Environmental Sciences Commons^™

Financing Mechanisms For Public Private Partnerships: Australian Experience, Michael Regan, Jim Smith, Peter Love

Michael Regan

Recent events in international capital markets has had major impact on the ongoing rollout of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) and slowed their use. Capital has been hard to source especially for projects over $300 million, the patronage risk model for economic infrastructure is no longer available, debt is more expensive than it was 18 months ago and credit risk insurance is no longer readily available. This has affected bid markets and slowed the delivery of new infrastructures with longer-term implications for economic performance across the whole economy.

Comparing Project Costs Internationally: Methodology And Data Issues, Rick Best

Rick Best

It is not uncommon to see or hear statements that suggest that the cost of a project in one country is some multiple of the cost in another. Whether the claim is that it is more or less costly is irrelevant – the fact is that such statements are often meaningless yet governments and clients are all too ready to accept such claims and act on them in their decision-making. In some cases relative cost, however poorly calculated, is used as the basis for conclusions regarding relative productivity in industries such as construction. Arriving at truly comparable costs between countries …

The Curse Of Rafinesquina: Negative Taphonomic Feedback Exerted By Strophomenid Shells On Storm-Buried Lingulids In The Cincinnatian (Katian, Ordovician) Series Of Ohio, Rebecca Freeman, Benjamin Dattilo, Aaron Morse, Michael Blair, Steve Felton, John Pojeta

Benjamin F. Dattilo

Thousands of lingulid brachiopods were found clustered beneath hundreds of individual valves of the strophomenid brachiopod Rafinesquina in the Upper Ordovician of Ohio. This association suggested a relationship between the two brachiopods, but the nature of this relationship was unclear. We utilized serial thin sectioning to examine these brachiopods and to determine the origin of the bed in which they were found. Sedimentary structures, mixed taphonomies, and stratigraphic and paleogeographic setting suggest that the lingulids occupied a hiatal concentration that had previously been reworked, but not significantly transported, by tropical storms. The final burial event was a storm that exhumed …

U.S. Drought Monitor, July 29, 2014, Brad Rippey

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for July 29, 2014 (7/29/14) 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.

Freshwater Resource Supply Modeling For Developed And Undeveloped Watersheds, Kelly C. Gustafson

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Globally, the current state of freshwater resource management is insufficient and impeding the chance at a sustainable future. Human interference within the natural hydrologic cycle is becoming dangerously irreversible and the need to redefine resource managerial approaches is imminent.

This research involves the development of a coupled natural-human freshwater resource supply model using a System Dynamics approach. The model was applied to two case studies, Somalia, Africa and the Phoenix Active Management Area in Arizona, USA. It is suggested that System Dynamic modeling would be an invaluable tool for achieving sustainable freshwater resource management in individual watersheds. Through a series …

Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta Caretta) Hatchling Disorientation In Broward County, Florida, Allison Durland Donahou

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Hatchling disorientation after emergence is a major factor impacting sea turtle populations. This study utilized data from over 1,200 Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) Marine Turtle Disorientation Report forms from years 2006 to 2011 to assess changes in the severity and locations of disorientation events and the impact of municipal beach lighting ordinances. While the FWC forms were completed for all sea turtle species observed, this study focused only on loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta). A Disorientation Severity Index (DSI) was derived from the number of hatchlings and the direction of their tracks leaving the nests …

Repeated Multibeam Echosounder Hydrographic Surveys Of 15 Selected Bridge Crossings Along The Missouri River From Niobrara To Rulo, Nebraska, During The Flood Of 2011, Benjamin J. Dietsch, Brenda K. Densmore, Kellan R. Strauch

United States Geological Survey: Water Reports and Publications

In 2011, unprecedented flooding in the Missouri River prompted transportation agencies to increase the frequency of monitoring riverbed elevations near bridges that cross the Missouri River. Hydrographic surveys were completed in cooperation with the Nebraska Department of Roads, using a multibeam echosounder at 15 highway bridges spanning the Missouri River from Niobrara to Rulo, Nebraska during and after the extreme 2011 flood.

Evidence of bed elevation change near bridge piers was documented. The greatest amount of bed elevation change during the 2011 flood documented for this study occurred at the Burt County Missouri River Bridge at Decatur, Nebraska, where scour …

Climate Change: Threats To Social Welfare And Social Justice Requiring Social Work Intervention, Lauren Caroline Achstatter

21st Century Social Justice

The article looks at climate change though a social development framework, with emphasis on social justice and social welfare. It evaluates how market-based capitalism continues to contribute to the problem while ignoring the warnings from the scientific community. The article goes on to report that despite the devastation of climate change, concerns – mainly financial in nature - continue to hinder progress towards reform. The article then argues that given the evidence, climate change qualifies as a topic of interest for social workers. The article goes on to advocate for social work involvement highlighting some suggested areas for action.

Integrating Land Cover Modeling And Adaptive Management To Conserve Endangered Species And Reduce Catastrophic Fire Risk, David Breininger, Brean Duncan, Mitchell Eaton, Fred Johnson, James Nichols

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Land cover modeling is used to inform land management, but most often via a two-step process, where science informs how management alternatives can influence resources, and then, decision makers can use this information to make decisions. A more efficient process is to directly integrate science and decision-making, where science allows us to learn in order to better accomplish management objectives and is developed to address specific decisions. Co-development of management and science is especially productive when decisions are complicated by multiple objectives and impeded by uncertainty. Multiple objectives can be met by the specification of trade offs, and relevant uncertainty …

U.S. Drought Monitor, July 22, 2014, David Miskus

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for July 22, 2014 (7/22/14) 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.

Using Temporal Changes In Drought Indices To Generate Probabilistic Drought Intensification Forecasts, Jason A. Otkin, Martha C. Anderson, Christopher Hain, Mark Svoboda

Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

In this study, the potential utility of using rapid temporal changes in drought indices to provide early warning of an elevated risk for drought development over subseasonal time scales is assessed. Standardized change anomalies were computed each week during the 2000–13 growing seasons for drought indices depicting anomalies in evapotranspiration, precipitation, and soil moisture. A rapid change index (RCI) that encapsulates the accumulated magnitude of rapid changes in the weekly anomalies was computed each week for each drought index, and then a simple statistical method was used to convert the RCI values into drought intensification probabilities depicting the likelihood that …

Biofiltration Potential Of Ribbed Mussel Populations, Donna Marie Bilkovic, Molly Mitchell

Reports

Our primary study objective was to characterize the ribbed mussel population and estimate their water processing potential along the York River, Virginia.

A Geospatial Approach For Prioritizing Wind Farm Development In Northeast Nebraska, Usa, Adam Miller, Ruopu Li

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Being cleaner and climate friendly, wind energy has been increasingly utilized to meet the ever-growing global energy demands. In the State of Nebraska, USA, a wide gap exists between wind resource and actual energy production, and it is imperative to expand the wind energy development. Because of the formidable costs associated with wind energy development, the locations for new wind turbines need to be carefully selected to provide the greatest benefit for a given investment. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have been widely used to identify the suitable wind farm locations. In this study, a GIS-based multi-criteria approach was developed to …

U.S. Drought Monitor, July 15, 2014, David Miskus

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for July 15, 2014 (7/15/14) 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.

A Conservation Status Index, As An Auxiliary Tool For The Management Of Cave Environments, Christiane Ramos Donato, Adauto De Souza Ribeiro, Leandro De Sousa Souto

International Journal of Speleology

The conservation of the Speleological Heritage involves bioecological, geomorphological and anthropogenic studies, both from inside the caves and from the external environments that surround them. This study presents a method to rank caves according to their priority for conservation and restoration. Nine caves were evaluated: indicators related to the environmental impacts and the vulnerability status presented by those caves (intrinsic features) and the values scored in a ‘Cave Conservation Index’ (CCI) were established. We also used a rapid assessment protocol to measure cave vulnerability for prioritization of conservation/restoration actions (RAP-cr) comparing natural cavities with the same lithology, due …

Water Quality Effects Of Cellulosic Biofuel Crops Grown On Marginal Land, Ruoyu Wang

Ruoyu Wang

Rapid: Natural Laboratories In The Chilean Fjords: Studying Reproduction And Development In Emergent Deep-Sea Corals, Rhian G. Waller

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

The northern Patagonian fjords lie on the interface between the high Andes Mountains in the east and the South Pacific Ocean, formed thousands of years ago through erosive glacial activity and tectonic sinking (Borgel, 1970). Around 12,000 years ago the icefields in the Chiloé Interior Sea began to open, leaving behind over 15,000km2 of fjords, channels and gulfs (Clapperton, 1994). The waters within the fjords are influenced by strong tides, large volumes of freshwater runoff, and upwelling of deep-ocean waters as well as steep climatic gradients from north to south (observed in parameters such as temperature, wind intensity and precipitation; …

Cruise: Yr110901, Stations: S4976- S4995, Clay Bank, York River Virginia 6-Hour Mudbed Calibration Survey Bracketing A Flood Tide, Grace M. Cartwright, Carl T. Friedrichs

Data

Dataset consists of profile and water column burst Data and bottom burst Data collected as part of a 6-hour anchor station survey in support of an Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter (ADV) tripod deployed in nearby location.

Cruise: Yr120430, Stations: S4998- S5014, Clay Bank, York River Virginia 6-Hour Mudbed Calibration Survey Bracketing An Ebb Tide, Grace M. Cartwright, Carl T. Friedrichs

Data

Dataset consists of profile and water column burst Data and bottom burst Data collected as part of a 6-hour anchor station survey in support of an Acoustic Doppler Velicometer (ADV) tripod deployed in nearby location.

Cruise: Yr120724, Stations: S5026- S5040, Clay Bank, York River Virginia 6-Hour Mudbed Calibration Survey Bracketing An Flood Tide, Grace M. Cartwright, Carl T. Friedrichs

Data

Dataset consists of profile and water column burst Data and bottom burst Data collected as part of a 6-hour anchor station survey in support of an Acoustic Doppler Velicometer (ADV) tripod deployed in nearby location.