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At least 1,225 records · Page 68Linked to original sources
USGS2024

The economics of decarbonizing Costa Rica's agriculture, forestry and other land uses sectors

In 2018, Costa Rica demonstrated its commitment to the Paris Agreement and published its Decarbonization Plan for achieving zero net emissions by the year 2050. We evaluate the impacts of the country's strategy for decarbonizing its Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Uses (AFOLU) sectors by coupling the Integrated Economic-Environmental Modeling framework with high-resolution spatial land use-land cover change and ecosystem services modeling (IEEM+ESM). Our results show that decarbonization of AFOLU would simultaneously enhance carbon storage, water purification, water regulation and erosion mitigation ecosystem services. Moreover, the positive cumulative wealth impact of decarbonization would be approximately US$7.27 billion by 2050 while lifting an additional 3810 individuals out of poverty. From a public investment perspective, decarbonization would have a fiscally neutral impact with the economic benefits sufficient in magnitude to off-set policy implementation costs and generate economic returns of over US$852 million when changes in natural capital stocks and environmental quality are considered. This application to Costa Rica is the first integrated economy-wide analysis of a growing number of decarbonization plans globally. The IEEM+ESM approach provides an integrated framework for analyzing decarbonization plans and can be used to refine AFOLU mitigation strategies to capitalize on synergies and minimize negative trade-offs across the three dimensions of wealth and sustainable economic development, namely economy, society and the environment.

Ecological Economics↗
USGS2019

A spatial model of streaked horned lark breeding habitat in the Columbia River, USA

The streaked horned lark (hereafter “lark”; Eremophila alpestris strigata ) is a federally listed bird subspecies of the Pacific Northwest that occupies open landscapes with short vegetation and abundant bare ground. Across its breeding range, which has contracted dramatically, the lark relies primarily on human-modified habitats maintained in early successional states (e.g., agricultural fields, airfields, deposition islands). The focus of our study is the lower Columbia River where larks primarily occupy deposition islands created as a byproduct of shipping channel deepening (dredging) projects. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has proactively adopted a shifting-habitat-mosaic management approach when placing dredge (sand) materials to maintain lark habitat throughout the project area. To help achieve their goal, we created a geospatial tool capable of quantifying and tracking habitat suitability for larks throughout the project area with satellite imagery. We created spatial models of lark breeding habitat by incorporating lark survey data, Sentinel-2 satellite imagery, dredge-deposition maps, and surface-elevation models. We built candidate predictive models of lark breeding habitat after combining survey data (years 2016 and 2017), predictor variables, and logistic regression. In addition, we created a novel seral-stage predictor variable to identify young, mature, old, and unsuitable locations; critical information for lark conservation planning and dredge-disposal operational planning. We challenged probability models the year they were constructed (2016) and the following year (2017) with set-aside survey data. The best model contained terrain ruggedness, deposition age, vegetation greenness (e.g., lushness and density of vegetation) inside a 10-m cell, and heterogeneity in greenness within a 100-m radius. Verification accuracy ranged from 75 to 83% depending on the model tested and year. Importantly, the seral-stage variable allowed us to quantify and locate early, optimal, and late habitats. Model results will facilitate conservation planning decisions by informing real-time management decisions. Furthermore, they provide a foundation for application in other human-modified habitats across the species’ range.

Oregon↗
USGS2018

Influence of governance structure on green stormwater infrastructure investment

Communities are faced with the challenge of meeting regulatory requirements mandating reductions in water pollution from stormwater and combined sewer overflows (CSO). Green stormwater infrastructure and gray stormwater infrastructure are two types of water management strategies communities can use to address water pollution. In this study, we used long-term control plans from 25 U.S. cities to synthesize: the types of gray and green infrastructure being used by communities to address combined sewer overflows; the types of goals set; biophysical characteristics of each city; and factors associated with the governance of stormwater management. These city characteristics were then used to identify common characteristics of “green leader” cities—those that dedicated >20% of the control plan budget in green infrastructure. Five “green leader” cities were identified: Milwaukee, WI, Philadelphia, PA, Syracuse, NY, New York City, NY, and Buffalo, NY. These five cities had explicit green infrastructure goals targeting the volume of stormwater or percentage of impervious cover managed by green infrastructure. Results suggested that the management scale and complexity of the management system are less important factors than the ability to harness a “policy window” to integrate green infrastructure into control plans. Two case studies—Philadelphia, PA, and Milwaukee, WI—indicated that green leader cities have a long history of building momentum for green infrastructure through a series of phases from experimentation, demonstration, and finally—in the case of Philadelphia—a full transition in the approach used to manage CSOs.

Environmental Science and Policy↗
USGS2022

Projecting the remaining habitat for the western spadefoot (Spea hammondii) in heavily urbanized southern California

Extensive urbanization in coastal southern California has reduced natural habitat in this biodiversity hotspot. To better conserve ecological communities, state and federal agencies, along with local jurisdictions and private stakeholders, developed regional conservation plans for southern California. Although many protected areas exist within this region, the patchwork nature of these protected areas might not provide good coverage for species that require multiple habitat components, such as amphibians with complex life histories. Because of declines in the past century, the status of the western spadefoot ( Spea hammondii ) in southern California is of concern to state and federal wildlife agencies. Species distribution models (SDMs) can aid in determining the conservation status of imperiled species by projecting where suitable habitat remains and how much is protected from further development. We built SDMs that integrated site-occupancy data from systematic pitfall trapping surveys and presence-only data from biodiversity databases and citizen science platforms to project the current distribution of western spadefoots in southern California. Western spadefoot occurrence was positively related to the cover of grassland or shrub/scrub and the % sand in the soil within a 1000 m buffer, and was negatively related to slope, elevation, and distance to ephemeral streams or vernal pools . Most of the remaining unprotected habitat for western spadefoots is in the southern half of its historical range in western San Diego and Riverside counties. A few large tracts of spadefoot habitat exist on U.S. Department of Defense lands and smaller tracts remain on ecological reserves owned by state and local government agencies. Only small patches of habitat remain in the northern half of this clade’s historical range in Ventura, Orange, Los Angeles, and San Bernardino counties. Existing regional conservation plans provide ostensible spatial coverage of the majority of extant habitat for western spadefoots in southern California, but most of the habitat within the jurisdiction of these plans lacks formal protection, exposing this species to further declines as urbanization continues in the 21st century.

California↗
USGS2015

Towards a global terrestrial species monitoring program

Introduction: The Convention for Biological Diversity’s (CBD) Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 envisions that “By 2050, biodiversity is valued, conserved, restored and wisely used, maintaining ecosystem services, sustaining a healthy planet and delivering benefits essential for all people.” Although 193 parties have adopted these goals, there is little infrastructure in place to monitor global biodiversity trends. Recent international conservation policy requires such data to be up-to-date, reliable, comparable among sites, relevant, and understandable; as is becoming obvious from the work plan adopted by the Intergovernmental Panel for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES: www.ipbes.net/; http://tinyurl.com/ohdnknq). In order to meet the five strategic goals of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and its 20 accompanying Aichi Targets for 2020 (www.cbd.int/sp/targets/), advances need to be made in coordinating large-scale biodiversity monitoring and linking these with environmental data to develop a comprehensive Global Observation Network, as is the main idea behind GEOSS the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (Christian 2005)...Here we identify ten requirements important for the successful implementation of a global biodiversity monitoring network under the flag of GEO BON and especially a global terrestrial species monitoring program.

Journal for Nature Conservation↗
USGS2019

Character of community response to volcanic crises at Sinabung and Kelud volcanoes

Volcano disaster mitigation is a priority in Indonesia's national development plan due to the large number of active volcanoes, high frequency of eruptions and dense population within volcanic hazards zones. As a consequence of these factors and the many decades of experience in mitigation of volcanic risk, Indonesia demonstrates that effective community response is critical to avoid disasters. Understanding of hazards, risks and early-warning systems are the main factors in building an effective community response. The level of understanding of these factors is proportional to a community's independence in taking appropriate actions and is reflected in the community's preparedness. Further, the experience gained from responses to the eruptions of Sinabung and Kelud as well as from other Indonesian volcanoes shows that a local leader plays an important role in mobilizing a community. Such a leader utilizes knowledge of local culture (local wisdom) and an understanding of the community's character to encourage community members to participate and empower themselves. Sharing of information and the formulation of a disaster mitigation plan by government and community also results in a shared commitment to increase participation and community empowerment. Indonesia uses four volcano alert levels to activate community mitigation plans. In order of increasing criticality, these are: Normal, Advisory (Waspada), Watch (Siaga) and Warning (Awas). Implementation of policies, strategies and actions are tied to each level. In addition, mandatory actions by certain stakeholders are required at certain alert levels. These mandatory actions increase the effectiveness of disaster mitigation by both government and community. A comparison of the crisis responses of the Sinabung and Kelud communities is carried out here in order to better understand problems, learn lessons and improve the process of Indonesia's community mitigation policies. Local culture, the start time of community involvement (in normal versus crisis time), degree and level of government involvement, roles of local leaders, local perception of hazards, and political intervention are all factors that influence a community's response at the time of eruption. We stress that an understanding of the “ community character ,” which includes a number of cultural, social and knowledge parameters is essential for effective crisis management. The responses of Sinabung and Kelud illustrate both the key role of community in disaster mitigation and the synergy that can result from close coordination and collaboration between government and community.

Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research↗
USGS2014

Reducing fatigue damage for ships in transit through structured decision making

Research in structural monitoring has focused primarily on drawing inference about the health of a structure from the structure’s response to ambient or applied excitation. Knowledge of the current state can then be used to predict structural integrity at a future time and, in principle, allows one to take action to improve safety, minimize ownership costs, and/or increase the operating envelope. While much time and effort has been devoted toward data collection and system identification, research to-date has largely avoided the question of how to choose an optimal maintenance plan. This work describes a structured decision making (SDM) process for taking available information (loading data, model output, etc.) and producing a plan of action for maintaining the structure. SDM allows the practitioner to specify his/her objectives and then solves for the decision that is optimal in the sense that it maximizes those objectives. To demonstrate, we consider the problem of a Naval vessel transiting a fixed distance in varying sea-state conditions. The physics of this problem are such that minimizing transit time increases the probability of fatigue failure in the structural supports. It is shown how SDM produces the optimal trip plan in the sense that it minimizes both transit time and probability of failure in the manner of our choosing (i.e., through a user-defined cost function). The example illustrates the benefit of SDM over heuristic approaches to maintaining the vessel.

Marine Structures↗
USGS2011

Ant-nest ichnofossils in honeycomb calcretes, Neogene Ogallala Formation, High Plains region of western Kansas, U.S.A.

Two new ant-nest trace fossils are described from calcic sandy paleosols of the Neogene Ogallala Formation in western Kansas. The ichnofossils are preserved within and below calcrete beds weathering in positive relief as carbonate-filled casts or as cavities in negative relief. Daimoniobarax ichnogenus nov. is established for burrow systems composed of vertically tiered, horizontally oriented pancake-shaped chambers connected by predominantly vertical and cylindrical shafts ~ 0.8 cm in diameter. Ichnospecies of Daimoniobarax are differentiated based on differences in the plan view outline of chambers, shaft orientation, and junctions between chambers and shafts. Daimoniobarax nephroides ichnospecies nov. is composed of an ~ 24–76 cm long vertical sequence of distinctly lobed chambers (~ 2–20 cm wide and ~ 1 cm high) arranged along sinuous to helical shafts. Chamber shape in plan view ranges from small teardrops to larger kidney- and U-shaped forms. Shafts intersect at chamber edges such that chambers appear to bud from the central shafts. Daimoniobarax nephroides is most similar to the nests of extant seed-harvester ants of the New World genus Pogonomyrmex . Such ants are specialized granivores and prefer sandy soils in arid to semi-arid grassland and desert regions. Daimoniobarax tschinkeli ichnospecies nov. is ~ 30–80 cm in vertical extent. Chambers (~ 2–30 cm wide and ~ 1 cm high) are circular to elongate or pseudopodial in plan view. Vertical shafts are straight to slightly sinuous and intersect most often toward the center of the chambers. The generalized architecture of D. tschinkeli is similar to that of the nests or nest portions of several extant ant genera, though it does not closely resemble any known modern nest. Ant ichnofossils provide valuable information on hidden biodiversity, paleohydrologic regimes, paleopedogenic processes, and paleoclimate during the time of nest occupation. Depth-related changes in chamber size and vertical spacing may also help interpret paleosurfaces and paleodepths, and serve as geopetal features.

Kansas↗
USGS2019

Effects of a changing climate on the hydrological cycle in cold desert ecosystems of the Great Basin and Columbia Plateau

Climate change is already resulting in changes in cold desert ecosystems, lending urgency to the need to understand climate change effects and develop effective adaptation strategies. In this review, we synthesize information on changes in climate and hydrologic processes during the last century for the Great Basin and Columbia Plateau, and discuss future projections for the 21st century. We develop mid-century projections of temperature and climate for the Great Basin and Columbia Plateau at timescales relevant to managers (2020 -2050), and discuss concepts and strategies for adapting to the projected changes. For the instrumented record in the Great Basin and Columbia Plateau (1985-2011), a temperature increase of 0.7°C to 1.4°C has been documented, but changes in precipitation have been relatively minor with no clear trends. Climate projections for 2020 to 2050 indicate that temperatures will continue to increase, especially in winter and during the night. Precipitation is more difficult to project and estimates range from an 11% decrease to 25% increase depending on location. Recent records indicate that the Great Basin and Columbia Plateau are becoming more arid, a trend that is projected to continue. Droughts are likely to become more frequent and last longer, invasive annual grasses are likely to continue to expand, and the duration and severity of wildfire seasons are likely to increase. Climate projections can help in developing adaptive management strategies for actual or expected changes in climate. Strategies include reducing the risks of nonnative invasive plant spread and wildfires that result in undesirable transitions, planning for drought, and where necessary, facilitating the transition of populations, communities and ecosystems to new climatic conditions. A proactive approach to planning for and adapting to climate change is needed and publicly available internet based resources on climate data and planning strategies are available to help meet that need.

California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washingto↗
USGS2020

Energy development and production in the Great Plains: Implications and restoration opportunities

Energy is an integral part of society. The major US energy sources of fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas); biofuels (ethanol); and wind are concentrated in grassland ecosystems of the Great Plains. As energy demand continues to increase, mounting pressures will be placed on North American grassland systems. In this review, we present the ecological effects of energy development and production on grassland systems. We then identify opportunities to mitigate these effects during the planning, construction, and production phases by using informed methodology and improved technology. Primary effects during energy development include small- and large-scale soil disturbance and vegetation removal as small patches of grasslands are used to host oil or gas wells, wind turbine pads, associated roadways, and pipelines or through the conversion of large grassland areas to biofuel croplands. Direct habitat loss or habitat fragmentation can affect wildlife directly through increased mortality or indirectly through reduction in habitat quantity and quality. During energy production, air and water quality can be affected through regular emissions or unplanned spills. Energy development can also affect the economy and health of local communities. During planning, energy development and production effects can be reduced by carefully considering effects on grasslands during siting and even by selecting different energy source types. During construction, effects on soil and plant systems can be minimized by eliminating weed populations before disturbance, salvaging and stockpiling topsoil for future revegetation, and harvesting native local seed for postsite restoration. During energy production operations, noise and road traffic reduction plans and atmospheric monitoring will enable more informed mitigation measures. Continued research on energy development effects and mitigation measures is necessary to establish best management practices beneficial to grassland health while providing needed energy for the United States.

Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minneso↗
USGS2022

Bright spots for inland fish and fisheries to guide future hydropower development

Hydropower production is one of the greatest threats to fluvial ecosystems and freshwater biodiversity. Now that we have entered the Anthropocene , there is an opportunity to reflect on what might constitute a ‘sustainable’ Anthropocene in the context of hydropower and riverine fish populations. Considering elements of existing practices that promote favorable social-ecological outcomes (i.e., ‘bright spots’) is timely given that there are plans to expand hydropower capacity in previously undammed rivers, intensify dam development in some of the world's largest river systems, and re-license existing facilities. We approach this from a pragmatic perspective: for the foreseeable future, hydropower will likely remain an important source of renewable electricity. To offer support for moving toward a more ‘sustainable’ Anthropocene, we provide syntheses of best practices during the siting, design, construction, operation, and compensation phases of hydropower development to minimize impacts on inland fish. For each phase, we offer positive examples (or what might be considered ‘bright spots’) pertaining to some of the approaches described within our syntheses, acknowledging that these projects may not be viewed as without ecological and (or) societal detriment by all stakeholders. Our findings underscore the importance of protecting critical habitat and free-flowing river reaches through careful site selection and basin-scale planning, infrastructure designs that minimize reservoir effects and facilitate safe passage of fish, construction of hydropower plants using best practices that minimize long-term damage, operating guidelines that mimic natural flow conditions, and compensation that is lasting, effective, inclusive, and locally relevant. Learning from these ‘bright spots’ may require engagement of diverse stakeholders, professionals, and governments at scales that extend well beyond a given site, river, or even basin. Indeed, environmental planning that integrates hydropower development into broader discussions of conserving regional biodiversity and ecosystem services will be of utmost importance.

Water Biology and Security↗
USGS1995

Progress toward lake trout restoration in Lake Michigan

Progress toward lake trout restoration in Lake Michigan is described through 1993. Extinction of the native lake trout fishery by sea lamprey predation, augmented by exploitation and habitat destruction, resulted in an extensive stocking program of hatchery-reared lake trout that began in 1965. Sea lamprey abundance was effectively controlled using selective chemical toxicants. The initial stocking produced a measurable wild year class of lake trout by 1976 in Grand Traverse Bay, but failed to continue probably due to excessive exploitation. The overall lack of successful reproduction lakewide by the late 1970s led to the development and implementation in 1985 of a focused inter-agency lakewide restoration plan by a technical committee created through the Lake Committee structure of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission. Strategies implemented in 1985 by the plan included setting a 40% total mortality goal lakewide, creating two large refuges designed to encompass historically the most productive spawning habitat and protect trout stocked over their home range, evaluating several lake trout strains, and setting stocking priorities throughout the lake. Target levels for stocking in the 1985 Plan have never been reached, and are much less than the estimated lakewide recruitment of yearlings by the native lake trout stocks. Since 1985, over 90% of the available lake trout have been stocked over the best spawning habitat, and colonization of the historically productive offshore reefs has occurred. Concentrations of spawning lake trout large enough for successful reproduction, based on observations of successful hatchery and wild stocks, have developed at specific reefs. Continued lack of recruitment at these specific sites suggests that something other than stotk abundance has limited success. Poor survival of lake trout eggs, assumed to be related to contaminant burden, occurred in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but survival has since increased to equal survival in the hatchery. A recent increase in lamprey wounding rates in northern Lake Michigan appears to be related to the uncontrolled build-up of lampreys in the St. Marys River a tributary of Lake Huron. If left uncontrolled, further progress toward restoration in the Northern Refuge may be limited.

Journal of Great Lakes Research↗
USGS2009

Assessing reservoir operations risk under climate change

Risk-based planning offers a robust way to identify strategies that permit adaptive water resources management under climate change. This paper presents a flexible methodology for conducting climate change risk assessments involving reservoir operations. Decision makers can apply this methodology to their systems by selecting future periods and risk metrics relevant to their planning questions and by collectively evaluating system impacts relative to an ensemble of climate projection scenarios (weighted or not). This paper shows multiple applications of this methodology in a case study involving California's Central Valley Project and State Water Project systems. Multiple applications were conducted to show how choices made in conducting the risk assessment, choices known as analytical design decisions, can affect assessed risk. Specifically, risk was reanalyzed for every choice combination of two design decisions: (1) whether to assume climate change will influence flood-control constraints on water supply operations (and how), and (2) whether to weight climate change scenarios (and how). Results show that assessed risk would motivate different planning pathways depending on decision-maker attitudes toward risk (e.g., risk neutral versus risk averse). Results also show that assessed risk at a given risk attitude is sensitive to the analytical design choices listed above, with the choice of whether to adjust flood-control rules under climate change having considerably more influence than the choice on whether to weight climate scenarios. Copyright 2009 by the American Geophysical Union.

Water Resources Research↗
USGS2025

Waning greenhouse gas emissions from U.S. Federal lease coal production by the mid-21st century

This study presents estimates of future years (2024–2051) United States Federal lease coal production and the resulting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the combustion, transport, and mining of that fuel. Results from the coal production estimate indicate a decline in production from Federal leases; with known production of 240 million short tons (mtn) in 2023 and a projected decline to 34.0 mtn by 2051, which represents a reduction to 14.2% of the 2023 value. In parallel with this projection, total GHG emissions are estimated to decrease from 402.2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MMT CO 2 eq.) in 2024 to 55.0 MMT CO 2 eq. in 2051, a decline to 13.7% of 2024 emissions estimates. The reductions in coal production and emissions are mainly the result of planned coal combustion power plant closures, with major projected closures in 2037 and 2048. However, GHG emissions estimates for future years can be uncertain as they rely heavily on coal production estimates from operators' public business plans and other publicly available resources. Forward looking plans of this type are subject to significant changes if economic and political factors deviate from current information. Results suggest that average GHG emissions over the time series breakout to 95% end point combustion, 3.7% transportation combustion emissions, and 1.3% fugitive emissions, although there is uncertainty associated with these figures. Uncertainty stemming from production projections, sector distributions, and emissions factors on the future emissions estimates increases with time, ranging from −28% to +48% within the 2024–2051 timeframe.

Alabama, Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, Utah, Wy↗
USGS2026

Influence of new residential construction varying in housing density on bird species, human tolerance guilds, and communities

Human population growth and changing settlement patterns fuel the development of urban fringe lands worldwide, with implications for biodiversity. We conducted a 12-year study of birds in the fast-developing urban fringe lands of the central Puget Sound region, Washington, USA, to examine the effect of development configuration on birds. We hypothesized that lower-intensity conservation developments, compared to higher-intensity planned community developments, would benefit the overall bird community, as well as native forest birds (avoiders of human development) and avian generalist species (adapters to human development), but that higher-intensity planned community developments would benefit synanthropic species (exploiters of human development). We fit single-species and multi-species occupancy models to test these hypotheses. Consistent with our hypotheses, we found that a greater proportion of the overall community, avoiders, and adapters occupied lower-intensity conservation developments compared to higher-intensity planned community developments. However, we did not detect an effect of development type on the exploiter guild, and we found that species in the exploiter guild are variable in their response to the configuration of suburban developments. We also hypothesized that human tolerance guilds would be a useful predictor of individual species responses to development type. This hypothesis was somewhat supported: we found that, for avoiders, 87% of species in the guild had the same response to development type as the overall guild; for adapters, 63% had the same response as the overall guild, and for exploiters, only 44% had the same response as the overall guild. Our results indicate that the configuration of suburban developments can have a meaningful impact on bird communities, particularly on those species that are most sensitive to any level of development.

Washington↗
USGS2001

Restoration of bighorn sheep metapopulations in and near western national parks

Bighorn sheep ( Ovis canadensis ) once were ubiquitous in large areas, including lands now contained in the national parks of the Intermountain and Colorado Plateau regions of the United States. Due to catastrophic declines in the late 1800s and early 1900s, most extant populations now occur as small, isolated groups with a highly fragmented distribution. Three different subspecies of bighorn sheep were extirpated from 14 of 18 areas that are now managed by the National Park Service. We describe an eight-year plan to restore bighorn sheep to currently suitable historic habitats in the national parks within a six-state intermountain region of the western United States, 1991–1998. A seven-point program was recommended for each park unit that included: (1) survey the existing populations; (2) conduct a GIS-based habitat assessment to identify suitable habitat; (3) convene scientific advisory panels to review results of habitat assessment; (4) convene interagency panels to discuss metapopulation management and to plan the restoration(s); (5) draft interagency restoration and management plans; (6) conduct translocation(s); and (7) monitor the populations. We evaluated 38,781 km 2 of area; 32% (12,329 km 2 ) was potential habitat for bighorn sheep. The scientific advisory panels and the GIS modeling recommended bighorn restoration on 73 sites within these areas. By 1996, 36 of these sites (2,647 km 2 or 22% of the entire suitable area) were inhabited by bighorn sheep. By 1999, the translocated animals increased 25%, and restoration efforts will continue in many of the remaining sites.

Restoration Ecology↗
USGS2012

Reducing Vulnerability of Ports and Harbors to Earthquake and Tsunami Hazards

Recent scientific research suggests the Pacific Northwest could experience catastrophic earthquakes in the near future, both from distant and local sources, posing a significant threat to coastal communities. Damage could result from numerous earthquake-related hazards, such as severe ground shaking, soil liquefaction, landslides, land subsidence/uplift, and tsunami inundation. Because of their geographic location, ports and harbors are especially vulnerable to these hazards. Ports and harbors, however, are important components of many coastal communities, supporting numerous activities critical to the local and regional economy and possibly serving as vital post-event, response-recovery transportation links. A collaborative, multi-year initiative is underway to increase the resiliency of Pacific Northwest ports and harbors to earthquake and tsunami hazards, involving Oregon Sea Grant (OSG), Washington Sea Grant (WSG), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Coastal Services Center (CSC), and the U.S. Geological Survey Center for Science Policy (CSP). Specific products of this research, planning, and outreach initiative include a regional stakeholder issues and needs assessment, a community-based mitigation planning process, a Geographic Information System (GIS) — based vulnerability assessment methodology, an educational web-site and a regional data archive. This paper summarizes these efforts, including results of two pilot port-harbor community projects, one in Yaquina Bay, Oregon and the other in Sinclair Inlet, Washington. Finally, plans are outlined for outreach to other port and harbor communities in the Pacific Northwest and beyond, using "getting started" workshops and a web-based tutorial.

Oregon, Washington↗
USGS2021

Contrasting prescription burning and wildfires in California Sierra Nevada national parks and adjacent national forests

History of prescription burning and wildfires in the three Sierra Nevada National Park Service (NPS) parks and adjacent US Forest Service (USFS) forests is presented. Annual prescription (Rx) burns began in 1968 in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, followed by Yosemite National Park and Lassen Volcanic National Park. During the last third of the 20th century, USFS national forests adjacent to these parks did limited Rx burns, accounting for very little area burned. However, in 2004, an aggressive annual burn program was initiated in these national forests and in the last decade, area burned by planned prescription burns, relative to area protected, was approximately comparable between these NPS and USFS lands. In 1968, the NPS prescription burning program was unique because it coupled planned Rx burns with managing many lightning-ignited fires for resource benefit. From 1968 to 2017, these natural fires managed for resource benefit averaged the same total area burned as planned Rx burns in the three national parks; thus, they have had a substantial impact on total area burned by prescription. In contrast, on USFS lands, most lightning-ignited fires have been managed for suppression, but increasing attention is being paid to managing wildfires for resource benefit.

California↗