Using GIS to Delineate Headwater Stream Origins in the Appalachian Coalfields of Kentucky

Headwater streams have a significant nexus or physical, chemical, and/or biological connection to downstream reaches. Generally, defined as 1st‐3rd order with ephemeral, intermittent, or perennial flow regimes, these streams account for a substantial portion of the total stream network particularly in mountainous terrain. Due to their often remote locations, small size, and large numbers, conducting field inventories of headwater streams is challenging. A means of estimating headwater stream location and extent according to flow regime type using publicly available spatial data is needed to simplify this complex process. Using field‐collected headwater point of origin data from three control watersheds, streams were characterized according to a set of spatial parameters related to topography, geology, and soils. These parameters were (1) compared to field‐collected point of origin data listed in three nearby Jurisdictional Determinations, (2) used to develop a geographic information system (GIS)‐based stream network for identifying ephemeral, intermittent, and perennial streams, and (3) applied to a larger watershed and compared to values obtained using the high‐resolution National Hydrography Dataset (NHD). The parameters drainage area and local valley slope were the most reliable predictors of flow regime type. Results showed the high‐resolution NHD identified no ephemeral streams and 9 and 65% fewer intermittent and perennial streams, respectively, than the GIS model.     

Social media and disasters: a functional framework for social media use in disaster planning,response, and research

A comprehensive review of online, official, and scientific literature was carried out in 2012–13 to develop a framework of disaster social media. This framework can be used to facilitate the creation of disaster social media tools, the formulation of disaster social media implementation processes, and the scientific study of disaster social media effects. Disaster social media users in the framework include communities, government, individuals, organisations, and media outlets. Fifteen distinct disaster social media uses were identified, ranging from preparing and receiving disaster preparedness information and warnings and signalling and detecting disasters prior to an event to (re)connecting community members following a disaster. The framework illustrates that a variety of entities may utilise and produce disaster social media content. Consequently, disaster social media use can be conceptualised as occurring at a number of levels, even within the same disaster. Suggestions are provided on how the proposed framework can inform future disaster social media development and research.     

Ten ways remote sensing can contribute to conservation

In an effort to increase conservation effectiveness through the use of Earth observation technologies, a group of remote sensing scientists affiliated with government and academic institutions and conservation organizations identified 10 questions in conservation for which the potential to be answered would be greatly increased by use of remotely sensed data and analyses of those data. Our goals were to increase conservation practitioners’ use of remote sensing to support their work, increase collaboration between the conservation science and remote sensing communities, identify and develop new and innovative uses of remote sensing for advancing conservation science, provide guidance to space agencies on how future satellite missions can support conservation science, and generate support from the public and private sector in the use of remote sensing data to address the 10 conservation questions. We identified a broad initial list of questions on the basis of an email chain‐referral survey. We then used a workshop‐based iterative and collaborative approach to whittle the list down to these final questions (which represent 10 major themes in conservation): How can global Earth observation data be used to model species distributions and abundances? How can remote sensing improve the understanding of animal movements? How can remotely sensed ecosystem variables be used to understand, monitor, and predict ecosystem response and resilience to multiple stressors? How can remote sensing be used to monitor the effects of climate on ecosystems? How can near real‐time ecosystem monitoring catalyze threat reduction, governance and regulation compliance, and resource management decisions? How can remote sensing inform configuration of protected area networks at spatial extents relevant to populations of target species and ecosystem services? How can remote sensing‐derived products be used to value and monitor changes in ecosystem services? How can remote sensing be used to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of conservation efforts? How does the expansion and intensification of agriculture and aquaculture alter ecosystems and the services they provide? How can remote sensing be used to determine the degree to which ecosystems are being disturbed or degraded and the effects of these changes on species and ecosystem functions?     

轰燃后火焰的辐射热通量计算

轰燃后火焰的热辐射危害，是目前确定建筑物间安全距离的主要依据之一。该文提出了轰燃后火焰在室外一定距离处辐射热通量的计算方法；并在喷出火焰不受室外风影响的情况下，利用小规模试验的结果对这一方法进行了验证。     

A 13-Week Comparison of Passive and Continuous Ozone Monitors at Forested Sites in North-Central Pennsylvania

ABSTRACT

Ogawa passive O₃ samplers were used in a 13-week study (June 1-September 1, 1999) involving 11 forested and mountaintop sites in north-central Pennsylvania. Four of the sites were collocated with TECO model 49 O₃ analyzers. A significant correlation (p < 0.0001) was found for 24-hr average weekly O₃ concentrations between the two methodologies at the four sites with collocated monitors. As expected, there were positive relationships between increasing elevation of the sites and increasing O₃ concentrations. No O₃ exposure patterns were found on a west-to-east or south-to-north basis; however, the area known for lower O₃ exposures within a smaller subsection of the study area showed consistently lower O₃ exposures. Preliminary results regarding relationships of symptom responses within O₃-sensitive bioindicators are also presented with black cherry (Prunus serotina, Elirli.) and common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca, L.) showing clear evidence of increasing injury with increasing O₃ exposures. Due to the extremely dry conditions encountered in north-central Pennsylvania during the 1999 growing season, O₃-induced symptoms were sporadic and quite delayed until late-season rains during the latter portion of the observation period.     

Environment drives financial performance: The Jury is in

In a single day, June 13, 1994, the total stock market capitalization of Exxon dropped by a full 5 percent, with news of the company's exposure to additional legal damages from the Exxon Valdez disaster. Despite what should have been a jarring wake-up call, however, Wall Street investors and company CEOs continue for the most part to conduct business as usual, unpersuaded that environmental considerations are anything more than a superficial and temporary blip on their Bloomberg screens. There is mounting evidence that they're dead wrong. In this article, the authors contend what they're currently sleeping through is nothing less than the beginnings of a profound, worldwide industrial restructuring.     

Scale-up considerations for a hollow-fiber-membrane bioreactor treating trichloroethylene-contaminated water.

Scale-up of a hollow-fiber-membrane (HFM) bioreactor treating trichloroethylene- (TCE-) contaminated water via co-metabolism with the methanotroph Methylosinus trichosporium OB3b PP358 was investigated through cost comparisons, bioreactor experiments, and mathematical modeling. Cost comparisons, based on a hypothetical treatment scenario of 568-L/min (150-gpm) flowrate with an influent TCE concentration of 100 microg/L, resulted in a configuration of treatment trains with two HFM modules in series and an overall annual cost of US dollar 0.36/m3 treated. Biological experiments were conducted with short lumen and shell residence times, 0.16 and 0.40 min, respectively, as a result of the cost comparisons. A new variable, specific transformation, was defined for characterizing the cometabolic transformation in continuous-flow systems, and values as large as 38.5 microg TCE/mg total suspended solids were sustainable for TCE treatment. Using mathematical modeling, HFM bioreactor system design was investigated, resulting in a five-step system design strategy to facilitate sizing of the unit processes.