Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment Commons^™

The Prairie Post Quarterly Newsletter Of The High Plains Regional Climate Center- July 2018, Natalie Umphlett, Emily Brown, Crystal J. Stiles

Prairie Post: Quarterly Newsletter of the High Plains Regional Climate Center

Inside this issue:

Message from the interim director........................................1

Staff spotlight...........................1

GRAINEX project......................2

Product highlights..................3

Update on regional climate conditions..................................4

GIS Portal....................................4

Regional news..........................5

Recent and upcoming travel and activities.............................6

Droughtscape, Summer 2018, National Drought Mitigation Center

DroughtScape: Quarterly Newsletter of the National Drought Mitigation Center (2007–2023)

Contents

From the director

Drought expands and intensifies

Dry down fuels fires

Tweeting #drought18

MOISST and NSMN

Caribbean planning progress

Drought observer network study

MENA teams report progress

NDMC global outreach

Climate hub workshop

On the horizon

Umphlett Qci June 2018, Natalie Umphlett

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

Highlights for the Basin

Temperature Anomalies

Precipitation Anomalies

Water Resources

Agriculture

Temperature

Precipitation

Life Cycle Assessment Of Four Different Sweaters, Sarah Nolimal

DePaul Discoveries

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a methodological tool to describe the impacts of a product over its lifetime, from ‘cradle to grave.’ Despite increased employment of LCA, textile LCA studies are often private, outdated, not transparent, or lack accurate data. Further, we know of no LCA study specific to sweaters. This screening LCA combines published literature and data from OpenLCA databases (Ecoinvent 3.3 and GaBi Professional) to conduct a comparative LCA for four sweaters. To determine the composition of these sweaters, we massed and assessed the material composition of 117 sweaters in October 2015. Based on results, our study compares …

Functions Of Ecosystems: Stream Metabolism As An Efficient And Effective Means To Gage The Health And Understand The Interworking Of Urban Streams In A Watershed Of Rock Island, Il, Ryan Johnson, Dr. Kevin Geedey

Celebration of Learning

Stream metabolism is a critical functional measure of stream health that integrates physical parameters like slope and discharge, with ecosystem functions like photosynthesis and respiration. Stream metabolism is widely studied; however, urban stream metabolism remains poorly understood. Stream metabolism was measured for five streams ranging from 1^st to 5^th orders from October 11^th to October 18^th 2017 and four streams ranging from 1^st to 4^th order from October 22^nd to 25^th 2017 located within an approximately 9.3 square kilometer watershed of Rock Island, IL that has an urban to suburban type of …

A Quantitative Analysis Of The Effects Of Urbanization, Mesophication And Prescribed Burns On Oak Woodlands In The Chicago Metropolitan Area, Chad Populorum

Celebration of Learning

Urban expansion has had devastating impacts on forest ecosystems, especially within the past century. Human attempts to dominate nature have diminished natural disturbance regimes, which have maintained the biodiversity and historic composition of these ecosystems. Fires have been a prominent force in maintaining the structure of oak, hickory and other heliophytic (sun loving and fire-adapted) forest systems. Human induced fire suppression has led to mesophication across North America. Mesophication is the transition from drier conditions with open canopies to wetter conditions with closed canopies. These new conditions decrease the survival rates of these important species and begin to favor mesophytic …

Radical Social Ecology As Deep Pragmatism: A Call To The Abolition Of Systemic Dissonance And The Minimization Of Entropic Chaos, Arielle Brender

Student Theses 2015-Present

This paper aims to shed light on the dissonance caused by the superimposition of Dominant Human Systems on Natural Systems. I highlight the synthetic nature of Dominant Human Systems as egoic and linguistic phenomenon manufactured by a mere portion of the human population, which renders them inherently oppressive unto peoples and landscapes whose wisdom were barred from the design process. In pursuing a radical pragmatic approach to mending the simultaneous oppression and destruction of the human being and the earth, I highlight the necessity of minimizing entropic chaos caused by excess energy expenditure, an essential feature of systems that aim …

Science, Advocacy, Policy, Planning: Tools For Advancing Transportation Equity, Garrett S. Mcallister

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

The theme of this portfolio is how different tools and approaches can be used for advancing transportation equity. Broadly defined, transportation equity is about fairness in transportation. There are a number of ways this fairness can be assessed. The most common way to assess transportation equity is by looking at the fairness of outcomes, distributed geographically, socially, or even by mode of transportation. Equity can also be defined by the fairness of processes. The first half of the portfolio illustrates some of the problems with the current transportation system and how it is unhealthy (Piece 1) and unjust (Piece 2). …

Assessing Land Deformation And Sea Encroachment In The Nile Delta, Egypt, Esayas Gebremichael

Research and Creative Activities Poster Day

Persistent scatterer interferometric analyses were conducted on a stack of 84 Envisat ASAR scenes spanning 7 years (2004 to 2010) over the entire Nile Delta of Egypt and surroundings to monitor the ongoing spatial and temporal land deformation, identify the factors controlling the deformation, and model the interplay between sea level rise and land subsidence to identify areas and populations threatened by sea encroachment by the end of the 21st century. Findings include: (1) general patterns of subsidence in the northern delta, near-steady (none) subsidence in the southern delta, separated by a previously mapped flexure zone undergoing uplift; (2) high …

The Prairie Post Quarterly Newsletter Of The High Plains Regional Climate Center- April 2018, Natalie Umphlett, Crystal J. Stiles, Shellie Hanneman

Prairie Post: Quarterly Newsletter of the High Plains Regional Climate Center

Inside this issue:

Message from the interim director........................................1

Weather photo of the quarter.........................................1

Tribal climate summaries......2

Product highlights..................3

Update on regional climate conditions..................................4

State Climate Extremes Committee.................................4

Update on research................5

Recent and upcoming travel and activities.............................6

Primary Atmospheric Drivers Of Pluvial Years In The United States Great Plains, Paul Flanagan, Jeffrey B. Basara, Jason C. Furtado, Xiangming Xiao

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

Precipitation variability has increased in recent decades across the Great Plains (GP) of the United States. Drought and its associated drivers have been studied in the GP region; however, periods of excessive precipitation (pluvials) at seasonal to interannual scales have received less attention. This study narrows this knowledge gap with the overall goal of understanding GP precipitation variability during pluvial periods. Through composites of relevant atmospheric variables from the ECMWF twentieth-century reanalysis (ERA-20C), key differences between southern Great Plains (SGP) and northern Great Plains (NGP) pluvial periods are highlighted. The SGP pluvial pattern shows an area of negative height anomalies …

Psu Market Center Building Leed Eb Materials Audit Report, Christa Mcdermott, Emily Murkland, Bryan Nguyen, Tay Stone, Rushada Wimer

Campus Sustainability Office Publications, Reports and Presentations

This report provides Portland State University’s (PSU) Campus Sustainability Office (CSO), with an objective third party LEED O+M Materials Assessment of PSU’s Market Center Building (MCB). The data collected for this audit provides CSO with insight into the building’s current waste composition and diversion rate. Additionally, it identifies opportunities to reduce the amount of recoverable materials ending up in the landfill stream. Community Environmental Services (CES) conducted material audits for 100% of MCB’s landfill-bound, commingled recycling, glass bottles and jars recycling, and compost streams during a 24-hour period.

Droughtscape, Spring 2018, National Drought Mitigation Center

DroughtScape: Quarterly Newsletter of the National Drought Mitigation Center (2007–2023)

Contents

Drought shifts to south in beginning of 2018

Ag records impacts; strong fire season forecast

Drought maps show regional and river forecast areas

Greenness indicator could save lives in Africa

NDMC on a global playing field

Visitors from Korea tap drought resources, experts

Svoboda named to United Nations advisory group

Responding to drought in the Southern Plains

Crops, cattle and climatology in the Upper Niobrara

Connecting locally for global change

A Naturalist’S Guide To The Great Plains, Paul A. Johnsgard

Zea E-Books Collection

This book documents nearly 500 US and Canadian locations where wildlife refuges, nature preserves, and similar properties protect natural sites that lie within the North American Great Plains, from Canada’s Prairie Provinces to the Texas-Mexico border. Information on site location, size, biological diversity, and the presence of especially rare or interesting flora and fauna are mentioned, as well as driving directions, mailing addresses, and phone numbers or internet addresses, as available. US federal sites include 11 national grasslands, 13 national parks, 16 national monuments, and more than 70 national wildlife refuges. State properties include nearly 100 state parks and wildlife …

Umphlett Qci March 2018, Natalie Umphlett

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

Highlights for the Basin

Temperature and Precipitation Anomalies

Mountain Snowpack

Enhanced Fire Activity During Winter

Utilities Impacted by Extreme Cold

3-Month Precipitation and Temperature Outlooks

Winter Drought Conditions and Outlook

Riverbank Filtration Impacts On Post Disinfection Water Quality In Small Systems—A Case Study From Auburn And Nebraska City, Nebraska, Matteo D'Alessio, Bruce Dvorak, Chittaranjan Ray

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

Small water systems can experience a fluctuating quality of water in the distribution system after disinfection. As chlorine is the most common disinfectant for small systems, the occurrence of disinfection byproducts (DBPs) represents a common problem for these systems. Riverbank filtration (RBF) can be a valuable solution for small communities located on riverbanks. The objectives of this study were to evaluate (i) the improvements in water quality at two selected RBF systems, and (ii) the potential lower concentrations of DBPs, in particular, trihalomethanes (THMs), in small systems that use RBF. Two small communities in Nebraska, Auburn and Nebraska City, using …

Flow Analysis Through Collector Well Laterals: A Case Study From Sonoma County Water Agency, California, Matteo D'Alessio, John Lucio, Ernest Williams, James Warner, Donald Seymour, Jay Jasperse, Chittaranjan Ray

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

The Sonoma County Water Agency (SWCA) uses six radial collector wells along the Russian River west of Santa Rosa, to provide water for several municipalities and water districts in north-western California. Three collector wells (1, 2, and 6) are located in the Wohler area, and three collector wells (3, 4, and 5) are located in the Mirabel area. The objective of this paper is to highlight the performance of the three collector wells located in the Mirabel area since their construction. The 2015 investigation showed a lower performance of Collectors 3 and 4 compared to their original performances after construction …

Annual Report 2018, Casco Bay Estuary Partnership

Publications

CBEP has been collaborating for over 25 years with a multitude of partners working hard to protect Casco Bay. 2018 brought us new and exciting collaborations.

The Casco Bay Nutrient Council, convened by CBEP, met for almost two years and produced a report that laid a path forward for all partners to tackle nutrient pollution.

CBEP worked closely with the EPA to establish the Casco Bay Monitoring Network, made up of over 20 member organizations, aimed at coordinating and upgrading monitoring in the Bay. The Network is currently updating the Casco Bay Monitoring Plan.

CBEP is an active participant in …

Utility Data Comparison Of Fy16, Fy17, And Fy 18 Quarter One And Quarter Two Data, Campus Sustainability Office

Campus Sustainability Office Publications, Reports and Presentations

FY16, FY17, & FY18 Q1 and Q2 EUI Comparison

Psu Green Building Internship Final Report, 2018: Karl Miller Center Post-Occupancy Study, Omar Abu Sulaiman, Jocelyn Reynolds

Campus Sustainability Office Publications, Reports and Presentations

In this report, both occupant comfort perception-based data, collected via surveys, and building performance-based data, collected via sensors, are utilized to conduct a post-occupancy evaluation of Portland State University’s (PSU) new Karl Miller Center (KMC), formerly known as the School of Business Administration. The KMC was completed in September 2017 and is on track to earn LEED Platinum certification, primarily for the passive ventilation strategies incorporated into its design. The environmental factors studied in this report are air and concrete slab temperatures, CO2 levels, and airflow. The personal factors studied in this report are clothing levels (clo), gender identity, thermal …

Drought And Land-Cover Conditions In The Great Plains, Heather Tollerud, Jesslyn Brown, Thomas Loveland, Rezaul Mahmood, Norman Bliss

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

Land–atmosphere interactions play a critical role in the Earth system, and a better understanding of these interactions could improve weather and climate models. The interaction among drought, vegetation productivity, and land cover is of particular significance. In a semiarid environment, such as the U.S. Great Plains, droughts can have a large influence on the productivity of agriculture and grasslands, with serious environmental and economic impacts. Here, we used the vegetation drought response index (VegDRI) drought indicator to investigate the response of vegetation to weather and climate for landcover types in the Great Plains in the United States from 1989 to …

Droughtscape, Winter 2018, National Drought Mitigation Center

DroughtScape: Quarterly Newsletter of the National Drought Mitigation Center (2007–2023)

Contents

Year in review: Drought eased in California, developed in Northern Plains

Quarterly Summary: Drought creeps across the country

Annual impact summary: A year of wildfires

Quarterly impact summary: Drought expands in Texas, Colorado

Drought and water crisis book updated

U.S. Drought Monitor available in Spanish

Study shows cities step up when drought occurs

New staff at the NDMC

Drought Summit in photos

The Long Term Effect Of Agricultural, Vadose Zone And Climatic Factors On Nitrate Contamination In Nebraska’S Groundwater System, Pongpun Juntakut, Daniel D. Snow, Erin M.K. Haacker, Chittaranjan Ray

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

A four-decade dataset (1974–2013) of 107,823 nitrate samples in 25,993 wells from western and eastern parts of Nebraska was used to assess long-term trends of groundwater nitrate concentration and decadal changes in the extent of groundwater nitrate-contaminated areas (NO₃-N≥10 mg N/L) over the entire state. Spatial statistics and regressions were used to investigate the relationships between groundwater nitrate concentrations and several potential natural and anthropogenic factors, including soil drainage capacities, vadose zone characteristics, crop production areas, and irrigation systems. The results of this study show that there is no statistically significant trend in groundwater nitrate concentrations …

Does Collective Action Sequester Carbon? Evidence From The Nepal Community Forestry Program, Randall Bluffstone, Eswaran Somanathan, Prakash Jha, Harisharan Luintel, Rajesh Bista, Mike Toman, Naya Paudel, Bhim Adhikari

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Highlights

• Presumed open access forests have as little as 34% of those under collective action.

• No evidence that Community Forestry Programme forests store more carbon

.• Carbon from collective action not conditional on Community Forestry Programme.

Sustainability At Sit: A Look At The Past, A Plan For The Future, Taliesin Haugh

Capstone Collection

Climate change threatens our world and way of life. Intelligent development and investment could mitigate the worst threats of climate change, while simultaneously providing continuous growth for the global economy. The New Climate Economy proposes efforts to combat this ecological collapse that would result in $30 trillion in new annual economic growth by 2030. Stockholm Resilience Center agrees, giving a framework based on global ecological systems that calls for five critical tasks that can bring growth and stability: Renewable energy

Sustainable local food production

New development models, based on what has worked globally

Reduction of wealth inequity

Education, health, and …

Stars Annual Report, 2018, Campus Sustainability Office

Campus Sustainability Office Publications, Reports and Presentations

The Campus Sustainability Office (CSO) compiles information from departments across campus annually to complete the STARS Report. The score is based on the number of points received across five categories: Academics, Engagement, Operations, and Planning & Administration, and Innovation & Leadership. PSU has maintained a Gold rating since the institution began reporting in 2011 and is within the top 40 of over 400 reporting institutions. This summary includes improvement opportunities to assist our efforts to eventually become a STARS Platinum institution. For more information on improvement opportunities please contact Amanda Wolf at [email protected]

Utility Summary Fiscal Year 2018, Campus Sustainability Office

Campus Sustainability Office Publications, Reports and Presentations

Summary of energy use listed by building

The Prairie Post Quarterly Newsletter Of The High Plains Regional Climate Center- January 2018, Natalie Umphlett, Crystal J. Stiles

Prairie Post: Quarterly Newsletter of the High Plains Regional Climate Center

Inside this issue:

Message from the interim director........................................1

Weather photo of the quarter.................................................. 1

2017 - year in review..............2

2017 climate in the High Plains............................................3

Update on La Niña..................3

Update on regional climate conditions..................................4

Product Highlight....................4

HPRCC Turns 30........................5

Recent and upcoming travel and activities.............................6

Fate Of Methoprene In Temperate Salt Marsh Ditches Following Aerial Applications, David J. Tonjes, Anne E. Mcelroy, Robin K. Barnes, Dominick V. Ninivaggi, Walter Dawydiak, Gregory T. Greene, Bruce J. Brownawell

Technology & Society Faculty Publications

Aerial applications of liquid methoprene are used in salt marshes to control mosquitoes by preventing adult emergence. Despite concern about toxicity to non-target organisms, little is known about environmental concentrations after applications, nor methoprene's persistence in salt marsh environments. Aqueous and sediment samples were collected from two marshes receiving weekly applications. Aqueous samples were collected as early as 30 minutes after applications and as long as nine days afterwards; sediment samples were taken within hours of application and as long as 19 days post-application. Use of time-of-flight liquid chromatography – mass spectral analysis allowed for ultra low detection limits (0.5 …

Assessing The Feasibility Of Soil Infiltration Trenches For Highway Runoff Control On The Island Of Oahu, Hawaii, Martina Sobotkova, Jaromir Dusek, Ghasem Alavi, Laxman Sharma, Chittaranjan Ray

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

The coastal waters of Hawaii are extremely important for recreation as well as for the health of the marine environment. Non-point source pollution from storm runoff poses a great threat to surface water quality in Hawaii. The State of Hawaii Department of Transportation (HDOT) includes infiltration trenches as a best management practice (BMP) option to reduce pollution caused by stormwater runoff. HDOT guidelines state that the implementation of BMPs is needed to reduce sediment and pollutant loads to streams and the ocean. In this study, the suitability of soils adjacent to highways on Oahu for the siting of infiltration trenches …