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What are current conditions for important park natural resources? What are the critical data and knowledge gaps? What are some of the factors that are influencing park resource conditions? Natural Resource Condition Assessments (NRCAs) evaluate and report on the above for a subset of important natural resources in national park units (hereafter, parks). Focal study resources and indicators are selected on a park-by-park basis, guided by use of structured resource assessment and reporting frameworks. Considerations include park resource setting and enabling legislation (what are this park's most important natural resources?) and presently available data and expertise (what can be evaluated at this time?). In addition...
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Natural landscapes in the Southwestern United States are changing. In recent decades, rising temperatures and drought have led to drier conditions, contributed to large-scale ecological impacts, and affected many plant and animal species across the region. The current and future trajectory of climate change underscores the need for managers and conservation professionals to understand the impacts of these patterns on natural resources. In this regional assessment of the Southwest Climate Change Initiative, we evaluate changes in annual average temperatures from 1951–2006 across major habitats and large watersheds and compare these changes to the number of species of conservation concern that are found within these...
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Welcome to the Wind and Wildlife Landscape Assessment Tool (LAT), a collaboration organized by the American Wind Wildlife Institute (AWWI) and The Nature Conservancy (TNC). The LAT is designed as a landscape-level planning tool to identify sensitive wildlife habitat and areas that are likely to have low wildlife risk where wind energy development could be prioritized. Although the siting of individual wind energy projects will require on-the-ground surveys to verify data shown here, our hope is that this tool will provide stakeholders with information that facilitates the siting of wind energy in areas with minimal impacts to wildlife, as well as the development of conservation plans, monitoring plans and mitigation...
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A Vision for the Chihuahuan Desert The Chihuahuan Desert, shared by two nations, is one of the most biologically rich desert ecoregions in the world, alive with large mammals, birds, reptiles and an unmatched diversity of cactus species. The desert’s rivers, streams and springs are considered to be of global significance, home to fish species found nowhere else on earth. Our vision is a Chihuahuan Desert where governments, local communities, non-governmental organizations, academic institutions, landowners, and other stakeholders are working together to ensure that the richness and diversity of wildlife, habitats, natural communities, and ecological processes of the Chihuahuan Desert are conserved and, where necessary,...
The Caribbean region is part of World Energy Assessment region 6 (Central and South America). A fundamental task in the assessment is to map the locations and type of production for existing oil and gas fields. The Petroconsultants database is the only available database that has coverage for the Caribbean region. Oil and gas field symbols represent field center-points and are published with permission from Petroconsultants International Data Corporation, 2002 database.
Categories: Data, pre-SM502.8; Types: Downloadable, Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, Shapefile; Tags: AG, AI, AN, AW, Anguilla, All tags...
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The Western Governors’ Association (WGA) sponsored an assessment of crucial habitats which will be used for the evaluation of landscape-scale energy, land use, and transportation projects throughout the western United States. The main product of the WGA’s assessment is an easily accessible online system of maps displaying crucial habitats and corridors known as the Crucial Habitat Assessment Tool (CHAT; http://www.westgovchat.org/).Crucial habitats were based on factors such as species of concern, species of economic and recreational importance, special ecological systems and habitat types, habitat corridors, native species richness, and ecological integrity (i.e., unfragmented habitats). All of these factors are...
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This project used species distribution modeling to assess the risk to habitat change under various climate change scenarios for rare plants. To predict the response of rare plant species to climate change, the project modeled the current distribution of the species using climate and environmental data (e.g., soils, disturbance, land-use), use these models to predict the species distribution given climate change, calculate current and future range size, calculate the amount of overlap of predicted future distribution with current distribution, and assess where barriers and protected areas are located with reference to the change in species distribution. Given the results of the distribution modeling, each species...
In the projects fostered by the NRP the effects of changed climate (atmospheric CO2 concentration, temperature) on different terrestrial ecosystems were studied. For forests it was concluded that the initial stimulation of tree growth in general did not persist after two years, and therefore care must be taken not to overestimate the potential contribution of increased carbon sequestration by forests. On the other hand, shifted patterns of carbon distribution in the tree-soil system may lead to a higher soil organic matter content, which will contribute to an improved soil structure and availability of soil moisture. A sensitivity analysis revealed that, for the poor sandy forest soils, improved rooting depth is...
This report presents an overview and assessment of the three research projects carried out under NRP funding that concern risk-related topics: (1) The risks of nonlinear climate changes, (2) Socio-economic and policy aspects of changes in incidence and intensity of extreme (weather) events, and (3) Characterizing the risks: a comparative analysis of the risks of global warming and of relevant policy strategies.
Categories: Publication; Types: Citation; Tags: Assessment, Risk analysis, report
The current project is aimed at developing a policy-oriented methodology for the integrated assessment of the global warming problem. Decision analysis in general and influence diagrams in particular appear to constitute an appropriate integrated assessment methodology. The influence-diagram approach is illustrated at a preliminary integrated modeling of the global warming problem. In next stages of the research, attention will be shifted from the methodology of integrated assessment to the contents of integrated models.
......toward renewable energy. Now that BP is...livelihoods, and wildlife, these same competitors...toward renewable energy. Now that BP is...livelihoods, and wildlife, these same competitors...uses: recreation, wildlife conservation, or...the Departments of Energy and the Interior......
Desirable biofuel crops may amount to mass cultivation of potentially invasive species—How should policy keep these agroecosystems in check?
Afforestation of catchments reduces water yield. On hydroelectric power catchments, land uses can be compared in terms of energy production. On the Maentwrog catchment, Wales, forestry appeared highly energyefficient before inclusion of HEP losses, with ratios of energy input to energy output of 1:16-21. Inclusion of HEP losses reduced ratios to l :OS-3. A study of 41 sites on catchments in North Scotland showed that at the majorlty, afforestation would lead to net energy gain. However, in discounted cash flow terms, most potential afforestation sites were unprofitable when HEP losses were included. The balance of advantage depends crucially upon the criterion chosen and site conditions. Afforestation at high elevations...
In June 2008, 303,000 L of hydrofracturing fl uid from a natural gas well were applied to a 0.20-ha area of mixed hardwood forest on the Fernow Experimental Forest, West Virginia. During application, severe damage and mortality of ground vegetation was observed, followed about 10 d later by premature leaf drop by the overstory trees. Two years after fl uid application, 56% of the trees within the fl uid application area were dead. Fagus grandifolia Ehrh. was the tree species with the highest mortality, and Acer rubrum L. was the least aff ected, although all tree species present on the site showed damage symptoms and mortality. Surface soils (0–10 cm) were sampled in July and October 2008, June and October 2009,...
This article presents an application of a risk assessment approach in characterising the risks associated with safety violations in underground bituminous mines in Pennsylvania using the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) citation database. The MSHA database on citations provides an opportunity to assess risks in mines through scrutiny of violations of mandatory safety standards. In this study, quantitative risk assessment is performed, which allows determination of the frequency of occurrence of safety violations (through associated citations) as well as the consequences of them in terms of penalty assessments. Focus is on establishing risk matrices on citation experiences of mines, which can give early...
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...
This paper distinguishes between Social Impact Assessment (S1A) and the Public Involvement (PI) process and makes a case for PI as an integral part of SlA. PI is seen as activity within the SIA process that provides the social impact assessor with a means to obtain quantitative information regarding social impact assessment variables. In North America during the 1970s SIA began to evolve both separately and as a component of environmental impact assessments. However, the utilization and implementation of SIA procedures have moved forward in an uneven manner among federal agencies. Furthermore, the practice of SIA at the federal or ministerial level has been hindered by the unfortunate equating of SlA with public...
This paper introduces the special issue on Strategic Choices for Renewable Energy Investment, which is a collection of best papers presented at an international research conference held in St. Gallen (Switzerland) in February 2010. Substantial private investment is needed if public policy objectives to increase the share of renewable energy and prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change are to be achieved. The aim of this paper, and the entire special issue, is to draw scholarly attention to the processes underlying strategic choices for renewable energy investment, and how they are influenced by energy policy. We disentangle the role of risk-return perceptions, portfolio effects and path dependence in explaining...
It is widely recognised that access to and supply of modern energy play a key role in poverty alleviation and sustainable development.The emerging concept of energisation seems to capture this idea, and if implemented in its full complexity it should have multiple beneficial effects. To demonstrate this, an economic model is developed for an urban developmental context, drawing on the theory of urban ecosystems and illustrating energy and waste production and consumption issues with current South African data sets. This new understanding of the concept of energisation is then integrated into a local government energy planning process, by means of a checklist for energy planners, covering 18 aspects that between...
map background search result map search result map Assessing and Mapping Rare Plant Species Vulnerability to Climate Change Incorporating ecological integrity into the Western Governors’ assessment of aquatic crucial habitats in Washington and Oregon Wind and Wildlife Assessment Tool Natural Resource Condition Assessments Managing Changing Landscapes in the Southwestern United States Ecoregion-Based Conservation in the Chihuahuan Desert Oil and Gas Fields of the Caribbean Region, 2004 (fld6bg) Assessing and Mapping Rare Plant Species Vulnerability to Climate Change Managing Changing Landscapes in the Southwestern United States Ecoregion-Based Conservation in the Chihuahuan Desert Incorporating ecological integrity into the Western Governors’ assessment of aquatic crucial habitats in Washington and Oregon Oil and Gas Fields of the Caribbean Region, 2004 (fld6bg) Wind and Wildlife Assessment Tool Natural Resource Condition Assessments