Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

U.S. Drought Monitor, December 27, 2016, Brad Rippey

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for December 27, 2016 (12/27/16) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

Trending @ Rwu Law: Julia Wyman's Post: The Threat Of Marine Debris 12-13-2016, Julia Wyman

Law School Blogs

No abstract provided.

From Access To Excess: Agribusiness, Federal Water Programs, And The Historical Roots Of The California Water Crisis, Tracy Marie Neblina

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this paper is to show the link between water use, land consolidation, agribusinesses, and the water crisis that California began to experience in 2011. In order to better understand the relationship between the growth of agribusiness in the state and the evolution of water policy, this paper explores the historical context of land policy, the growth of farming in the San Joaquin Valley, and the development of federally funded water projects in the Central Valley. Years of expanding farmland and use of surface and underground water with limited regulation played an important role in exacerbating California’s water …

Parameterizing A Water-Balance Model For Predicting Stormwater Runoff From Green Roofs, Olyssa Starry, John Lea-Cox, Andrew Ristvey, Steven Cohan

University Honors College Faculty Publication and Presentations

Crop coefficients (kc) were calculated for three different species of common green roof succulents from March to November in 2011, to parameterize the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Penman-Monteith equation for use in a mechanistic green roof water-balance model. Seasonally averaged kc values for each species for 2011 were used to predict plant evapotranspiration (ET) in 2012. The adjusted FAO Penman-Monteith equation predicted the total annual ET within 3–13 mm, a substantial improvement over model predictions with kc set to 1, which overpredicted ET by 100 mm or more, depending on the species. The adjusted equation …

A Water Education Pathway: Texas Aquatic Science, Rudolph A. Rosen

Water Resources Science and Technology Conference Papers and Abstracts

No abstract provided.

Policy Design Tool For Managing Indoor Residential Water Demand In Water-Scarce Regions, Mujahed M. Thneibat

Open Access Dissertations

In view of population growth; climate change; and economic evolution, water resources in numerous parts of the world have reached their natural capacities. Consequently, the ability of many countries to grow; meet the basic needs of inhabitants; and protect the environment will be endangered like never before unless water resources are smartly handled and managed. ^ In the past few decades, many developed and developing countries have suffered from water scarcity, and more are certain to follow. The water security dilemma is much more challenging in developing countries. Water utilities have had to follow regulatory plans to manage demand on …

Willingness To Pay For Irrigation Water Under Scarcity Conditions, Tyler Robert Knapp

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Reliance of Arkansas agricultural producers on groundwater for irrigation has led to depletion of the Mississippi River Valley alluvial aquifer. Without intervention, consequences include insufficient groundwater to meet irrigation demand as well as drawdown of the deeper Sparta Aquifer, upon which communities in eastern Arkansas rely for non-agricultural use. Among proposed solutions to combat groundwater decline is the construction of off-farm surface water infrastructure to meet the irrigation needs of producers. Despite the importance of irrigated agriculture to Arkansas, there is little know about the economic value of irrigation water to producers. Thus, we implement a double-bounded dichotomous choice contingent …

Environmental Emission Of Pharmaceuticals From Wastewater Treatment Plants In The Usa, Bikram Subedi, Bommanna G. Loganathan

Faculty & Staff Research and Creative Activity

The residual drugs, drug bioconjugates, and their metabolites, mostly from human and veterinary usage, are routinely flushed down the drain, and enter wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). Increasing population, excessive use of allopathic medicine, continual introduction of novel drugs, and existing inefficient wastewater treatment processes result in the discharge of large volumes of pharmaceuticals and their metabolites from the WWTPs into the environment. The effluent from the WWTPs globally contaminate ~25% of rivers and the lakes. Pharmaceuticals in the environment, as contaminants of emerging concerns, behave as pseudo-persistent despite their relatively short environmental half-lives in the environment. Therefore, residual levels of …

Umphlett Qci Dec 2016, Natalie A. Umphlett

HPRCC Personnel Publications

Highlights for the Basin

Temperature and Precipitation Anomalies

Drought Conditions

Large Fires Impact Region

Heavy Rains Bring Flooding to Montana

Isolated Impacts to Agriculture

3-Month Precipitation and Temperature Outlooks

Soil Moisture Conditions

How Do Designers Of The Built Environment Attempt To Make Ecological Sustainability Sensory Legible?, Carly L. Bartow

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper attempts to provide a theoretical framework for making ecosystem function and ecologically sustainable design more perceptible or sensible to people through architecture and the built environment. Design features of the Bertschi School Science Wing and the Bullitt Center in Seattle, Washington are incorporated to illustrate the sensory legibility of ecological sustainability criteria.The criteria are available to designers to help educate a building's occupants on environmentally sustainable design and motivate more sustainable behavior.

A Gis Approach To Modeling Groundwater Levels In The Mississippi River Valley Alluvial Aquifer, Josef Orion Lilly

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Groundwater depletion, a subject of growing concern for a significant portion of Arkansas, may lead to future economic challenges for the Arkansas Delta region. The Mississippi River Valley Alluvial Aquifer is the uppermost aquifer and features the largest groundwater capacity in the Mississippi Embayment Aquifer System. The Mississippi River Valley Alluvial Aquifer, commonly referred to as the “alluvial aquifer”, spans 53,000〖 km〗^2 underlying portions of Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Illinois, and Tennessee. As the alluvial aquifer trends southward for approximately 250 miles alongside the Mississippi River, its geographical extent ranges from 50 to 125 miles wide. There is a …

Liming Characteristics Of A High-Calcium, Dry Flue Gas Desulfurization By-Product And Its Effects On Runoff Water Quality, Jason Richard Burgess-Conforti

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 2013, only 37% of the 32 million Mg of flue gas desulfurization (FGD) by-products generated in the United States were reused beneficially. If FGD by-products could be used as a beneficial soil amendment, millions of megagrams may be diverted away from surface impoundments and landfills. The purpose of this research was to identify the liming characteristics of a high-Ca dry FGD (DFGD) by-product in comparison to a Class-C fly ash (FA) and reagent-grade CaCO3, and to evaluate the effects of land application to a managed grassland on runoff, plant, and soil quality. Liming characteristics were determined by measuring the …

Estimation And Comparison Of Thermoelectric And Pv Solar Water Usage In The Colorado River Basin States, Yuzhen Feng

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

With the continual expansion of populations in the arid Southwest, energy demands will continue to rise. On the other hand, depleting water levels in reservoirs of the Colorado River Basin is expected to continue as more intense and frequent drought events persist in addition to the rapid development in the region. Currently, the three largest water-use categories in the United States are thermoelectric energy, irrigation, and municipal water, which cumulatively account for 90 percent of the national water use. In the Southwest, most of the total electricity generated is still through thermoelectric means. That is, massive amounts of water are …

Ncer Assistance Agreement Annual Progress Report For Grant #83582401 - Assessment Of Stormwater Harvesting Via Manage Aquifer Recharge (Mar) To Develop New Water Supplies In The Arid West: The Salt Lake Valley Example, Ryan Dupont, Joan E. Mclean, Richard C. Peralta, Sarah E. Null, Douglas B. Jackson-Smith

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

The aims of the original proposed project remain the same, that is, to test the hypothesis that Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) for stormwater harvesting is a technically feasible, socially and environmentally acceptable, economically viable, and permittable option for developing new water supplies for arid Western urban ecosystems experiencing increasing population, and climate change pressures on existing water resources. The project is being carried out via three distinct but integrated components that include: 1) Monitoring of existing distributed Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) harvesting schemes involving a growing number of demonstration Green Infrastructure (GI) test sites; 2) Integrated stormwater/vadose zone/groundwater/ ecosystem services …

River Otter (Lontra Canadensis) Distribution And Habitat Suitability In Nebraska, Nathan R. Bieber

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

River otters (Lontra Canadensis) were extirpated in Nebraska by the early 1900’s, but in 1986, the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission (NGPC) began reintroduction efforts. Following reintroductions, the otter was listed as a tier-1 at-risk species in Nebraska. With increasing otter populations, NGPC is evaluating a de-listing plan. In order to inform de-listing efforts, I surveyed Nebraska’s rivers documenting otter sign and used modeling techniques to estimate otter distribution and habitat suitability.

Otter sign surveys were conducted on the navigable rivers of Nebraska. Occupancy modeling techniques were used to examine patterns in otter detections. The best model incorporated distance …

Adjustment And Optimization Of The Cropping Systems Under Water Constraint, Pingli An, Wei Ren, Xiliin Liu, Mengmei Song, Xuemin Li

Plant and Soil Sciences Faculty Publications

The water constraint on agricultural production receives growing concern with the increasingly sharp contradiction between demand and supply of water resources. How to mitigate and adapt to potential water constraint is one of the key issues for ensuring food security and achieving sustainable agriculture in the context of climate change. It has been suggested that adjustment and optimization of cropping systems could be an effective measure to improve water management and ensure food security. However, a knowledge gap still exists in how to quantify potential water constraint and how to select appropriate cropping systems. Here, we proposed a concept of …

U.S. Drought Monitor, November 22, 2016, Richard R. Heim Jr.

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for November 22, 2016 (11/22/16) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

Predicting Post-Fire Change In West Virginia, Usa From Remotely-Sensed Data, Michael Strager P. Strager, Melissa Thomas-Van Gundy, Aaron E. Maxwell

Journal of Geospatial Applications in Natural Resources

Prescribed burning is used in West Virginia, USA to return the important disturbance process of fire to oak and oak-pine forests. Species composition and structure are often the main goals for re-establishing fire with less emphasis on fuel reduction or reducing catastrophic wildfire. In planning prescribed fires land managers could benefit from the ability to predict mortality to overstory trees. In this study, wildfires and prescribed fires in West Virginia were examined to determine if specific landscape and terrain characteristics were associated with patches of high/moderate post-fire change. Using the ensemble machine learning approach of Random Forest, we determined that …

Benchmark Levels For The Consumptive Water Footprint Of Crop Production For Different Environmental Conditions: A Case Study For Winter Wheat In China, La Zhuo, Mesfin Mekonnen, Arjen Y. Hoekstra

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Meeting growing food demands while simultaneously shrinking the water footprint (WF) of agricultural production is one of the greatest societal challenges. Benchmarks for the WF of crop production can serve as a reference and be helpful in setting WF reduction targets. The consumptive WF of crops, the consumption of rainwater stored in the soil (green WF), and the consumption of irrigation water (blue WF) over the crop growing period varies spatially and temporally depending on environmental factors like climate and soil. The study explores which environmental factors should be distinguished when determining benchmark levels for the consumptive WF of crops. …

U.S. Drought Monitor, November 15, 2016, Richard R. Heim Jr.

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for November 15, 2016 (11/15/16) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

The 2016 Stormwater Bill: An Analysis Of Perceived And Real Problems With Proposed Solutions, Jonathon R. Lubrano, Elizabeth A. Andrews, Roy A. Hoagland

Virginia Coastal Policy Center

No abstract provided.

U.S. Drought Monitor, November 8, 2016, Deborah J. Bathke

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for November 8, 2016 (11/8/16) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

Specific Phosphate Sorption Mechanisms Of Unaltered And Altered Biochar, Kathryn D. Szerlag

Masters Theses

Biochar has been shown to act as an effective sorbent for many organic and inorganic contaminants (including phosphate) and can help to improve the quality of our fresh water resources by preventing eutrophication. Most of the high efficiency biochar phosphate-adsorbent feedstocks are modified with chemical pretreatment, phytoremediation or anaerobic digestion to accumulate desired elements. The main objectives of this project were to first engineer magnesium (Mg) and calcium (Ca) altered biochar by chemical pretreatment followed by pyrolysis at either 350 or 550°C and evaluate their phosphate adsorption rate and potential as compared to their unaltered counterparts. Determination of surface physiochemical …

Channel Form And Processes In A Formerly Glaciated Terrain, Nathaniel Bergman

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Despite that many places around the world in general, and North America in particular, were glaciated during the last ice age, relatively little is known about rivers that evolved over these landscapes once they deglaciated. These rivers are commonly categorized as alluvial with a glacial legacy, and often described as plain gravel-bed or sand-bed rivers. Alternatively, they are considered to be bedrock rivers when the glacial deposits were eroded and underlying rock was exposed. However, ignoring the glacial history of these rivers is scientifically wrong and they should be termed "semi-alluvial". This work shows that classification is important, not only …

U.S. Drought Monitor, November 1, 2016, Deborah J. Bathke

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for November 1, 2016 (11/1/16) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

How To Collect Your Water Sample And Interpret The Results For The Livestock Analytical Package, Bradley J. Austin, Dirk Philipp, Mike Daniels, Brian E. Haggard

Fact Sheets

A plentiful supply of clean water is crucial for livestock health and productivity. To determine the quality of your livestock’s water resources, periodic sampling and analysis is needed. The Arkansas Water Resources Center (AWRC) in cooperation with the UA Cooperative Extension Service offers several analytical packages to assess the quality of your water resources. This document is intended to provide guidance to livestock owners on collecting water samples for analysis and understanding the results on your report provided by the AWRC’s Water Quality Laboratory (Lab). The information contained within this fact sheet should be used as general guidance, and the …

How To Collect Your Water Sample And Interpret The Results For The Fish Pond Analytical Package, Bradley J. Austin, Amit Sinha, Nathan Stone, W. Reed Green, Mike Daniels, Brian E. Haggard

Fact Sheets

The Arkansas Water Resources Center (AWRC) in cooperation with the Cooperative Extension Service offers several analytical packages to assess the quality of your water resources. This document is intended to provide guidance to aquaculture producers and pond owners on the “Fish Pond Report” provided by the AWRC’s water quality laboratory. The information contained within this fact sheet should be used as general guidance, and the reader is encouraged to seek advice from Extension specialists regarding the interpretation of individual reports and water testing results that may be of concern. The Aquaculture Center for Excellence is at the University of Arkansas …

Identifying Groundwater - Dependent Wetlands Of The Broome Sandstone Aquifer In The La Grange Groundwater Area, Nicholas Wright, Richard J. George Dr, Robert Paul, Paul Raper

Resource management technical reports

This report identifies wetlands that are likely to be dependent on the Broome Sandstone aquifer within the La Grange groundwater allocation area. The Broome Sandstone aquifer is the dominant groundwater resource in the area. With potential agricultural growth of this area, it is necessary to understand, monitor and manage the aquifer and its dependent wetlands. This report describes how we created a watertable surface that was used to identify wetlands and to determine which of the previously mapped wetlands are likely to be sourced from the Broome Sandstone aquifer. A watertable surface was created from 148 points taken from bore …

Prince George County Shoreline Management Plan, C. Scott Hardaway Jr., Donna A. Milligan, Christine A. Wilcox, Marcia Berman, Tamia Rudnicky, Karinna Nunez, Sharon A. Killeen

Reports

Much of Prince George County’s shoreline is suitable for a “Living Shoreline” approach to shoreline management. The Commonwealth of Virginia has adopted policy stating that Living Shorelines are the preferred alternative for erosion control along tidal waters in Virginia (http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi‐bin/legp504.exe?111+ful+CHAP0885+pdf). The policy defines a Living Shoreline as …”a shoreline management practice that provides erosion control and water quality benefits; protects, restores or enhances natural shoreline habitat; and maintains coastal processes through the strategic placement of plants, stone, sand fill, and other structural and organic materials.” The key to effective implementation of this policy at the local level is understanding what …

Analysis Of Managerial Decision-Making Within Florida’S Total Maximum Daily Load Program, Justin Barthle

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Water quality has evolved legislatively from protection of navigation routes and quantity of sources to more emphasis on impairments on water quality for surface and groundwater sources. Nonpoint or diffuse sources of impairments represents a major challenge for management due to the complexity of its sources and difficulty in tracking.

The most cited sections on public policy analysis focuses on the overall process agencies employ to understand the results the program yields. Often overlooked are finer details and mechanisms, such as decision-making and priority setting, which have a great impact on the overall process. To investigate these factors, we need …