Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Profit-Maximizing Responses To Climate Change In Commodity Agriculture: Does Adaptation Matter?, Sajeev Erangu Purath Mohankumar

Open Access Theses

Accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has led to rising temperatures, and is expected to lead to a change in climate. Crop yields are vulnerable to these changes. Adaptation is expected to be key to combating climate change impacts, but the effectiveness of adaptation strategies is not well understood. Hence, there is a need to assess the impacts of climate change on agriculture and devise profitable adaptation strategies to combat its effects. This study uses historical and three projected climate data sets to simulate yields using the crop model Daycent, empirical relationships between weather and agronomic variables that influence …

Uncertainty, Irreversibility, And Investment In Secondgeneration Biofuels, Tanner Joseph Mccarty

Open Access Theses

The present study formalizes and quantifies the importance of uncertainty for investment in a corn-stover based cellulosic biofuel plant. Using a real options model we recover prices of gasoline that would trigger entry into the market and calculate the portion of that entry trigger price required to cover cost and the portion that corresponds to risk premium. We then discuss the effect of managerial flexibility on the entry risk premium and the prices of gasoline that would trigger mothballing, reactivation, and exit. Results show that the risk premium required by plants to enter the second-generation biofuel market is likely to …

Field To Flight: A Techno-Economic Analysis Of Stover To Aviation Biofuels Supply Chain, Amanda C. Bittner

Open Access Theses

Greenhouse gas emissions have been a growing concern. The transportation sector contributes to one-third of GHG emissions in the United States from fossil fuel burning. The Renewable Fuel Standard set a requirement for 16 billion gallons (ethanol equivalent) of cellulosic biofuels to be used in the market. Aviation biofuels can help to meet both of these problems as well as improve U.S. energy security.

Investment in the biofuel industry carries a lot of risk. The biofuel industry is run by the private sector, but can be incentivized by government. Cellulosic biofuels carry even more risk than first generation biofuels, because …

Deforestation Of Cloud Forest In The Central Highlands Of Guatemala: Soil Erosion And Sustainability Implications For Q'Eqchi' Maya Communities, Ian Christopher Pope

Open Access Theses

Understanding the nexus between deforestation, food production, land degradation, and culture contributes knowledge that is useful for development practitioners working to enhance conservation and food security. Documenting deforestation and soil erosion in the Sierra Yalijux and Sierra Sacranix in the Central Highlands of Guatemala adds new knowledge about the rates and dynamics of deforestation and land degradation in areas with unique and sensitive cloud forest ecosystems. It also suggests possible areas of emphasis for efforts targeted at combining cloud forest conservation with sustainability for indigenous Q'eqchi' communities. In addition, this work contributes to a small but growing body of literature …

Determinants Of Energy Efficiency Across Countries, Guolin Yao

Open Access Theses

With economic development, environmental concerns become more important. Economies cannot be developed without energy consumption, which is the major source of greenhouse gas emissions. Higher energy efficiency is one means of reducing emissions, but what determines energy efficiency?

In this research we attempt to find answers to this question by using cross-sectional country data; that is, we examine a wide range of possible determinants of energy efficiency at the country level in an attempt to find the most important causal factors. All countries are divided into three income groups: high-income countries, middle-income countries, and low-income countries. Energy intensity is used …

Study Of The Sustainbility Issues Of Food Production Using Vertical Farm Methods In An Urban Environment Within The State Of Indiana, Victor Mendez Perez

Open Access Theses

There are several problems around the globe related to water scarcity, energy shortages, deforestation and loss of fertile land, and food security. Climate change is making environmental and social issues arise. Issues such as, changes in the agricultural landscape, increasing population (9 billion is the expected population for 2040), rising food borne illnesses, scarcity of drinking water, and more crop failure due to plant pathogens and insect pests, among other factors make this study specially significant. Vertical farming could be a potencial solution to some of these problems.

Due to these problems the present thesis analyzed vertical farming as a …