Cyberinfrastructure and Web Apps for Managing and Disseminating the National Water Model

Hydrologic modeling can be used to provide warnings before, and to support operations during and after floods. Recent technological advances have increased our ability to create hydrologic models over large areas. In the United States (U.S.), a new National Water Model (NWM) that generates hydrologic variables at a national scale was released in August 2016. This model represents a substantial step forward in our ability to predict hydrologic events in a consistent fashion across the entire U.S. Nevertheless, for these hydrologic results to be effectively communicated, they need to be put in context and be presented in a way that is straightforward and facilitates management‐related decisions. The large amounts of data produced by the NWM present one of the major challenges to fulfill this goal. We created a cyberinfrastructure to store NWM results, “accessibility” web applications to retrieve NWM results, and a REST API to access NWM results programmatically. To demonstrate the utility of this cyberinfrastructure, we created additional web apps that illustrate how to use our REST API and communicate hydrologic forecasts with the aid of dynamic flood maps. This work offers a starting point for the development of a more comprehensive toolset to validate the NWM while also improving the ability to access and visualize NWM forecasts, and develop additional national‐scale‐derived products such as flood maps.     

Evaluation of Satellite‐Derived Rainfall Data for Multiple Physio‐Climatic Regions in the Santiago River Basin,Mexico

Assessment of water resources requires reliable rainfall data, and rain gauge networks may not provide adequate spatial representation due to limited point measurements. The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) provides rainfall data at global scale, and has been used with good results. However, TRMM data are an indirect measurement of rainfall, and therefore must be validated for its proper use. In this work, a validation scheme was designed and implemented to compare the TRMM Version 7 (V7) monthly rainfall product at different time frames with data measured in two hydrologic subregions of the Santiago River Basin (SRB) in Mexico: Río Alto Santiago and Río Bajo Santiago (RBS). Additionally, three physio‐climatic regions provide an assessment of the interplay of topography, distance from coastal regions, and seasonal weather patterns on the correspondence between both datasets. The TRMM V7 rainfall product exhibited good agreement with the rain gauge data particularly for the RBS and for the whole SRB during wettest summer and autumn seasons. However, strong regional dependence was observed due to differences in climate and topography. Overall, in spite of some noted underestimations, the monthly TRMM V7 rainfall product was found to provide useful information that can be used to complement limited monitoring as is the case of RBS. An improved combined rainfall product could be generated and thus gaining the most benefits from both data sources.     

The influence of building renovation and rental housing on urban trees

Urban forest ecosystems are complex and vulnerable social–ecological systems. The relationship between urban forests and housing is particularly variable and uncertain. We examine the influence of building renovation and rental housing on public trees at the parcel and street-section scale in a residential neighbourhood in Toronto, Canada. We use empirical data describing multiple tree inventories and government open data describing building permit applications to test for effects on urban forest structure, tree mortality, and tree planting. We found that the presence and number of building permits significantly predicted mortality at both scales, while planting was positively correlated with building permits at the street-section scale only. Multi-unit parcels had significantly lower rates of planting than single-unit parcels and multi-unit housing was positively correlated with mortality at the street-section scale. These findings suggest that where concentrated changes in housing stock are occurring, substantial losses of trees and associated ecosystem services are possible.     

基于STIRPAT模型的中国城镇生活能源消费影响因素研究

为探究人口规模、收入水平、消费倾向、节能政策和技术等因素对中国城镇生活能源消费的影响,基于拓展的STIRPAT模型并运用2000~2013年中国省际面板数据对各影响因素的效应进行评估。结果显示:城镇生活能源强度、城镇居民消费倾向、人均可支配收入、城镇化率、总人口、政策综合力度6个因素的增长率每变化1%,将会引起城镇生活能源消费量增长率0.9322%、0.8537%、(0.559 2+0.169 2 ln DI)%、0.599 8%、0.408 0%、-0.012 0%的变化,表明除节能政策外,其余5因素均正向促进城镇生活能耗增长。其中生活能源强度对城镇生活能耗影响最大,节能政策虽会抑制城镇生活能耗增长,但作用较为微弱。政府需继续加强节能政策综合实施力度,从而实现生活能源消费领域的节能减排。     

Conceptual Framework for the National Flood Interoperability Experiment

The National Flood Interoperability Experiment is a research collaboration among academia, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Weather Service, and government and commercial partners to advance the application of the National Water Model for flood forecasting. In preparation for a Summer Institute at the National Water Center in June‐July 2015, a demonstration version of a near real‐time, high spatial resolution flood forecasting model was developed for the continental United States. The river and stream network was divided into 2.7 million reaches using the National Hydrography Dataset Plus geospatial dataset and it was demonstrated that the runoff into these stream reaches and the discharge within them could be computed in 10 min at the Texas Advanced Computing Center. This study presents a conceptual framework to connect information from high‐resolution flood forecasting with real‐time observations and flood inundation mapping and planning for local flood emergency response.     

基于LLE-ELM的矿井瓦斯涌出量预测方法研究

基于局部线性嵌入(Locally Linear Embedding,LLE)算法和极限学习机(Extreme Learning Machine,ELM)神经网络建立矿井瓦斯涌出量预测模型,该预测模型运用LLE算法对矿井瓦斯涌出量影响因素样本进行数据挖掘,得到降维后的有效因子,再将这些有效因子作为ELM神经网络的输入层进行训练和预测。利用某矿井的实测数据进行实例分析,结果表明该预测模型预测速度快,精度高,能够用于矿井瓦斯涌出量预测。     

Integration of Optical and Microwave Remote Sensing Data for Agricultural Land Use Classification

An agricultural land use classification of Oltrepo' Pavese region (in Northern Italy) is performed through integration of remote sensing data from optical and radar sensors. The source of optical data was a Landsat-TM image acquired on April 1994, while the source of microwave data was a contemporaneous image of the new radar sensor SIR-C/X-SAR which was flown on-board the Space Shuttle during an experimental mission over the chosen test site. Then, they were combined through calculation of the principal components of the multidimensional data sets and a final classification was carried out and compared with the classifications obtained from optical and radar recordings separately. Results showed remarkable improvement in the classification accuracy of seedbeds and uncultivated fields with radar recordings and of herbaceous crop type with integrated data. Potential ability of a multi-sensor classification and limits of a single-temporal approach are discussed.     

Advantages of Volunteer-Based Biodiversity Monitoring in Europe

Abstract:  Without robust and unbiased systems for monitoring, changes in natural systems will remain enigmatic for policy makers, leaving them without a clear idea of the consequences of any environmental policies they might adopt. Generally, biodiversity-monitoring activities are not integrated or evaluated across any large geographic region. The EuMon project conducted the first large-scale evaluation of monitoring practices in Europe through an on-line questionnaire and is reporting on the results of this survey. In September 2007 the EuMon project had documented 395 monitoring schemes for species, which represents a total annual cost of about €4 million, involving more than 46,000 persons devoting over 148,000 person-days/year to biodiversity-monitoring activities. Here we focused on the analysis of variations of monitoring practices across a set of taxonomic groups (birds, amphibians and reptiles, mammals, butterflies, plants, and other insects) and across 5 European countries (France, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, and Poland). Our results suggest that the overall sampling effort of a scheme is linked with the proportion of volunteers involved in that scheme. Because precision is a function of the number of monitored sites and the number of sites is maximized by volunteer involvement, our results do not support the common belief that volunteer-based schemes are too noisy to be informative. Just the opposite, we believe volunteer-based schemes provide relatively reliable data, with state-of-the-art survey designs or data-analysis methods, and consequently can yield unbiased results. Quality of data collected by volunteers is more likely determined by survey design, analytical methodology, and communication skills within the schemes rather than by volunteer involvement per se.     

Simulation of transport and composition changes during a blocking episode over the East Atlantic and North Europe

Transport of atmospheric trace gases during a blocking event in the troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS) in August 1997 is studied. Considering the frequency of such events it is obvious that they play a significant role for climate and air chemistry and thus the atmospheric environment. The event has been selected because a unique set of composition observations carried out by the CRISTA (Cryogenic Infrared Spectrometers and Telescopes for the Atmosphere) instrument in the UTLS was available for the period of blocking. The regional European Atmospheric Dispersion (EURAD) model system was used for a detailed analysis focusing on ozone and CFC 11 (CFCl₃, Freon) distributions and their temporal and spatial variability. The combination of the CRISTA data and a regional transport chemistry model enabled a unique analysis of transport behaviour of a blocking. This developed an Ω-structure with a deep cut-off low at the western flank of the blocking high and a trough with highly perturbed trace gas fields on the eastern side. Tropopause heights varied intensively and were bended down to rather low levels in the cut-off low and folds appearing in the eastern trough. Results of artificial tracer experiments are presented which show that polluted air from lower tropospheric levels and – in this case – lower latitudes as well as the North American continent may be lifted up to the UTLS in the anticyclonic part of the Ω-block and transported from there over large distances in streamers. Quasi-periodic variations of CFC 11 flux divergence indicate dynamical coupling of the different domains of the block.     

中国陆地生态信息空间化技术研究(Ⅰ)——气象/气候信息的空间化技术途径

论文提出了构建中国陆地生态系统空间化信息系统的基本设想,并且在回顾国内外气象/气候信息空间化研究的现状基础上,评价了已有的气象/气候信息要素空间化技术的发展,探讨了中国陆地生态系统气象/气候信息空间化的技术途径,概要地介绍了研究小组在近年来的工作中所取得的阶段性研究成果,展望了这些成果的应用前景。我国陆地生态信息空间化技术研究和数据产品的开发是生态学、资源科学和环境科学发展的迫切需求。但建立一个适应于不同科学研究的精度、时空分辨率要求的陆地生态信息空间数据库需要较长期的努力和多学科领域的合作,也需要大量的作为科学研究基础数据平台建设的国家投资。