Natural Resource Economics Commons^™

Plant Community Composition And Structure Monitoring For Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, 2011-2015 Summary Report, Isabel W. Ashton, Christopher J. Davis

United States National Park Service: Publications

Executive Summary

The Northern Great Plains Inventory & Monitoring Program and Fire Effects Program have been monitoring vegetation in Agate Fossil Beds National Monument for over 18 years. While methods have changed slightly, this report summarizes data from over 80 locations from 1998-2015. We use these data to explore status and trends in upland and riparian plant communities, the occurrence of rare plants, and the effects of the Fossil Hills trail installation on the surrounding vegetation. A summary of the current condition (2011-2015) and trends (based on 1998-2015) in plant communities at Agate Fossil Beds NM (AGFO) is found in …

U.S. Drought Monitor, March 29, 2016, Brad Rippey

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for March 29, 2016 (3/29/16) 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.

Environmental Variables Affecting The Performance Of Large-Scale Solar Photovoltaic Power Plants, Parikhit Sinha

Climate Sustainability Lecture Series

The environmental sciences have been critical to identifying global environmental challenges such as climate change, but they have been less extensively utilized in deploying solutions to those challenges, such as solar energy. Environmental variables such as temperature, humidity, aerosols, clouds, soiling, and snowfall have important effects on solar PV performance, and these effects can vary regionally. The current status of large-scale solar PV deployment will be discussed along with the role of environmental variables on PV performance.

U.S. Drought Monitor, March 22, 2016, Brad Rippey

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for March 22, 2016 (3/22/16) 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.

Estimating Evapotranspiration Of An Apple Orchard Using A Remote Sensing-Based Soil Water Balance, Magali Odi-Lara, Isidro Campos, C.M.U. Neale, Samuel Ortega-Farías, Carlos Poblete-Echeverria, Claudio Balbontín, Alfonso Calera

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

The main goal of this research was to estimate the actual evapotranspiration (ETc) of a drip-irrigated apple orchard located in the semi-arid region of Talca Valley (Chile) using a remote sensing-based soil water balance model. The methodology to estimate ETc is a modified version of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) dual crop coefficient approach, in which the basal crop coefficient (Kcb) was derived from the soil adjusted vegetation index (SAVI) calculated from satellite images and incorporated into a daily soil water balance in the root zone. A linear relationship between the Kcb and SAVI was …

Powering The Planet: The Role Chemistry Plays In Solar Energy Technology, Amy M. Scott

Climate Sustainability Lecture Series

Global energy demands are projected to double by 2050, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, and solar energy has the greatest potential as the most benign, universal resource for generating electricity. However, harnessing the solar energy efficiently and converting it towards useful forms of power that are compatible with our current infrastructure remains an elusive goal. Today’s solar energy utilization relies on silicon-based photovoltaic (PV) technology, which converts photon energy to electrical energy. The efficiency of these devices remains low (< 30%) and the cost of processing silicon and installing solar panels in homes makes PV uneconomical compared to the current price of electricity. Research efforts towards developing new inorganic and organic materials for thin film PV to replace silicon are currently underway. Organic materials are particularly interesting from the standpoint of developing simple, cheap materials that can be easily tailored for future PV devices. The future of solar energy utilization relies on developing solar paints for vehicles, solar shingles for rooftops, and spray-on solar ink for small device applications, but continued fundamental research is needed for decreasing cost and improving efficiency for next generation devices.

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

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of the United States for March 15, 2016 (3/15/16) plus: United States crop areas experiencing drought (map), the approximate percentage of crop located in drought by state (bar graph), and the percentage of crop area located in drought during past 52 weeks (line graph) for corn, soybeans, hay, cattle, and winter wheat.

U.S. Drought Monitor, March 8, 2016, David Miskus

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for March 8, 2016 (3/8/16) 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.

U.S. Drought Monitor, March 1, 2016, David Miskus

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for March 1, 2016 (3/1/16) 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.

Plant Community Composition And Structure Monitoring For Scotts Bluff National Monument, 2011-2015 Summary Report, Isabel W. Ashton, Christopher J. Davis

United States National Park Service: Publications

Executive Summary

The Northern Great Plains Inventory & Monitoring Program and Fire Effects Program have been monitoring vegetation in Scotts Bluff National Monument for over 18 years. While methods have changed slightly, this report summarizes data from over 80 locations from 1998-2015. Below, we list the questions we asked using these data and provide a summarized answer. For more details see the full report. A summary of the current condition (2011-2015) and trends (based on 1988-2015) in plant communities at Scotts Bluff is found in Table ES-1.

1. What is the current status of plant community composition and structure of …

Air Quality Related Values (Aqrvs) For Northern Great Plains Network (Ngpn) Parks, Effects From Ozone; Visibility Reducing Particles; And Atmospheric Deposition Of Acids, Nutrients And Toxics, Timothy J. Sullivan

United States National Park Service: Publications

Summary

This report describes the Air Quality Related Values (AQRVs) of the Northern Great Plains Network (NGPN). AQRVs are those resources sensitive to air quality and include streams, lakes, soils, vegetation, fish and wildlife, and visibility. This report also describes air pollutant emissions and air quality in NGPN, and their effects on AQRVs. The primary pollutants likely to affect AQRVs include nitrogen (N) and sulfur (S) compounds (nitrate [NO₃^-], ammonium [NH₄⁺], and sulfate [SO₄^2-]); ground-level ozone (O₃); haze-causing particles; and airborne toxics.

The 13 parks that are included in …

From The Orderly World Of Frameworks To The Messy World Of Data: Canada’S Experience Measuring The Economic Contribution Of Maritime Industries, Alejandro De Maio, Christine Irwin

Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics

This paper extends the frameworks developed by Park and Kildow (2014) to explore the use of supply chains to classify and organize ocean industries. Canada’s experience with measuring the economic contribution of ocean related sectors is discussed; with particular emphasis on illustrating the supply chain approach and of highlighting the multiple practical challenges that arise in defining and measuring the ocean economy. The overall conclusion is that Canada has succeeded in developing a methodological framework that allows it to report, on an annual basis high level estimates of gross domestic product, employment and labour income generated directly and indirectly by …

The New Blue Economy: The Future Of Sustainability, Mark J. Spalding

Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics

The world’s ocean is the world’s life support. Many human activities have defined a negative relationship with the ocean. Simply put: we dump too much bad stuff in, and we take too much good stuff out. The traditional ocean economy—those ocean-based and ocean-related activities from which humans derive economic benefit— did not acknowledge or honor the ocean’s natural services, nor its finite capacity to take human abuse without undermining those services on which we depend. The “new blue economy” is the term of art for identifying those activities that improve the human relationship with the ocean and for aligning our …

Economic Assessment Of Oceans For Sustainable Blue Economy Development, Maria Corazon M. Ebarvia

Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics

This paper presents the common approach on blue economy assessment adopted by selected countries in the East Asian Seas region, and results of initial assessment studies. There are many discourses on the definition and scope of blue economy as the ocean space is evolving, driven by innovations, shifting demands, and pressures from changing environment and climate. The ocean economy contributes to the GDP of the EAS countries in varying degrees: 3 % in RO Korea, 4.5 % in the Philippines, 9 % in China, and 13 % in Indonesia. In addition to the ocean economic activities, the ocean also generates …

Accounting For The Ocean Economy Using The System Of National Accounts, Raymundo J. Talento

Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics

The increasing importance to measure the ocean economy cannot be discounted. A number of countries attempted to measure the ocean economy based on their needs and perceptions. At this point, however, there is no agreed scope and coverage of the ocean economy nor is there an agreed operational definition of the variables needed for its measurement. Moreover, there is no internationally endorsed framework that will guide and lead to comparable estimates across countries or regions.

Utilizing the 2008 System of National Accounts (SNA) as a framework, this paper endeavors to estimate the contribution of the ocean economy in the Philippines …

A Statistical Assessment Of Maritime Socioeconomic Indicators For The European Atlantic Area, Javier Fernandez-Macho

Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics

Ever since the introduction into marine and maritime policy strategies worldwide of the relatively new concept of Blue Growth there has been an increasing interest in developing integrated systems of indicators for the maritime economy.

The Marnet project has been a recent attempt to develop a comparative maritime socioeconomic framework for the European Atlantic area and its database contains a large number of socioeconomic indicators for many maritime activities at different territorial levels that provide the information needed to help analyze and compare the maritime economy of the European Atlantic regions.

However, there are still many gaps with respect to …

The Role Of Economics In Ecosystem Based Management: The Case Of The Eu Marine Strategy Framework Directive; First Lessons Learnt And Way Forward., Soile Oinonen, Tobias Börger, Stephen Hynes, Ann Katrin Buchs, Anna-Stiina Heiskanen, Kari Hyytiäinen, Tiziana Luisetti, Rob Van Der Veeren

Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics

The EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) sets out a plan of action relating to marine environmental policy and in particular to achieving ‘good environmental status’ (GES) in European marine waters by 2020. Article 8.1 (c) of the Directive calls for ‘an economic and social analysis of the use of those waters and of the cost of degradation of the marine environment’. The MSFD is ‘informed’ by the Ecosystem Approach to management, with GES interpreted in terms of ecosystem functioning and services provision. Implementation of the Ecosystem Approach is expected to be by adaptive management policy and practice. The initial …

Maritime Accounts In The European Union: Coping With Limited Information, Regis Kalaydjian

Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics

The European Commission's effort to define the scope and components of the maritime economy was initially motivated by the "Integrated Maritime Policy" (2007). This policy package, principally based on coastal environment protection, maritime safety and security, and the European marine observation and data network, also included the development of an EU-wide economic and social database on maritime activities. The IMP database (2009) used experience from EU member states in terms of maritime database development, and conversely was an opportunity to update national contributions.

Later, two other packages contributed to broadening EC's approach. 1) The "Marine Strategy Framework Directive" (2008) was …

Introduction To Special Edition: The Oceans And National Income Accounts: An International Perspective, Charles S. Colgan

Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics

Introduction to articles in the special edition.

U.S. Drought Monitor, February 23, 2016, Eric Luebehusen

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for February 23, 2016 (2/23/16) 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.