Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment Commons^™

Lockhart Catchment Appraisal 2005, Susan Murphy-White, P Leoni

Resource management technical reports

The Lockhart Catchment is the largest subcatchment of the Avon River Basin covering just over 3.56 million hectares, including 15 Shires running from Quairading and Bruce Rock in the north to Pingrup and Lake King in the south. This document aims to give the reader a starting point from which to further assess larger scale areas of the catchment for the purpose of planning to reverse and improve land degradation and sustainable farming in Western Australia.

Promoting Low Impact Development In Your Community, New England Environmental Finance Center

Planning

Low Impact Development (LID) is an approach to stormwater management and site development that is gaining popularity throughout the country. Its attractiveness lies in its potential to lessen off-site stormwater impacts, reduce costs to municipalities and developers, and promote development that is “softer on the land” compared with typical traditional development. The approach, which is applicable to residential, commercial and industrial projects, and in urban, suburban and rural settings, often is linked with efforts by governments and citizens to foster more sustainable communities.

Evaluation Of The Sustainable Grazing On Saline Lands - Wa Producer Network : Influence On Practice Change And Decision-Making Capacity, Rebecca Heath, Jamie Bowyer, T M. Lacey

Resource management technical reports

No abstract provided.

Predicting The Percent Live Cover Of Corals: An In Situ Remote Sensing Approach, Deepak R. Mishra, Sunil Narumalani, Ronald Bahl, D. Rundquist, Merlin P. Lawson

Center for Advanced Land Management Information Technologies: Publications

Percent reflectance of corals is perhaps the most important remotely sensed data that can be related to their biophysical properties. Because most of the biophysical variables of corals (i.e., pigment content, live cover and algal overgrowth) are related to their reflectance spectra, the analysis and inversion of the spectra may provide an account of these variables. Our research was aimed at determining the relationship between the percent live cover and reflectance of corals. Two wavelength bands (405–425 nm, and 590–600 nm) were identified to establish the relationship. A linear relationship was observed, which showed higher correlation (R² = …

Natural Resource Management Issues In The Avon River Basin, Paul Galloway

Resource management technical reports

Analyses the risk of soil, land and water degradation within the Avon River Basin of Western Australia. Information is based on the interpretation of the characteristics of soils and landscapes within the Avon River basin. This report deals with 15 natural resource management issues and describes the extent of each issue, the impacts that each issue will have, management options that can be used to deal with each issue, and the effectiveness of each management option in dealing with the issues.

Ravensthorpe Area Catchment Appraisal 2006, A Massenbauer

Resource management technical reports

The Ravensthorpe area covers 861, 000 hectares. Ninety percent of the study area covered in this report falls within the Ravensthorpe Shire, Western Australia. This document aims to give the reader a starting point from which to further assess larger scale areas of the catchment for the purpose of planning to reverse and improve land degradation and sustainable farming in Western Australia.

Bomb-Pulse Chlorine-36 At The Proposed Yucca Mountain Repository Horizon: An Investigation Of Previous Conflicting Results And Collection Of New Data, James Cizdziel, Amy J. Smiecinski

Publications (YM)

Previous studies by scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) found elevated ratios of chlorine-36 to total chloride (36C1/C1) in samples of rock collected from the Exploratory Studies Facility (ESF) and the Enhanced Characterization of the Repository Block (ECRB) at Yucca Mountain as the tunnels were excavated. The data were interpreted as an indication that fluids containing "bomb-pulse" 36C1 reached the repository horizon in the -50 years since the peak period of above-ground nuclear testing. Moreover, the data support the concept that so-called fast pathways for infiltration not only exist but are active, possibly through a combination of porous media, …

Tunnel Geology As Seen By Geologists: Manhattan, New York City, Nazrul I. Khandaker, Stanley Schleifer, Masud Ahmed, Alan R. Slaughter, Belal A. Sayeed, Dorean J. Flores, Mario Jo-Ramirez

Publications and Research

Current exploratory boring operations in and around Manhattan, New York City are providing geologists and geotechnical engineers with a plethora of new and interesting geological information, which has not been previously reported. The rocks encountered, mostly medium to high-grade metamorphic rocks, with both mafic and felsic intrusives, are highly variable in competency and mechanical durability. One of the most frequently encountered rock types is a garnetiferous-muscovite-biotite schist which grades into schistose gneiss and displays a wide variety of structural, compositional, and textural attributes. Metamorphic minerals showing the variable degree of metamorphism include graphite, talc, garnet, kyanite, tourmaline, emory, and occasionally …

Successful Cropping In The High Rainfall Zone Of Western Australia : Crop Research And Extension In The Zone, Narelle Hill, Heping Zhang Dr., Tim Trezise, John Young, Natahan Moyes, Laurence Carslake, Neil C. Turner Dr, Walter Anderson, Michael Poole

Bulletins 4000 -

This manual is a review of all the relevant and current information relating to cropping systems in the high rainfall cropping zone (HRZ) of Western Australia. It functions partly as the final report summarising research results and extension activities and discusses recommendations and potential outcomes of two 5-year GRDC-funded projects (DAW 673 and CSP 302), that aimed to increase the productivity of southern high rainfall cropping systems.

Analysis Of Per Capita Expenditures Of Suburbanizing Communities In Maine, New England Environmental Finance Center

Economics and Finance

This study analyzes per capita expenditure trends among selected fast-growing Maine towns from 1970-2004. The ten communities studied are termed as “suburbanizing” towns. This term is used to describe towns that over the past 30-40 years have been in the process of transition from rural to suburban – in terms of their population and housing densities, their forms of government, and the services they provide, as well as other characteristics.1 Such towns are of particular interest because they have been absorbing a healthy percentage of the state’s population growth during this time period, often at the expense of Maine’s service …

The Effects Of Nutrient Concentrations On Macroinvertebrate Distributions In Georgia, Paula Michele Pollock Brossett

Theses and Dissertations

Nutrients are considered the second largest nonpoint source pollutant in Georgia's running water ecosystems. Nutrients can naturally occur in low amounts and are typically increased in streams as a result of industry, agriculture, silviculture, and urbanization. In large amounts, nutrients can cause many problems to occur in the stream ecosystem. Macroinvertebrates have been established as good indicators for determining the level of impairment of a stream; however, not much research has been done on how nutrients affect macroinvertebrates in a stream. Approximately 225 reference and impaired streams were sampled over a 3 - year field season, (index period from September …

Site Assessments, Martyn Keen

Natural resources published reports

The processes of collecting and recording site data as part of the preliminary tasks leading to a landscape or project design.

This standard applies to landscape and project designs for catchments of any size. Designs include: the installation of conservation earthworks; revegetation; land use planning; or implementation of erosion and sediment control practices. The design may also include any combination of the above

Roaded Catchments, Martyn Keen

Natural resources published reports

A roaded catchment is one of the water harvesting structures known collectively as improved catchments. It has a broad 'V' shaped cross section and a surface cover of clay. It is used to increase run-off yield and divert water to farm dams.

Drought Preparedness Planning: Building Institutional Capacity, Donald A. Wilhite, Michael Hayes, Cody L. Knutson

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Past attempts to manage drought and its impacts through a reactive, crisis management approach have been ineffective, poorly coordinated, and untimely, as illustrated by the hydro- illogical cycle in Figure 1. The crisis management approach has been followed in both developed and developing countries. Because of the ineffectiveness of this approach, greater interest has evolved in recent years in the adoption of a more proactive risk-based management approach in some countries (see Chapter 6). Other countries are striving to obtain a higher level of preparedness through development of national action programs that are part of the United Nations Convention to …

A New Approach For Predicting Drought-Related Vegetation Stress: Integrating Satellite, Climate, And Biophysical Data Over The U.S. Central Plains, Tsegaue Tadesse, Jesslyn F. Brown, Michael Hayes

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Droughts are normal climate episodes, yet they are among the most expensive natural disasters in the world. Knowledge about the timing, severity, and pattern of droughts on the landscape can be incorporated into effective planning and decisionmaking. In this study, we present a data mining approach to modeling vegetation stress due to drought and mapping its spatial extent during the growing season. Rule-based regression tree models were generated that identify relationships between satellite-derived vegetation conditions, climatic drought indices, and biophysical data, including land-cover type, available soil water capacity, percent of irrigated farm land, and ecological type. The data mining method …

New Developments In The Remote Estimation Of The Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation In Crops, Andrés Viña, Anatoly A. Gitelson

Center for Advanced Land Management Information Technologies: Publications

The fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation, fAPAR, is an important biophysical characteristic in models of gas exchange between the terrestrial boundary layer and the atmosphere, as well as in the analysis of vegetation productivity. Synoptic estimation of fAPAR has been performed by using NDVI as a linear proxy of fAPAR, despite the saturation of NDVI at fAPAR beyond 0.7. This paper analyzes the NDVI/fAPAR relationship in row crops (i.e. maize and soybean), and evaluates alternative vegetation indices to overcome the loss of sensitivity of NDVI at moderate-to-high vegetation biomass. Red-edge NDVI, which uses NIR and a band around 700 …

An Inventory Of Rangelands In Part Of The Broome Shire, Western Australia, W E. Cotching

Technical Bulletins

The inventory of rangelands in part of the Broome Shire in Western Australia was undertaken by DAFWA between 1989 and 1990. It describes and maps the natural resources of the region’s pastoral leasehold land. This survey report provides a baseline record of the existence and condition of the natural area’s resources, to assist with the planning and implementation of land management practices. The report identified and described the condition of soils, landforms, vegetation, habitat, ecosystems, and declared plants and animals. It also assessed the impact of pastoralism and made land management recommendations. The survey of part of the Broome Shire …

Discovering Associations Between Climatic And Oceanic Parameters To Monitor Drought In Nebraska Using Data-Mining Techniques, Tsegaye Tadesse, Donald A. Wilhite, Michael J. Hayes, Steve Goddard

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Drought is a complex natural hazard that is best characterized by multiple climatological and hydrological parameters. Improving our understanding of the relationships between these parameters is necessary to reduce the impacts of drought. Data mining is a recently developed technique that can be used to interact with large databases and assist in the discovery of associations between drought and oceanic data by extracting information from massive and multiple data archives. In this study, a new data-mining algorithm [i.e., Minimal Occurrences With Constraints and Time Lags (MOWCATL)] has been used to identify the relationships between oceanic parameters and drought indices. Rather …

The Effect Of Sample Size On Rapid Bioassessment Scores And Management Efficiency, Uttam Kumar Rai

Theses and Dissertations

The rapid bioassessment method for stream bio monitoring generally uses a fixed count of 200 macro invertebrates as the standard subsample size. This number has been argued to be too small to provide accurate estimates on the richness of macro invertebrate communities and is believed to give misleading information pertaining to stream health. In this study, I used data collected from multiple habitats from 29 streams located in several subecoregions of Georgia to examine how the rapid bioassessment scores perform across subsample sizes of 100, 200, and 300 organisms. Subsample sizes of 100 and 200 organisms were found to underestimate …

Groundwater Trends In The North Stirling Pallinup Sub-Region, Ruhi Ferdowsian, Lisa Crossing

Natural resources published reports

The South Coast Regional Initiative Planning Team (SCRIPT) has divided the South Coast region of Western Australia into six sub-regions. This publication describes the groundwater trends, risk of shallow watertables, and technical feasibility of salinity management in the agricultural district of the North Stirling Pallinup sub-region.

This sub-region encompasses the Stirling Range National Park, the North Stirling Basin to the north-east of the Park, and the middle and upper catchments of the Pallinup River. Almost 90% (500,000 ha) of the sub-region's alienated land has been cleared for agriculture, and salinity has been identified as an important issue.

Soil-landscape zones are …

Greening Connecticut Cities And Towns, Managing Public Trees And Community Forests, Glenn D. Dreyer, Robert M. Ricard

Other Publications and Reports

No abstract provided.

Grass Or Trees? Performance Of Riparian Buffers Under Natural Rainfall Conditions, Australia, Lucy Mckergow, I Prosser, R Grayson, David Weaver, D Heiner

Journal articles

Riparian vegetation can trap sediment and nutrients derived from hillslopes. Most research into the effectiveness of riparian buffers has been experimental and little quantitative data exists on performance under natural field conditions. This study reports on grass and tree buffer performance under natural rainfall conditions in two contrasting Australian environments. Buffers receiving runoff from hillslopes cropped with bananas were monitored over a 4-year period in the wet topics of Far North Queensland (FNQ). Runoff, bedload and suspended loads were measured leaving the crop and leaving 15 m wide dense grass and remnant rainforest riparian buffers. The grass buffer was able …

An Analysis Of Simulated Long-Term Soil Moisture Data For Three Land Uses Under Contrasting Hydroclimatic Conditions In The Northern Great Plains, Rezaul Mamood, Kenneth G. Hubbard

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

Soil moisture (SM) plays an important role in land surface and atmosphere interactions. It modifies energy balance near the surface and the rate of water cycling between land and atmosphere. The lack of observed SM data prohibits understanding of SM variations at climate scales under varying land uses. However, with simulation models it is possible to develop a long-term SM dataset and study these issues. In this paper a water balance model is used to provide a quantitative assessment of SM climatologies for three land uses, namely, irrigated corn, rain-fed corn, and grass, grown under three hydroclimatic regimes in Nebraska. …

An Agricultural Drought Risk-Assessment Model For Corn And Soybeans, Hong Wu, Kenneth G. Hubbard, Donald A. Wilhite

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Copyright © 2004 Royal Meteorological Society. Published by Wiley InterScience. Used by permis-sion.

Drought Monitoring Using Data Mining Techniques: A Case Study For Nebraska, Usa, Tsegaye Tadesse, Donald A. Wilhite, Sherri K. Harms, Michael J. Hayes, Steve Goddard

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Drought has an impact on many aspects of society. To help decision makers reduce the impacts of drought, it is important to improve our understanding of the characteristics and relationships of atmospheric and oceanic parameters that cause drought. In this study, the use of data mining techniques is introduced to find associations between drought and several oceanic and climatic indices that could help users in making knowledgeable decisions about drought responses before the drought actually occurs. Data mining techniques enable users to search for hidden patterns and find association rules for target data sets such as drought episodes. These techniques …

Groundwater Trends In The Kent-Frankland Sub-Region, Arjen Ryder

Natural resources published reports

The South Coast Regional Initiative Planning Team (SCRIPT) has divided the South Coast region of Western Australia into six sub-regions. Kent-Frankland covers the catchments of the Frankland, Gordon and Kent' Rivers. Approximately two-thirds (450,000 ha) has been cleared for agriculture. This publication describes the groundwater trends, risk of shallow watertables, and technical feasibility of salinity management on agricultural land.

Soil-landscape zones are spatial units based on geology and geomorphology. Since most groundwater processes in WA are controlled by the geologic and regolith properties, these zones can be used for allocating hydrological attributes, such as groundwater characteristics and trends. The hydrological …

Groundwater Trends In The Albany Hinterland Sub-Region, Arjen Ryder

Natural resources published reports

The South Coast Regional Initiative Planning Team (SCRIPT) has divided the South Coast region of Western Australia into six sub-regions The Albany Hinterland is in the western portion (see Figure 1). It is bounded by the Pallinup River in the east. Stirling Ranges to the north and the Kent River catchment boundary in the west. Two-thirds (580.000 ha) of the sub-region has been cleared for agriculture This publication describes the groundwater trends, risk of shallow watertables, and technical feasibility of salinity management within the agricultural land

Soil-landscape zones are spatial units based on geology and geomorphology. Since most groundwater processes …

Effect Of Heavy Metals On Bacteria, Elena Vratonjic

Theses and Dissertations

Heavy metals have become devastating environmental contaminants due to their widespread use in the manufacture of electronics, plastics, batteries and dyes. The discharge of heavy metals into the environment has caused concern about their effects on the ecosystem. Many metals are essential for growth in small amounts. However, at higher concentrations heavy metals are toxic because they bind to organic compounds. This accounts for their effects on some important parts of the cell structure, like their ability to denature protein molecules. The initial objective of this study was to find out the growth rate of E.coli and M.roseus in the …

Depositional Characteristics Of 7Be And 210Pb In Southeastern Michigan, D. Mcneary, M. Baskaran

Environmental Science and Geology Faculty Research Publications

The depositional fluxes in the bulk and dry fallout as well as the concentrations of ⁷Be and ²¹⁰Pb in aerosols were measured for a period of 17 months at Detroit, Michigan. The bulk depositional fluxes of ⁷Be and ²¹⁰Pb varied between 3.11 and 63.0 dpm cm⁻² yr⁻¹ (mean of 11.4 dpm cm⁻² yr⁻¹) and 0.35 and 10.3 dpm cm⁻² yr⁻¹ (mean of 1.41 dpm cm⁻² yr⁻¹), respectively, and this variability in the depositional fluxes is attributed to the frequency and amount of precipitation and seasonal variations …

Paired Site Sampling For Soil Carbon Estimation – Western Australia, Edward Arnold Griffin, W H. Verboom, D G. Allen

Natural resources research reports

This report describes a detailed paired site study at nine locations in the drier parts of south–western Australia representative of areas most recently cleared for agriculture. The pairing was of uncleared, short-term cleared and long-term cleared sites. The study provided samples for modelling soil organic carbon fluxes by CSIRO Land and Water. Analysis and interpretation of results from the samples collected and detailed soil morphology descriptions provide comprehensive documentation of the soil carbon and other soil parameters. This provides a basis for better understanding factors influencing soil carbon dynamics in soils in Western Australia, particularly in areas with sandy topsoils. …