Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment Commons^™

Acid Rain: The Effects, Torrey Mortimer

Social Sciences

In a world experiencing increasing population, urbanization, and developing nations looking to compete on a global market with post-industrial nations, the effects of acid precipitation require greater consideration. As the world’s energy demand rises, and with the cheapest and most abundant source of energy being coal, the occurrence of acid precipitation is on the rise.

The goal of my project is to research and report on the effects of acid deposition on humans, animals and the environment that surrounds them. When I have completed my project, I hope to be able to explain the impacts that acid deposition has on …

Strategies For The Fusion Of Satellite Fire Radiative Power With Burned Area Data For Fire Radiative Energy Derivation, Luigi Boschetti, David P. Roy

GSCE Faculty Publications

Instantaneous estimates of the power released by a fire (Fire Radiative Power, FRP) are available with satellite active fire detection products. Integrating FRP in time provides an estimate of the total energy released (Fire Radiative Energy, FRE), which can be converted into burned biomass estimates needed by the atmospheric emissions modeling community. While straightforward in theory, the integration of FRP in time and space is affected by temporal and spatial undersampling imposed by the satellite sensing and orbit geometry, clouds, and active fire product omission errors. Combination of active fire FRP estimates with independently derived burned area maps provides the …

The Price Of Water: Assessment Of The Current Water Situation And Recommendation Of Technical Methodology For The Community Of Shirati, Tanzania, Max Perel-Slater

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study looked at the current water situation in the community of Shirati Tanzania. It took place from November 7th – 27th 2009. My sample frame was the villages in the Roche District of the Mara Region in northeastern Tanzania. My sample populations consisted of residents of three villages – Mukoma, Nyamagongo, and Shirati-Sota. I applied a four prong approach to my data collection: 1) Eight Key Informant Interviews with three local village leaders and two medical officers of the local hospital and dispensary, two water engineers and one long time resident; 2) Ninety randomly selected surveys, 30 in each …

Droughtscape, Fall 2009, Kelly Smith

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

DroughtScape, Fall 2009

Effects Of Tide Gate Replacement On Water Temperature In A Freshwater Slough In The Columbia River Estuary, Sara Ennis

Environmental Science and Management Professional Master's Project Reports

Dramatic declines in salmon populations in the Pacific Northwest have brought new attention to the importance of estuarine rearing habitats. Levees and tide gates used to convert estuarine wetlands into farmland have reduced available habitat by more than half of historical levels. Recent efforts to restore estuarine habitats include tide gate replacement, though this method has been poorly studied. As a key indicator of salmon habitat suitability, temperature was used to evaluate the effects of tide gate replacement in a tidally influenced freshwater slough in the Lower Columbia River estuary. Three tide gates in the largest slough on Tenasillahe Island …

Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report, Ilonka Zlatar, Cassidee Shinn

Reports (USI)

National and international organizations and programs like the United States Global Change Research Project and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change agree, and scientific evidence indicates, that anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are resulting in global climate change. Unless actions are taken to reverse and reduce the effects of these emissions, future generations will need to either adapt to or bear the burden of the changed environment. Individuals, companies, institutions, municipalities and countries are being called upon during this urgent world crisis. Universities, which support research and education, have a unique opportunity to become leaders in sustainability.
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Heat And Smoke Effects On Red Brome Soil Seed Banks, Scott R. Abella, E. Cayenne Engel

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Research

Management of exotic plants that are annuals entails understanding and managing their soil seed banks. We completed a study of the influences of heat and liquid smoke on red brome (Bromus rubens) soil seed banks collected from Red Rock Canyon in southern Nevada as part of a collaborative fire effects monitoring effort with Bureau of Land Management - Las Vegas. We collected the samples from the 2005 Loop Fire, where we observed in a monitoring field study that exotic grasses such as red brome were relatively sparse in the first 2-3 years (which were during a dry period) following the …

Effects Of Re-Grown Forest Habitat On Lemur Catta Behavior, Sophie Ackoff

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study examines the effects of re-grown forest habitat on L. catta behavior at Berenty Private Reserve in Southern Madagascar during the early wet season. Evaluation of the reforested area versus natural forest revealed significant differences in species composition and food availability. Though the re-grown forest showed signs of forest regeneration and total greater food availability, the natural forest of Malaza proved to contain more preferred food sources for L. catta. Behavioral observations were collected over eight full-day troop follows and showed significant differences in feeding behavior, activity budget, and intra-troop and inter-troop aggressions. The WELL troop in Ankoba, the …

Lake Mead National Recreation Area Monitoring And Evaluation Of Sensitive Wildlife: Quarterly Progress Report, Period Ending September 30, 2009, Margaret N. Rees

Wildlife Monitoring

Project 1. Relict Leopard Frog Monitoring, Management, and Research

• All milestones and deliverables associated with this MSHCP project are on schedule
• Mark-recapture surveys scheduled for fall have been initiated
• Two potential sites for translocations were visited to assess water availability
• Coordination continues on an upcoming translocation

Project 2. Bald Eagle Winter Monitoring and Evaluation

• All MSHCP milestones and deliverables are on schedule
• An annual project review presentation was given to Clark County

Project 3. Peregrine Falcon Monitoring and Evaluation

• This MSHCP project is on schedule for all milestones and deliverables
• Monitoring of Peregrine falcon 2009 breeding activities has been completed …

Factors Influencing Perennial Pasture Adoption In The Medium Rainfall Zone Of The South West Natural Resource Management Region Of Western Australia, Ned Crossley, Stephen Tunbridge, Kathi Mcdonald

Resource management technical reports

No abstract provided.

A Survey Of Drought Impacts And Mitigation Planning In Kentucky, Crystal Jane Bergman

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Drought is a well-known and costly climate-related natural hazard. Unlike other climate-related natural hazards, droughts are usually long in duration and may cover a large region, the physical boundaries of areas affected by drought are sometimes arbitrary, and the impacts are sometimes difficult to identify. Climate records since 1895 show that drought has occurred periodically in Kentucky. The drought of 2007 was the most recent drought to affect Kentucky and is the primary focus of this research. The purpose of this research is to identify impacts of drought and potential vulnerabilities to various drought impact sectors in Kentucky so that …

Near-Surface Atmospheric Response To Simulated Changes In Land-Cover Vegetation Fraction, And Soil Moisture Over Western Kentucky, Ronnie Leeper

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

A series of land-use-land-cover-change (LULCC) based sensitivity experiments, including changes in vegetation type, fractional vegetation (FV), and soil moisture (SM), over Western Kentucky were conducted to investigate atmospheric response to land-use. The choice of land-use for this study was chosen in the context of Western Kentucky’s historical LULCC. For this study, vegetation types considered were grassland, forest, and bare soil with further variations in FV for grassland and forest at 25, 50, 75, and 100 % and systematic increases and decreases in volumetric SM of 0.05, 0.10, and 0.15 m3 m-3. To the author’s knowledge, this is the first assessment …

Esperance Area Acid Sulfate Soil Hazard Mapping, Paul Galloway, Simon Clarendon

Resource management technical reports

This project created a regional scale (1:100 000) acid sulfate soil (ASS) hazard map for the Lake Warden and Esperance town areas, using a combination of existing soil-landscape mapping information and elevation data, supported by field observations and laboratory data from 18 soil cores and 29 additional borelogs with descriptive information useful for identifying ASS and potential ASS materials. All data gathered during this project used common standards and protocols developed in Australia for identifying and mapping ASS materials. The project extends the mapping for acid sulfate soil in the region, complementing existing maps compiled for other parts of the …

Fisheries Management Paper No.245 - Aquaculture Of Coral, Live Rocks And Associated Products. Aquaculture Policy, Department Of Fisheries, Western Australia

Fisheries Management Papers

Aquarium enthusiasts use corals, live rock and associated products (e.g. live sand) for display and to maintain healthy water quality conditions in their marine aquariums. There is a large and growing market for these products. While the wild harvest fisheries for aquarium products in Western Australia are sustainably managed, output is capped, so increased product is needed to meet the market demand. With a trend towards the capping of wild harvest and additional pressures, such as the introduction of Marine Parks and other marine protected areas, the aquaculture of these products is set for industry development and expansion.

The large …

The Study Of Variations In The Properties Of Biodiesel On Addition Of Antioxidants, Hiranmayee Kandala

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This research studies variations in biodiesel upon addition of different concentrations of antioxidant and petrodiesel additives. Oxidation onset temperature, oxidation induction time, oxidative stability, thermal stability, crystallization onset temperature and moisture retention properties of the biodiesel, with and without antioxidants have been studied. Antioxidants like BHT, BHA, PrG, Vit E and Vit C were added to the biodiesel during the study. These samples were analyzed using the PDSC, TGA, DSC and TGA-SA instrumentation.

The results of this research show an improvement in the OOT, OIT and Oxidative stability of biodiesel with the addition of antioxidants and by blending the biodiesel …

Options For Achieving And Maintaining Low Salinity In Agricultural Dams, Tilwin Westrup

Resource management technical reports

No abstract provided.

Droughtscape, Summer 2009, Kelly Smith

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

U.S. Drought Monitor Forum, 2009

El Niño Could Bring Wet Winter After Hot Summer

Around the World

Agriculture Hit Hard in California, Texas

Predictable Patterns in Missouri River Basin?

Seeking Low-Flow Effects in Colorado, Southeast

VegDRI Began Coast-to-Coast Coverage in May

Lead Detection In Water: Using Hydroxyapatite And Atomic Absorption, Nicolas Cantarero

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

Hydroxyapatite is a mineral that is very inexpensive, easily made, and binds well to lead. In this procedure its application will be paired with Flame Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (Flame AA) to detect lead concentrations in water to ppb levels. While ppb concentrations of lead are too dilute to produce a response from the Flame AA by using Hydroxyapatite to concentrate lead molecules from a larger volume and dissolving the Hydroxyapatite into a smaller volume it may be able to produce a response. The method could provide an inexpensive, efficient, and accurate way to detect lead concentrations to the ppb level …

Assessment Of The Embodied Co2eq In Buildings Towards A Sustainable Building Design And Construction, Adolf Acquaye, Aidan Duffy, Biswajit Basu

Conference Papers

Research studies have shown that the initial energy embodied in a building can be as much as 67% of the operational energy over a 25 year period. With growing global concerns over material and resource consumption and the emissions of CO2 into the atmosphere, the energy embodied in buildings constructed in town and cities becomes important and one of the key issues that needs to be tackled in the design stages in order to strive towards sustainable buildings design. In this paper, a hybrid embodied carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2eq) methodology used to assess the CO2eq embodied in buildings is presented. …

Wind Power West Michigan - Project Overview, Erik Edward Nordman

Technical Reports

Wind energy has the potential to be an environmentally sensitive alternative to fossil fuels because wind is renewable and can be used to generate electricity without emitting greenhouse gases and other pollutants. Michigan’s coastal zones possess abundant wind resources. However, wind energy development might present challenges for tourism-dependent lakeshore communities. Poorly sited wind farms may interfere with other uses of the coast, such as recreation, commercial fishing, and nature preservation, and not all communities are prepared to manage these conflicts.

Synthesis Completed Of Post-Fire Recovery Of Native Perennials In The Mojave, Sonoran Deserts, Scott R. Abella

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Research

Literature syntheses to develop status of knowledge reports are important to integrate and summarize the scattered scientific literature on a particular topic. The isolation and fragmentation of scientific literature on a topic is not necessarily a shortcoming of science. Rather, it is simply a consequence of having (1) research published in a diverse array of journals, (2) articles build on each other and therefore articles relevant to a particular topic can be published decades apart, and (3) funding virtually impossible to secure to do these periodic assessments of what we know and don’t know (competitive science grants want researchers to …

Land Conservation And Land Use In New England: Trends, Challenges & Opportunities, Amanda Loomis, Tom Devine, Andrea Small, Brittany Howard, Brett Richardson, Stephanie Dulac

Land Conservation

Sprawling development patterns accelerated across the New England landscape in the last three decades and consumed the region‘s forests, farms, and open spaces at an unprecedented rate. New England‘ers in all six states formed land trusts, supported statewide conservation organizations, and collaborated with state and federal partners to protect some of their most-prized recreation lands, wildlife habitats, and working lands. The current economic recession has slowed development pressures across the region and offers an opportunity to build on recent successes. The time is right to plan a coordinated New England conservation strategy that protects and links the region‘s natural assets. …

Lake Mead National Recreation Area Monitoring And Evaluation Of Sensitive Wildlife: Quarterly Progress Report, Period Ending June 30, 2009, Margaret N. Rees

Wildlife Monitoring

Project 1. Relict Leopard Frog Monitoring, Management, and Research

• All milestones and deliverables associated with the MSHCP project are on schedule
• Translocation field season has been completed
• Spring monitoring surveys have been completed
• Dana Drake, UNLV Research Assistant, has left the project

Project 2. Bald Eagle Winter Monitoring and Evaluation

• All MSHCP milestones and deliverables are on schedule

Project 3. Peregrine Falcon Monitoring and Evaluation

• The MSHCP projects are on schedule for all milestones and deliverables
• Peregrine falcon monitoring of breeding activities are ongoing and are nearing completion
• Method testing of active survey methodology has been completed
• Stacy Crowe was …

South Burlington, Vt: Mixed-Use Comes To O’Dell Parkway, Ryan Neale, Brett Richardson, Richard Barringer

Planning

The proposed redevelopment of an underutilized property along major travel routes in South Burlington presents possibilities for infill development. The City of South Burlington, the developer, neighbors, and a variety of public and nonprofit financial partners work together to create a mixed-use residential/commercial development to meet a variety of housing and community needs. The case study describes the obstacles overcome to make redevelopment possible through zoning and regulatory changes, negotiation with local residents over traffic and other concerns, support from state and local housing advocates, and political leadership; as well as the development’s application of smart growth principles.

Fisheries Research Report No. 193 - Investigating Reproductive Biology Issues Relevant To Managing The Western Rock Lobster Broodstock, Roy Melville-Smith, Simon De Lestang, N Beale, D Groth, A Thompson

Fisheries Research Reports

Final FRDC Report – Project 2003/005

Objectives:

1. To investigate the implications of the setose and maximum size rules.

2. To undertake preliminary investigations into the implications of egg diameters being significantly smaller at the Abrolhos Islands than at the coast.

3. To quantify the extent of the breeding grounds, so as to weight the overall egg production index for the stock by the contribution of the management zones.

Increases in efficiency due to modern electronic equipment, improved fishing vessels and knowledge about the grounds and lobster behaviour, have all led to western rock lobster fishers becoming more efficient at …

Barrow Island Ute Guide - Non-Indigenous Insects, Spiders And Snails, Mike Grimm, Kristofer Collett, Peter Davis, Marc Widmer, Andras Szito, Rob Emery, Peter Mangano

Biosecurity published reports

Barrow Island, the second largest island in Western Australia, is a Class A Nature Reserve and home to a variety of rare and endangered fauna and flora, some of which occur nowhere else. The island lies about 70 km off the north-west coast of Western Australia and 150 km west of Karratha.

Oil discoveries in the 1960s and the development of massive Northwest Shelf gas reserves since the 1990s made Barrow Island an important site for these industries. Strict environmental and quarantine conditions are placed on industry seeking permits to drill oil wells and construct gas processing plants. Oil production …

Fort Richardson Ordnance Detonations And The Harbor Porpoise: A Case Study In Marine Mammal Bioacoustics, Heather Heenehan

Honors Scholar Theses

Hearing is extremely important for cetaceans because it is their “principal sense” (Weilgart, 2007) thus the harbor porpoise and other marine animals are highly dependent on sound for survival. This is why we should care about the impact of noise on animals like the harbor porpoise. Since sound travels so well in water, an explosion, sonar, boat noise, etc. can affect a very large area and thus many different species of marine mammals. Although military actions such as low frequency sonar have made recent news, noise has been affecting cetaceans, especially beaked whales, since at least 1991 (Weilgart, 2007).

This …

Sustainable Portland: Implementation Series 2, New England Environmental Finance Center

Climate Change

The Portland Municipal Climate Change Working Group prepared a report in March 2008 that outlined several recommendations as a commitment by the City to address greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) produced during daily municipal operations. The Municipal Climate Action Plan was written in partnership with Clean Air – Cool Planet and Portland officials, and acknowledges under Recommendation #2 that an employee energy efficiency program would provide significant positive impact on the City’s reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Best practices from three cities show that focus on the greening of City Hall is critical in developing a program that promotes partnerships, community …

Natal And Breeding Dispersal Of Bobolinks (Dolichonyx Oryzivorus) And Savannah Sparrows (Passerculus Sandwichensis) In An Agricultural Landscape, Natalia Fajardo, Allan M. Strong, Noah G. Perlut, Neil J. Buckley

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

Dispersal is a key process in the metapopulation dynamics and genetic structure of spatially segregated populations. However, our knowledge of avian dispersal, particularly in migratory passerines, remains limited. We studied dispersal of Bobolinks (Dolichonyx oryzivorus) and Savannah Sparrows (Passerculus sandwichensis) to determine whether agricultural management practices affected dispersal patterns and habitat selection. From 2002 to 2006, we banded adults and nestlings on six focal hay fields and two pastures in the Champlain Valley of Vermont and New York and searched for banded birds within 1.5 km of Vermont field sites during two years. Natal dispersal distances were …

Behind Your Beach Vacation: A Review And Evaluation Of Eias As A Legal Framework To Regulate The Environmental Impacts Of Tourism In Zanzibar, Mahima Sukhdev, Ayelet Singer

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) and related legislation in Zanzibar were examined, and their implementation by hotels in the coastal villages of Nungwi, Kiwengwa and Uroa were studied. Interviews were conducted with relevant government agencies and legal documents were examined in order to understand the current framework within which hotels operate. Hotels in the study area both with and without EIAs were questioned about their environmental and social impacts. The environmental management plans of those hotels with EIAs were considered in light of their current practices in order to gage the effectiveness of the EIA process in regulating the environmental impacts …