Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Pursuing Geoengineering For Atmospheric Restoration, James Salzman, Robert B. Jackson

Faculty Scholarship

Geoengineering is fraught with problems, but research on three approaches could lead to the greatest climate benefits with the smallest chance of unintentional environmental harm. The authors propose a model for thinking about geoengineering based on the concept of restoration, suggesting the term “atmospheric restoration.” Under this model geoengineering efforts are prioritized based on three principles: to treat the cause of the disease itself, to reduce the chance of harm, and to prioritize activities with the greatest chance of public acceptance.

Based on these principles, the authors propose three forms of geoengineering that could provide the greatest climate benefits with …

Sustainability Initiatives In East Bayside Neighborhood Portland, Maine, Garvan Donegan, Henry Heyburn, Caitlyn Horose, Matt Klebes, Jennifer Riley, Damon Yakovleff, New England Environmental Finance Center

Planning

This is a bundle containing research on sustainability initiatives that could be implemented in the East Bayside neighborhood of Portland, ME. These six essays were prepared by the Spring, 2010 Sustainable Communities Class known as CPD 602 at the University of Southern Maine. The class is part of the core curriculum of the Community Planning and Development program of the Muskie School of Public Service at the university. The instructor for the class was Samuel Merrill, Ph. D. who is also director of the New England Environmental Finance Center at the University. These papers were prepared in conjunction with Alan …

Methods In Environmental Biotechnology For Environmentalists, Florentin Smarandache, W.B. Vasantha Kandasamy, S.R. Kannan, S. Ramathilagam

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

The study of environmental pollution by chemicals used in agriculture as pesticide or as fertilizers or pollution caused by industries and chemical plants which use chemicals have not been analysed systematically. This book has five chapters. First chapter is introductory in nature. Here we just study chemical pollution caused by garment industries in chapter two of this book using fuzzy associative memories. In chapter three we give ways to control pollution by improving the system performance using hierarchical genetic fuzzy control algorithm. This study is carried out using the past data reported by Shimada et al (1995). Health hazards suffered …

Effects Of Diesel And Biodiesel Blends On Engine Performance And Efficiency, Christopher Hunt, Donald Johnson, Don Edgar

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

Tests were conducted during the summer of 2009 on a John Deere 3203 diesel tractor to determine differences in specific fuel consumption (sfc), power take-off (PTO) torque (Nm), and PTO power (kW), between ultralow sulfur No. 2 Diesel (D2), 20% biodiesel (B20), 50% biodiesel (B50), and100% biodiesel (B100). Four 1-hr tests were conducted with D2, while three 1-hr tests were conducted with B20, B50, and B100. The results indicated that there was no significant (p < 0.05) difference between D2 and B20 for power or torque. Fueling with B50 resulted in significantly lower power and torque than fueling with D2 or B20, but significantly higher power and torque than fueling with B100. There were significant differences between each fuel in sfc; as the biodiesel blend increased, sfc also increased. Based on these data, B20 appears to be the optimal biodiesel blend for this and similar compact utility tractors since fueling with B20 resulted in no significant loss in power or torque (compared to D2) and only a slight increase in fuel consumption.

Personal Exposure Of Children To Formaldehyde In Perth, Western Australia, Victoria S. Lazenby

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Formaldehyde is a common air pollutant that tends to be found in elevated concentrations in indoor air. Exposure to formaldehyde has the potential to impact on respiratory health, particularly amongst sensitive individuals and populations, including children. Children spend most of their time indoors at home, however, there are very little data on the contribution of formaldehyde concentrations in homes to personal exposure in children. The principal aim of this cross sectional study was to investigate whether the domestic environment is the most significant source of personal exposure of formaldehyde in children. Forty-one primary school children (aged between 8 and 12) …

Persistent Organic Pollutants(Pops) As Tracers Of Environmental Change And Antarctic Seabird Ecology, Heidi N. C. Geisz

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Antarctic seabirds including Adelie penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae), south polar skuas (Catharacta maccormicki), southern giant petrels (Macronectes gigantus) are high trophic level predators that accumulate persistent organic pollutants (POPs) present in the food webs in which they forage. Little is known about the levels of POPs in some Antarctic organisms (e.g. southern giant petrels), as well as the long-term trends of POPs in the Antarctic ecosystem. Samples from all three seabird species were collected post mortem, including eggs, from the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) and in the Ross Sea throughout the austral summer breeding seasons of 2004--2006. The samples were analyzed …

Africa Water Atlas, Stanley Mubako

Stanley Mubako

No abstract provided.

Impact Of A Large Medical Waste Incinerator On Air Quality, Robert Oleniacz

Robert Oleniacz

In the paper, an assessment of the compliance with air emission limit values and the impact on air quality of one of the largest medical waste incinerators in Poland, with a total capacity of about 300 kg/h (two incineration lines) is presented. The assessment took the results of continuous and periodic measurements of emissions in the plant’s installation over a period of 12 months’ operation into account. For this period, a calculation was performed for the spread of air pollutants emitted by the two operating incineration lines. According to the analysis and calculations, the analysed medical waste incineration plant does …

Effect Of Spontaneous Gas Expansion And Mobilization On The Aqueous-Phase Concentrations Above A Dense Non-Aqueous Phase Liquid Pool., Kevin G. Mumford, James Smith, Sarah E. Dickson

Sarah E Dickson

This paper presents a framework to quantify the overall variability of the model estimations of Total Polychlorinated Biphenyls (Total PCBs) concentrations in the Niagara River on the basis of the uncertainty of few model parameters and the natural variability embedded in some of the model input variables. The results of the uncertainty analysis are used to understand the importance of stochastic model components and their effect on the overall reliability of the model output and to evaluate multiple sources of uncertainty that might need to be further studied. The uncertainty analysis is performed using a newly developed point estimate method, …

Nevada Interagency Volunteer Program: Helping Hands Across Public Lands – Phase Ii: Quarterly Progress Report, Period Covering October 1, 2009 To December 31, 2009, Margaret N. Rees

Get Outdoors Nevada

• The number of records in the volunteer database decreased by 14% over last quarter. The database now contains 5,996 records.
• Website activity increased, recording an average of 121,918 hits per month, an increase of 8% from last quarter, with an average of 9,686 pages viewed per month.
• Volunteer fall training has been completed.
• One hundred and twenty-seven people attended the Volunteer Recognition Event.

A New Process For Organizing Assessments Of Social, Economic, And Environmental Outcomes: Case Study Of Wildland Fire Management In The Usa, Randall Jf Bruins, Wayne R. Munns Jr., Stephen J. Botti, Steve Brink, David Cleland, Larry Kapustka, Danny Lee, Valerie Luzadis, Laura Falk Mccarthy, Naureen Rana, Douglas B. Rideout, Matt Rollins, Peter Woodbury, Mike Zupko

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

Ecological risk assessments typically are organized using the processes of planning (a discussion among managers, stakeholders, and analysts to clarify ecosystem management goals and assessment scope) and problem formulation (evaluation of existing information to generate hypotheses about adverse ecological effects, select assessment endpoints, and develop an analysis plan). These processes require modification to be applicable for integrated assessments that evaluate ecosystem management alternatives in terms of their ecological, economic, and social consequences.We present 8 questions that define the steps of a new process we term integrated problem formulation (IPF), and we illustrate the use of IPF through a retrospective case …

Democracy And The Environment In Latin America, Javier Albert Escamilla

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study examines the ability of democratic and non-democratic states alike to protect the environment. Democracy has long been an important concept in the study of politics and environmental protection is an increasingly important issue in world politics. Advocates of democracy claim democratic states are better able to protect the environment than non-democracies. In contrast there are those that argue democracy's emphasis on individual rights leads to excessive resource consumption. This thesis employs a mixed methods approach to determine if democratic countries protect the environment more than their non-democratic counterparts. In short democracies do protect the environment better than non-democracies …

Status Of The Major Oyster Diseases In Virginia 2006-2008 A Summary Of The Annual Oyster Disease Monitoring Program, Ryan Carnegie, Eugene M. Burreson

Reports

Fall Survey sampling revealed P. marinus levels to be generally normal to high in Virginia tributaries. By 2007 P. marinus was present on every oyster reef sampled, and by the end of the 2006-2008 period the parasite was probably causing some mortality throughout Virginia waters. Data for H. nelsoni are still incomplete for 2006/7 because of funding limitations, but in 2008 H. nelsoni was observed at 17 of 31 sampled reefs, a marked expansion in distribution since 2003/4. A significant MSX disease outbreak occurred in the Great Wicomico River in 2008, as a mild winter and a long period of …

Using Conservative And Biological Tracers To Better Understand The Transport Of Agricultural Contaminants From Soil Water Through The Epikarstic Zone, Brian Ham

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Agriculture contamination is very common in karst systems due to the vulnerability of these aquifers. Animal waste is often spread across crop land to enrich the soil with nitrates and phosphates. Herbicides and pesticides are also applied to the crops. The transport of these pollutants through the soil and epikarst is a difficult process to monitor due to the complex, heterogeneous behavior of the groundwater as it makes its way down to the aquifer below.

An experimental site at Crumps Cave lended a unique opportunity to monitor the vadose zone at a waterfall in the cave below. A previous dye …

Palaeoecology: A Tool To Improve The Management Of Australian Estuaries, Krystyna M. Saunders, Kathryn H. Taffs

Dr Kathryn H Taffs

Addressing environmental problems in estuaries is a worldwide problem. Establishing benchmarks and targets for management is critical, whether the aim is conservation, restoration or ‘sustainable wise use’. Palaeoecological techniques have rapidly improved during the past decade, particularly with advances in methods that allow high resolution quantitative assessments of environmental change, allowing pre-impact conditions, the rate, extent and direction of change, and range of natural variability to be determined. Australian estuarine ecosystems are qualitatively different to the often more well-studied estuaries in North America and Europe, which means site-specific studies of Australian estuaries are needed to inform management. While a potentially …

Interview With Peter Spendelow, Oregon Deq, 2009 (Audio), Peter Spendelow

All Sustainability History Project Oral Histories

Interview of Peter Spendelow by Angie Yzaguirre in downtown Portland, Oregon on November 17th, 2009.

The interview index is available for download.

Refuge Update – November/December 2009, Volume 6, Number 6

RefugeUpdate (USFWS-NWRS)

Table of Contents:

Tufted Puffin Released A rehabilitated puffin gingerly tests freedom at Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge.

FOCUS: Stories of Hope From cemeteries to woodpeckers, to newspaper columns and support at the ballot box, refuges represent stories of hope as they pursue their mission.

Bats in the Barn Scientists and volunteers wrap a barn in plastic and count the bats inside.

Sense of Wonder Award Jim Burkhart shares the joy and mysteries of the natural world with visitors to Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, GA.

Agenda: Best Practices For Community And Environmental Protection, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center. Intermountain Oil And Gas Bmp Project, Colorado. Oil And Gas Conservation Commission

Best Practices for Community and Environmental Protection (October 14)

The first Intermountain BMP Project workshop, sponsored by the Natural Resources Law Center and the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, was held in Rifle, Colorado on October 14, 2009 at the Garfield County Fairground for over 170 participants.

Speakers from Federal, state and local governments, the community, industry and environmental consultants, and conservation groups focused presentations and discussion on a greater understanding of what Best Management Practices (BMPs) are appropriate to the western slope of Colorado and how they are integrated into developments.

Slides: Best Management Practices: Planning, Leasing, Permitting, Jamie Connell

Best Practices for Community and Environmental Protection (October 14)

Presenter: Jamie Connell, Northwest Colorado District Manager, U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Colorado

23 slides

Slides: Disappearing Roads--An Efd Project: An Exploration Into Low Impact And Efficient Gas Field Drilling, Charles Dolan

Best Practices for Community and Environmental Protection (October 14)

Presenter: Rich Haut, Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC), for Dr. Charles Dolan, University of Wyoming, Environmentally Friendly Drilling Program

25 slides

Slides: Energy By Design: Possible Bmp For Mitigation Planning, Dave Gann

Best Practices for Community and Environmental Protection (October 14)

Presenter: Dave Gann, The Nature Conservancy

15 slides

Slides: Recommended Best Management Practices For Plants Of Concern: Practices Developed To Reduce The Impacts Of Oil And Gas Development Activities To Plants Of Concern, Brian Kurzel, Colorado Rare Plant Conservation Initiative

Best Practices for Community and Environmental Protection (October 14)

Presenter: Brian Kurzel, Colorado Natural Areas Program (CNAP)

27 slides

Slides: Environmentally Friendly Drilling Systems Program (Efd), Rich Haut

Best Practices for Community and Environmental Protection (October 14)

Presenter: Rich Haut, Houston Advanced Research Center

23 slides

Slides: Innovative Best Practices For The Western Slope: Stormwater Management Solutions And Philosophy For The Oil And Gas Industry, Kyle N. Schildt

Best Practices for Community and Environmental Protection (October 14)

Presenter: Kyle N. Schildt, P.E., LT Environmental, Inc.

12 slides

Slides: Rifle, Silt, New Castle Community Development Plan: A Collaborative Planning Approach To Natural Gas Development, Peggy Utesch

Best Practices for Community and Environmental Protection (October 14)

Presenter: Peggy Utesch, Movin' Forward Consulting

25 slides

Slides: The Use Of Terrestrial Cyanobacteria For The Rehabilitation Of Arid Soils: Not Just Another Good Idea, Timothy Flynn

Best Practices for Community and Environmental Protection (October 14)

Presenter: Dr. Timothy Flynn, Primordial Solutions Inc.

42 slides

Slides: Intermountain Oil And Gas Bmp Project, Kathryn Mutz

Best Practices for Community and Environmental Protection (October 14)

Presenter: Kathryn Mutz, Natural Resources Law Center

19 slides

Slides: Introduction To Constructive Engagement In The Oil And Gas Industry, Susan T. Wildau, Christopher W. Moore

Best Practices for Community and Environmental Protection (October 14)

Presenters: Susan T. Wildau and Christopher W. Moore, CDR Associates (Collaborative Decision Resources), Boulder, CO

22 slides

Slides: Bmp Project, Kent Kuster

Best Practices for Community and Environmental Protection (October 14)

Presenter: Kent Kuster, Consultation Coordinator, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE)

17 slides

Slides: Comprehensive Drilling Plans, Dave Neslin

Best Practices for Community and Environmental Protection (October 14)

Presenter: Dave Neslin, Director, Colorado OIl and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC)

8 slides