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At least 109 records · Page 6

SupportU: Smart UAS Program for the Population by Offering Resources and Tools to the Unhoused

Global warming, challenging economic conditions, the opioid epidemic, and other widespread problems, have impacted people globally, particularly over the past several years. Preventable diseases like the common cold and the effects of heat stroke have become increasingly prevalent due to these issues. It is estimated that 150 million people of the world’s population are unhoused globally, with many dwelling in unsafe and unsanitary conditions while lacking access to basic hygienic items and other essentials. Unsanitary conditions coupled with this lack of access exacerbates and prolongs health problems and harms quality of life. Traditional methods of aid, such as homeless shelters and meal programs, face numerous challenges such as having limited reach and resources. To address these problems, the Smart UAS Program for the Population by Offering Resources and Tools to the Unhoused (SUPPORT U) utilizes Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) to deliver resources to the unhoused and those in need of basic aid, prior to and during extreme temperature conditions, and after natural disasters in rural, suburban, and urban areas. The UA is envisioned to be an autonomous aircraft capable of efficiently distributing essential supplies, including blankets, water, food, and medicine. The UAS fleet relies on advanced navigation and communication technologies to accurately identify unhoused people and efficiently and safely distribute materials to them. This will be done through a machine learning algorithm. By focusing on identified “homeless clusters”, places where unhoused individuals are concentrated, the UAS network increases access to critical resources, thereby helping to mitigate some of the external risks to the health of unhoused individuals. The UA can also be used during crises, such as by transporting supplies to medical tents that are stationed in difficult-to-reach areas suffering from natural disasters.

Samuel Beard↗

A GIS approach to urban heat island research: The case of Huntsville, Alabama

The urban heat island represents a case of inadvertent human modification of climate in an urban environment. Urbanization changes the nature of the surface and atmospheric properties of a region. As a result, radiation balance in the urban areas is altered and sensible heat is added to the point that urban areas are warmer than surrounding rural areas. At the boundary between the rural and urban area, a sharp rise in temperature occurs, culminating to a peak temperature at the central business district of the city, hence the name 'urban heat island'. The extent and intensity of the urban heat island are a function of population size, land use, and topography. Because the urban heat island exhibits spatial variations of temperatures, the use of Geographic Information System (GIS) is appropriate. The research on the urban heat island focuses on the acquisition of 15 bands of visible and thermal infrared data (ranging from 0.45 to 12.2 microns) from an aerial platform using NASA's ATLAS (Airborne Thermal/Visible Land Application Sensor) over Huntsville, Alabama. The research reported in this paper is an analysis of the impact of population, land use, and topography on the shape of the urban heat island that could be developed in Huntsville using the GIS approach. The outcome of this analysis can then be verified using the acquired remotely sensed data.

Lo, Chor Pong↗

Status of NASA Satellite, Field Observations, and Numerical Modeling Addressing the Impact of Urbanization on Short and Long Term Precipitation Variability

Howard (1833a) made the first documented observation of a temperature difference between an urban area and its rural environment. Manley (1958) termed this contrast the "urban heat island (UHI)". The UHI has now become a widely acknowledged, observed, and researched phenomenon because of its broad implications. It is estimated that by the year 2025, 60% of the world's population will live in cities (UNFP, 1999). In the United States, the current urban growth rate is approximately 12.5%, with 80% currently living in urban areas. As cities continue to grow, urban sprawl creates unique problems related to land use, transportation, agriculture, housing, pollution, and development for policymakers. Urban expansion and its associated urban heat islands also have measurable impacts on weather and climate processes.

Shepherd, J. Marshall↗

Land use of northern megalopolis from ERTS-1 imagery

The author has identified the following significant results. The preliminary map of land use of Rhode Island is believed to be the first urban-type land use map ever made from satellite imagery, and its preparation a significant scientific result for ERTS-1. Eight categories of land use were differentiated at a scale of 1:250,000 including 3 categories of residential area: single family and multiple/mixed urban types, plus a residential and open space rural one. This compares favorably with RB-57 mapping experience in which, mapping at 1:120,000 from photography taken from 60,000 feet, 11 basic categories of land use were discriminated. From ERTS, the urban cores of cities down to 7,000 population, and commercial and industrial sites down to 800 feet square, were consistently discriminated.

Simpson, R. B.↗

Conflicts of Greens’ in Renewable Energy Landscapes: Case Studies and a Planning Framework

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) through renewable energy deployment is a goal for many cities and nations to mitigate the effects of a rapidly changing climate while securing energy needs. Given national and state level policies on green energy to achieve GHG reduction targets, localities are considering utility-scale renewable energy (USRE) facilities on remote lands, rural areas, oceans, coastal waters and large rivers to meet the energy needs for urban residents and industries. Although these USRE facilities generate much “greener” electricity than fossil fuel power plants, locating them can pose conflicts with wildlife, including endangered, threatened and/or special status species, and the habitats that support wildlife populations (Brunette et al., 2013; Gasparatos et al. 2016; Mulvaney 2017), which lead to a “Conflict of Greens” (Ko et al., 2011). In addition to ecological impacts, conflicts over social and cultural resources in local communities lead to concerns over environmental justice, in this context “energy justice,” where negative environmental, social, and economic impacts of energy projects fall more heavily upon marginalized, vulnerable, or indigenous communities. The Pacific Rim region is a center of major and growing economies, and it has become a battlefield for competing “green” objectives. In addition to progressive renewable energy goals, such as in California, Hawaii, and Taiwan, countries around the Pacific Rim have the majority of the growth in manufacturing of wind and solar energy devices and also some of the highest levels of renewables deployment with China, India, and the US leading the way in wind and solar installations. Developing renewable energy source in the ocean such as offshore wind, tidal, and wave energy, are beginning to add to this mix. Given this challenge, the APRU SCL energy working group provides six case studies that address questions about the “Conflict of Greens” across the Pacific Rim including South Korea, Taiwan, and the United States (California, Hawaii, and Massachusetts). The literature review highlights the emerging ecological, social, and economic aspects of conflicts over siting renewables on the landscape. Using case studies, we examine the trial and errors in least-conflict spatial planning, data collection and analysis, public participation in decision-making, mitigation, social planning for energy transitions, and multi-scalar approaches. Lastly, we recommend interdisciplinary policy, planning, and design actions for sustainable energy landscapes across the Pacific Rim and beyond.

green versus green, renewable energy↗

Land use in the northern Coachella Valley

Satellite imagery has proved to have great utility for monitoring land use change and as a data source for regional planning. In California, open space desert resources are under severe pressure to serve as a source for recreational gratification to individuals living in the heavily populated southern coastal plain. Concern for these sensitive arid environments has been expressed by both federal and state agencies. The northern half of the Coachella Valley has historically served as a focal point for weekend recreational activity and second homes. Since demand in this area has remained high, land use change from rural to urban residential has been occurring continuously since 1968. This area of rapid change is an ideal site to illustrate the utility of satellite imagery as a data source for planning information, and has served as the areal focus of this investigation.

Bale, J. B.↗

Advanced Life Systems for Extreme Environments: An Arctic Application

The problems of obtaining adequate pure drinking water and disposing of liquid and solid waste in the U.S. Arctic, a region where virtually all water is frozen solid for much of the year, has led to unsanitary solutions (U.S. Arctic Research Commission). These solutions are also damaging to the environment. Sanitation and a safe water supply are particularly problems in rural villages. About one-fourth of Alaska's 86.000 Native residents live in these communities. They are without running water and use plastic buckets for toilets. The outbreak of diseases is believed to be partially attributable to exposure to human waste. Villages with the most frequent outbreaks of disease are those in which running water is difficult to obtain (Office of Technology Assessment, 1994). Waste is emptied into open lagoons, rivers, or onto the sea coast. It does not degrade rapidly and in addition to affecting human health, can be harmful to the fragile ecology of the Arctic and the indigenous wildlife and fish populations. Advanced Life Systems for Extreme Environments (ALSEE) provides a solution to sanitation and safe water problems. The system uses an advanced integrated technology developed for Antarctic and space applications. ALSEE uses the systems approach to address more than waste and water problems. By incorporating hydroponic horticulture and aquaculture into the waste treatment system, ALSEE addresses the quality and quantity of fresh foods available to Arctic residents. A temperate climate is required for year-round plant growth. ALSEE facilities can be designed to include a climate controlled area within the structure. This type of environment is a change from the long periods of darkness and cold found in the Arctic and can help alleviate stress so often associated with these extremes. While the overall concept of ALSEE projects is advanced, system facilities can be operated by village residents with appropriate training. ALSEE provides continuing training and education as a part of the project. Not only is this desirable but necessary. There is ample evidence in "gravoyard" throughout rural Alaska of technologies which failed not because they were not applic4tble, but because they were not integrated and could not be operated or repaired by village residents. Waste streams in villages will vary depending on the human diet and the non-food waste stream. ALSEE units can be adapted to different village situations once the content of the waste stream is known. Units located in population hubs can serve as research, education. and demonstration centers. Appropriate modifications can be determined at these centers to transfer technology to more remote locations where waste stream conditions may differ.

Lewis, Carol E.↗

Developing Renewable Energy Applications for Water Treatment Technologies and Transmission

The need for smaller treatment facilities for more isolated or rural municipal entities and industrial water treatment facilities continues to grow. From environmental justice and energy needs in remote communities that have never been serviced by larger scale utilities to smaller onsite treatment requirements to meet discharge regulations, energy efficient treatment systems that can leverage renewable energy sources can be an important asset to owners. Climate change and population dynamics have changed the needs for distributed water treatment systems and the manner in which they function. New treatment technologies that can operate under dynamic conditions and leverage variable energy sources (e.g., renewable energy, RE) can provide substantial efficiencies and cost savings. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is embarking on research projects that will perform multi-scale studies to investigate treatment technologies on varying source water quality that can operate under unsteady state flow conditions (timing) in response to energy availability, supply, and demand. A pilot-scale system will be built to assess modularity and scaling of treatment system operating conditions and performance. Modeling will also be used to determine feasibility and integration into grid emulation platforms to understand the use and value of operation with RE. Optimization will be completed for the treatment and distribution systems to document strengths and weaknesses of using RE power sources. Results of this effort will advance dynamic water treatment understanding under variable conditions and integration of RE sources to power these systems. This will lead to further decarbonization of municipal and private treatment facilities while supporting a paradigm shift in water treatment process operation and system design to achieve net-zero goals and move toward energy-sensitive resilient water treatment systems.

ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Fairfax County Urban Development: Identifying Urban Heat Mitigation Strategies for Climate Adaptation Planning in Fairfax County, Virginia

Extreme high temperatures lead to increased instances of cardiovascular disease, pulmonary disease, and even death, as well as increased energy consumption and infrastructure costs. People in urbanized areas experience higher temperatures than rural areas due to diminished vegetation and increased impervious surfaces which absorb and radiate heat. Fairfax County, Virginia has embarked on Resilient Fairfax, a program aimed at addressing climate adaptation and resilience. The DEVELOP team partnered with the Fairfax County Office of Environmental and Energy Coordination (OEEC) to assess the extent of the urban heat island effect on the county and its most vulnerable populations. The team used data from Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS), as well as the ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS) for the years 2013 to 2021 and found that the hottest spots were in densely urbanized areas, with temperatures as much as 47°F above that of undeveloped reference areas. The team used the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) urban cooling model and determined that areas with higher tree canopy cover had greater heat mitigation capacity. Estimates from the InVEST model showed that a 4.5% increase in canopy cover across the county could result in a temperature reduction of up to 2.4°F in some areas. The results will allow partners to assess heat distribution across Fairfax County and implement effective mitigation strategies, including locating prime locations for cooling centers and increasing canopy cover.

W. Pierce Holloway↗

Ambient Aerosol Is Physically Larger on Cloudy Days in Bondville, Illinois

Particle chemical composition affects aerosol optical and physical properties in ways important for the fate, transport, and impact of atmospheric particulate matter. For example, hygroscopic constituents take up water to increase the physical size of a particle, which can alter the extinction properties and atmospheric lifetime. At the collocated AERosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) and Interagency Monitoring of PROtected Visual Environments (IMPROVE) network monitoring stations in rural Bondville, Illinois, we employ a novel cloudiness determination method to compare measured aerosol physicochemical properties on predominantly cloudy and clear sky days from 2010 to 2019. On cloudy days, aerosol optical depth (AOD) is significantly higher than on clear sky days in all seasons. Measured angstrom ngstro''m exponents are significantly smaller on cloudy days, indicating physically larger average particle size for the sampled populations in all seasons except winter. Mass concentrations of fine particulate matter that include estimates of aerosol liquid water (ALW) are higher on cloudy days in all seasons but winter. More ALW on cloudy days is consistent with larger particle sizes inferred from angstrom ngstro''m exponent measurements. Aerosol chemical composition that affects hygroscopicity plays a determining impact on cloudy versus clear sky differences in AOD, angstrom ngstro''m exponents, and ALW. This work highlights the need for simultaneous collocated, high-time-resolution measurements of both aerosol chemical and physical properties, in particular at cloudy times when quantitative understanding of tropospheric composition is most uncertain.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Modeling the impact of COVID-19 on air quality in southern California: implications for future control policies

Abstract. In response to the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19), California issued statewide stay-at-home orders, bringing about abrupt and dramatic reductions in air pollutant emissions. This crisis offers us an unprecedented opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of emission reductions in terms of air quality. Here we use the Weather Research and Forecasting model with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) in combination with surface observations to study the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown measures on air quality in southern California. Based on activity level statistics and satellite observations, we estimate the sectoral emission changes during the lockdown. Due to the reduced emissions, the population-weighted concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) decrease by 15 % in southern California. The emission reductions contribute 68 % of the PM2.5 concentration decrease before and after the lockdown, while meteorology variations contribute the remaining 32 %. Among all chemical compositions, the PM2.5 concentration decrease due to emission reductions is dominated by nitrate and primary components. For O3 concentrations, the emission reductions cause a decrease in rural areas but an increase in urban areas; the increase can be offset by a 70 % emission reduction in anthropogenic volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These findings suggest that a strengthened control on primary PM2.5 emissions and a well-balanced control on nitrogen oxides and VOC emissions are needed to effectively and sustainably alleviate PM2.5 and O3 pollution in southern California.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Global scale assessment of urban precipitation anomalies

Urbanization has accelerated dramatically across the world over the past decades. Urban influence on surface temperatures is now being considered as a correction term in climatological datasets. Although prior research has investigated urban influences on precipitation for specific cities or selected thunderstorm cases, a comprehensive examination of urban precipitation anomalies on a global scale remains limited. This research is a global analysis of urban precipitation anomalies for over one thousand cities worldwide. We find that more than 60% of the global cities and their downwind regions are receiving more precipitation than the surrounding rural areas. Moreover, the magnitude of these urban wet islands has nearly doubled in the past 20 y. Urban precipitation anomalies exhibit variations across different continents and climates, with cities in Africa, for example, exhibiting the largest urban annual and extreme precipitation anomalies. Cities are more prone to substantial urban precipitation anomalies under warm and humid climates compared to cold and dry climates. Cities with larger populations, pronounced urban heat island effects, and higher aerosol loads also show noticeable precipitation enhancements. This research maps global urban rainfall hotspots, establishing a foundation for the consideration of urban rainfall corrections in climatology datasets. This advancement holds promise for projecting extreme precipitation and fostering the development of more resilient cities in the future.

Science & Technology - Other Topics↗

Declining Global Per Capita Agricultural Production and Warming Oceans Threaten Food Security

Despite accelerating globalization, most people still eat food that was grown locally. Developing countries with weak purchasing power tend to import as little food as possible from global markets, suffering consumption deficits during times of high prices or production declines. Local agricultural production, therefore, is critical to both food security and economic development among the rural poor. The level of local agricultural production, in turn, will be controlled by the amount and quality of arable land, the amount and quality of agricultural inputs (fertilizer, seeds, pesticides, etc.), as well as farm-related technology, practices, and policies. In this paper we discuss several emerging threats to global and regional food security, including declining yield gains that are failing to keep up with population increases, and warming in the tropical Indian Ocean and its impact on rainfall. If yields continue to grow more slowly than per capita harvested area, parts of Africa, Asia, and Central and Southern America will experience substantial declines in per capita cereal production. Global per capita cereal production will potentially decline by 14 percent between 2008 and 2030. Climate change is likely to further affect food production, particularly in regions that have very low yields due to lack of technology. Drought, caused by anthropogenic warming in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, may also reduce 21 st century food availability by disrupting Indian Ocean moisture transports and tilting the 21 st century climate toward a more El Nino-like state. The impacts of these circulation changes over Asia remain uncertain. For Africa, however, Indian Ocean warming appears to have already reduced main growing season rainfall along the eastern edge of tropical Africa, from southern Somalia to northern parts of the Republic of South Africa. Through a combination of quantitative modeling of food balances and an examination of climate change, we present an analysis of emerging threats to global food security.

Funk, Chris C.↗

Urban Forests as Main Regulator of the Evaporative Cooling Effect in Cities

Abstract Higher temperatures in urban areas expose a large fraction of the human population to potentially dangerous heat stress. Green spaces are promoted worldwide as local and city‐scale cooling strategies but the amount, type, and functioning of vegetation in cities lack quantification and their interaction with urban climate in different settings remains a matter of debate. Here we use state‐of‐the‐art remote sensing data from 145 city clusters to disentangle the drivers of surface urban heat islands (SUHI) intensity and quantify urban‐rural differences in vegetation cover, species composition, and evaporative cooling. We show that nighttime SUHIs are affected mostly by abiotic factors, while daytime SUHIs are highly correlated with vegetation characteristics and the wetness of the background climate. Magnitude and seasonality of daytime SUHIs are controlled by urban‐rural differences in plant transpiration and leaf area, which explain the dependence of SUHIs on wetness conditions. Leaf area differences are caused primarily by changes in vegetation type and a loss of in‐city forested areas, highlighting the importance of maintaining “natural reserves” as a sustainable heat mitigation policy.

Paschalis, Athanasios↗

Infrastructure inequality is a characteristic of urbanization

Urbanization can challenge sustainable development if it produces unequal outcomes. Infrastructure is an important urbanization dimension, providing services to support diverse urban activities. However, it can lock in unequal outcomes due to its durable nature. This paper studies inequalities in infrastructure distributions to derive insights into the structure and characteristics of unequal outcomes associated with urbanization. We analyzed infrastructure inequalities in two emerging economies in the Global South: India and South Africa. We developed and applied an inequality measure to understand the structure of inequality in infrastructure provisioning (based on census data) and infrastructure availability (based on satellite nighttime lights [NTLs] data). Consistent with differences in economic inequality, results show greater inequalities in South Africa than in India and greater urban inequalities than rural inequalities. Nevertheless, inequalities in urban infrastructure provisioning and infrastructure availability increase from finer to coarser spatial scales. NTL-based inequality measurements additionally show that inequalities are more concentrated at coarse spatial scales in India than in South Africa. Finally, results show that urban inequalities in infrastructure provisioning covary with urbanization levels conceptualized as a multidimensional phenomenon, including demographic, economic, and infrastructural dimensions. Similarly, inequalities in urban infrastructure availability increase monotonically with infrastructure development levels and urban population size. Together, these findings underscore infrastructure inequalities as a feature of urbanization and suggest that understanding urban inequalities requires applying an inequality lens to urbanization.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Raccoon densities across four land cover types in the southeastern United States

Raccoons (Procyon lotor) are the primary reservoir for rabies virus in eastern North America. Management of rabies in raccoons is achieved primarily with the use of oral rabies vaccination (ORV) and effective ORV bait densities are determined in part by the densities of raccoons. Decisions regarding ORV bait densities, however, are limited by an incomplete understanding of raccoon densities across the spectrum of landscapes they occupy. We carried out a mark-recapture study of raccoons on the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, USA, from 2017–2019, to develop sex- and landscape-specific raccoon density estimates across 4 rural land cover types in the southeastern United States: bottomland hardwood, riparian forest, isolated wetland, and upland pine (Pinus spp.). We captured 404 unique raccoons 773 times over the 3-year trapping period. Estimated densities were 5.44 ± 0.37 (SE) animals/km 2 in bottomland hardwood forest, 2.62 ± 0.32 animals/km 2 in riparian forest, 2.19 ± 0.29 animals/km 2 in isolated wetlands, and 2.14 ± 0.23 animals/km 2 in upland pine. Densities were significantly higher in bottomland hardwood than all other land cover types, whereas densities among the remaining cover types were similar. These patterns are likely the result of landscape fragmentation and configuration, with riparian forests typically embedded in a matrix of less suitable cover types, leading to low densities despite presumably high resource availability. There were higher densities of males than females in every cover type except upland pine, where the sex ratio was balanced. Densities on our site were low compared to other rural areas, which likely results from the lack of human influence in terms of agriculture or development. The financial cost of baiting for ORV distribution may be reduced by considering the comparatively low densities of raccoons in these rural landscapes in the southeastern United States.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Energy Technology Innovation Partnership Project Strategic Energy Plan for Washington County, Maine

This Strategic Energy Plan (SEP) for Washington County, Maine was developed through the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Technology Innovation Partnership Project (ETIPP) to address local challenges related to electricity reliability, affordability, and safety. Grounded in a "relational infrastructure" approach, the plan recognizes that improved energy outcomes depend not only on physical grid investments but also on strengthened coordination and trust between utilities and communities. Using utility-provided reliability data, public datasets, and community input, the plan identifies key risks, including vegetation-related outages, high energy burden, and vulnerability among elderly and medically dependent populations. The SEP establishes three priority areas: hazard mitigation for energy infrastructure, outage safety and emergency readiness, and energy assistance and thermal safety. It outlines community-driven actions designed to complement utility-led system improvements, including targeted outreach, municipal coordination, and expanded access to energy programs. The plan also situates local conditions within broader state policy, market dynamics, and funding opportunities. Intended as a living document, this SEP provides a scalable framework for collaborative action to improve resilience, safety, and affordability in rural energy systems.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Effect of realistic routing on the social burden metric

The distance people travel to reach critical services is a key input to the Social Burden metric used by Sandia’s Resilient Node Cluster Analysis Tool (ReNCAT) in the optimization’s objective function. By default, ReNCAT utilizes Euclidian distances between population blocks and critical facilities when calculating Social Burden. However, these straight-line distances do not reflect how most residents or goods would travel throughout the area. As distance is a vital input to the burden calculation, a more realistic distance calculation will yield more realistic burden values. This work uses real road networks and calculates the shortest distance path between population centers and critical facilities using a standard graph theory approach. These realistic route distances are then used to compute Social Burden for four areas of study. It was found that distances using real road routes are generally, but not always, longer than the Euclidean distance. The increased length increases the final Social Burden metric, however, the overall burden percent change ranged between 17% and 52%, which means the impact of realistic routes relies heavily upon the area’s road topology. It was found that rural locations within an area may have larger burden increases than urban areas as more dense road networks allow routes to more closely follow a straight-line path. Additionally, using the most straight forward routing algorithms requires high computational effort for areas with large road networks. While it is believed this process can be made more performant, that task is beyond this scope of work.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗