Sustainability Commons^™

Evaluation And Improvement Of Smoke Plume Rise Models, Yongqiang Liu Dr., Gary Achtemeier Dr., Scott Goodrick Dr., Bill Jackson Dr., John Qu Dr.

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

The purpose of this JFSP project was to evaluate and improve the performance of Daysmoke in simulating smoke plume rise of prescribed burning. A combined approach of field measurement, numerical modeling, and dynamical and statistical analysis was used. Smoke plume height was measured with a ceilometer for 20 prescribed burns in the southeastern U.S. The measured data was used to validate Daysmoke simulation. An empirical smoke plume rise model was developed based on the RAWS observations. Daysmoke was improved by including the number of multiple updraft cores. Regional air quality modeling was conducted with smoke plume rise provided by Daysmoke. …

Evaluation Of Smoke Models And Sensitivity Analysis For Determining Their Emission Related Uncertainties, M. Talat Odman Dr., Scott Goddrick Dr., Fernando Garcia-Menendez, Aika Yano

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

Emissions from wildland (wild and prescribed) fires add to the burden of air pollution and can have adverse impacts on air quality and public health. Numerical models for dispersion and chemical transport, also known as air quality models, can be used to investigate the fire plume evolution and the smoke impacts. However, it is important that the predictive skills of smoke models be evaluated under a wide range of applicable conditions through systematic simulations of past events with existing data. Three models were evaluated in this research: CALPUFF, DAYSMOKE and CMAQ. Different prescribed burn and wildfire episodes occurring throughout the …

Fire And Aquatic Ecosystems In The Context Of Climate Change: A Synthesis For Improved Management, Charles Luce, Penelope Morgan, Kate Dwire, John Buffington, Bruce Rieman, Zack Holden, Matt Dare, Dan Isaak, Claire Mcgrath

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

Fire will be the proverbial eye-of-the-needle through which many western U.S. mountain, forest, and stream ecosystems will pass as the climate changes. Historic observations show increased dryness and temperatures accompanying more widespread fire and forest die-off. These events may punctuate gradual changes to ecosystems, or may be a mechanism driving stepwise changes in ecosystems. Most western ecosystems are strongly tied to cycles of fire and recovery, and the changing nature of fire will have profound consequences. There is no question that vulnerability assessments of western U.S. ecosystems need to account for fire in their calculus. The biophysical template of the …

Synthesis Of Knowledge Of Extreme Fire Behavior: Volume I For Fire Managers, Paul A. Werth, Brian E. Potter, Craig B. Clements, Mark. A. Finney, Scott L. Goodrick, Martin E. Alexander, Miguel G. Cruz, Jason A. Forthofer, Sara S. Mcallister

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

The National Wildfire Coordinating Group definition of extreme fire behavior (EFB) indicates a level of fire behavior characteristics that ordinarily precludes methods of direct control action. One or more of the following is usually involved: high rate of spread, prolific crowning/ spotting, presence of fire whirls, and strong convection column. Predictability is difficult because such fires often exercise some degree of influence on their environment and behave erratically, sometimes dangerously. Alternate terms include “blow up” and “fire storm.” Fire managers examining fires over the last 100 years have come to understand many of the factors necessary for EFB development. This …

Fire Ecology And Management Of Non-Forested Ecosystems In Western North America. Final Report: Description Of Organizational Meetings And Development Of A Publication Plan, Matt Brooks

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

It has been almost 30 years since the last major book on the ecology and management of fire was published that contained extensive information from non-forested ecosystems across western North America (Wright and Bailey 1982). During subsequent years there have been notable books that have focused largely on forested ecosystems (e.g. Agee 1993), and there was one very recent book that addressed many important grassland, shrubland, woodland, and forest areas, but its geographic extent was confined to California (Sugihara et al. 2006). No single book has since matched the geographic scope associated with non-forested ecosystems in western North America as …

Laboratory Of Tree-Ring Research And School Of Natural Resources And The Environment, Thomas W. Swetnam, Donald Falk, Elaine K. Sutherland, Peter M. Brown, Timothy J. Brown

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

Understanding the role of climate variation in governing fire regimes remains one of the central needs in contemporary fire science and management. Ideally, this understanding should encompass both historical and current fire-climatology, and inform both basic science and ecosystem management. In this project, Fire and Climate Synthesis (FACS) we undertook a detailed synthesis of both paleofire and modern fire based on compilations of existing data sets. We also analyzed three major thematic pathways by which climate has impacted fire policy, including direct and indirect climate effects on fire policy. Paleofire. We assembled the largest and most comprehensive data set of …

Fire Regimes Of Montane Grasslands Of The Valles Caldera National Preserve, New Mexico, Donald A. Falk, Craig D. Allen, Robert Parmenter, Thomas Swetnam, Clifford Dils

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

Montane grasslands are an important ecosystem type in Southwestern landscapes, occurring from the forest borders of piñon-juniper woodland to high elevation subalpine and alpine ecosystems. Thus, they often represent a mosaic element embedded in the forest landscape matrix, playing key roles in processing water and nutrients, and providing habitat for unique suites of species, often at higher levels of diversity than those found in surrounding uplands. Soils, local temperature and moisture gradients, and disturbance all play roles in determining the distribution and extent of montane grasslands. Of these factors, fire plays the most dynamic role in regulating the location and …

Fuel Reduction Treatment Longevity And Crown Response In Interior Ponderosa Pine Forests Of Northern California, Martin W. Ritchie, Carl N. Skinner, Jianwei Zhang

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

With increasing interest in fuels treatments to address the high risk of severe fires in the western United States, there is an attendant need to quantify the effectiveness of such treatments. In addition to the immediate effect of reducing levels of combustible material and the attendant impact on fire intensity, resource managers also need to quantify or forecast the longevity of such treatments. Treatments that produce significant, but short-lived reductions in risk of severe wildfire may not be meeting the goals and objectives of managers. This temporal component needs further study and is the subject of this proposal. There are …

Fuel Treatments In Mixed-Pine Forests In The Great Lakes Region: A Comprehensive Guide To Planning And Implementation, Eric Toman, Stanley Gehrt, Charles Goebel, David M. Hix, Roger Williams, Robyn Wilson, Sarah Mccaffrey

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

Fuel management decisions are made within a larger context of resource management characterized by multiple objectives including ecosystem restoration, wildlife management, commodity production (from timber to less traditional forest products), and provision of recreation opportunities and amenity values. Implementation of fuel treatments is strongly influenced by their perceived influence on and compatibility with overarching management objectives. In some cases these objectives may be complementary while in others they may involve difficult tradeoffs. Such tradeoffs are only further complicated by institutional mandates, limited availability of information, and complex ownership patterns. Like natural resource managers across the U.S., those in the Great …

Droughtscape, Winter 2011, Kelly Smith

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

Register for the U.S. Drought Monitor Forum

La Niña Brings Southeast, Southwest Drought

International Efforts

Drought Returns in 2010

Impacts Emerge “Before” Summer Drought in East

October-December Quarterly Impacts Summary

Climate Adaptation for Local Government

NDMC Elicits Missouri River Basin Recollections

Woudenberg Coordinates Educational Booklet

Implementing A Food Waste To Compost Program At The University Of Arkansas: An Economic Feasibility Analysis, Zoe Teague

Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal

The University of Arkansas Fayetteville (UAF) is actively pursuing ways to increase sustainability on campus. Through the establishment of the Sustainability Council and campus centers, multiple projects are attempting to reduce the carbon footprint at UAF. One particular study is designed to eliminate food waste on campus through composting. The purpose of this study was to evaluate and project the economic savings of implementing a food waste composting system using Earth Tubs. Earth Tubs are an in-vessel electrical composting system capable of diverting up to 150 pounds of organic material daily with minimal odor. Results suggest that composting food waste …

Continual Energy Management Dynamics: Energy Efficiency In U.S. Automotive Manufacturing Industry, Cem O. Onus

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Managers at automotive manufacturers are seeking ways to reduce energy consumption, costs, carbon emissions, and waste from production processes. Researchers and practitioners perceive energy efficiency as the least expensive and most effective way to deal with issues related to climate change, but adoption of energy efficiency measures has been slow among industrial facilities. The topic of this research study was the decision-making process for energy efficiency projects in the U.S. automotive manufacturing industry. Flaws in this decision-making processes are preventing changes that can dramatically reduce energy usage, cost, and pollution. The study was grounded in the theories of energy management, …

A Case Study Of A Project Entitled Community Skills For A Complex Situation: Managing Mining In The Brazilian Atlantic Forest, Arash Shane Robinson

Capstone Collection

This paper is a case study of a project entitled Community Skills for a Complex Situation: Managing Mining in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, which is located in the Serra do Brigadeiro Territory of Minas Gerais, Brazil – an area rich in biodiversity that is thought to contain the highly endangered woolly spider monkey (Brachyteles hypoxanthus).

Iracambi, a local non-governmental organization with an international staff, designed and implemented the project. Beginning in 2007, the project is scheduled for completion in the second half of 2011, and is funded by the Inter-American Foundation (IAF). Utilizing mainstream sustainable development, the …

Ethnic Minorities And Food Security In Northern Thailand, Monalisa Diamond

Capstone Collection

The issue of food security is complex. By analyzing the relationship between international, national and local society, one can better contextualize food security issues. Using an embedded research design (with a qualitative leaning) supported by quantitative data, research is conducted via surveys, interviews and focus groups. This research design was chosen to offset limited sample sizes with quantitative data to strengthen findings. Research findings were cross analyzed to identify three emergent themes. The three cross-cutting themes identified and analyzed are: Thai citizenship, employment and chemical pesticide use (chemical pesticide use did not arise among Burmese refugees and is only applicable …

Energy Management And Governance In Vermont: A Case Study, Nicole Davis

Capstone Collection

Environmental management has always been important for global sustainability and has becoming even more critical in the face of climate change, the expansion of the global economy, and explosive population growth. Energy resource management is one of the critical areas that need to be address on the international, national, state and local levels. This paper presents a case study of the state of Vermont’s efforts towards energy management. Special attention is paid to governance of its energy systems and the ensuing results. The research looked at the energy supply and consumption profiles of the state, how those factors influenced policies, …

Proceedings Of The 2011 International Conference On Karst Hydrogeology And Ecosystems, Jason Samuel Polk, Leslie A. North

Environmental Sustainability Books

Jointly sponsored by the Hoffman Environmental Research Institute, the National Cave & Karst Research Institute, and the International Association of Hydrogeologists, the 2011 International Conference on Karst Hydrogeology and Ecosystems was held at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucy on 8-10 June 2011. Topics include karst geomorphology, engineering and modeling, isotope geochemistry, and cultural and educational aspects of karst environments.

Influence Of Karst Landscape On Planetary Boundary Layer Atmosphere: A Weather Research And Forecasting (Wrf) Model–Based Investigation, Ronnie Leeper, Rezaul Mamood, Arturo I. Quintanar

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

Karst hydrology provides a unique set of surface and subsurface hydrological components that affect soil moisture variability. Over karst topography, surface moisture moves rapidly below ground via sink holes, vertical shafts, and sinking streams, reducing surface runoff and moisture infiltration into the soil. In addition, subsurface cave blockage or rapid snowmelt over karst can lead to surface flooding. Moreover, regions dominated by karst may exhibit either drier or wetter soils when compared to nonkarst landscape. However, because of the lack of both observational soil moisture datasets to initialize simulations and regional land surface models (LSMs) that include explicit karst hydrological …

An Analysis Of Wind Resources And The Feasibility Of Wind-Energy Generation On The Connecticut College Campus, Michael Marshall

Physics, Astronomy and Geophysics Honors Papers

A wind-resource analysis was undertaken on the Connecticut College campus to augment the preliminary wind-power feasibility study conducted by Global Energy Concepts (GEC) in 2006. Based largely on modeled wind speeds, this earlier study concluded that wind resources at the college were insufficient to generate large amounts of electrical energy given the small-scale turbine believed to be suited to the campus's available land. In the current wind-resource analysis, rather than using modeled values, on-site wind measurements were made over the course of a year and extrapolated to the hub heights of various turbines. These extrapolations suggest that the mean annual …

The Impact Of Driving Conditions On Phev Battery Performance, Nathan Christensen, John Patten, Steven Srivastava, Gary P. Nola

Green Manufacturing Research Journal

The battery performance of a modified Prius with a 5 kWh plug-in battery was documented for a year to determine the impact of environmental conditions and user attributes on vehicle performance.  Both fuel economy and pure electrical efficiency were compared to ambient temperature.  The fuel economy has a positive relationship with ambient temperature until approximately 70˚F where the efficiency begins to drop.  Electrical performance has a positive linear relationship with ambient temperature.  With the emergence of electric vehicles (EVs) and PHEVs from a variety of automotive manufacturers, information on EV and PHEV performance for consumers will become more important.

Design Of A Centralised Anaerobic Digestion Plant In Ireland., Diarmuid O'Meara

Theses

Climate change is brought about by greenhouse gases emitted to the earth’s atmosphere by fossil fuels. Renewable energy sources are seen as an alternative to fossil fuels. Examples of renewable energy sources are biofuels which are a method of reducing the emission of greenhouse gases. One form of biofuels is biogas that is produced during the anaerobic digestion process. In this thesis pig slurry is used to produce biogas.

In this project, the optimum design process for a centralised anaerobic digestion plant was established in the literature review, The optimum process for anaerobic digestion plant design in Ireland was investigated. …