We find good agreement in the linear rates computed from the independent observations, with an absolute average residual of 3.60 …

Evaluation Of Remotely Sensed Precipitation Estimates From The Nasa Power Project For Drought Detection Over Jordan, Muhammad Rasool Al‑Kilani, Michel Rahbeh, Jawad Al‑Bakri, Tsegaye Tadesse, Cody Knutson

Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Droughts can cause devastating impacts on water and land resources and therefore monitoring these events forms an integral part of planning. The most common approach for detecting drought events and assessing their intensity is use of the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), which requires abundant precipitation records at good spatial distribution. This may restrict SPI usage in many regions around the world, particularly in areas with limited numbers of ground meteorological stations. Therefore, the use of remotely sensed derived data of precipitation can contribute to drought monitoring. In this study, remotely sensed precipitation estimates from the POWER/Agroclimatology archive of NASA and …

Response Of Deep Aquifers To Climate Variability, Karem Fathy Abdelgaber Abdelmohsen

Dissertations

Our recent analysis of Temporal Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) solutions over the largest aquifer system in Africa (the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System: NSAS) revealed that while the response of deep aquifers to climatic variations remains a relatively slow process that takes thousands to tens of thousands of years, there is a much faster response in aquifers that are characterized by dense networks of faults, fractures and karst as is the case with the NSAS. This rapid groundwater flow, when it occurs, is detected as an increase in GRACE_TWS over areas downgradient and distant (hundreds of km) from …

Towards Sustained Monitoring Of Subsidence At The Coast Using Insar And Gps: An Application In Hampton Roads, Virginia, Brett Buzzanga, David P.S. Bekaert, Ben D. Hamlington, Simran S. Sangha

OES Faculty Publications

Hampton Roads is among the regions along the U.S. Atlantic Coast experiencing high rates of relative sea level rise. Partly to mitigate subsidence from aquifer compaction, Hampton Roads is injecting treated wastewater into the underlying aquifer. However, the GPS (Global Positioning System) station spacing (∼30 km) is too coarse to capture the spatial variability of subsidence and potential uplift from the injection. We present a cost‐effective workflow for generating an InSAR (interferometric synthetic aperture radar) and GPS combined displacement product. We leverage a live, open‐access archive of InSAR products generated from Sentinel‐1 data. We find an overall subsidence rate of …

Assessing The Accuracy Of A Uav Snow Depth Survey: Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska Calm Grid, Ian Nichols

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Active layer depth and snow depth are annually collected across the Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring (CALM) Network to observe the response of the active layer and near-surface permafrost to climate change over decadal-time scales. Snow depth is typically measured using a graduated steel probe at each grid node but, in this paper, we explore the viability of using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) (drone) technology to collect snow depth measurements at the 1 km² Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska CALM grid. This is achieved by comparing estimated UAV snow depths to measured snow depths collected using a MagnaProbe (MP) at each of …

Global Perspectives On Observing Ocean Boundary Current Systems, Robert E. Todd, Francisco P. Chavez, Sophie Clayton, Sophie Cravatte, Marlos Goes, Michelle Graco, Xiaopei Lin, Janet Sprintall, Nathalie V. Zilberman, Matthew Archer, Javier Arístegui, Magdalena Balmaseda, John M. Bane, Molly O. Baringer, John A. Barth, Lisa M. Beal, Peter Brandt, Paulo H.R. Calil, Edmo Campos, Luca R. Centurioni, Maria Paz Chidichimo, Mauro Cirano, Meghan F. Cronin, Enrique N. Curchitser, Russ E. Davis, Marcus Dengler, Brad Deyoung, Shenfu Dong, Ruben Escribano, Andrea J. Fassbender, Sarah E. Fawcett, Ming Feng, Gustavo J. Goni, Alison R. Gray, Dimitri Gutiérrez, Dave Hebert, Rebecca Hummels, Shin-Ichi Ito, Marjorlaine Krug, François Lacan, Lucas Laurindo, Alban Lazar, Craig M. Lee, Matthieu Lengaigne, Naomi M. Levine, John Middleton, Ivonne Montes, Mike Muglia, Takeyoshi Nagai, Hilary I. Palevsky, Jaine B. Palter, Helen E. Phillips, Alberto Piola, Albert J. Plueddemann, Bo Qiu, Regina R. Rodrigues, Moninya Roughan, Daniel L. Rudnick, Ryan R. Rykaczewski, Martin Saraceno, Harvey Seim, Alex Sen Gupta, Lynne Shannon, Bernadette M. Sloyan, Adrienne J. Sutton, Luanne Thompson, Anja K. Van Der Plas, Denis Volkov, John Wilkin, Dongxiao Zhang, Linlin Zhang

OES Faculty Publications

Ocean boundary current systems are key components of the climate system, are home to highly productive ecosystems, and have numerous societal impacts. Establishment of a global network of boundary current observing systems is a critical part of ongoing development of the Global Ocean Observing System. The characteristics of boundary current systems are reviewed, focusing on scientific and societal motivations for sustained observing. Techniques currently used to observe boundary current systems are reviewed, followed by a census of the current state of boundary current observing systems globally. Next steps in the development of boundary current observing systems are considered, leading to …

Remote Sensing Of Icebergs In Greenland's Fjords And Coastal Waters, Jessica Scheick

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Increases in ocean water temperature are implicated in driving recent accelerated rates of mass loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet. Icebergs provide a key tool for gaining insight into ice-ocean interactions and until recently have been relatively understudied. Here we develop several methods that exploit icebergs visible in optical satellite imagery to provide insight on the ice--ocean environment and explore how iceberg datasets can be used to examine the physics of iceberg decay and parent glacier properties. First, a semi-automated algorithm, which includes a machine learning-based cloud mask, is applied to six years (2000-2002 and 2013-2015) of the Landsat archive …

Estimating Live Fuel Moisture In Southern California Using Remote Sensing Vegetation Water Content Proxies, Shenyue Jia, Seung Hee Kim, Son V. Nghiem, Wonhee Cho, Menas Kafatos

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Wildfires are a major ecological disturbance in Southern California and often lead to great destruction along the Wildland-Urban Interface. Live fuel moisture has been used as an important indicator of wildfire risk in measurements of vegetation water content. However, the limited field measurements of live fuel moisture in both time and space have affected the accuracy of wildfire risk estimations. Traditional estimation of live fuel moisture using remote sensing data was based on vegetation indices, indirect proxies of vegetation water content and subject to influence from weather conditions. In this study, we investigated the feasibility of estimating live fuel moisture …

Drought And Land-Cover Conditions In The Great Plains, Heather Tollerud, Jesslyn Brown, Thomas Loveland, Rezaul Mahmood, Norman Bliss

HPRCC Personnel Publications

Land–atmosphere interactions play a critical role in the Earth system, and a better understanding of these interactions could improve weather and climate models. The interaction among drought, vegetation productivity, and land cover is of particular significance. In a semiarid environment, such as the U.S. Great Plains, droughts can have a large influence on the productivity of agriculture and grasslands, with serious environmental and economic impacts. Here, we used the vegetation drought response index (VegDRI) drought indicator to investigate the response of vegetation to weather and climate for landcover types in the Great Plains in the United States from 1989 to …

Patterns And Drivers Of Recent Disturbances Across The Temperate Forest Biome, Andreas Sommerfeld, Cornelius Senf, Brian Buma, Anthony W. D’Amato, Tiphaine Després, Ignacio Díaz-Hormazábal, Shawn Fraver, Lee E. Frelich, Álvaro G. Gutiérrez, Sarah J. Hart, Brian J. Harvey, Hong S. He, Tomáš Hlásny, Andrés Holz, Thomas Kitzberger, Dominik Kulakowski, David Lindenmayer, Akira S. Mori, Jörg Müller, Juan Paritsis, George L.W. Perry, Scott L. Stephens, Miroslav Svoboda, Monica G. Turner, Thomas T. Veblen, Rupert Seidl

Geography

Increasing evidence indicates that forest disturbances are changing in response to global change, yet local variability in disturbance remains high. We quantified this considerable variability and analyzed whether recent disturbance episodes around the globe were consistently driven by climate, and if human influence modulates patterns of forest disturbance. We combined remote sensing data on recent (2001–2014) disturbances with in-depth local information for 50 protected landscapes and their surroundings across the temperate biome. Disturbance patterns are highly variable, and shaped by variation in disturbance agents and traits of prevailing tree species. However, high disturbance activity is consistently linked to warmer and …

Exploring The Relationship Between Climate And Forest Conditions In Forest Classee De La Mondah (Gabon) Using Remote Sensing Data, Mariano Mboumba

Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial (FOSS4G) Conference Proceedings

This study aims to examine the relationship between temperature and precipitation as climatic factors and the vegetation characteristics in Forêt Classée de la Mondah (Gabon). A pixel based spatial analysis procedure with QGIS was used to extract vegetation characteristics from MODIS on Terra, NDVI band, data from February 2000 to December 2015, while temperature and precipitation were monitored from January 1980 to December 2015 to highlight climate fluctuations in the study area. Two regression analyses were conducted : one between temperature and NDVI and the other one between precipitation and NDVI. Results showed that temperature and precipitation did not vary …

Interannual Variations And Trends In Global Land Surface Phenology Derived From Enhanced Vegetation Index During 1982–2010, Xiaoyang Zhang, Bin Tan, Yunyue Yu

Xiaoyang Zhang

Land surface phenology is widely retrieved from satellite observations at regional and global scales, and its long-term record has been demonstrated to be a valuable tool for reconstructing past climate variations, monitoring the dynamics of terrestrial ecosystems in response to climate impacts, and predicting biological responses to future climate scenarios. This study detected global land surface phenology from the advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data from 1982 to 2010. Based on daily enhanced vegetation index at a spatial resolution of 0.05 degrees, we simulated the seasonal vegetative trajectory for each individual pixel …

Do Insect Outbreaks Reduce The Severity Of Subsequent Forest Fires?, Garrett W. Meigs, Harold S.J. Zald, John L. Campbell, William S. Keeton, Robert E. Kennedy

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Understanding the causes and consequences of rapid environmental change is an essential scientific frontier, particularly given the threat of climate- and land use-induced changes in disturbance regimes. In western North America, recent widespread insect outbreaks and wildfires have sparked acute concerns about potential insect-fire interactions. Although previous research shows that insect activity typically does not increase wildfire likelihood, key uncertainties remain regarding insect effects on wildfire severity (i.e., ecological impact). Recent assessments indicate that outbreak severity and burn severity are not strongly associated, but these studies have been limited to specific insect or fire events. Here, we present a regional …

A Model Of The Effects Of Deforestation On Local Climate In The North Cascades, Monica R. H. Jasper

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

Changes in areal extent of land cover types may lead to alterations in the surface energy budget that contribute to anthropogenic climate forcing. This study examines the effects of deforestation in the Cascade Range on local temperature. Temperature sensors were installed in 14 forest stands, taking measurements for one year. Estimated tree age, circumference, and species were recorded to calculate stand density index. Satellite imagery was used to calculate shade fraction from spectral mixture analysis, which is a proxy for canopy structure and density. These data were used to construct seasonal cycles of temperature to model variation with stand density …

Intra- And Inter-Seasonal Variability Of Supra-Glacial 1 Streams And Lakes Over The West Greenland Ice Sheet 2 From High-Resolution Satellite Optical Data, Michael Gregory Brown

Dissertations and Theses

The Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) is one of the largest glacial ice masses on Earth, second only to the Antarctic ice sheet. The surface hydrology of the GrIS plays a crucial role on the surface energy and mass balance budgets of the ice sheet as a whole. Surface water, known as supra-glacial water, is seasonally found in the ablation zone and feeds the en-glacial and sub-glacial hydrological environments of the ice sheet. The spatial distribution of surface streams is poorly understood and their temporal variability is (to our knowledge) unknown. One of the reasons for the lack of knowledge on …

Multi-Scale Evaluation Of Light Use Efficiency In Modis Gross Primary Productivity For Croplands In The Midwestern United States, Qinchuan Xin, Mark Broich, Andrew E. Suyker, Le Yu, Peng Gong

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Satellite remote sensing provides continuous observations of land surfaces, thereby offering opportunities for large-scale monitoring of terrestrial productivity. Production Efficiency Models (PEMs) have been widely used in satellite-based studies to simulate carbon exchanges between the atmosphere and ecosystems. However, model parameterization of the maximum light use efficiency (ε*_GPP) varies considerably for croplands in agricultural studies at different scales. In this study, we evaluate cropland ε*_GPP in the MODIS Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) model (MOD17) using in situ measurements and inventory datasets across the Midwestern US. The site-scale calibration using 28 site-years tower measurements derives ε*_GPP values …

Interannual Variations And Trends In Global Land Surface Phenology Derived From Enhanced Vegetation Index During 1982–2010, Xiaoyang Zhang, Bin Tan, Yunyue Yu

GSCE Faculty Publications

Land surface phenology is widely retrieved from satellite observations at regional and global scales, and its long-term record has been demonstrated to be a valuable tool for reconstructing past climate variations, monitoring the dynamics of terrestrial ecosystems in response to climate impacts, and predicting biological responses to future climate scenarios. This study detected global land surface phenology from the advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data from 1982 to 2010. Based on daily enhanced vegetation index at a spatial resolution of 0.05 degrees, we simulated the seasonal vegetative trajectory for each individual pixel …

Assessing Growth Response To Climate Controls In A Great Basin Artemisia Tridentata Plant Community, Lorenzo F. Apodaca

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

An assessment of the growth response of key vegetative species to climatic variability is vital to identifying possible local impacts on ecosystems faced with imminent climate change. With current climate projections in Nevada predicting a shift to an even more arid climate with greater year-to-year variability, the imperative exists to identify the effects of specific climatic controls on plant growth and to research methods to assess large-scale vegetative changes, especially in more remote areas where readily available data sets may be lacking. This study utilized annual growth ring indices constructed from big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentatassp.tridentata) stems collected in Spring Valley, …

Prehistoric Human Ecodynamics In The Rub Al-Khali Desert: Results Of Remote Sensing And Excavations In Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Jason T. Herrmann

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Archaeological investigations in the Emirate of Dubai, UAE conducted by the Dubai Department of Archaeology and the University of Arkansas demonstrate that the desert inland of the Oman Peninsula was occupied not only during the Arabian Neolithic (8000-4400 BC), when the region experienced a moist period referred to as the Holocene Climatic Optimum (HCO), but also during the more arid millennia following the decline of the HCO into the Christian Era. During this period, desert settlement clustered near a band of oases, in contrast to the more widespread spatial distribution of remains of nomadic pastoralists from the Neolithic. Excavations at …

Slides: Arctic Ecosystem Services Measurement And Modeling Project, Eric Biltonen

Best Management Practices (BMPs): What? How? And Why? (May 26)

Presenter: Eric Biltonen, PhD, Environment Economist, Houston Advanced Research Center

8 slides

Use Of Remote Sensing, Hydrologic Tree-Ring Reconstructions, And Forecasting For Improved Water Resources Planning And Management, Cody Lee Moser

Doctoral Dissertations

Uncertainties were analyzed in three areas (remote sensing, dendroclimatology, and climate modeling) relevant to current water resources management. First, the research investigated the relationships between remotely sensed and in situ Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) datasets in three western U.S. basins. Agreement between SWE products was found to increase in lower elevation areas and later in the snowpack season. Principal Components Analysis (PCA) revealed two distinct snow regions among the datasets and Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) was used to link both data products with regional streamflow. Remotely sensed SWE was found to be sufficient to use in statistically based forecast models …