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In February 1983, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) identified the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada as one of nine potentially acceptable sites for a mined geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. The site is in the Great Basin, which is one of five distinct geohydrologic settings considered for the first repository. To determine their suitability, the Yucca Mountain site and the eight other potentially acceptable sites have been evaluated in accordance with the DOE'S General Guidelines for the Recommendation of Sites for the Nuclear Waste Repositories. These evaluations were reported in draft environmental assessments (EAs), which were issued for public review and comment. After...
Waste frying oils (WFO) can be a good source for the production of biodiesel because this raw material is not part of the food chain, is low cost and can be used in a way that resolves environmental problems (i.e. WFO is no longer thrown into the sewage network). The goal of this article is to propose a method to evaluate the costs of biodiesel production from WFO to develop an economic assessment of this alternative. This method embraces a logistics perspective, as the cost of collection of oil from commercial producers and its delivery to biodiesel depots or plants can be relevant and is an issue that has been little explored in the academic literature. To determine the logistics cost, a mathematical programming...
Because of the inevitable depletion of fossil fuels and the corresponding release of carbon to the environment, the global energy future is complex. Some of the consequences may be politically and economically disruptive, and expensive to remedy. For the next several centuries, fuel requirements will increase with population, land use, and ecosystem degradation. Current or projected levels of aggregated energy resource use will not sustain civilization as we know it beyond a few more generations. At the same time, issues of energy security, reliability, sustainability, recoverability, and safety need attention. We supply a top-down, qualitative model—the surety model—to balance expenditures of limited resources...
We propose a model for an exhausted upper continental crust. The Crepuscular Earth represents a degraded planet where all resources have been extracted and dispersed, and all fossil fuels have been burned. The starting point of the model of crepuscular crust is the composition given by the geochemist Grigor’ev, which is constrained by the conservation of mass statement between the chemical composition of the crust in terms of elements and in terms of minerals. Additionally, the model is given geological consistence, by introducing a series of assumptions based on geological observations. As a result, the obtained crepuscular crust is composed of the 294 most abundant minerals. Together with the model of exhausted...
Extraction of natural gas from hard-to-reach reservoirs has expanded around the world and poses multiple environmental threats to surface waters. Improved drilling and extraction technology used to access low permeability natural gas requires millions of liters of water and a suite of chemicals that may be toxic to aquatic biota. There is growing concern among the scientific community and the general public that rapid and extensive natural gas development in the US could lead to degradation of natural resources. Gas wells are often close to surface waters that could be impacted by elevated sediment runoff from pipelines and roads, alteration of streamflow as a result of water extraction, and contamination from introduced...
Extraction of natural gas from hard-to-reach reservoirs has expanded around the world and poses multiple environmental threats to surface waters. Improved drilling and extraction technology used to access low permeability natural gas requires millions of liters of water and a suite of chemicals that may be toxic to aquatic biota. There is growing concern among the scientific community and the general public that rapid and extensive natural gas development in the US could lead to degradation of natural resources. Gas wells are often close to surface waters that could be impacted by elevated sediment runoff from pipelines and roads, alteration of streamflow as a result of water extraction, and contamination from introduced...
The impacts of the availability of low-carbon technologies on the regional distribution of mitigation costs are analyzed in a global multi-regional integrated assessment model. Three effects on regional consumption losses are distinguished: domestic measures, trade of fossil energy carriers and trade of emission permits. Key results are: (i) GDP losses and a redirection of investments in the energy system towards capital-intensive technologies are major contributions to regional consumption losses. (ii) A devaluation of tradable fossil energy endowments contributes largely to the mitigation costs of fossil fuel exporters. (iii) In case of reduced availability of low-carbon technologies, the permit market volume...
This study proposes a new use of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to measure the operational, environmental and both-unified efficiency measures of US coal-fired power plants. The power plants produce not only desirable outputs (e.g., electricity) but also undesirable outputs (e.g., CO2 and NOx) as a result of their plant operations. A Range-Adjusted Measure (RAM) is used as an original non-radial DEA model. Then, it is reformulated for handling undesirable (bad) outputs. The proposed use of DEA models measures the environmental and unified performance of power plants under two variable alternatives (with and without CO2 emission control) in order to examine both the influence of US Clean Air Act (CAA) on the acid...
The Swedish programme for geological disposal of spent nuclear fuel is approaching major milestones in the form of permit applications for an encapsulation plant and a deep geologic repository. This paper presents an overview of the bedrock and surface modelling work that comprises a major part of the on-going site characterization in Sweden and that results in syntheses of the sites, called site descriptions. The site description incorporates descriptive models of the site and its regional setting, including the current state of the geosphere and the biosphere as well as natural processes affecting long-term evolution. The site description is intended to serve the needs of both repository engineering with respect...
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This project will be focused on hosting 2-3 workshops in 2013 to train people to conduct the Springs Stewardship Institute’s spring assessment protocol and promote it as a standardized method. This will facilitate standardized data collection across the landscape that can contribute to a broad-scale inventory and assessment of springs, seeps, and aquatic resources throughout the Desert LCC.
Categories: Data, Project; Types: Downloadable, Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service, Shapefile; Tags: 2012, AZ-01, AZ-02, AZ-03, AZ-04, All tags...
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FY2014Recent drought, change agents and the spectrum of greater management needs have highlighted the relative dearth of in situ weather and climate measurement stations in the Great Basin. Thus, interest has grown in supplementing or initiating atmospheric and hydrologic measurements.The purpose of this project was: To review the existing station networks in the context of management needs by providing examples of how climate observation gaps can be assessed Provide some guidelines for the placement of new or augmented stations.This project was funded as a target of opportunity.
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This dataset is intended to assess trends and percent change per year (PCPY) in yearly averages of chlorophyll a within 300 meters of mangrove swamp. Assessments (condition) was classified depending on the following follow thresholds for PCPY: <= -1.0% - “Decreasing” > -1.0 & < 0.0% - “Stable (-)” = 0.0% - “Stable (No Change)” > 0.0 & < 1.0% - “Stable (+)” >= 1.0% - “Increasing”
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This dataset is intended to assess trends and percent change per year (PCPY) in yearly averages of dissolved oxygen within 300 meters of mangrove swamp. Assessments (condition) was classified depending on the following follow thresholds for PCPY: <= -1.0% - “Decreasing” > -1.0 & < 0.0% - “Stable (-)” = 0.0% - “Stable (No Change)” > 0.0 & < 1.0% - “Stable (+)” >= 1.0% - “Increasing”
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This dataset is intended to assess trends and percent change per year (PCPY) in yearly averages of ammonia in Florida, summarized to HUC 12 watershed. Assessments (condition) was classified depending on the following follow thresholds for PCPY: <= -1.0% - “Decreasing” > -1.0 & < 0.0% - “Stable (-)” = 0.0% - “Stable (No Change)” > 0.0 & < 1.0% - “Stable (+)” >= 1.0% - “Increasing”
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This dataset is intended to assess trends and percent change per year (PCPY) in yearly averages of nitrate within 300 meters of saltwater marsh. Assessments (condition) was classified depending on the following follow thresholds for PCPY: <= -1.0% - “Decreasing” > -1.0 & < 0.0% - “Stable (-)” = 0.0% - “Stable (No Change)” > 0.0 & < 1.0% - “Stable (+)” >= 1.0% - “Increasing”
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This dataset is intended to assess trends and percent change per year (PCPY) in yearly averages of temperature within 300 meters of seagrass. Assessments (condition) was classified depending on the following follow thresholds for PCPY: <= -1.0% - “Decreasing” > -1.0 & < 0.0% - “Stable (-)” = 0.0% - “Stable (No Change)” > 0.0 & < 1.0% - “Stable (+)” >= 1.0% - “Increasing”
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This dataset is intended to assess trends and percent change per year (PCPY) in yearly averages of dissolved oxygen within 300 meters of seagrass. Assessments (condition) was classified depending on the following follow thresholds for PCPY: <= -1.0% - “Decreasing” > -1.0 & < 0.0% - “Stable (-)” = 0.0% - “Stable (No Change)” > 0.0 & < 1.0% - “Stable (+)” >= 1.0% - “Increasing”
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This map shows the grasslands priority conservation areas (GPCAs) within North America's Central Grasslands, an ecosystem considered among the most threatened in the continent and the world. GPCAs are defined as areas of tri-national importance due to their ecological significance and threatened nature, which are in need of international cooperation for their successful conservation. In 2004, 55 GPCAs were identified by biodiversity experts through research and a workshop co-organized by the CEC. Details of the initial selection process can be found in North American Grassland Priority Conservation Areas: Technical Report and Documentation, and the CEC publication Grasslands: Toward a North American Conservation...
Description of WorkThe Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) was established to accelerate ecosystem restoration in the Great Lakes by confronting the most serious threats to the region, such as nonpoint source pollution, toxic sediments, and invasive species. Four Priority Watersheds have been targeted by the Regional Working Group's Phosphorus Reduction Work Group (Fox/Green Bay, Saginaw, Maumee, and Genesee) and are characterized by having a high density of agricultural land use and have ecosystem impairments that have been clearly identified. Monitoring is being conducted at the sub-watershed, edge-of-field, and subsurface-tile scale where monitoring locations are targeted to those areas within each watershed...
map background search result map search result map Mapping springs, seeps and aquatic habitat in the Desert LCC Priority Conservation Areas: Grasslands, 2010 Assessment of Climate Monitoring For Land Management in the Great Basin System Wide – Ammonia Trends (FLCP Indicator) Seagrass – Temperature Trends (FLCP Indicator) Seagrass – Dissolved Oxygen Trends (FLCP Indicator) Saltwater Marsh – Nitrate Trends (FLCP Indicator) Mangrove Swamp – Chlorophyll a Trends (FLCP Indicator) Mangrove Swamp – Dissolved Oxygen Trends (FLCP Indicator) Seagrass – Dissolved Oxygen Trends (FLCP Indicator) Mangrove Swamp – Chlorophyll a Trends (FLCP Indicator) Mangrove Swamp – Dissolved Oxygen Trends (FLCP Indicator) Saltwater Marsh – Nitrate Trends (FLCP Indicator) System Wide – Ammonia Trends (FLCP Indicator) Seagrass – Temperature Trends (FLCP Indicator) Assessment of Climate Monitoring For Land Management in the Great Basin Mapping springs, seeps and aquatic habitat in the Desert LCC Priority Conservation Areas: Grasslands, 2010