Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Impact Of Pricing Structure Change On Residential Water Consumption: A Long-Term Analysis Of Water Utilities In California, Juhee Lee, Mehdi Nemati, Maura Allaire, Ariel Dinar

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

California's demand-side urban water management policies, such as shifting water pricing structures from non-conservation to conservation-based rates, have received much attention in terms of meeting the state's short- and long-term water conservation policies. This paper quantifies the effect of pricing structure changes on residential water consumption using a survey dataset of 189 major California water utilities from 1994 to 2019. Results of our study demonstrate that residential per capita per day water consumption was reduced by an average of 2.6% when water agencies switched from non-conservation-based to conservation-based pricing structures. We also found evidence that the longer a utility maintained …

Yearly Population Data At Census Tract Level Revealed That More People Are Now Living In Highly Fire-Prone Zones In California, Usa, Slade Lazeweski, Shenyue Jia, Jessica E. Viner, Wesley Ho, Brian Hoover, Seung Hee Kim, Menas C. Kafatos

Institute for ECHO Articles and Research

In California (CA), the wildland-urban interface (WUI) faces escalating challenges due to surging population and real estate development. This study evaluates communities along CA's WUI that have witnessed substantial population growth from 2010 to 2021, utilizing demographic data and the 2020 WUI boundaries by the University of Wisconsin-Madison SILVIS Lab. Employing the Mann-Kendall test, we analyze yearly population trends for each census tract along the CA WUI and assess their significance. House ownership, affordability, and wildfire risk are examined as potential drivers of this demographic shift. Our findings indicate that 12.7% of CA's total population now resides in census tracts …

Solar-Powered Microgrids In Northern California: An Opportunity For Resilience, Marina Riddle

Master's Projects and Capstones

Planned and unplanned power outages have been increasing in frequency and duration, negatively impacting all public sectors, and threatening public safety. These outages are deadly to those who rely on medical devices. As climate change-fueled extreme weather events (wildfires, earthquakes, storms, etc.) also increase in frequency, our electrical grid must be prepared to bounce back. Microgrids provide necessary redundancy and reliability. Through a novel GIS suitability analysis, based on solar radiation, land use type, local energy demand, distance to transmission lines, distance to roads, and slope, optimal locations for solar-powered microgrids throughout Northern California were determined. The counties of Fresno, …

Stormwater To Groundwater: How California Can Increase Groundwater Storage And Build Climate Resilience., Emily M. Perales

Master's Projects and Capstones

California is predicted to have more intense and frequent changes in weather patterns within the next 50 years. Historical and current groundwater use for residential and agricultural use is unsustainable and is creating significant deficits in groundwater aquifers throughout the state. To better adapt to potential damages caused by atmospheric rivers, better stormwater management and capture could increase California’s Climate adaptability. This study is focused on the means and methods to capture stormwater and increase groundwater recharge. Nature-based infrastructure (NBI), or Green Infrastructure (GI), has been used in urban areas throughout the country to mitigate harmful stormwater effects by replicating …

Offshore Wind Energy And Seabird Collision Vulnerability In California, Whitney Grover

Master's Projects and Capstones

California has ambitious clean energy goals designed to help mitigate the worst outcomes of climate change. Offshore wind is an important part of the solution to meet California’s clean energy goals, but has potential negative impacts on the marine environment. As offshore wind energy is new to California, this paper reviews and synthesizes existing literature from other parts of the world, looking at the real and theoretical risk of seabird collision with offshore wind turbines. Learnings from existing offshore wind projects in the U.K. as well as theoretical and modeled risk assessments are applied to California’s plans to determine the …

Desal In So. Cal - Are We There Yet?, Luke F. Swanson

Master's Projects and Capstones

Southern California has access to a finite amount of water that is vulnerable to the state’s changing climate and growing population. The increasing population’s water demands and hydrologic variability due to climate change inspire different proposals to solve these water limitations. Seawater or brackish water desalination and wastewater recycling are all water resources that have the potential to help meet the water needs of Southern California, specifically the South Coast Hydrologic Region. Every water resource requires energy to transport, treat, and distribute the water for use; in an era of climate change, when energy use contributes to greenhouse gases, utilities …

Pixel-Wise Machine Learning And Deep Learning Methods Implementation On Multi-Class Wildfire Mapping, Mingda Wu

Honors Capstones

Wildfires are destructive natural hazards. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been a trendy topic in recent years due to its powerful applicability. This study focuses on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in hazard management, specifically in the field of wildfire mapping. Machine learning and Deep learning are two subsets of AI. This study applied pixel-wise machine learning and deep learning methods to do multi-class mapping on two wildfire events in California, USA. The purpose of this research is to demonstrate the usefulness and advantages of using AI in the field of hazard management. The machine learning methods selected are Random …

Analysis And Installation Of A Demonstration Agroforestry Orchard For Californian Mediterranean Plant Communities, Brandon Hurd

Master of Science in Environmental Sciences and Management Projects

Climate-appropriate agroforestry can provide low-input food security and ecosystem services for local Californian Mediterranean climates, while conserving natural resources (e.g., water, nitrogen, etc.). This project showcases a variety of agroforestry methods for five common plant communities of California and other analogous Mediterranean climates at the CAFES Experimental Farm on the campus of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Plant community species and their ethnobotanical uses were analyzed to mimic and incorporate aspects of native flora. Agricultural plants were also characterized to represent each of the five selected plant communities. GIS was used to assess the project site for soil, slope, and …

A Complex Record Of Last Interglacial Sea-Level History And Paleozoogeography, Santa Rosa Island, Channel Islands National Park, California, Usa, Daniel R. Muhs, Lindsey T. Groves, Kathleen R. Simmons, R. Randall Schumann, Scott A. Minor

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Studies of marine terraces and their fossils can yield important information about sea level history, tectonic uplift rates, and paleozoogeography, but some aspects of terrace history, particularly with regard to their fossil record, are not clearly understood. Marine terraces are well preserved on Santa Rosa Island, California, and the island is situated near a major marine faunal boundary. Two prominent low-elevation terraces record the ~80 ka (marine isotope stage [MIS] 5a) and ~120 ka (MIS 5e) high-sea stands, based on U-series dating of fossil corals and aminostratigraphic correlation to dated localities elsewhere in California and Baja California. Low uplift rates …

Estimating Black Bear Population Parameters With Spatial Capture Recapture In A High Desert Mountain Ecosystem, Steffen D. Peterson

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Black bear (Ursus americanus) populations have grown and recolonized historic range in California, and unharvested populations are currently poorly monitored by existing programs. In the Warner Mountains of northeast California, increasing issuance of bear depredation permits has underscored the importance of black bear population monitoring. To study population density, space-use, and demographics of this unharvested population, I established 10 non-invasive sampling clusters, comprising a 3 x 3 arrangement of 4-km² grid-cells, across a 1,464 km² study area and monitored hair snares over five 10-day sampling occasions in summer 2018. Fourteen microsatellite and two sex-specific genetic markers …

Groundwater Governance And Agricultural Sustainability: Examining Farmer Interactions With California’S Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, Zachary Matthew Goldstein

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Climate change has exacerbated groundwater depletion globally, and policymakers have struggled to effectively manage groundwater resources. California enacted the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) in 2014 to restore groundwater to sustainable levels.

The first paper of this thesis examines the drivers associated with uptake of groundwater conservation practices in agriculture. While a rich body of research has explored farmers’ conservation practice adoption, understanding of groundwater conservation practices is more limited. This study explores how information sources influence the actual and intended adoption of groundwater management practices in California. Using survey data from farmers (n = 553) in three largely agricultural …

Textural And Mineral Analysis Of Pegmatites From The Pala And Mesa Grande Districts In San Diego, California, Gabrielle Potter

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

San Diego pegmatites of the Pala and Mesa Grande mining districts are world renowned for their gem-quality minerals and their Li-bearing mineral phases. Pegmatite genesis, especially in San Diego mines, has been a debated topic since the 1900’s (Morgan and London, 2012). Pegmatite genesis is caused by partial melting processes and fractional crystallization that form granitic melts with high concentrations of rare earth elements (REE), such as lithium. Assessing the exact mineralogy and determining the overall textures can provide insight into the crystallization history of pegmatites. In the San Diego pegmatites, lithium-bearing phases, such as lepidolite and pink elbaite (a …

Storing Water For The Environment: Operating Reservoirs To Improve California’S Freshwater Ecosystems, Sarah Null, Jeffrey Mount, Brian Gray, Kristen Dybala, Gokce Sencan, Anna Sturrock, Barton Thompson, Harrison Zeff

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

California’s freshwater ecosystems—its lakes, rivers, floodplains, meadows, natural and managed wetlands, and estuaries—are a vital part of the state’s natural infrastructure. These ecosystems provide numerous benefits, including water supply, hydropower, flood control, fisheries, recreation, and cultural and aesthetic value. They are also home to the nation’s most diverse array of plant and animal communities, with numerous freshwater species found only in California (Jensen et al. 1993; Grantham et al. 2017).

Assessing The Efficacy Of California’S Wildfire And Forest Resilience Action Plan, Chloe Nelson

Master's Projects and Capstones

California’s wildfire threat eclipses current forestry management and wildfire mitigation strategies in place to protect people, infrastructure, and the natural environment. Climate change escalates wildfire risks with declining water supply coupled with hotter, drier conditions. California’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan attempts to integrate and build upon previously successful wildfire resilience plans to amplify the scale and pace of the state’s land management and community protections. This research assesses the plan’s efficacy to respond to the growing wildfire threat. This study investigates if there is equitable planning for the needs of high-wildfire risk groups living in the WUI and …

High Spatial And Temporal Resolution Census Data Reveal Communities At Risk Along The Wildland-Urban Interface (Wui) In California, Usa, Shenyue Jia, Slade Lazeweski, Jessica E. Viner, Wesley Ho, Brian Hoover

Institute for ECHO Articles and Research

We tracked census tract level population change along California's wild land-urban interface (WUI) during the past decade (2010-2019), an ecological sensitive region transitioning from developed land to wilderness. Our results from Mann-Kendall analysis, a method employed for monotonic trend detection showed that about one-third (29.1%) of census tracts in California’s WUI have seen a significant population increase from 2010 to 2019, affecting 12.7% population in California. The population increase along WUI is largely driven by the sixteen counties in the San Francisco Bay Area (10) and Southern California (6). We also found that higher proportion of WUI residents in Bay …

High Spatial And Temporal Resolution Census Data Reveals Communities At Risk Along The Wildland-Urban Interface (Wui) In California, Usa, Jessica E. Viner, Slade T. Laszewski, Wesley Ho, Justin Ewoldt, Pionnah Gregorio, Liz Lyon, Brian Hoover, Shenyue Jia

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

We tracked census tract level population change along California's wild land-urban interface (WUI) during the past decade (2010-2019), an ecological sensitive region transitioning from developed land to wilderness. Our results from Mann-Kendall analysis, a method employed for monotonic trend detection showed that about one-third (29.1%) of census tracts in California’s WUI have seen a significant population increase from 2010 to 2019, affecting 12.7% population in California.

The population increase along WUI is largely driven by the sixteen counties in the San Francisco Bay Area (10) and Southern California (6). We also found that higher proportion of WUI residents in Bay …

The Economics Of Residential Solar Panels: A Comparison Of Energy Charges For Different Load Profiles, Rate Plans, And Panel Orientations, John B. Broughton, Candace E. Ybarra, Prashanth U. Nyer

Business Faculty Articles and Research

This paper examines the effect of different residential electrical load profiles (electrical energy consumption patterns within a day) on energy charges for customers with solar panels under different Southern California Edison time-of-use (TOU) rate plans. We identify the TOU plan which would be the most cost effective for solar customers with each load profile. The impact of the orientation of the solar panel array (whether it faces south or west or east) and shading patterns on electricity charges are examined. We also determine the ideal usage offset (the percentage of electricity consumption provided by the solar array) for the various …

Protecting Public Trust Resources In America's Private Forests: Case Studies In The Diversity Of U.S. State-Level Forestry Policies, Brita Ann Goldstein

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Privately-owned forests in the U.S. provide ecological and socioeconomic benefits to Americans. At the same time, they challenge common law principles that govern the administration of public goods. There is long-standing tension between private property rights, which entitles forest landowners to make land management decisions about their properties, and the role of state governments in protecting public trust resources on behalf of the general public. Each state chooses to protect public trust resources on private lands in a different way, meaning the U.S. is a patchwork of diverse private forest policy approaches. Describing this range of approaches can help inform …

Estimating The Ecosystem Service Of Aleutian Cackling Goose Droppings On Pastures, Brian G. Fagundes

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The Aleutian cackling goose (Branta hutchinsii leucopareia) experienced a population low of 790 geese in 1974 and has recovered to the current estimate of 186,100 geese in 2021. Private livestock producers view geese as pasture competitors and use hazing and hunting to scare geese from private lands to adjacent public lands. I investigated if geese provide an ecosystem service via dropping fertilizing effects to improve pastures in northern California.

A greenhouse experiment was conducted from February-August 2019 at Cal Poly Humboldt, divided into two experiments: freshly sown ryegrass pasture and established plant and soil communities removed intact from …

Law Library Blog (December 2021): Legal Beagle's Blog Archive, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.

The Economics Of Battery Storage For Residential Solar Customers In Southern California, John B. Broughton, Prashanth U. Nyer, Candace E. Ybarra

Business Faculty Articles and Research

Battery storage coupled with solar panels became a consideration after the original net metering program in California (NEM 1.0) ended and gave way to the current net metering program (NEM 2.0). Under NEM 2.0, battery storage gives customers under time-of-use (TOU) rate plans the ability to store the excess electrical energy generated by their panels during sunlight hours (when electricity usage and resale rates are low) and then use that energy in the evening when rates are significantly higher. This reduces the amount of expensive electricity that the customer would have to purchase from the grid. It is widely expected …

Cross-Boundary Weed Management In Protected Area-Centered Ecosystems: How Can It Work And What Makes It Harder To Achieve?, Natalie Otto, Mark W. Brunson

Environment and Society Student Research

Invasive species management in natural landscapes is generally executed at the scale of independent jurisdictions, yet the ecological processes and biodiversity to be protected from invasion occur over large spatial scales and across multiple jurisdictions. Jurisdictional land boundaries can influence the flows and dynamics of ecological systems, as well as the social systems that exist in these complex landscapes. Land management entities in large, protected area-centered ecosystems may use different approaches to address cross-boundary management challenges. To understand these differing strategies and their effects on cooperative invasive plant management, we interviewed employees with federal, county and state agencies, research organizations, …

Climate And Transportation Policy Sequencing In California And Quebec, Sonya Ziaja, Mark Purdon, Julie Witcover, Colin Murphy, Mark Winfield, Genevieve Giuliano, Charles Séguin, Colleen Kaiser, Jacques Papy, Lewis Fulton

All Faculty Scholarship

We compare flexible low-carbon regulations in the transportation sector and their interaction and sequencing with greenhouse gas emissions trading systems in California and Quebec. As momentum builds for greater climate action, it is necessary to better understand how carbon markets and other low-carbon transportation policies influence one another. First, we demonstrate that emissions trading between California and Quebec has been asymmetric, with linking having little influence on carbon prices from California's perspective but leading to a considerable cost reduction from the point of view of Quebec. Second, we present evidence that Quebec has replicated many of California's low-carbon transportation policies …

Weather And Climate Summary And Forecast: June 2021 Report, Gregory V. Jones

Linfield University Wine Studies Reports

This report provides a summary of the weather and climate forecast for June 2021. It includes forecast information specific to the Pacific Northwest and the western United States, as well as forecast information for other portions of the United States and abroad.

Weather And Climate Summary And Forecast: May 2021 Report, Gregory V. Jones

Linfield University Wine Studies Reports

This report provides a summary of the weather and climate forecast for May 2021. It includes forecast information specific to the Pacific Northwest and the western United States, as well as forecast information for other portions of the United States and abroad.

Weather And Climate Summary And Forecast: April 2021 Report, Gregory V. Jones

Linfield University Wine Studies Reports

This report provides a summary of the weather and climate forecast for April 2021. It includes forecast information specific to the Pacific Northwest and the western United States, as well as forecast information for other portions of the United States and abroad.

Weather And Climate Summary And Forecast: March 2021 Report, Gregory V. Jones

Linfield University Wine Studies Reports

This report provides a summary of the weather and climate forecast for March 2021. It includes forecast information specific to the Pacific Northwest and the western United States, as well as forecast information for other portions of the United States and abroad.

Investigating The Lagged Relationship Between Smap Soil Moisture And Live Fuel Moisture In California, Usa, Shenyue Jia, Seung Hee Kim, Son V. Nghiem, Keun Hang S. Yang, Menas Kafatos

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Live fuel moisture (LFM), defined as the ratio between water in the fresh biomass out of the dry biomass, is a vital measurement of vegetation water content and flammability. In this study, we investigated the dynamics of in-situ measurement of LFM at all the active sites in California, USA and revealed the difference between evergreen forest and shrub/scrub, the two dominant land cover types in California's fire-prone regions. We found that LFM of evergreen forest responses to soil moisture increase later than shrub/scrub, due to a later occurrence of major precipitation, a lower air temperature, and the different plant physiology. …

Weather And Climate Summary And Forecast: February 2021 Report, Gregory V. Jones

Linfield University Wine Studies Reports

This report provides a summary of the weather and climate forecast for February 2021. It includes forecast information specific to the Pacific Northwest and the western United States, as well as forecast information for other portions of the United States and abroad.

Weather And Climate Summary And Forecast: January 2021 Report, Gregory V. Jones

Linfield University Wine Studies Reports

This report provides a summary of the weather and climate forecast for January 2021. It includes forecast information specific to the Pacific Northwest and the western United States, as well as forecast information for other portions of the United States and abroad.