Environmental Health and Protection Commons^™

The Waterfall Crisis, Guiliana G. Grisaffi

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

While the Earth’s surface is 71% covered in water, that does not mean that one day all our water could be gone. The current global water crisis is not just a water crisis-it is a waterfall crisis. One wicked, terrible problem that leads to many other wicked problems, a waterfall crisis. Millions of women and young girls are taken out of work and school and instead forced to collect and gather fresh water for their families. Children are suffering from irreversible health consequences from toxic, contaminated water, an example of a health consequence is a lower IQ from lead poisoning. …

Satellite-Based Monitoring Of Irrigation Water Use: Assessing Measurement Errors And Their Implications For Agricultural Water Management Policy, T. Foster, Taro Mieno, Nicholas Brozovic

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Reliable accounting of agricultural water use is critical for sustainable water management. However, the majority of agricultural water use is not monitored, with limited metering of irrigation despite increasing pressure on both groundwater and surface water resources in many agricultural regions worldwide. Satellite remote sensing has been proposed as a low-cost and scalable solution to fill widespread gaps in monitoring of irrigation water use in both developed and developing countries, bypassing the technical, socioeconomic, and political challenges that to date have constrained in situ metering. In this paper, we show through a systematic meta-analysis that the relative accuracy of different …

Second-Best Prioritization Of Environmental Cleanups, Jacob Lariviere, Matthew J. Mcmahon, Justin Roush

Sustainability Research & Practice Seminar Presentations

No abstract provided.

Spatiotemporal Variations Of City-Level Carbon Emissions In China During 2000–2017 Using Nighttime Light Data, Yu Sun, Sheng Zheng, Yuzhe Wu, Uwe Schlink, Ramesh P. Singh

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

China is one of the largest carbon emitting countries in the world. Numerous strategies have been considered by the Chinese government to mitigate carbon emissions in recent years. Accurate and timely estimation of spatiotemporal variations of city-level carbon emissions is of vital importance for planning of low-carbon strategies. For an assessment of the spatiotemporal variations of city-level carbon emissions in China during the periods 2000–2017, we used nighttime light data as a proxy from two sources: Defense Meteorological Satellite Program’s Operational Linescan System (DMSP-OLS) data and the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite’s Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (NPP-VIIRS). The results …

Assessment Of Switchgrass-Based Bioenergy Supply Using Gis-Based Fuzzy Logic And Network Optimization In Missouri (U.S.A.), Gia Nguyen, Erik Lyttek, Pankaj Lal, Taylor Wieczerak, Pralhad Burli

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Bioenergy has been globally recognized as one of the sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels. An assured supply of biomass feedstocks is a crucial bottleneck for the bioenergy industry emanating from uncertainties in land-use changes and future prices. Analytical approaches deriving from geographical information systems (GIS)-based analysis, mathematical modeling, optimization analyses, and empirical techniques have been widely used to evaluate the potential for bioenergy feedstock. In this study, we propose a three-phase methodology integrating fuzzy logic, network optimization, and ecosystem services assessment to estimate potential bioenergy supply. The fuzzy logic analysis uses multiple spatial criteria to identify suitable biomass cultivating regions. …

Storm Surges In The Bohai Sea: The Role Of Waves And Tides, Yuanyi Li, Huan Feng, Guillaume Vigouroux, Dekui Yuan, Guangyu Zhang, Xiaodi Ma, Kun Lei

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

A storm surge is a complex phenomenon in which waves, tide and current interact. Even though wind is the predominant force driving the surge, waves and tidal phase are also important factors that influence the mass and momentum transport during the surge. Devastating storm surges often occur in the Bohai Sea, a semi-enclosed shallow sea in North China, due to extreme storms. However, the effects of waves on storm surges in the Bohai Sea have not been quantified and the mechanisms responsible for the higher surges that affect part of the Bohai Sea have not been thoroughly studied. In this …

Tree Removal Analysis Of The 2018-2019 Gambles Mill Eco-Corridor Restoration, Zach Harrell

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

Trees have been extensively researched, and it has been concluded that they are useful not only useful tools in enhancing biofiltration, as well as managing stormwater and retaining sediment, but they also benefit the health of the ecosystem as a whole. But as the University of Richmond’s Gambles Mill Eco-corridor was restored between 2018 and 2019 in order limit to the amount of phosphorus, nitrogen, and other sediment flowing into the Little Westham Creek; many of the trees that combat these problems were removed. The following research intends to analyze the number of trees actually removed throughout the restoration, as …

Stream Restoration As A Method Of Improving Local Water Quality, Emily George

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

Projects of stream restoration are a known Best Management Practice (BMP) to approach stormwater management, and have been adopted globally as a means of improving local hydrology. Urbanization has led to an increase in impervious surfaces, resulting in deteriorated streams, many of which are subject to stream restoration. Stormwater control measures (SCM), such as stream restoration, are considered to be a subset of green infrastructure as a method to reconnect streams with surrounding riparian areas, revitalize original hydrology, and support the local ecosystems. This paper looks into the viability of stream restoration as a way of improving water quality, focusing …

Cost Benefit Analysis And Beyond: Stream Restoration In Richmond, Virginia, Claire Powell

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

This research assessed the costs and benefits of six recent stream restoration projects in Richmond, Virginia within the context of the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (CB TMDL) pollutant reduction requirements. In order to meet these requirements, state and local governments promoted stream restoration as an important way to reduce Bay-wide inputs of nitrogen, phosphorus, and total suspended solids. The overall intention of this paper was to holistically evaluate the risks and positive impacts associated with stream restoration, with a focus on Little Westham Creek, a stream restoration project located on the University of Richmond campus. I hypothesized that …

Step Pools: Examining The Flow Resistance And Stability Of Artificial Step Pools In Comparison With Their Natural Counterparts, Quinn Kirkpatrick

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

This study looked at step pool stream studies, reports, and field data in five catchment areas. The areas of interest include the Rio Cordon catchment area in Italy, the Cascade Mountain Range in Washington, the Siuslaw National Forest in Oregon, various areas in California, the University of Richmond in Virginia, and the Arkansas River Basin in Colorado. The purpose of this study was to compare the flow resistance and stability after large flooding events of artificial and natural step pool sequences to potentially provide information to improve monitoring of newly installed step pools and the design of future step pool …

Exploring Options For Mussel Restoration, Henry Hurt

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

This paper seeks to explore the feasibility and possible procedures of restoring freshwater mussels to the Little Westham Creek (LWC) as a way to reduce excess organic pollutants such as nitrogen and phosphorus coming from upstream. To this end, the use of mussels in bioremediation and restoration procedures found in scientific literature were reviewed with the goal of creating a guideline of how such a project would be carried out at the Gambles Mill Eco- Corridor. Based on the results of past literature, water data collected by students in this seminar, and data from RES, it was estimated that a …

Sediment Outflow Under Simulated Rainfall Conditions With Varying Geotechnical Properties, Pranjay Joshi, Akhilesh Kumar, P. V. Singh, Jahangeer Jahangeer

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

The vulnerability of soil toward erosion might be reduced by having a good vegetative cover over the soil surface, slope improvement, and improving soil properties so that it is not easily detached and transported. However, the establishment of proper vegetative cover is a long process because it takes time for seeds to germinate and attain maturity. As an alternative approach, if soil resistance was increased by increasing the shear strength of soil against erosive forces offered by eroding agents, the soil system would become capable of withstanding the detachment of its particles on the application of shear stress. To achieve …

Earth Observation And Cloud Computing In Support Of Two Sustainable Development Goals For The River Nile Watershed Countries, Wenzhao Li, Hesham El-Askary, Venkat Lakshmi, Thomas Piechota, Daniele Struppa

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

In September 2015, the members of United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with universal applicability of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets. The SDGs are consequential for the development of the countries in the Nile watershed, which are affected by water scarcity and experiencing rapid urbanization associated with population growth. Earth Observation (EO) has become an important tool to monitor the progress and implementation of specific SDG targets through its wide accessibility and global coverage. In addition, the advancement of algorithms and tools deployed in cloud computing platforms provide an equal opportunity to use EO …

Water Scarcity And Fish Imperilment Driven By Beef Production, Brian D. Richter, Dominique Bartak, Peter Caldwell, Kyle Fankel Davis, Peter Debaere, Arjen Y. Hoekstra, Tianshu Li, Landon Marston, Ryan Mcmanamay, Mesfin Mekonnen, Benjamin L. Ruddell, Richard R. Rushforth, Tara J. Troy

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Human consumption of freshwater is now approaching or surpassing the rate at which water sources are being naturally replenished in many regions, creating water shortage risks for people and ecosystems. Here we assess the impact of human water uses and their connection to water scarcity and ecological damage across the United States, identify primary causes of river dewatering and explore ways to ameliorate them. We find irrigation of cattle-feed crops to be the greatest consumer of river water in the western United States, implicating beef and dairy consumption as the leading driver of water shortages and fish imperilment in the …

Assessment Of An Automated Calibration Of The Sebal Algorithm To Estimate Dry-Season Surface-Energy Partitioning In A Forest–Savanna Transition In Brazil, Leonardo Laipelt, Anderson Luis Ruhoff, Ayan Santos Fleischmann, Rafael Henrique Bloedow Kayser, Elisa De Mello Kich, Humberto Ribeiro Da Rocha, Christopher Michael Usher Neale

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Evapotranspiration (ET) provides a strong connection between surface energy and hydrological cycles. Advancements in remote sensing techniques have increased our understanding of energy and terrestrial water balances as well as the interaction between surface and atmosphere over large areas. In this study, we computed surface energy fluxes using the Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land (SEBAL) algorithm and a simplified adaptation of the CIMEC (Calibration using Inverse Modeling at Extreme Conditions) process for automated endmember selection. Our main purpose was to assess and compare the accuracy of the automated calibration of the SEBAL algorithm using two different sources of meteorological …

Risk And Cost Assessment Of Nitrate Contamination In Domestic Wells, Pongpun Juntakut, Erin M.K. Haacker, Daniel D. Snow, Chittaranjan Ray

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

This study combines empirical predictive and economics models to estimate the cost of remediation for domestic wells exceeding suggested treatment thresholds for nitrates. A multiple logistic regression model predicted the probability of well contamination by nitrate, and a life cycle costing methodology was used to estimate costs of nitrate contamination in groundwater in two areas of Nebraska. In south-central Nebraska, 37% of wells were estimated to be at risk of exceeding a threshold of 7.5 mg/L as N, and 17% were at risk of exceeding 10 mg/L as N, the legal limit for human consumption in the United States. In …

Arjen Y. Hoekstra 1967–2019, Davy Vanham, Mesfin Mekonnen, Ashok K. Chapagain

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Arjen Hoekstra introduced the water footprint in 20021, building on the concept of virtual water Tony Allan to discuss the role of trade in alleviating water scarcity in the Middle East. He thereby opened a new dimension in the debate around fair and sustainable allocation of freshwater resources. He laid the foundations to show the role of indirect water (that is, water used elsewhere to produce goods we consume) in our daily life beyond our direct use for drinking, cooking or washing. The water footprint is an indicator of direct and indirect water use by a producer or consumer, showing …

Effects Of Surface Heterogeneity Due To Drip Irrigation On Scintillometer Estimates Of Sensible, Latent Heat Fluxes And Evapotranspiration Over Vineyards, Hatim M. E. Geli, José González-Piqueras, Christopher M. U. Neale, Claudio Balbontín, Isidro Campos, Alfonso Calera

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Accurate estimates of sensible (H) and latent (LE) heat fluxes and actual evapotranspiration (ET) are required for monitoring vegetation growth and improved agricultural water management. A large aperture scintillometer (LAS) was used to provide these estimates with the objective of quantifying the effects of surface heterogeneity due to soil moisture and vegetation growth variability. The study was conducted over drip-irrigated vineyards located in a semi-arid region in Albacete, Spain during summer 2007. Surface heterogeneity was characterized by integrating eddy covariance (EC) observations of H, LE and ET; land surface temperature (LST) and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data from Landsat …

Assessment Of An Automated Calibration Of The Sebal Algorithm To Estimate Dry-Season Surface-Energy Partitioning In A Forest–Savanna Transition In Brazil, Leonardo Laipelt, Anderson Luis Ruhoff, Ayan Santos Fleischmann, Rafael Henrique Bloedow Kayser, Elisa De Mello Kich, Humberto Ribeiro Da Rocha, Christopher Michael Usher Neale

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Evapotranspiration (ET) provides a strong connection between surface energy and hydrological cycles. Advancements in remote sensing techniques have increased our understanding of energy and terrestrial water balances as well as the interaction between surface and atmosphere over large areas. In this study, we computed surface energy fluxes using the Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land (SEBAL) algorithm and a simplified adaptation of the CIMEC (Calibration using Inverse Modeling at Extreme Conditions) process for automated endmember selection. Our main purpose was to assess and compare the accuracy of the automated calibration of the SEBAL algorithm using two different sources of meteorological …

Treenuts And Groundnuts In The Eat-Lancet Reference Diet: Concerns Regarding Sustainable Water Use, Davy Vanhama, Mesfin Mekonnen, Arjen Y. Hoekstra

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

The EAT-Lancet universal healthy reference diet recommends an increase in the consumption of healthy foods, among which treenuts and groundnuts. Both are, however, water-intensive products, with a large water footprint (WF) per unit of mass and protein and already today contribute to blue water stress in different parts of the world. The envisaged massive required increase in nut production to feed a global population with this reference diet, needs to occur in a water-sustainable way. In this paper, we identify and quantify where current nut production contributes to local blue water stress and discuss options for water-sustainable nut production. We …

Water Productivity Benchmarks: The Case Of Maize And Soybean In Nebraska, Mesfin Mekonnen, Arjen Y. Hoekstra, Christopher Michael Usher Neale, Chittaranjan Ray, Haishun Yang

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Water productivity benchmarks for irrigated and rainfed agriculture will provide relevant information to manage scarce water resources and control groundwater level decline. We analyze the temporal and spatial variation of the water productivity (WP) of maize and soybean in Nebraska, with WP defined as harvested crop weight per total evapotranspiration. The results show that WP of both maize and soybean increase from west to east within Nebraska and have increased over the last 25 years, mainly due to the increase in crop yields (land productivity). We derive WP benchmarks for each crop per climate zone. Increasing actual WPs in the …

Potential Of Using Spectral Vegetation Indices For Corn Green Biomass Estimation Based On Their Relationship With The Photosynthetic Vegetation Sub-Pixel Fraction, Luan Peroni Venancio, Everardo Chartuni Mantovani, Cibele Hummel Do Amaral, Christopher M.U. Neale, Ivo Zution Gonçalves, Roberto Filgueiras, Fernando Coelho Eugenio

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Crop biomass (Bio) is one of the most important parameters of a crop, and knowledge of it before harvest is essential to help farmers in their decision making. Both green and dry Bio can be estimated from vegetation spectral indices (VIs) because they have a close relationship with accumulated absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (APAR), which is proportional to total Bio. The aims of this study were to analyze the potential capacity of spectral vegetation indices in estimating corn green biomass based on their relationship with the photosynthetic vegetation sub-pixel fraction derived from spectral mixture analysis and to analyze the best …

Ferrihydrite Reduction Increases Arsenic And Uranium Bioavailability In Unsaturated Soil, Arindam Malakar, Michael Kaiser, Daniel D. Snow, Harkamal Walia, Banajarani Panda, Chittaranjan Ray

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Redox driven mobilization and plant uptake of contaminants under transiently saturated soil conditions need to be clarified to ensure food and water quality across different irrigation systems. We postulate that solid-phase iron reduction in anoxic microsites present in the rhizosphere of unsaturated soil is a key driver for mobilization and bioavailability of contaminants under nonflooded irrigation. To clarify this, two major crops, corn and soybean differing in iron uptake strategies, were grown in irrigated synthetic soil under semiarid conditions with gravimetric moisture content ∼12.5 ± 2.4%. 2-line ferrihydrite, which was coprecipitated with uranium and arsenic, served as the only iron …

Use Of Multiple Environment Variety Trials Data To Simulate Maize Yields In The Ogallala Aquifer Region: A Two Model Approach, Vaishali Sharda, Mesfin Mekonnen, Chittaranjan Ray, Prasanna H. Gowda

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

With a long-term goal to optimize use of groundwater in the Ogallala Aquifer Region (OAR) to sustain food production systems, this study was conducted to calibrate Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT) and AquaCrop crop modeling platforms to simulate maize production at a regional scale using historic datasets. Calibration of the models with local crop growth data and crop management practices is important, but usually this in-season crop growth information is not available. This study determined the possibility of using maize variety trial data for the evaluation of the CSM-Crop Estimation through Resources and Environmental Synthesis-Maize and AquaCrop models …

Impacts Of Beef Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations On Environmental Sustainability In The United States And Practices For Improvement, Laura Clark

VCU Phi Kappa Phi Award Winners

The geographic concentration of beef concentrated animal feeding operations [CAFOs] has changed the landscape of environmental sustainability for agriculture in the United States. As land availability has decreased, operations have struggled to maintain feasible practices to minimize environmental detriment. The United States Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] imposed rules to be followed as a means of mitigation, but the fast-paced rate of change minimizes effectiveness. The overall environmental sustainability of beef CAFOs has shifted from historical rates, leading to a need for reassessment. Part of this reassessment will include stronger environmental practices to be considered for implementation. I explored the role …

Why Massachusetts’ Drought Management Task Force Should Be In Statute: Drought Management Across The United States, Thomas G. Coughlin, Gabby Queenan

Student Showcase

This report explores structures and statutory authorities of Drought Management Task Forces across the United States, and particularly how different states have approached the issue of managing their respective Task Forces. There is growing interest in drought planning in the United States and worldwide.

As Massachusetts considers how to best respond to a new climate norm of short-term extreme droughts, one aspect of drought planning that is undergoing additional review is the role of the Massachusetts Drought Management Task Force, the state entity responsible for analyzing and reporting on drought conditions to the Secretary of Massachusetts Energy and Environmental Affairs …