Hydrography Change Detection: The Usefulness of Surface Channels Derived From LiDAR DEMs for Updating Mapped Hydrography1

Abstract: The 1:24,000‐scale high‐resolution National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) mapped hydrography flow lines require regular updating because land surface conditions that affect surface channel drainage change over time. Historically, NHD flow lines were created by digitizing surface water information from aerial photography and paper maps. Using these same methods to update nationwide NHD flow lines is costly and inefficient; furthermore, these methods result in hydrography that lacks the horizontal and vertical accuracy needed for fully integrated datasets useful for mapping and scientific investigations. Effective methods for improving mapped hydrography employ change detection analysis of surface channels derived from light detection and ranging (LiDAR) digital elevation models (DEMs) and NHD flow lines. In this article, we describe the usefulness of surface channels derived from LiDAR DEMs for hydrography change detection to derive spatially accurate and time‐relevant mapped hydrography. The methods employ analyses of horizontal and vertical differences between LiDAR‐derived surface channels and NHD flow lines to define candidate locations of hydrography change. These methods alleviate the need to analyze and update the nationwide NHD for time relevant hydrography, and provide an avenue for updating the dataset where change has occurred.     

Multivariate analysis of paired watershed data to evaluate agricultural best management practice effects on stream water phosphorus

Quantification of the effects of management programs on water quality is critical to agencies responsible for water resource protection. This research documents reductions in stream water phosphorus (P) loads resulting from agricultural best management practices (BMPs) implemented as part of an effort to control eutrophication of Cannonsville Reservoir, a drinking water supply for New York City. Dairy farms in the upstate New York reservoir basin were the target of BMPs designed to reduce P losses. A paired watershed study was established on one of these farms in 1993 to evaluate changes in P loading attributable to implementation of BMPs that included manure management, rotational grazing, and improved infrastructure. Intensive stream water monitoring provided data to calculate P loads from the 160-ha farm watershed for all runoff events during a two-year pre-treatment period and a four-year post-treatment period. Statistical control for inter-annual climatic variability was provided by matched P loads from a nearby 86-ha forested watershed, and by several event flow variables measured at the farm. A sophisticated multivariate analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) provided estimates of both seasonal and overall load reductions. Statistical power and the minimum detectable treatment effect (MDTE) were also calculated. The results demonstrated overall event load reductions of 43% for total dissolved phosphorus (TDP) and 29% for particulate phosphorus (PP). Changes in farm management practices and physical infrastructure clearly produced decreases in event P losses measurable at the small watershed scale.     

A COMPUTER SIMULATION PROGRAM FOR OPTIMIZING CONJUNCTIVE OPERATION OF DESALTING PLANTS1

ABSTRACT .Desalting plants can provide a means of firming up erratic natural supplies when properly operated in conjunction with existing water supply reservoir systems. Since the natural inflow is variable, the choice of when to run the desalting plant is difficult. If the plant is turned on too late, a shortage may result; or if the plant runs too long, costly water may be wasted. A computer program is described that can help water planners find an optimal operating rule, i.e., a policy that tells when to turn the plant on and off to meet a given demand. Criteria for defining the firm water yield of the system (with and without desalting) are first defined. The logic of the program is then described. The program, written in FORTRAN IV, successively simulates operation of the given size reservoir-desalting plant system under control of various operating rules and selects the optimal rule as the one which produces the required firm water yield at the least unit cost. The optimal plant size and the staging of construction can also be studied by making a series of computations. Applications of the Operating Rule Program to water systems in California, Utah and New York are described. The studies show that, compared with base load operation, substantial savings are possible if optimum intermittent conjunctive operation of the desalting plant is followed.     

Early Days of Food and Environmental Virology

In July 1962, the author joined the Food Research Institute (FRI), then at the University of Chicago, to become its food virologist. There was a limited record of waterborne viral disease outbreaks at the time; recorded data on foodborne outbreaks were fewer still. Laboratory environmental (water and wastewater) virology was in its infancy, and food virology was in gestation. Detection of viruses was most often attempted by inoculation of primary primate cell cultures, with observation for plaque formation or cytopathic effects. Focus was initially on enteroviruses and reoviruses. Environmental and food samples had to be liquefied if not already in liquid form; clarified to remove solids, bacteria, and fungi; and concentrated to a volume that could be tested in cell culture. Cytotoxicity was also a concern. Studies at the FRI and some other laboratories addressed all of these challenges. The FRI group was the World Health Organization’s Collaborating Center for Food Virology for many years. Other topics studied were virus inactivation as functions of temperature, time, matrix, disinfectants, and microbial action; peroral and ex-vivo infectivity; and the suitability of various virus surrogates for environmental monitoring and inactivation experiments. Detection of noroviruses and hepatitis A virus required molecular methods, most often RT-PCR. When it was found that inactivated virus often gave the same RT-PCR signal as that of infectious virus, sample treatments were sought, which would prevent false-positive test results. Many laboratories around the world have taken up food and environmental virology since 1962, with the result that a dedicated journal has been launched.     

Capsid and Infectivity in Virus Detection

The spectacular achievements and elegance of viral RNA analyses have somewhat obscured the importance of the capsid in transmission of viruses via food and water. The capsid’s essential roles are protection of the RNA when the virion is outside the host cell and initiation of infection when the virion contacts a receptor on an appropriate host cell. Capsids of environmentally transmitted viruses are phenomenally durable. Fortuitous properties of the capsid include antigenicity, isoelectric point(s), sometimes hemagglutination, and perhaps others. These can potentially be used to characterize capsid changes that cause or accompany loss of viral infectivity and may be valuable in distinguishing native from inactivated virus when molecular detection methods are used.     

Modeling the contribution of speeding and impaired driving to insurance claim counts and costs when contributing factors are unknown

PROBLEM: There are no specific indicators for distinguishing insurance claims related to speeding and impaired driving in the information warehouse at the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia. Contributing factors are only recorded for that part of the claim data that is also reported by the police. Most published statistics on crashes that are related to alcohol or speeding are based on police-reported data, but this represents only a fraction of all incidents. METHOD: This paper proposes surrogate models to estimate the counts and the average costs associated with speeding and impaired driving to insurance claims when contributing factors are unknown. Using police-reported data, classification rules and logistic regression models are developed to form such estimates. One approach applies classification rules to categorize insurance claims into those related to speeding, impaired driving, and other factors. The counts and the costs of insurance claims for each of these strata and overall are then estimated. A second method models the probability that an insurance claim is related to speeding or impaired driving using logistic regression and uses this to estimate the overall counts and the average costs of the claims. The two methods are compared and evaluated using simulation studies. RESULTS: The logistic regression model was found to be superior to the classification model for predicting insurance claim counts by category, but less efficient at predicting average claim costs. IMPACT: Having estimates of counts and costs of insurance claims related to impaired driving or speeding for all reported crash events provides a more accurate basis for policy-makers to plan changes and benefits of road safety programs.     

Population-level compensation impedes biological control of an invasive forb and indirect release of a native grass

The intentional introduction of specialist insect herbivores for biological control of exotic weeds provides ideal but understudied systems for evaluating important ecological concepts related to top-down control, plant compensatory responses, indirect effects, and the influence of environmental context on these processes. Centaurea stoebe (spotted knapweed) is a notorious rangeland weed that exhibited regional declines in the early 2000s, attributed to drought by some and to successful biocontrol by others. We initiated an experiment to quantify the effects of the biocontrol agent, Cyphocleonus achates, on Ce. stoebe and its interaction with a dominant native grass competitor, Pseudoroegneria spicata, under contrasting precipitation conditions. Plots containing monocultures of each plant species or equal mixtures of the two received factorial combinations of Cy. achates herbivory (exclusion or addition) and precipitation (May-June drought or "normal," defined by the 50-year average) for three years. Cy. achates herbivory reduced survival of adult Ce. stoebe plants by 9% overall, but this effect was stronger under normal precipitation compared to drought conditions, and stronger in mixed-species plots compared to monocultures. Herbivory had no effect on Ce. stoebe per capita seed production or on recruitment of seedlings or juveniles. In normal-precipitation plots of mixed composition, greater adult mortality due to Cy. achates herbivory resulted in increased recruitment of new adult Ce. stoebe. Due to this compensatory response to adult mortality, final Ce. stoebe densities did not differ between herbivory treatments regardless of context. Experimental drought reduced adult Ce. stoebe survival in mixed-species plots but did not impede recruitment of new adults or reduce final Ce. stoebe densities, perhaps due to the limited duration of the treatment. Ce. stoebe strongly depressed P. spicata reproduction and recruitment, but these impacts were not substantively alleviated by herbivory on Ce. stoebe. Population-level compensation by dominant plants may be an important factor inhibiting top-down effects in herbivore-driven and predator-driven cascades.